Looking for a new stove

I appreciate the advice. I'll do a bit more research before pulling the trigger on anything. I'd like to find a retailer close by that I could go and look over some stoves before making a decision. I'm not sure if Home Depot or Lowes or any other big chain store would carry anything worthwhile.

 

I think it’s a good plan go to a stove shop and then
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Road trip to New Hampshire? Not sure what part of New York your in but it would be a pretty trip!

 

To be less vague, Woodstock the woodstove company manufactures it lines and has direct sales in West Lebanon NH

 

I'm north of Syracuse 30 miles. My wife would be all for a road trip to New Hampshire!

 

Yes, that's a great place to shop. We got our Drolet from them 10 yrs ago

 

Well SpeedShop64 just to be clear; Woodstock only sells Cat stoves. I own one, Ideal Steel, some people have different opinions on cat stoves.
My experience is this; my house, which you welcome to stop by and see, before burned 10-12 full cord a year and we were not always warm. With IS, cat stove, we are less than 5 cord. We are warm! In shoulder season we leave widows and doors open

my uncle has Fisher grandma, heats from basement hillside raised ranch, averages 8 cord year. My house 35% larger.. Just food for thought

 

Wow those are pretty enlightening stats! A lot more heat from a a lot less wood!

 

Yes it also allowed me to get on 3 year plan providing drier wood the cat like .. may have helped efficiency..

was a member here BDF, who recently passed, who put on data from thermocouples in his Ideal Steel..

we talked on phone and he commented that we ran stove about as differently as possible him living in Rhode Island and kept his stove top temps @ 300 in winter. In real cold I keep mine above 600*

 

Iirc TurboDiesel heats his home fine from the basement with an ideal steel.

 

My Englander nc30 came from Home Depot. Lowes sold them too. I think SBI bought them, they also own drolet, so who knows. Online purchases work well too if you know what you want.

 

Yes, SBI owns Englander now...if they still have it, the new nc30 is a nc32

 

I went from an older VC with a bit of a funky reburn design that was too much for my small house. 1200sqft. If I were to heat from my unfinished basement I guess I'll be in the 1200-1250 square foot range.
To address what seems to be one of your primary concerns- I have Woodstock's smallest wood stove and I really like it for my use. Top line issue that got solved for me: every single morning I come down to a stove that has enough embers if not a full bed of coals that reloading the stove is all but automatic.
Depending on how upstate NY you are- the Woodstock factory in NH might just be a couple hours drive. I found the people there to be very helpful and have since received some of the best customer service I could ask for. It is also my opinion that all of their stoves really do look quite a bit better in person than in photos.
I wouldn't recommend my stove for a basement install I don't think, but the Ideal would I'd bet. If it hasn't been mentioned, it qualifies for 30% tax credit which would bring the price without all the bells & whistles into the $1800 range.

Good luck with your decision. Hope to see how it all turns out for you.

(One point to add that may or may not have any sway with your decision, but I think is indicative of why I'm such a Woodstock fan- For some time the manual for the stove I have was not linked on their website and while I have the hard copy, it limited me from linking to it when I would post. I emailed them one day and the next time I went to the website the manuals were linked on their page. Full disclosure if it matters, the "Maintenance Instructions" tab says "coming soon" but under the "Manuals & Documentation" tab, the "maintenance" link is there and is working.)

 

Correction- Woodstock also sells hybrid stoves, they have both burn methods in them and work very well. The progress hybrid and the ideal steel are the two main line ones. The progress is a soapstone and cast stove that radiates the heat and the ideal steel is a steel stove that can have some soapstone added but is primarily convection heat.

 

dirtdevil agree but the stoves in general all use catalytic combustors.

some say no to cats because they need to be replaced every xxx number of hours.

my response if a $200 cat is saving me cords a year; I will gladly replace

 

Absolutely.
Longer burn with less wood. More even heat.

The catalyst is just routine maintenance. Gaskets need to be replaced in the stove. Oil and air filters need to be replaced in vehicles. But I will say I'm about to be going on year 4 or 5 with my original catalyst and while I have a backup ready for when I need to- some routine maintenance on the cat has kept it in fine working order.
As with everything else, dry wood seems to make all the difference.

 

They call those two stoves hybrids though because they can be run with the cat bypass open like a secondary burn stove only though right? Not sure why one would want to do that though. In my mind it’s the best feature and saves lots of wood use.