Wood stove besides vermont castings?

18 years ago

I would like to get a wood stove to heat about a 2000 sq ft home. I am a little leery about the ones with the catalists that need replcement.I was thinking of the Harmon oakwood.

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Comments (4)

amcar
18 years ago
Vermont Castings has the new Encore stove in non-cat version coming out either the end of this month or sometime next month. Check out Hearthstone Stoves at hearthstonestoves.com, they have some very nice, non-cat quality stoves that are made out of soapstone and cast iron. The Harmon Oakwood also looks nice. You might also want to check out the Jotul stoves at jotulflame.com I was looking for stoves also, but due to some restrictions I have with my fireplace opening height and my room size, I will be getting a wood burning insert, either the Hearthstone Clydsdale or the Lopi declaration. If I was to get a stove, I would probably go with either the VC Encore, non-cat, or the Hearthstone Phoenix. I think all the stoves mentioned above are good stoves, but it all depends on what style you like. Try to narrow it down to between two or three stoves before making your final choice. I've been researching for over a month and the more brands and styles I came upon, the more confusing it was. Check out the stoves on line and then go to your dealer to see the the stoves in person, before you make a purchase. Also, check out hearth.com, where you will find many reviews from actual owners, on many different brands of stoves. Good luck in your search.
christopherh
18 years ago
Vermont Castings USED to be a "standard" of the stove industry. But the company has been sold so many times and the new managements have lowered the quality so much that even the stove shops here in Vermont won't sell them! Up here Jotul is the biggie if you want cast iron. But we've found that if you're gonna burn it 24/7, steel stoves are the better bargain. They're more forgiving if you overheat them and repairs are relatively easy. (read inexpensive)
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Yes it can be done, and generally works quite well. The basic vigilant design has been around for many years and is a good stove, the benefit to having one designed for coal burning is that, depending on which year it is (they changed the design slightly over the years) you will have the convienience of an ash pan and shaker grates which are nice to have no matter what you are burning. The reason Vermont castings cannot reccomend burning wood in it is simply because the USEPA since '88 requires wood stoves to obtain a certain level of emissions output and must be tested for this; vermont castings did not do this because it is not required of coal stoves and thus cannot make statements that might be in contrary of what is required of the company by law. So, as you see the reason burning wood is not mentioned is purely a regulatory technicality and not anthing that would negatively impact your woodburning experience. Now, having said that, if possible if it were me i would burn coal, it is a far superior fuel if it is available in your area, and if you don't cut your wood, is generally on a per btu basis less expensive than buying cordwood.
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I have a different question about a Vermont Castings Resolute Acclaim 2490, non-catalytic, with secondary combustion chamber. Its one year old and has never operated as promised in the secondary combustion mode (which you start by closing a vent after griddle hits 400 degrees). I was cleaning ashes out and noticed that there is some soft-ish material at the bottom back, inside the opening to the secondary combustion chamber. I first thought it was compacted ash, so dug some out. It is obviously not. The operating manual is completely unhelpful and Vermont Castings (MHSC in Tennessee) will not give technical advice, and the dealer (OKell's in San Francisco) recognized the material as from a "combustion package" -- but insisted there should be no such material in that stove. They checked with their supplier, called back and told me this material should not be there and told me to chip it out with a putty knife. Reluctant to do that, I researched on line and found a picture of the "combustion package" which is clearly supposed to be there,(http://www.blackswanhome.com/product/combustion-package-refractory-resolute-acclaim). Hence the advice to dig it out was totally wrong. The only exposed part of this "combustion package" is the very bottom, but that's what is holding the upper part of it in place. But here's my question: The picture of this combustion package at the url noted above shows that it has holes at the bottom. Mine doesn't, and I'm wondering if those holes are necessary for proper operation and the lack thereof in mine might explain its poor operation. So I'm wondering if anyone else has a Vermont Castings Resolute Acclaim 2490, and if it has a row of holes in the soft-ish secondary combustion package at the very bottom. Whatever the answer, it is very poor design to have something soft and easily destructible that is exposed to being evacuated by normal cleaning of ashes out of the stove. And that poor design is exacerbated by an unhelpful users manual, a manufacturer that you cannot contact for technical support, and a dealer who doesn't know his product. AAARRRGGH.
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jjplant
18 years ago
I have been told VC is not the stove company it used to be also. I have a Encore catalyst stove that I'm looking to get rid of in favor of a Hearthstone Phoenix, maybe.
I looked at a Harmon Oakwood that was used as a burning floor model last year. There is a door you need to close to engage the secondary burn system that made an awful racket, not good if you need to fill wood in the middle of the night with the rest of the family sleeping. Also the fire brick is custom and I'm assuming expensive if broken.
beezbaby
18 years ago
I have a jotul and love it. It does a great job heating and would buy another for my new house if I need one on my porch!

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Wood stove besides vermont castings?

Comments (4)

amcar

christopherh

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jjplant

beezbaby

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