Having built a new home 2 years ago this July. I built my shop space above the attached garage with attic trusses. The space ended up being about 650 sq. ft. This is going to be my woodworking shop when I retire. Up until now it has been a catch all spot. A few weeks ago I began the process of SPC (sort, pitch and clean). I am going to need heat up there and have plenty of natural gas fired options. My chimney guy Tim was over to do my chimney on my zero-clearance unit and he got me thinking again about a small wood stove up there. I would never burn in that stove unless I will be up there working. And we are coming to the season where wood stoves go on sale. So, I am thinking of buying for next fall. I am looking for opinions on basically 4 units. Mainly, on sale at Menards or Northern Tool. #1 Vogelzang "the defender" model # TR001 .. I like it because it has an ash pan and blower Menards price after rebate $400. I like the idea of the ash pan so I don't have an ash bucket setting around. Blower I can do without. #2 Century model S244 ... no blower and no ash pan. suppose to have good secondary burn so less smoke in the neighborhood. Also, $400 at Menards. #3 Wood-Pro model 1.6 medium wood stove.. has blower and no ash pan $365. at Menards.. Price is attractive. #4 Vogelzang Model VG150 .. has blower and no ash pan. $450 at Northern Tool. Supposed to be the most efficient of the options. Never run out of heat. So, give me some input and let me know what you think. I have checked with my insurance guy and I already pay for a wood burning appliance and going to a second is not that much plus having my chimney professionally cleaned on a regular basis does get me a break on that rate. I also will have a very good dust collection and filtering system, mainly for my health but also for safety. Thanks, Marty
I had a VZ Defender...it was a good lil stove...I went to a Drolet 1400 insert mainly for a bit larger firebox and having the fan in the front instead of the back, it was in the fireplace so servicing the fan was not easy. The VZ is an easy breather so I would either recommend a shortish chimney, or a key damper installed in the stove pipe. That was my only issue with it was learning to control it with a high draft chimney...things were all good after that.
For a space that size, you should be gooder to go with any small stove like the ones you mentioned. I recently got one of the little Wen air filtration units for the shop. Running on low, it's done a great job so far. They're far less expensive than the Jet, Powermatic, etc. models. I see the price has dropped a bit too. WEN 3410 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Air Filtration System - - Amazon.com
I will have about 28" to the bottom of the roof sheathing from the ceiling. The roof is narrow at that part of the attic truss. Then I will need to probably extend up from the roof about 4' so I will clear the peak. Then down from the ceiling to the stove 5'-6' so a total of about 11' to 12' total. I plan on having my chimney guy install it so that there is no question of it being installed correctly. Thanks for the input.
