Thinking of buying a new wood stove for next winter

[Jeff Lary]

Hi all I have heated our 1400 sq. ft. home with an Free standing Old Mill om25 woodstove since I bought it new back in 1986. It has a 2.0 cu ft. fire box I want my next stove to have a larger box with longer burn time. I fill the stove at 8:30 at night and at 6am there are coals to start from but now much heat left. I have done some online looking over the past year cause I been thinking this way for awhile. My stove takes 2' wood but I cut mine 20"-22" long and that is manageable for the both of us.
I searched large efficient stoves , big wood stoves ect. My main complaint is I want to be able to put more wood in the stove at once. This one does not have an ash pan, I just move the hot coals to the back and shovel out the ashes. The next stove probably will have an ash pan .
I looked at Vermont castings Vigilant and Blaze King either one looks like it would do the job. I do not want a stove that I have to replace a bunch of consumable stuff every other year. Some of the stoves look kind of high tech/ high maintainace with all sorts of moving parts to contend with. But many sites say they will heat with less wood than the older less efficient stoves. But I don't get to sucked into all that hype either. I am sure thay have made advances with stove since 1987 though.
Mainly I want a big, seething, fire breathing beast ,that will still be putting out heat after 10 hours. Does anyone have a favorite stove I should consider? Also who here has a Vermont castings Vigilant or a Blaze King. I am open to more research based on a good honest recommendation on any other models. Thanks Jeff

 

[Del_]

I'd stay away from Vermont Castings.

Blaze King is getting rave reviews.

 

[Idahonative]

+1 Blaze King. Burn times measured in days, not hours. Built to last a lifetime.

I dont know of any other stove on the market that consistantly heats for 24 hrs while burning pine. That is the REAL test for a woodstove. Now if you are talking hardwood, you are looking at 30-40 hours depending on your home. Again, no other stove can match that performance.

 

[greenskeeper]

Quadrafire here...I get close to 24 hrs of burn time and little to no ash (efficient)

 

[Jeff Lary]

Well thanks for the responses, I agree on Vermont I knew that when I posted. You see I just did not want to look like I already made up my mind. I read some bad stuff about Vermont poor longevity. Heat expectations not met. Blaze king is top of my list so far. Quadrafire is one I want to look at again and I will. Like I said big firebox long burn times are 2 things I will have.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Quadrafire here...I get close to 24 hrs of burn time and little to no ash (efficient)

what model do you have? Boy those are some nice looking stoves.

 

[Gavman]

I have a blaze king princess, this is simple an awesome stove that I would recommend to anyone, its a pleasure to use...
16" wood though and I think around a 2.8 cubic foot sized box, halfway through the second with ours and its great

 

[Cerran]

I have a Quadrafire 3100i with a 2.1 cubic foot firebox (had it 10 years here) and I do like it a lot, but if I had the option to switch to a new stove, I wouldn't stay with my Quad, I'd go with a Blaze King catalytic for the burn times and the turn-down.

 

[greenskeeper]

what model do you have? Boy those are some nice looking stoves.

4100i without the fancy surround plate (more heat that way)

 

[quotejso2]

The englander is a good value large firebox.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Yea those are nice stoves to be sure. I know you can buy all sorts of fancy do-dads for some of them hua. I guess my next step is to go and see some in person. I need to figure out what I am going to do before I saw up next years wood. I have it all cut and yarded tree length next step is cut it to length.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Also where can I find some prices? I don't like to buy anything without first knowing what it is supposed to cost. I cannot find a web site to tell me a price for the Blaze King line up.

 

[blacklocst]

I think your looking at upwards of 3k for the BK.

 

[Jeff Lary]

yea scary hua I paid 600 for the stove I have now back in 87. I suppose back then 600 was like 3k today? There seems to only 2-3 places in Maine to buy one and 2 of these are owned by the same guy ha ha.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Also does anyone here have a Harmon stove?

 

[GVS]

Hi all I have heated our 1400 sq. ft. home with an Free standing Old Mill om25 woodstove since I bought it new back in 1986. It has a 2.0 cu ft. fire box I want my next stove to have a larger box with longer burn time. I fill the stove at 8:30 at night and at 6am there are coals to start from but now much heat left. I have done some online looking over the past year cause I been thinking this way for awhile. My stove takes 2' wood but I cut mine 20"-22" long and that is manageable for the both of us.
I searched large efficient stoves , big wood stoves ect. My main complaint is I want to be able to put more wood in the stove at once. This one does not have an ash pan, I just move the hot coals to the back and shovel out the ashes. The next stove probably will have an ash pan .
I looked at Vermont castings Vigilant and Blaze King either one looks like it would do the job. I do not want a stove that I have to replace a bunch of consumable stuff every other year. Some of the stoves look kind of high tech/ high maintainace with all sorts of moving parts to contend with. But many sites say they will heat with less wood than the older less efficient stoves. But I don't get to sucked into all that hype either. I am sure thay have made advances with stove since 1987 though.
Mainly I want a big, seething, fire breathing beast ,that will still be putting out heat after 10 hours. Does anyone have a favorite stove I should consider? Also who here has a Vermont castings Vigilant or a Blaze King. I am open to more research based on a good honest recommendation on any other models. Thanks Jeff

I wouldn't be complaining about an 8 hour burn time.Thats very good.As for V/C .Scratch it off your list.No where as good as they once were.Very few wood stoves(room heaters) that will give you an HONEST 8 to 10 hrs. of real heat.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Well I know you are right 8 hrs is pretty good. I will say this not bragging but this is the truth. All my friends and relatives that burn wood at one time or another have commented on the power/ heat supplied by my Old Mill. They were no joke back in their time. It takes 4 strong men to lift this unit 1/4 boiler plate w/ a 1/2" cast iron door this is not a throwaway unit for sure. I paid 600 for mine 28 years later they still bring $500-600 well used. I have replaced some of my fire brick a couple of times but that's it. Now i was just looking at Harmon stoves and was reading reviews and a guy was saying that his was less than 10 years old and he was looking at $ 1,000.00 in consumables to replace before next season. He said well I may just buy the new next size up. To me $1,000.00 in replacement parts cost in 30 years is crazy!!! say nothing about less than 10 when the purchase price was over $2,000.00 to start with.

 

[Cerran]

The englander is a good value large firebox.

Agreed, if you're on a tight budget an Englander NC-30 is an excellent choice. I have some friends with an Englander NC-30 and they love it, however I've been super impressed with my friends who have a Blaze King (king and princess)and the burn times they get.

 

[Jeff Lary]

Yea its going to come down to a 2 or 3 stove choice I think. Like I said I need to physically go touch some of the new stuff. I would not mind $100.00 every 3-5 years for "up keep" but that is about my tight azz limit ha ha.

 

[Cerran]

Yea its going to come down to a 2 or 3 stove choice I think. Like I said I need to physically go touch some of the new stuff. I would not mind $100.00 every 3-5 years for "up keep" but that is about my tight azz limit ha ha.

Cat based stoves plan on replacing the cat on them every 5-7 years on average. If you get an aftermarket unit they generally run about $160-225 so overall the upkeep on a cat stove isn't going to be super high. How you treat your stove also plays into how much maintenance you have as well.