buying a big woodstove, which one to buy?

[Henry and Wanda]

Hello,
I have a Napoleon 1900 with a fan..........it's a nice stove and puts out a lot of heat.......holds coals to get more wood going for many hours !!!!! It's the biggest one I could find at the time I bought it.



Henry and Wanda

 

[Steve NW WI]

I've been scratchin my head on which big stove to get for the last few months. It came down to mostly a toss up between the already mentioned Englander NC-30 (or it's twins, the Summers Heat SNC-30 and Timber Ridge TNC-30) and the Drolet HT-2000. All were priced similarly, and have pretty close specs at 3 1/2 cu ft and around 80% efficient. I'll be picking up a Drolet later this week, only because it was the one I could lay my hands on and touch in person, and I'd rather support a local business (even a chain store - Fleet Farm in my case), than order from someone 5 states away online. For some reason, none of the local Home Despots carry wood stoves, many do carry the Englanders.

One suggestion is that whatever you buy should be EPA certified, the $300 tax credit is back from what I've read.

My Quadra fire 5700 is a beast and heats close to 3000 sq/ft with the add on fan. Good burn times. A basement takes a lot of heat to warm the cold basement. My brother goes through much more wood than I do because he is heating an unfinished basement. After his basement is toasty the heat moves into the upper level of his ranch style house.

I would most likely install an indoor wood furnace in the basement. I never owned one but some furnaces out there sure do sound nice.

I have block walls in my basement, with 1" foam outside from foundation up to ground level, other than that, uninsulated. Once the blocks are warm, they stay warm and give off heat after the stove is out. Yes, it takes a while and some wood to get them warm, but for someone like me that's a 24-7 burner much of the year, it's not a problem once you're going.

 

[dparkguy]

I have a Morso 3610 and heat a 2000 sq. ft. house. I live in southeastern , PA and go through 3-4 cords of well seasoned hardwood a year. When outside high temp is above 40 degrees, we run the stove with the damper closed. Under 40 and we crack the damper. Stove has secondary a secondary burn feature which really puts out the heat. Load the stove at 9pm and it can go til 9am when temps are 35-40 overnight. Under 35 I load it at 9pm and 6am before work. Has end load door which makes filling it very easy. No blower or fan on this. We put a small box fan next to the stove when it gets really cold to move heat around the house more efficently.