Ya I know I'm in the pellet head section, but well this is home so figured I'd start fishing here first. I know many of you guys came from woodburners and some still burn wood. Buddy is looking to buy another wood stove, his is an old overnighter I think and he has to clean chimney a few times a year. He is looking at a Dutchwest WR1000. House is about 1300-1400 sq.ft. Old saltbox with not a lot of insulation. From what I can find its an EPA stove, no catalyst..........right ? Maxed out at 26 k btu which sounds small..........is it ? Will it be better on the chimney since it is an EPA stove ? Does $600 sound right ? Schoondog
The price is right. I know that Dutchwest has made woodstoves both cat and non cat, even within the same models. I don't know that model # off the top of my head so I'm no help there. 26k btu sounds entirely too small for what he is trying to do, especially if he lives in a cold area and is poorly insulated. If it's an "ambience" and supplemental heat source it may do ok, but if he's hoping to heat the whole house with it primarily he should save his money.
http://literature.mhsc.com/majestic/spec_sheets/MAJ_WR1000L02_Wood_Stove_Specs_rev1_LR.pdf This is a small stove with a claimed burn time of 6 hrs. Price sounds high as this was Dutchwest's econoline stove.. Not sure they still make it.. A Drolet Myriad or Englander nc30 can be bought new for under $1000.00 and offer a better value.. These stoves have 3.0 cu. ft. firebox compared to WR1000 with a 1.3 tiny firebox.. Ray
I came the other way around. Went from pellets to wood. I would think a 50k btu stove. If he wants long burns he may want 3.0 cu ft. Firebox or better. An Englander can be had from Home Depot for $899 when the season is over. In fact, I'll bet they are on sale now as they are shifting over to spring merchandise.
Ray, my pellet stove was a Whitfield, when Whitfield still made them. I had been burning pellets for 16 years. I felt the stove was getting near being replaced, and I hated cleaning the thing out every ton. It had a lot of disassembly involved along with lubricating motors and such. I always wanted a wood burning fireplace or something like it. I decided to go with the Endeavor because of the close clearance to combustibles, and the 10 hour burn times. It will go 10 hours with good coals left, but t still has to be reloaded during the night in these really cold temps. I find it much easier to take out the ashes with a shovel. I also use an EmberSieve which saves the coals. I can do that in 5 minutes once a week or so, instead of an hour or more every month. Overall, I like the wood stove for the ambience and the heat it provides. I added the fan this year to it, so it distributes heat like the old pellet stove did. I use the fan on these incredibly cold nights.
Sounds like a winner to me Al! I use my blower most of the winter and find it really gets the heat out. I run a humidifier that puts out at least 3 gallons of water a day and find it's much more comfortable.. Good to know that you can heat and eat with a woodstove too..
Doggy, AM/FM (refurbed at Englander or possibly a blem unit) sells them for $850. Full factory warranty. http://www.amfmenergy.com/50tnc30----epa-certified-noncatalytic-wood-stove--2250302201.html
Yeah... Have garden hoses, grass seed, etc out already... Uh.... Still another 3 months till that stuff will be needed! Tried to buy a new snow shovel and got looked at like I had a weiner coming out of my forehead.
Thanks folks. I will take all the advice and tell him. I tried to talk him into a pellet stove, but I think he wants wood. I will tell him about AM/FM and see what happens. I don't think he wants to spend the $2,500-4,000 on a good pellet rig, but ya know the $800-1,000 at AM/FM may be the ticket. Schoondog
I wouldn't say that the cheaper pellet units aren't "good", as there is a niche in every market for the lesser cost ones. If someone only has a budget of a couple thousand $, they aren't going to be able to afford a Quad or a Harman, so, they get a lesser dollar unit...nothing wrong with that. Sure you might have to give up a few bells and whistles, ease of operation, etc, but, cant say cheaper ones aren't "GOOD".......maybe a good, better, best scenario is relevant here?