Time for new stove ole wonderwood's given up the ghost

[cedarhollow]

Well the old wonderwood stove thats has probably been in this old house since the earth cooled has got to go.
Most of the fire brick is long gone and there is a crack in the steel right in the middle of the front, probably there so you can see if a fire is burning inside. The pipe going into the stone chimney actually looks like it may have been replaced sometime in the past century. I bought this old farmhouse about 3 years ago and I'm just learning how old it actually is.
The realtor was absolutely sure it was built in the 60's but my new insurance agent said the records he found date it sometime prior to 1900.
Anyway I don't have a small fortune to spend on a woodstock soapstone deluxe edition or whatever their super duper stove is and I'm leaning towards the vogelzang defender.
Anyone have one of these, know anything about them.

 

[cedarhollow]

come on folks, anyone have working knowledge of the vogelzang

 

[brenndatomu]

I had one...what you wanna know?

 

[cedarhollow]

is the defender a good stove, there are not too many stoves advertised for less than $1000, the defender is 600, can i expect it to heat through the night 6-8 hours if stoked properly

 

[Big_Al]

Had good luck with our Englander wood stove. No help with vozelgang

 

[cedarhollow]

thanks guys, i'm gonna do some looking at englander. when i started looking at stoves online there are so many different ones with different options and most are way out of my pay grade, it did not take long at all to get overwhelmed. the house is not that big, 1200 sq ft or so total upstairs and down combined. i would like to be able to stoke the stove at midnight and still have warmth at 6am other than that price is main concern. if it was not i'd get electric or oil heat

 

[babybart]

I was considering adding an Englander to my office but time ran out this year but I did some research. England Stove Works is an American company still manufacturing in America with American parts. Vogelzang is Chinese parts with 3 year warranty. Englander has a five year warranty and gets good reviews for customer service. The 30 NCH model has a 3+ cf firebox and rated at 75,000 btu, you could get all night burns I think. Priced at $899 at the Depot too!

 

[cedarhollow]

thanks bart, i gotta just order one and get on with it. The stove I have now is probably downright dangerous

 

[brenndatomu]

Sorry I missed this...I didn't get a reply alert for some reason.
Anyways, the VZ Defender is OK, not great. I had to do quit a bit of screwing around with it to get more than 4-6 hours useable heat out of it. It is a pretty easy breather and I have a high draft chimney, so I had to block off about 50% of the air intake holes to get 6-8 hours of heat out of it...and that's about all you can expect out of a 1.2 CF firebox. That's the thing that I didn't like was trying to get a decent load in that little firebox, was like playing Woodstove Jenga. The Defender is certainly a better stove than the old Boxwood and stuff like that from USSC in the past...but if you ever need customer service...their not your company. I emailed them about getting a mantle clearance requirement, was told to refer to the manual, which didn't address the issue...really basic manual. I replaced it with a Drolet 1400i insert stove that I found a great deal on used. It is a 1.8 CF firebox and as big as I can go with the size of my little fireplace...I really wanted an insert so the blower was on the front...I had to buy the blower for the VZ to push the heat out of the FP, but the blower is in the back so whenever I needed to clean it, that meant pulling the stove out.
FYI, they make a EPA-afied Wonderwood now...called the Woodchief or something like that...but it is like $1000 now...there are better stoves out there for less money IMO.
The Englander NC30 that was mentioned is a great stove, but be aware that they have stupid high hearth R value requirements. Englander makes other stoves for similar money that have much less stringent requirements. The 30 would be way too big for you place too...unless you have a really cold and drafty old house.
Not sure if you have Menards stores in NE TN, but if you do they sell the Defender for $400...also have a little Century stove for about the same money, similar sized stove, better company. Menards has good deals on stoves, especially when they do sales.
One stove that I would look at is the Englander 13...about a 1.8 CF stove, should give you those overnight burns...a well liked stove. Look at AM/FM energy, they sell seconds of Englanders for low money, shipped right to your house. Brand new but with very minor cosmetic issues, still full warranty other than the cosmetic stuff. People seem to love dealing with them. Here's a link for the 13. $575 shipped BTW...

https://www.amfmenergy.com/collecti...-certified-noncatalytic-wood-stove-1850131801

 

[Big_Al]

My son put an Englander 13 in his small house several years ago & loves it. It burns overnight , he got it at ziggies for 400. Supposedly a factory blemished stove. We bought a used Englander 18 off cl about 10 years ago for 200, epa certified and worked great. We heat exclusively with wood.