opinons on new stoves

I currently have a coal stove, my first post is the one titled, coal stove burning wood and chimney fires, that I can burn wood in, but it's a PIA. Smokes a lot, requires wood every 2-3 hours. I currently have ~3yrs worth of firewood in my yard and I can get firewood for 20$ a cord and my labor for now. Basically the trees are down, I have to buck, transport, split, and stack. Not a big deal as for some crazy reason I like it.
I'm thinking of selling the coal stove and switching to a EPA rated wood stove. I have my eyes on the Woodstock Progressive or the Ideal Steel. There are a few issues to get around, the top of the list is the wife. She loves the fact that you can tend the coal and have it output even heat for 12+hrs without touching it, my hearth is too high which isn't a huge deal because I have no issues breaking it down to be floor level, I also love the coal but hate dealing with the ash. For wood ash, does it blow all over the house? At least I can dump it in the woods and only deal with it every week, the coal is twice a day and needs to be thrown out. Both methods have pros and cons, but right now my mind is on $, a ton of coal is ~300$ per ton delivered in 50# bags, yes I know my labor for dealing with wood is $ but it's a free workout, time spent outdoors, and for me fun.
What other stoves are out there besides the 2 I'm looking at that you guys like? What are realistic burn times?
~2,000 to 2,500ft^2 of heating
6" flue
hearth dims 21" deep, fire place header height is 24.5" from the hearth, hearth is raised ~10" off the floor. I do not want and insert, PIA to move and clean, I want access to the flue easily.
Other question, opinion on if I am crazy for doing this?

 

OK your asking the wrong group if your but. I have an IS and love it.. 12 hour burn times are very achievable... since your in US unless 07806 is Alaska you can't be much north of me.. IS has an ash pan.. I do not use the lid.. empty 2x a week helps gardens grow in spring.. a little fly ash on ash lip no big deal.. if wife is clean freak.. get little vaccuum for pellet stove... in my mind wood ash is better than coal ash...

my house is above 2200 Sq feet.. depending of layout how is heat distributed?

 

I'm with you on the ash. The house is a center center hall cape, upstairs are 2 bedrooms with dormers. Downstairs is fairly open, I put a thru wall fan in to blow heat in the adjacent room and I have a fan blowing cold air toward the stove room. It works fairly well, however it's tough getting hot air upstairs, but no one really goes up there, we sort of live like it's a ranch. I mainly go upstairs to collect dead mice in the attic. You are much further north than I am if your in VT, I'm in NJ. I'm trying to convince my wife to take a weekend trip to Woodstock Stoves, maybe do a little skiing/boarding while I'm up there.

I find that I find like people, my wife thinks me and everyone I am friends with, including co-workers, are all nuts.

 

I am then sure an Ideal or progress will work for you.. 12 hours are easy for me.. my house is weird.. think colonial back (20 x 40) ... front raised ranch (20 x 20) including basement (of colonial in back 3/4 finished walkout) 5 floors... with raised ranch style stairs bottom to top 7 steps between each level. IS is in front corner of 20 x 20 living room. stairway acts as cold air return.. post and beam with floors 3 4 5 having 17 foot ceiling on 1 side ... I told ya different

to help you further ya might want to call in Backwoods Savage who has a progress.. and as an FHC legend and Woodstock expert he will have good advice..

 

I think either of those stoves is your best bet. A little less "set and forget" than coal but not much. I run 10-12 HR cycles in VT and would be going at least 12 HR in NJ I would think. If you do take a trip and want to drive 30 min past WS to see my stove (Ideal Steel) in action let me know.

 

Canadian Border VT, that is an interesting floor plan you got there, but great on the stairwell as a cold air return, I've been trying to figure out how to do that without putting in some rube goldberg set up. All the cold air is trapped in my stairwell.
Unhdsm, on the 10-12 hrs you are getting, I assume that's the lowest setting on the stove and you have enough coals left to start kindling on a new load? What type are you using? Can you run the stove down to 300*F? How are the burns times when you crank it and it's in the minus outside? The first year I had the coal going it was -13 overnight and it kept the house heated without tending for 8hrs. I wondering if I can get close to that with wood.
Backwoods Savage, My first year running the coal was a steep learning curve, I put out 3 fires over shaking, had 2 relatively large puff backs, and ash everywhere. By the end of the year I had a decent system and could turn the ting around in 15 to 20 min. The main thing I never perfected is dumping the ash pan, I've been thru a few methods other members on nepacroasroads use, but nothing seemed to be all that great for me. I dump the pan in a garbage can outside near my wood pile, mushroom cloud and all. When that is 1/2 full (30gal contractor bag) I tie it up and put it in my garbage. That's another mini mushroom could and it's heavy. It almost seems that 1/2 of the coal is ash. The heat and burn times are fantastic and it's hard to give that up. I bought the stove thinking I could burn both wood/coal. I have contemplated tearing it apart and adding in a secondary burn and a cat chamber, the latter that can be bypassed when burning coal. However, the stove is 3 years old and I don't want to mess with it and run the risk of breaking it.

I really like the idea of 740# soap stone monster, but I like the look of the IS better. I'm thinking a dirty Harry gun for the log stops pointing up and mirrored and flat black or enamel, if they do it, for the entire stove including the cook plates.
Does anyone on here have hearth remodeling experience? Mine has a poured concrete footing that I can see in my basement, I guess they used a form and pulled it out. Am I going to have to demolish the whole thing and start over or can I leave the footing and take off the layers I need to get the height I need?

 

I loaded my stove last nite a 6 pm. 75% loaded birch red maple and ash.. went out to breakfast opened air full at 7 am ran it about quarter air all night ... I open full air to burn down coals.. house still 70 degrees and reloaded splits as no kindling needed.. it's 1030. 25 degrees and snowing you said 740# soap stone monster.. my is has soapstone firebox and exterior panels easily 740 lbs..

Tungsten if you put an @ sign in front of name it will send an alert and people will respond faster.. just a tip tungsten

 

I went 56 hours without touching the stove and had enough left to start a fire without kindling. That's advertised on the WS website somewhere.
10 hour reload are with it cranked. That's the dead of winter (below zero) or if it fits better into my schedule. Last night it went 13 hours and I had a stove temp of just under 300F.
About the ash- I empty mine about 1x/week. Some people go most of the winter. It depends on how long you can stretch between loads to burn them down. Certainly every day would be a waste of time.

 

I am every 5 days or so with ash... yeah get the ash pan! it's great!

 

Inserts are easy to clean the flue. If the wood is seasoned, that's really not even an issue. A soot eater would make an easy job even easier.
I guess I'm not understanding the difficult to move and clean part? It goes in the fireplace, and it stays there. With a SS liner it's no different to clean than a regular wood stove.

You must be thinking of a "slammer" style insert. Yes, those were a pita to clean. Also those were a fire hazard. We had one in our house growing up. It was more efficient than the open FP, but less ambience.

The new ones with the reburner gas tubes really provide the best of both worlds.

The Napoleon NZ and the other efficient FP are the only other way to get all that, but they are not a simple drop in install. Those are more built-in appliances. I'd love to go that route at some point.

 

Canadian border VT/Unhdsm , thanks for the tip, I was wondering why people's names were a different color and a link. I can't wrap my head around a 10ishhr burn cranking or a 13+hr burn throttled back. If I burn mine with wood I'm throwing wood ever 2ish hrs. The IS is definitely more my style, I didn't know it had soapstone in it. I like the part where you mention ~5 days to a week or so with emptying ash.

Horkn, The insert I have now barely fits in the hole, I have to move it out of the way fin order to get to the T and the clean out, real PIA, the thing is heavy. Once I get to it, it's no big deal. I have been looking at those soot eaters for a while know, they look like they work well.

 

I think you may have answered your own question by saying you were thinking of taking a trip to WS. From what i hear, once you see the place and talk to the staff, you are sold. Kidding, kind of... But seriously, for the money and what you are looking to do with the stove, you absolutely can't go wrong with either WS stove. Ideal is going to be most heat for the $$, and can be custom made to suit the wife's taste. Soapstone in and out is great for retaining nice even heat. I'm heating 2700 sq ft with mine no problem. 24hr reload times right now and I set it at 1/4 open and leave it until I remember "O have to load the stove again", usually the next day during these milder temps (30's).

Ashpan is a must and you only need to empty once a week in the heart of winter.

Customer service at WS was great too. I received my stove and had a problem with the draft hanging up, turned out there was a small piece of weld that had broken off inside and was causing the draft slide to bind. Long story short, I exchanged phone calls 3-4 times in a day along with a custom video telling me what to do from one of their engineers to help resolve the problem. I could tell you more, but I'm not the only one that has positive story like that from WS customer service.[/QUOTE]

 

I'm in NJ and have the Ideal Steel. If you want to check it out let me know.

I think a Woodstock catalytic or a stove from Blaze King would be the way to go when it comes to your needs.

 

nice offer Babaganoosh! think about it tungsten it will get your wife on your side pretty quick..

 

12 hour burns (feed twice a day), low-and-slow if needed, easy to adjust up... These are properties where catalytic stoves really shine. WS and Blaze King are by far the most popular on this website. I don't know anything about specifics. I run a secondary-burn stove and really like it.

 

But you have a great looking set up mike!

 

I love my setup. Great quality stove and super simple operation. That's what we were looking for in our "first" stove. For the size of it's firebox (2.0 cu/ft) it can give us a solid 8 hrs on the coldest nights and plenty more on warmer nights. I would love the 2.5 ft of the WS Absolute Steel to allow me to have the option to sleep in on weekends and holidays.

 

We purchased a Progress Hybrid last summer as the ideal steel looked to utilitarian for my wife's taste additionally the left side load works better for our layout. Had a little bit of a learning curve but here is a picture of the progress hybrid after 10 hours burning on low with a medium size load of oak. STT is ~ 275-300 and will hold this for at least another 3-4 hours. Mid 20's overnight and high 30's in the day heating 2500-3000 sq foot on low easily depending on what parts of the house are in use.
You can't go wrong with either stove!
Backwoods Savage is a great source of information!!!