From how many years of wood burning to which stove have you owned.

This VC resolute acclaim is the only stove I've used. Been sitting in that spot for almost 30 years. I've lived here for 20. Itll be replaced this year with something modern and hopefully much more efficient.

 

My parents installed an American Eagle insert in the fireplace when I was around 12 or so. They still use it, although more for secondary heat supply versus primary.

We installed a Environ 1700 insert in our fireplace around 2013 and use it for our primary heat source.

 

All good points you are making.Our first wood/coal stove was too small to heat the house but we burnt it until we got a large scandia stove.It heat more area but the burn didn't last long.
My cousin was moving and gave me a Hearthstone 2 wood/coal burner.Great stove when burning coal.Long burns.We burned that for years then upgraded to a hearthstone Mansfield.Uncle said who was a plumber don't keep it so warm it here that the furnace wouldn't come on and you freeze the pipes in the cellar cause I ain't coming to fix them.I never thought about the possibility of the cellar pipes having a problem.So with that warning I put in the Woodstock Classic in the cellar.The Classic heated well but not long enough to prevent a down draft which would send the smoldering ashes smoke into the basement then up into the house.I sold the stove and moved the Mansfield to the basement which worked well and got a fireview for the upstairs which didn't give me the heat I needed for my drafty house.I sent that back and went for the Summit it didn't do the job then to the Lopi Liberty.It couldn't do the job.I was able to sell all the stoves I replaced for a good price and that money went to the purchase of it's replacement.From the Lopi I got a great deal on a Blaze King King from a old timer up around Bangor Maine who was closing his stove shop to retire.He sold it for &1700.00.I had to pick it up asap.So I jump in my truck on a Feburary morning and drove to colder than Massachusetts,Maine to pick up the beast.Got there nice gentleman.He put it in the back of my pick up with his tractor.I secured it and was invited in for some coffee and great homemade muffins paid him,thanked him and his sweet wife and hit the road.Got home and with some help got the stove hook up into a six inch pipe not specs.However I still got 17 hours of good heat from that stove.The only thing about the hook up was every time I needed to add wood smoke would fill the house.We struggled with this to the end of winter and I didn't want to do the roof work to set it up to specs.So I was looking for a stove that would work.
One morning I called Hearthstone to see if they had an old Hearthstone 1 stashed in their warehouse.They said no but they hooked me up with a fellar who refurbished them.I contacted him and he said he could have one ready for me by the fall.I told him I want it how much.He said at the time $ 1200.00 plus $ 200.00 shipping.I sold the Blaze King to a young couple for the price I paid for it.I moved the Mansfield back up stairs and that fall in early October the refurbisher and his son delivered the greatest stove I've ever experienced.It was a long journey but worth the trip.

 

With all you have listed as owning I didn't see what your burning in now.Why do you miss the Summit over what you have now ?

 

Started with an Allnighter Mid Moe for maybe 3 years. It was in the house when we bought it.

Then I installed the Englander 30-NC, which we have been burning for maybe 5 years. I expect that it will be our second to last stove, I don't know what the last one will be.

 

First stove in old farmhouse was a Indiana wood cookstove. Next was a Shenandoah R65 which I took with me when I moved. Then a Shenandoah R77 which I took when I moved again, where I also also heated/cooked with a Kalamazoo wood cookstove. Currently using a Alaska Kodiak fireplace insert.

 

that old cast looks great.

 

Stoves while growing up:
Cook stove
Portland Stove Foundry Atlantic 124
Steel potbelly stove in the basement
Portland Stove Foundry Atlantic 224 replaced the 124, which went to the basement
Fireplace, only for special occasions
Tarm indoor boiler
I started with tending the cook stove, around 7yr old

First apartment had an Atlantic 224 that they allowed us to use

Then 13yrs out west with just a barrel stove in the shop

Now at this house:
Home Comfort cook stove 1 yr
Ashley-like stove 1yr
Tempwood 8yr
Progress Hybrid
Ideal Steel
Absolute Steel

 

I used to like to make kindling with my hatch back in the day.

 

Man how many square feet are you heating ? How many of those stoves are up and running at one time ? You got yourself a showroom of stoves.Very interesting.

 

The Lopi 1250i I've had since 2011 is the only stove I've owned.
My parents have had an Orley upstairs since I was a kid. We had a couple different stoves downstairs but the one that they kept to this day is a little Avalon. I remember going out to the sticks with my dad to pick it up from the seller. I must have been about 14 at the time.
The stove they had before the Avalon is my outdoor cardboard disposal unit now. My dad said it was made by a local company that didn't last. I think the name was "stove maker."

 

I wasn’t very clear in my post; we’ve been in this house 20yrs. The house came with the Home Comfort and the Ashley-style stoves. We used them simultaneously for a year. The Ashley developed blower issues and was moved out to the shop. We put a liner in the kitchen flue, moved the Home Comfort to another room for storage, and installed the secondhand Tempwood on the lined flue. In 2012 we replaced the Tempwood with the Progress Hybrid. A few years later we beta-tested the IS, and then returned to the PH. Then we tested the AS, and then returned to the PH. We bought an AS with intention of installing it as a second stove, in the living room, but plans changed, and we sold it this past fall.

The house was built in 1797, is two story with walk-out basement. Nine fireplaces, two bread ovens, and a chamber within the chimney for smoking meats, none of which we’ve tried to use. We have FHA furnace, and burn about 100 gal of oil a year. The upstairs rooms’ doors are closed (not directly heated) all winter. The PH is in the kitchen, and we have a couch and recliner in there, too, and we spend a lot of the winter there.

 

Nine fireplaces wow ! How do you keep the heat in the house ? Sounds like you like the PH better than the AS and the IS ?

 

I am on my 4th stove in close to 40 years of burning. First stove was what they called a warm morning stove wood/coal, second was an early free standing air tight steel stove, not sure the make or name, third was another air tight insert steel stove called " the fireboss" and now my Buck 91.

 

The flues are stuffed with insulation, and the basement fireplace is bricked up, but I should really do something as an air barrier.
We do like the PH, although the IS was also big enough to meet our needs, and the IS air control was better than the original PH control.

 

What do you mean by air barrier ?

 

Air can move up through the insulation stuffed into the chimney. If I were using an insert stove in a fireplace, a metal block-off plate would be in order. I don't think I need to go that far, but do want to eventually seal off the air movement.

For example, in the attic I'm peeling back insulation and sealing holes down into stud walls with spray foam to stop the air. Around the chimneys in the attic I'm using metal to bridge from the brick to the joists, and sealing them on with high-temp caulking. Then covering with Roxul.

 

We seem to move every seven years. The first house we installed a Quadrafire, not sure of the model. Second house Quadrafire Cumberland Gap (excellent stove), third house we installed a Quadrafire Explorer II. Hated this stove and soured me on Quadrafire. Current house has a Lopi Endeavor and is my favorite over all the others.
Brad

 

I'm not sure how old my Enterprise is, but it's older than I am. I'm guessing 1938, when the house was built.