Well, define dressy.

There are a lot of potential choices.

My suggestions would be to cruise around the Jotul, Woodstock, Vermont Castings, Avalon, Morso, Waterford, Regency, and Hearthstone websites.

You'll see a wide variety of stove designs, from ultra modern to Empire and Federal to countryish.

If you want antique, try goodtimestove.com, but antique stoves don't have the long-burn attributes that modern wood stoves do.

The Jotul and the Hampton (AKA Regency) are nice. I, like you, don't want something in cast iron black with a gold door. Not that there's anything wrong with them, it just doesn't fit my style and definitely wouldn't look right in my fireplace. If you want some real performance it looks like the Pacific Summit takes the cake in that respect, whereas the Hampton and the Jotul look good and provide, what I'm told, is ample heat for most homes.

I'm awaiting delivery on my Hampton HI300 and I've heard that most people don't have problems with getting their 75K BTU units hot (Jotul is a 55K BTU burner), but getting the air to circulate around their homes once it gets hot.

Make sure to read a good many of these posts, they helped a lot in my decision and there are a lot of very knowledgeable people here to answer your questions.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Since wood stoves and inserts aren't the typical consumer commodity it may be difficult to get some brands where you live. For instance, I live in Virginia and I wanted a Pacific Energy stove but the nearest dealer was three hours away so we couldn't even see one. Also, getting people to install it can be a hassle too, depending on where you live.

I think I've rambled enough. You'll find that if you want something other than black, your choices are limited but still quite nice. Good luck and let everyone know what you decide.

Thanks for all the advice! The only thing is how small they all feel in scale to the rest of the room. I have a large wall that was ment to be the focal with the fireplace. Can you do stone up part of the wall then do a stove and still get a 'grand' effect? BTW,I would like to be cost effective(if at all possible)!

Cost effective you say... I was trying to do the same thing but it came down to only a few hundred dollars separating what I wanted from what I could live with. This is an appliance, like many others, but one that will be very prominent. My recommendation is to spend the extra money on something that you will be happier with. I don't think you'll want to change this out once you get it.

I think you can get some very grand looking inserts. I'm not sure of the scale or the color scheme of your room but I'm sure you can find one that fits well. Remember that whatever the size of the hearth is that it will be completely covered by the insert and surround panels. I don't think there is much difference, cost wise, between a large and an "extra large" wood insert. Like I said, I think the Pacific Energy Summit insert is nice and the Lopi Freedom Bay is also pretty big.

Here's what I did. Get a tape measure, get the dimensions of the inserts you're considering, make a cardboard cutout of them and place them in front of the hearth, stand back and take a look. This should give you an idea of what they'll look like (size wise).

Have you looked into the EPA certified fireplaces? Do not confuse them with EPA EXEMPT which are garbage.

Define cost effective. You can get a basic traditional, boxy, non controlled burn woodstove made in China for a couple hundred dollars.

Or, you can spend $2,000 to $5,000 on one of the high end modern stoves.

Or you can spend that much, or a LOT more, on a restored antique stove, but again you have the problem that they're not controlled burn.

If you want them to be prominent, go for one in a colored enamel.

Depending on the maker, you can have quite the spectrum from which to choose -- red, blue, green, ivory, white and variations.

I really like this one,now I need to decide how to make the wall behind a focal point.The ceilings are 13ft tall.
http://www.quadrafire.com/downloads/productPhotos/largeImages/ISLEROYALE_LG.JPG

I just got a Jotul F400 Castine. Not only does it look good (green emerald) it also performs incredibly. It is heating my whole house except the extension. The house is about 3000 sqft. On realy cold days (5 to 8 degrees) the house is still at about 68F upstairs and downstairs. Highly recommend it. If I could have fitted it I would have bought the F500.

I haven't seen this mentioned, but I am a potter and I once took a workshop with Peter King (Architectural Ceramics). He does marvelous custom made ceramic fireplace surrounds, mantle pieces, tile art for the fireplace. Very few potters do work on that scale, but it really wasn't that expensive given what it was, and was certainly a center piece to the room. You might look into something like that. I have a Jotul insert and it looks very lovely, but my house is a bit cottagy and artsie fartsie. I was warned it might not heat the whole house, but I wanted only a heat supplement and to warm that large room. I got that, but now, as I was warned, I sort of wish I had a slightly larger stove- this one comes close to heating the whole house and would do so after several hours, but will never be an alternative heat source on it's own.

I second the motion on the Jotul. Just finished the break-in period on our new Castine. The gothic-arches look on the door is really nice. And they come in various colors of paint/enamel.

I think the "formality" of the a stove has much to do with how you present it... by that I mean the chimney treatment, the mantel, the hearth... the whole package.

We have a Woodstock Fireview and I struggled long and hard with how to decorate the interior chimney and the hearth; finally opting to camouflage the chimney, keep the mantel small and simple (soapstone on black iron brackets), and raise the stove. I always wanted the Classic model of our stove (solid soapstone), but caved in to the helpmeet's wish to see the fire.

I think "formality" lies more within the staging that the actual style of the stove... JMO

I agree Chelone, the background of the fireplace is important too. Do you have any pics to share? It sounds lovely.

The best stoves/fireplaces are masonry heaters. No other wood-burning appliance even comes close to matching their efficiency or their beauty!

SR

Here is a link that might be useful: how-efficient-is-it-magazine.com

snag,

You'll have to snoop around the linked album, but there are some OK shots of the project in there (also a lot of stuff of little interest!).

I agree the masonry heaters are lovely, but they can get very expensive and you can't generally take them with you when you move to a new home. There's no arguing their efficiency; they warmed Scandinavian and Russian homes very effectively and stylishly for centuries.

Here is a link that might be useful: stove and chimney

Those masonry heaters look great. What I'm wondering is - how much do they cost?

Jason

Masonry heaters are wonderful.

Their cost is generally obscene.

And, depending on the type, they may require substantial alterations to your home to support the weight.

A former boss had two in his large home. A larger one in the great room, and a smaller one in the main part of the house. These two heaters did the lion's share of home heating in a 4,000 square foot house.

I think the for a masonry heater runs around the same price as a wood burning insert/stove. Then you have to pay someone to build it and make it look pretty. I've heard of estimates over $10,000. However, I haven't seen any wood burning stoves with a pizza oven option. :-) I would get one if I was building a new home, otherwise it's just too costly.

I recently got a 'rough' estimate for a Tulikivi masonry heater. It was for their smallest model, which retailed for around $4K. Install with pipe was in the neighborhood of $2K. Additionally, I would have to contract with someone to reinforce the floor (we have a basement). The distributor thought this would cost between $1 and $2K based on his past experience with similar projects. Tulikivi provides the requirments, and you can go to their website to do some research.

Bottom line is that it cost between $7-8K. I am seriously considering this product, as it is exactly what I want, but it is about double some of the other products I was looking into.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulikivi masonry heaters

$7-8K? Mmmh. I just priced out a radiant in-floor heating system (electric) and it came to almost $5K. Very little construction needed just a lot of square footage. We also live in a 10-year old house and when the furnace guy came over to replace a part, he told us to expect to replace it in 5 years. It's natural gas which is sky high now and I suppose, only going to get more so. Is it true that there have been no new discoveries of Natural Gas fields?

So, maybe that figure is pretty reasonable over the long run?