Buying a Wood Stove for small home

[desimulacra]

I would like your input on a Wood Stove Some info that might be pertinent is it is for my 50's 1200 sq. foot farm house. The home is very tight with new windows but does not have insulation in the walls. I am quitting the rat race for a while and have to cut wood anyway because of trees falling on the land I own. One objective is I want to cut expenses. I am looking at installing in the living room, pretty well centrally located, with a fresh air inlet from outside, the run would be approx 18'. The old chimney top was "accidentally removed by a roofer, I am planning on installing a steel chimney (triple wall?) to 3' above the roof peak.
Here is one heater I am looking at.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/heating/wood-coal-heaters-accessories/wood-heaters/united-states-stove-co-2015-magnolia-wood-burning-stove-with-blower-3173129
Which in case that does not show up is a "United States Stove Co. 2015 Magnolia Wood Burning Stove with Blower" rated at 2400 sq. ft.. That is double the rated size I need but wonder if I would be better off to have the extra cap. for quick warm up and having coals left over in the morning???

I appreciate the advice in advance. Thanks

[desimulacra]

Some other thoughts. I do have a propane heater available to assist with a quick warm-up. Also I would like to have coals available after 6-8 hours.
I could rebuild the old brick chimney, it is just under the roof. Thought I would be better off with triple wall class A?

[Squirl]

I have been looking at the same model.  There are many positive reviews on the website.  I talked to a customer or two in tractor supply when I went.  They were happy with it.

The manual can be found here:
http://usstovecom.siteprotect.net/Downloads/index.php?dir=Owners%20Manuals/

Model 2015

18-24 in. clearance isn't bad.

[desimulacra]

Ok doing a lot of quick research and thought (very little work) and on woodheat.org there is an article "Outdoor Air Myth" that raises a lot of good points as to adding fresh air to a wood stove. So at this point I will not do that. I did have doubts that a fresh air supply would add enough benefit to offset the trouble/cost, a fireplace with a glass door would be different I think. I have lived with wood heat before and never had fresh air supplied to the stove. One thing the article said was that there are instances where with the wind blowing just right the pressure out of the fresh air supply was actually lower than the chimney cause a back flow.
Sorry for the random as you go posts

[dug]

I would definitely try to get the walls insulated. No matter what stove you get I think you would be happier cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling less wood to burn.

I didn't see where you are located but if you have long, cold winters and the stove is your primary heat then a large stove with a big firebox would be good because you would probably be running the stove 24/7 and would want the stove to hold heat overnight and while you are away. I didn't see the firebox dimensions but the one you are looking at seems pretty big (maybe too large?).  You can always build smaller fires if it overheats the home.

Will the chimney be inside the home? You need class A pipe through and above the roof but usually single wall or double wall pipe is inside the house. The newer EPA stoves will generally work better with double wall inside, keeping the flue warmer.

I have only recently started heating with wood but have found That the EPA stoves really need well seasoned wood, mine burns terrible with less than ideal wood, but fantastic results with really dry (1 year plus- split and stacked) wood. Start collecting your wood supply before you get a stove!

[MountainDon]

...article "Outdoor Air Myth" that raises a lot of good points as to adding fresh air to a wood stove.

I read that article a few years ago, when we were in the planning stages for our cabin. I disagreed with it then and I still do. I know the VC Aspen in the cabin burns better with the fresh air duct. It burns better and carries a fire better. I have no smoke ever curling out the stove door when I open the door. No smoke smell in the cabin ever. After the first winter, using inside combustion air, I had to borrow NM_Shooters ozone machine to get rid of the indoor smoke smell. Haven't been bothered since.

One thing that article didn't cover was the question of whether or not there are other appliances like water heaters, furnaces, etc that also consume air from the house interior. If there are it is possible for a roaring fire in a wood stove or fireplace to consume enough air from the interior to make air downdraft via the vent pipe for a water heater. Not only will that bring in cold air but the waste products from that appliance will stay in the home. I ran into that 30 years ago back home and ended up making my own fresh air intake for the wood stove and for the furnace as well.  When air is consumed, goes out the wood stove or other chimney it has to be replaced. It will enter the home via the easiest path, the path of least resistance. That could be the space under the front door or a clothes dryer vent or whatever else offers a free path.

The situation, concerns probably vary a lot with building tightness.

[Alan Gage]

I went through this a few years ago. I wasn't looking for anything fancy but didn't want to buy a piece of junk. After some research it sounded like Englander stoves (also sold under "summers heat") gave the best bang for the buck. I got the NC-13 model and have been happy with it.

I've been running it in what was originally a double wide trailer house that had a couple framed walls and peaked roof built over it. It's about 1200 sq feet but I keep the door closed to about 300 sq feet of it (that has terrible windows) so it's not directly heated. Decent windows in most of it but very poor wall insulation. Certainly not tight, you can feel the breeze inside when the wind blows. This is in NW Iowa where winters are quite cold. -20 is fairly common and there's usually a week or two during the winter that never gets above 0. It's my only heat source.

Down to about 5 degrees and calm winds the stove has no problems keeping up. Even at sub-zero it does pretty well but when it gets cold and the wind picks up I can't feed the stove enough wood to keep it comfortably warm in the house. Depending on your climate I think you'd do fine with a stove this size in your house, especially since you said it was tight with good windows.

I had a hard time finding stoves with good reviews at most of the big box stores (although I got mine at Lowe's). Most of them carried Vogelzang, which seems to be thought pretty poorly of.

This spring I plan on building a 750 sq. foot house on the property and I think the stove will be overkill for it. I'll probably be burning a lot smaller loads in it or possibly downsizing stoves.

Alan

[Alan Gage]

I followed the link to the stove you're interested in and I think it's going to cook you out assuming you have fairly mild winters where you are (Tennessee?).

I don't think you need the extra size to keep coals for morning. When I was researching it seemed that it didn't matter how big a stove was, they all carried coals about the same amount of time. Wood choice is much more important to keeping coals a long time. I have no problem keeping coals overnight (9+ hours) in mine when burning white oak.

Alan

[desimulacra]

Dug I have some wood that has dried for a year+ and several dead trees that are "hung" from a storm a couple of years ago. Thanks for the heads up on using seasoned wood. The house has std. 8' ceiling and 4/12 roof so single or double from stove to ceiling and then triple from there up to cap. I will install a damper also. The walls do need insulation but are amazing how tight they are. A craftsman built the house. Some day I will start another thread on insulating them, when I have the money.

mtn.Don you got me thinking again. I guess I will start out without fresh air and see how it goes. I can always add later


Alan the main thing I don't like about the stove I had listed is the size. I see where yours is smaller. However I can't find many reviews on it. I have seen where on the smaller stoves people state that they won't hold coals overnight

As a Kid I lived in a "Mansion" built in the late 1800's. At the time I did not realize it but this was a beautiful old home. It was two stories with the big two story wood columns out front and a balcony in the middle. I remember when the wind was strong the curtains would wave at you.  On really cold days the wood stove would glow cherry red but still the only way to get warm was to stand by it and turn each side toward the stove. I got really good at telling ghost stories which were particularly effective on those cold windy nights.

[dug]

I don't think you need the extra size to keep coals for morning.

I could be wrong, but based on my experience I would dispute that claim.

I have a Vermont Casting Aspen stove that I am very happy with but it has only a 1 cubic ft. firebox. "Burn time" seems to be widely subjective and not very well defined but to me it means how long the stove is putting out useful heat and I can still lay some splits in and have them take off without having to re-kindle the fire. Under that definition and using my best wood, stuffing it full I can get 2, maybe 3 hours max. out of a fire. Beyond that the flue temperature is usually below 200 degrees and I have to rebuild it. If I load it full at night I will have some very small coals under the ash in the morning but the stove is stone cold.

A large firebox will hold a lot more wood and thus produce a lot more coals, and the bigger the coal pile the longer it will stay hot.

Our neighbor burned a large slash pile last year and it was hot for weeks!

[Windpower]

I have a Vermont Castings Resolute Acclaim and it will hold overnight (6 or 7 hours)  if packed full of oak and the flame cut back 'low'

In the mornig a couple dry 1 or 2 inch chunks and it is going solid in a few minutes

keeps the old, poorly insulated 1000 sf farm house toasty even in a windy cold Wisconsin winter

eta 

the top loading feature is really nice

http://literature.mhsc.com/vermont_castings/brochures/VC1608_v05-01_MONN1141_Catalytic-NonCatalytic-Wood_Stoves_BR.pdf

[MountainDon]

I've liked the VC stoves since the first one we bought in the late 70's.  We had a top loader pre EPA Vigilant. That is a super nice feature.

[Alan Gage]

Have you checked out the Hearth.com forums yet? http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/

Lots of good info on there.

Dug- When I used to hang out there everyone was always worried about what stoves held coals the longest but it seemed that pretty much no matter what stove people had, big or small, 9 hours was about the max anyone could expect to have decent coals left. Maybe the bigger stoves (with a bigger load) reduce the majority of the wood to ashes faster. My stove seems to burn really hot for  3-4 hours before the flames are pretty much over and I'm left with coals. It's a big pile of coals though and still puts out a lot of heat. I think my firebox is 1.3 cu. ft.

You're correct that after 9 hours it's not really putting off much heat (is still warm to the touch though) but it has enough coals to light off another load.

So much of it depends on what wood you're burning and the climate where you live. If you're burning something like silver maple or elm it probably doesn't matter how big your stove is, you'll have nothing but a pile of cold ashes in the morning. If you have a small, fairly tight house and the coldest it gets is 10 degrees even a small stove will probably overheat the place if you load it with good wood.

Also depends what temperature you like you're house. I'm most comfortable in the mid-60's, which is easy to hold. Trying to keep it over 70 in cold, windy weather is much more difficult.

I went through a lot of anguish trying to choose a model and size of stove. Once I started burning it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

Alan

[Alan Gage]

Was searching for something totally unrelated and came across this post. Some good opinions, too bad they all conflict each other.

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/55485/

Alan

[desimulacra]

Went to a couple of big box stores. Stoves, out, Air conditioners, in. Its January Man