Hi all. I'm new here and looking for some advice on which new wood burner best fits. We are just about to have a house built in southern Green Mts. of VT. It will be a small 1200 sq. ft. ranch on a full drive out basement. 8' ceilings throughout. We want the stove to go in the 400 sq. ft. kitchen/living room. This great room is on the short side of the house and facing south with just over 100 sq. ft. of window area in it. So it will be getting some passive solar in the winter. I'm thinking the stove ought to go on the south facing wall near where the roof peak is. I'm attaching a schematic of the future home. It's a modular and likely to be pretty tight. So thinking of outside air for the stove. Been trying to research what stove should we be getting for that space? I want to use it as a 24/7 supplement for the propane furnace. We want a stove that wont drive us out of the kitchen when it's running most efficiently. We want a stove that's either cast iron or cast iron clad. We don't want a front loader unless it's a north to south type. We want to load it up around 11:00 pm and start it up on a bed of coals around 8:00 the next morning. I'm thinking about a Jotul F 45. I was looking at a VC Dauntless but not sure after seeing some reviews. What are your thoughts please. Thanks in advance.
Welcome to FHC the fuse Prepare yourself- when the suggestions start in, you’ll want to get you some ........ Personally, I would do a basement install; your house will only be a couple hundred sq. ft. larger than ours and our install serves us well. Of course having turned the basement into a man cave let’s us spend time comfortably and enjoyably near the stove, so there’s that. There will also be questions and suggestions about your future wood supply, saws, wood storage, etc. so be ready!!!
Consider a Woodstock Fireview. It is capable of up to 16sq ft, has a nicely sized wood capacity, and soapstone allows it to absorb the heat, and emit it gradually. I've had mine since 2012. It's a beautiful look and a very efficient stove. I'm going to post some pics I took today you should take a look at that post. Edited to add link to thread- Fireview - Efficient burning
Congrats on the move and the future house. There are many stove options out there. Woodstock or Jotul are great choices. I would stay away from VC.
Hello from Southern Vermont. (Bennington) Whatever Stove you get, don’t cheap out on the chimney liner/pipe. And it WILL be expensive but do it right! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Looks like you have a few things to consider. For warm air to get to the master bathroom, it has to travel a long way. So having some kind of augment heat back there might be needed. Also, for the master bathroom, with plumbing on the outside wall, make sure that the insulation is good there. New construction, I'm sure it's good, but with closed cabinet under a sink on an outside wall, it's worth checking the temperature under the sink on cold nights. With the location of the stove, it might be advisable to see if the stove will work either on the main floor or in the basement. If the floor plan allows you to drop the stove from the main floor to the basement simply by adding a few feet of stove pipe on the outside of the structure, you could start with the stove on the main floor and if you decided to change the configuration, drop it to the basement for more uniform heating of the floor and thus a more uniform heating of the bedrooms, bathrooms, living area and kitchen. You could also have your forced hot air system set up to move air around which would better balance the temperature throughout. If you haven't figured it out yet, we, here on FHC, will spare no expense when it comes to your money to ensure that you have the best system in your house!! Let us know what you decide and welcome to FHC!!! Oh and one more thing, time to get to work cutting, splitting and stacking so your wood is dry!!
Welcome to the FHC the fuse Got family all around the area. I will second check out Woodstock factory it is in West Lebanon near airport. Stop in and ask questions customer service can’t be beat and it’s local!
Welcome to the forum the fuse. That home looks like it will be easy to heat with a wood stove! Congratulations. Contrary to a few folks, I never advise putting a wood stove in the basement and expect it to heat the upstairs. It does seem as if it should work. After all, heat rises. But in practice it does not work well at all. Think about heat rising and one immediately thinks of warm floors and that is somewhat true. But usually one gets heat upstairs via stairway and that is a small exit point. So heat comes up in only one small area. Compare this with a stove one the upper level where the stove gives off heat in all directions and it is easy to see how the upper level would be heated Much easier and a whole lot better. For the far rooms, if you do need it (but I doubt there will be a problem heating them) you can always use a fan. However do not make the mistake of trying to blow the heat toward the cooler rooms. Instead, sit a really small fan on the floor toward the rear of the house and on the slowest setting, aim the fan toward the stove room and let that circulate as this will do the job extremely well. One more thing is that indeed cast iron stoves can be really nice but do yourself a favor by looking hard at the Woodstock Soapstone stoves. Especially the Fireview and Keystone stoves which are soapstone. The stone indeed gives off a different feeling heat over cast and especially steel. And the radiant heat is tough to beat. btw, we have a home close to the sq ft of your new home. We do heat with the Fireview and have no problems. And we tend to keep our home around 80 all winter long no matter the temperature. You wrote, "We want to load it up around 11:00 pm and start it up on a bed of coals around 8:00 the next morning." Believe me when I state you should have no problem with this. One more thing is to warn you if you have not heated with wood, do not make the common mistake, which is to spend a lot of time planning, then have it all ready but now start thinking about the fuel. Contrary to much literature out there, cutting your wood then building a fire does not work!!! Even cutting in the fall and burning in winter is very poor practice. Remember that most folks who print things have no practical experience with wood stoves. And yes, some wood you can cut one winter and then burn it the following winter, but all wood is not the same. For example, here we will not burn oak unless it has been split and stacked for 3 years. Here is a link to more information: (4) Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage | Firewood Hoarders Club Good luck.
Thank you all for welcoming me and giving advice. I really like the Woodstock Fireview. It's truly beautiful. It's also more than I had budgeted for the stove itself. I wanted to keep the stove under 2.5K given that I'm aware what the chimney, liner, and pipe will cost. I'm not new to heating with wood. I was born in Brattleboro and raised in Dover VT in the house my father was born in. At 10 years old, part of my chores were to chop wood and start the fire each day in our old cast iron stove. As an adult (during another life) I heated with a little Jotul 602 for many years. I liked that little stove but it's way too small up in VT. I'm really going back home as the house we are having built will be 1/2 mile down the road from the house I grew up in. My brother lives there yet. I'm leaning toward the Jotul F 45. Price is right. Size seems right. Quality seems right. Mostly made and constructed in Maine. I'm not too concerned with heating up the far rooms. Last night it was down to 14 degrees here. We don't heat our bedroom here and had our window open 8"! We like a cold bedroom. In our new house, with all the doors open, we will be OK if temps out that far end are 60 degrees or so. I will be clearing the lot myself and plan the wood to be split, piled and covered a year before the house goes in. Building a woodshed to hold 2-3 cords once the house is up. Another cord can go on the covered porch. My wife and I do love the look of the WS Fireview. Maybe we can swing it. Not at all familiar with catalytic stoves. They seem to me high maintenance stoves. No?
No!! If you build you will NOT need liner just class A , hang around a bit some guys might know where manufacturers are and have an in You will save 2/3 if your wood is dry with same amount of heat with Cat stove in my real word experience!!
My experience with Cat equipped stoves has not included undue maintenance. The benefits are amazing. Nice long controlled even burns. No reason to be spooked of a Cat stove. New home builds are typically rather tight these days. I'd plan on considering a stove model that accepts a outside air kit (OAK) for combustion air. Something to consider as you shop. As long as your planning, plan on going straight up and out the roof with your stove pipe and Class A chimney. Save yourself potential draft issues by skipping a wall penetration and unnecessary 90. Not to mention keeping the majority of your pipe setup inside the heated envelope helps keep the internal pipe temps up. Less creosote. Any new stove will require real dry fuel. 1 to 3 years of seasoning after it has been split and stacked is the norm. Keep us up to speed on your shopping!
I enjoy having the stove in the basement. It heats out home perfectly. Burning wood is very messy and I like that to be in the basement. You can load up your stove at 11pm but you have to watch it and lower the air control for close to another hour.
I woulds high maintenance at all. Some will say so but they probably never used one and are just going on hearsay. Yes, it pays to brush off the cat a couple times per winter. However, with our fireview a child can do it easily and quickly. As for me, it takes about 2-3 minutes maximum. Some do a vinegar bath annually but again it is quick and easy plus you do that as part of the summer cleaning and maintenance. The only thing is you can not burn green wood in a cat stove. But then nobody should burn green wood. Get on the 3 year plan with your woodpile and you will gain many benefits and will save money in the long run plus your stove will perform to its maximum.
Everything Backwoods Savage said, with double emphasis on the wood. New England hardwood is great, if it's been cut, split stacked and covered for at least a solid 18 months. Can you burn it after a year? Yes, but it won't be anywhere near ideal. I am always buying wood in the Spring that I'll burn 2 to 3 years later. Wood I buy this Spring green and cheaper, I will hopefully be burning in late 2023 or Spring 2024.
I wont be scared of a cat stove then. I still have reservations about front loaders though. I'm concerned that ash would tend to come out when loading and that you can't load them up as well.......the logs might spill out or end up pressed against the glass. It happens that I have "an in" with regards to parts and installation. My brother.......right down the road.....has been a certified chimney sweep for 25 years. With me as helper, he'll do the install and we get parts at his cost. I know what you're thinking. If my bro is a sweep, why am I looking for advice? Well he's a great brother but he does believe he knows it all. I'm looking for a range of advice and I've found it here. My plan is to stack wood the year before I need it. I like Oldhippie's idea about stacking in spring so it would get two full summers of drying time. I won't be putting a stove in the basement. We like the look of a stove. We can manage the mess....we'll be retired. And because we plan on getting real old in that house, climbing up and down stairs to feed the stove is not ideal. We want the stove at the end of the house just off where the roof peak is. So, the pipe will be a straight shot up through the roof at it's highest possible point. Definitely going to with an OAK. The house will be small and tight. Has anyone had any experience with Hearthstone stoves?
Many front loading stoves can be loaded North-South thus mitigating the issue that concerns you. As can be seen in the Stove Tetris thread.
Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on this! Something you may want to consider when researching stove models. Loading your splits North South or front to back instead of East West (sideways) is a really efficient way to get a full load. Obviously full loads get your longest burn times on any stove. No worries about a split rolling up against the glass. I prefer stoves with a square firebox that can accommodate at least 16 inch splits loaded this direction. Just something else to consider if you plan on using the stove 24/7. No offense to those with stoves requiring East West loading!
My next door neighbor has a Hearthstone stove. It's pretty and it's beautiful stone. His is secondary burn technology with those tubes that run across the top of inside of the firebox. They take a beating and his were all deteriorated. Easy enough to replace. But he doesn't get the heat out of it that I do with my Fv. He bought retail, fell in love with the look of the stove and was having trouble. I finally brought over a wheel barrow of good wood, and he had an awakening about dry wood. He seems to like it, I'm not sure they are as much of a heater but I can see where folks are attracted to them. Aren't Hearthstone made in Bennington? I seem to remember that?
