Do you have a wood burning stove?

[BWVDenise]

Do you really like it? Is it a pain to use? Does it make the house smell like the wood burning fireplaces can? Know of any good websites that I can look at styles/designs?
We were going to have our fireplace restored and have a gas log set put in, but with the rising price of gas and being inefficient... well, I just don't know now...

 

[Deb & Bill]

We had one back in Montana in our basement (we had a two story house, with the bottom story a daylight basement). When I was pregnant, I wouldn't let my husband use the stove because the smell got to me very badly. But we did use it to heat up the lower level of the house. Then it helped to keep the upstairs floor warm (we lived mostly on the upper level).

 

[Want2liveatWDW]

I would love to hear some more opinions on this too. We are leaning towards getting one for our family room. Especially with the predictions of the cost of natural gas prices this winter.

 

[gallaj0]

We have one in our basement. It's a walkout basement; picture window, full door outside, etc. One set of stairs up to the upper floor. We can heat this whole part of the house with the wood stove, and no smell gets upstairs from the stove, just heat.

It's not a particularly "efficent" model; they have some that are airtight, with blowers, etc. to heat more efficently, and burn less wood (or pellets).

Vermont Castings have a very nice website, and some really nice models:
Vermont Castings

They also have a buyers guide that can help you decide what options you'd need.

 

[LoveWaltDisneyWorld]

have had one, I prefer a pellet stove!!

 

[Want2liveatWDW]

What is a pellet stove?

 

[LoveWaltDisneyWorld]

What is a pellet stove?

http://hearth.com/what/pelletstoves.html

 

[doxdogy]

My parents had one in the family room of their old house. It was a free standing woodburning stove with a blower. The family room was an additon after the house was built. It was a fairly good size room and kept the room nice and warm in the winter. Don't remember much of a wood smell in the room.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

I have a zero clearance wood burning stove. It is flush with the brick wall that we installed surrounding it. We also have a brick hearth. Half the house is on a slab and faces north and gets very very cold. This stove heats it up very nicely. It smells great and is very low maintenance. Every other year I have the chimney cleaned out.

 

[mtblujeans]

What type of roofing material do you have? Nonflammable? We have always had older wood stoves since we have lived in Montana. The new ones would be preferable. Older stoves are not as clean or efficient, IMHO, however they do get hot so give off plenty of heat. The size you would need would depend on the area you need to heat. If I had the option of getting a new stove, I would get one as clean burning and efficient as I could possibly afford with a blower to circulate the heat. Wood heat can be very, very dry which can cause sinus problems while you use them. You will need to add humidity to the air while using wood heat for a prolonged period of time. Around here, some people just put a pan of water near the stove and the heat will make the water evaporate. That may or may not be enough for you. Unless the wood you burn is very, very well dried, your stove pipe should be cleaned once or twice a season as build up from unseasoned wood can cause a chimney or roof fire.

 

[Oh Kay!]

We have just looked into getting the wood burning stoves installed in our fireplaces. DH wanted the pallet stove, but the salesperson said pallets are hard to come by, at least in our neck of the wood.

We considered Jotel and Avalon, and decided to to go with Jotel. BTW, when we were at Epcot last week, we noticed a Jotel stove at the Bakery in Norway. It was the first time I've seen DH be more interested in an appliance than pastries.

 

[SPAM]

nope.

 

[cepmom]

We have wood burning stove in our family room (it was here when we bought the house) The family room is a converted 3 season porch, and it has heat ducts run out to it, but they are not very efficient. We used the stove exclusively the first winter we were here, but it was a pain to get it started. Then we started having children and I was too nervous using the stove with little ones around. Now that the kids are a little bigger and know not to go near it, we do use it occasionally.

It does tend to smell a little and it tends to make the air dry, but a humidifier will help or maybe a kettle of water put right on top of the stove (they make these especailly for wood stoves)

The family room isn't very well insulated, has 9 windows and faces north, so it does get colder than the rest of the house. I'm glad we have it, especially with the price of gas this year. I expect we will be using it more than normal this winter!

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

I grew up with woodstoves, and currently have one. We live in the Adirondacks, so it's not only cold, but if there's a power outage, it could last for days. So, it's comforting to have some back-up.

In our house, the woodstove is in the rec room, over the garage. It's a huge room, regularly heated by electric (ugh!), which we keep to 50 degrees. If the kids have a snow day or other time we'll be up there, we crank up the wood stove. I keep a water thing (from LL Bean--don't know the name) on the stove, as well as a coffee pot of water for cocoa, etc. on there. I could cook on it, but never have in this house (I've cooked on them before). The room gets very toasty--the kids run around in their underwear (!), which is a nice break for them from our 7 month winters.

I like the comfort of a woodstove, and also it can be handy for drying clothes. Plus the cats love it. I would probably always have one, just because I enjoy them. However, it's a personal taste--they do require more work than turning up a thermostat. Plus, our room is carpeted--not the best choice, IMHO, but you can get fireproof rugs to put directly infront of the stove. And of course I'm careful with young children. I can't make any model recommendations since we've never purchased one. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I would like to have one installed in our basement. We have a walk out basement with windows and my DH's office is in the basement. It's cold down there in the winter and it would sure warm it up without overheating the rest of the house. I have no idea how much $ it would cost to have installed.

We have a gas fireplace on the main level of our house. I miss having a woodburning fireplace and we almost didn't buy the house because of that.

 

[ZebraStripes]

We had one for about 10 years. Our house is about 1400 square feet 2 level house and it heated it pretty well. Kept the electric bill down around $125/month. While it was great when the power went out, having to deal with it on a day to day basis got to be a pain in the behind. We got rid of it about 3 years ago and heat only with electric now. Wood is messy. You have to haul in from the pile into the house (loved that when I was pregnant). The air was so dry that it ended up popping the joints in my dining room table and chairs (they were glued) even with the pot of water on top. I started a minor chimney fire one night when my husband was out of town. Occationally, I'd go to work smelling of smoke because I'd have to fill it before I left. But, I miss the warm toasty feeling of wood heat. This site will give you some info on models.