wood burning stoves

[Les Nessman]

I'm interested in getting a wood burning stove for the living room of my small two-story house. (Wood burning, as opposed to pellets, et al, because I have a large woods on my property.)
I don't have an existing fireplace, so it would involve new construction venting through the wall. (concrete block house with aluminum siding)

Does anyone have advice/experience on what are decent brands and models? Where to look for stoves? Expected prices? We are of modest income so I'm trying to determine if this is something we could afford.

[blackeagle603]

Lodi. Been good to me. I heat almost exclusively with the Lodi stove insert in our fireplace.

Believe it or not we actually need it from around Thanksgiving till early March. It gets into the 30's at night much of that time. Esp December and early January when we've even had a few weeks of night time temps in the 20's.

[Darrell]

Vermont Castings makes great, efficient woodstoves.

http://www.vermontcastings.com/

[JAG2955]

We've had a Lodi in my parents house for the last 29 years or so. It still works great. It's probably about 24" across, and it can heat most of the downstairs. In our basement, we have a much larger one, probably 36" across or so. It's made by a company called Alaska stoves. I never remember it being used, but apparently when it was, it heated the entire house.

[HTRN]

You might want to look at Morso - be warned they're not cheap, and somewhat hard to find.


HTRN

[merll2005]

Vermont Castings makes great, efficient woodstoves.

http://www.vermontcastings.com/

They filed for bankrupcy last year and were bought up by Monessen Hearth Systems out of Kentucky.

[rightisright]

Grew up with a Jotul in the basement and a Timberline upstairs. They worked great to heat a semi-large bi-level. Aesthetically, they both left a lot to be desired.

I'm in the market for a new one, also. The 1970s unit that sits in my living room is an eyesore and horribly inefficient. Being that it's in a main living space, I need it to look good as well as be efficient.

The units at http://www.woodstove.com seem to get good reviews. And they are having a great sale right now.

ETA: They also herald a Fed tax credit of 30%. I haven't had time to look into the details, though. Maybe someone else has.

[Netpackrat]

Built my own out of a propane bottle, it's almost done minus the outlet, for which I'm still trying to find a suitable short piece of 5 or 6 inch pipe, without spending real money on a length of it at the metal place. Once it is done I'll start a fire to burn off the remaining paint, and then put on the door gasket and paint it. The door hardware is temporary.

[Netpackrat]

A friend of mine used to manufacture wood stoves (he actually held a patent on his baffled design) until he was forced out of business by the EPA and some other factors. He told me to line the bottom with fire brick, and he specifically said not to use a grate. At his suggestion, I added a duct to the back side of the door, to direct air from the inlet downwards towards the lower part of the stove to direct it into the bottom of the stack of wood. He also suggested adding a length of small diameter pipe to bring outside air to just before the outlet, to get more complete combustion of the exhaust gases, as well as adding a second bottle above as an expansion chamber. I'm going to add the small pipe at the time I put in the outlet, with threads on the outside portion so I can put a cap on it if I want, and I figure I can add the expansion chamber later on if I want to.

I've been bugging him for years to publish plans for his more popular models so that do it yourself types can build them, and I think he's finally working on drawings for at least one of them.

Edited to add: He used to shoot competitively, and is definitely one of us. I send him links to forum threads from time to time, and he mentioned he'd like to join, but figures that would get him put on some list somewhere...

[Rumpshot]

...but figures that would get him put on some list somewhere...

We're all on a list somewhere. I figure the guys with the white jackets will show up almost any time now.