Thrilled? I just checked the weather and its gonna be a good day to cut wood for next winter. More drudge work. But I do appreciate that my electric heat has only been on twice this season - back in November before I got the thermostat set down. And I do enjoy wood heat - no other kind warms my bones like wood does. But am I Thrilled? I just can't make it that far.

BTW, I've averaged changing my CC about every five years on my Dutchwest stove and yes it does make a difference.

I would never be without my wood burner. Coincidentally it's also a Dutchwest. I find cutting, splitting (with a wood splitter) & stacking a satisfying and rewarding task. I also think it's a great form of exercise that beats working out in a gym which to me is non productive, from a material stand point at least. Most people will claim it's too much work. What can you expect from a society that's to lazy to use their turn signals.

Replacing the CC does make a huge difference in the amount of heat and keeping emissions to a minimum.

Am I thrilled with my wood burner? Yes I am!!

Jim

I've had woodstoves for over 20 years. I like the peace you get when outside splitting and stacking. Your worries and cares seem to be behind you and you're at peace with yourself.

I have a secondary burn type of stove so I have no cat. But it heats my home very nicely and I just found out the price of propane up here is over FOUR DOLLARS a gallon! WOW! I'm sure happy I don't have a GAS stove!

We've had a fairly mild winter so far up here as it's only gone to minus 30 once. We've had a few minus 15 nights and the little Regency had done the job very well.
Am I "thrilled" with my stove? Let me just say that as long as I'm able to carry a log to put in it I will keep it!
Especially since I've used only 50 gallons of oil since Thanksgiving. And that is to heat the hot water in the house. All my thermostats are set at 50 degrees.

Hi,

This is my first full season burning a Woodstock soapstone. Yes, am thrilled. Our propane here in N GA now is about 2.79 per gallon, so I am thankful for the savings. I am getting to love woodheat.

C.

We wondered if the $3000ish cost (we only paid store to literally take stove from truck to hole in wall, hook up the pipe and hook up the electric fan to the line we left them) was worth it. We have the CozyHeat Z42? wood insert. We purchased a mix of good wood and this puppy burns so much more efficiently than the fireplace the builders put in these houses. We have the blower on and the house was so hot this last weekend I had to switch to tank and shorts! We leave gas heater set at 64 so it does not get too cold at night. On the nights we have logs going, the heater never comes on. So overall I say it was worth every dime. We burn less wood, less wood generates more heat, spread the cost of the wood over the months we would normally use the heater and we pay for the wood and still save money. Then there is the resale factor for the house. We have burning restrictions now. So far we have not had a time where even we could not burn, but since there is nothing coming from chimney, the air quality patrol would never know if we were burning anyway. (of course we obey the law, but could break it and they would never know). If we ever had to sell the house, this would be a definite plus against the competition. I also like the fact that the walls do not get hot, since it is a zeroclearance, there is no heat even on the chimney unless you get within 1-2 inches of it. And the front of the unit is cool except for the actual door. You can seriously burn yourself if you touch it. Not a good thing for babies, but babies should not be near the fire anyway. We showed our 7 & 10 yr old how hot it was and they literally never go near it.

So am I thrilled? You bet, worth every cent and I feel like I am helping do my part for the environment.

I like my Jotul Castine. Actually, my favorite part about it is watching the secondary burn of a noncat stove. Its also nice to know that a portion of my living expenses will not be subject to the ravages of inflation and all of this courtesy of burning junk wood.

Shannon01,

I find it interesting that your local politicians (in they're infinite wisdom) came up with burning restrictions after you've had this insert for...how long now?? What about grandfather laws? I really don't think they can say anything to you as long as you can prove you had the woodburner before the law was enacted. If your insert is
also a cat or afterburn type, I don't believe there can legally be any restrictions on those. Maybe you have different laws in your state.

Jim

Jim- Great point. We installed 4/07. Law became effective this Nov 07. I do not really think they have any grandfather type thing going on. Basically they said this is who can burn and when. I would be curious to look into this further but since new homes are not being built with regular wood fireplaces much anymore, most are gas or not at all, I really think the law affects us all. I will look just out of curiosity.

What really got me is that county gave us a rebate for doing this, and even called prior to this law for our opinion regarding "an idea the county is looking into to comply with state mandates". Literally the next day the county decision was made and it became law weeks later. So basically, they just wanted to see how mad us folks who had just got rebates would be when we found out about this law. Oh well, we are conscienceous citizens, let em catch me. Worth the $50 fine to not pay PG&E!

We are having the nastiest winter in southern Wisconsin that I can recall in my 62&7/8 years on this planet! I really love the wood burner this year more than ever & if a political, whatever, walked up to me and said "you can't use it anymore" I would make sure he gets off my property in several pieces, (just kidding of course). Grandfather laws definitely have clout!

My stove is a 20 year old Vermont Castings, Consolidated Dutchwest, Federal Airtight, (quite a name ain't it), that uses the catalytic combustor technology. I generally replace the combustor every 5 years. This one is on it's 3rd year and the recess in the plate above the combustor where the thermometer goes is glowing cherry red and the temperature is 1,600 degrees. It's spitting heat like crazy and it's not costing me dime one! I havenÂt heard the furnace turn on all day and itÂs only 14 degrees outside as IÂm typing this! Another benefit is that I keep a kettle of water on top to add moisture to the house and even the ashes are great for traction on ice! I have my own wood source from dead trees and fallen limbs in my woods. As long as you maintain this type of stove, I think it ought to be considered a green fuel burner just like pellet stoves are. They have no problem with pellet stoves, so why not a clean, well maintained, efficient wood burner? Most of the time I see no smoke coming from the chimney except for some steam on really cold days. I do see some smoke if the combustor temperature falls below 500 degrees like in the morning when the fire dies down and I re-stoke it to get it back up again. The fire I have going now is about 1-1/2 months old because the airtight feature allows the wood to just smolder. Ironically the dirtier the fire the better the combustor works because it consumes the smoke from this type of fire. I have a pellet stove in a 400 sq/ft room and although I like it, it definitely is costly to run. $3.50 a bag every day for pellets not to mention the higher electric bill for the blowers. My wood burner has one blower so that does affect the electric bill, but not by that much.

Jim

Yes we replaced our stove last year to one that has the reburner gas chamber. It cut our wood burning by at least a third b/c of the efficiency. Lovin it.