What type of thermometer should i get to keep track of how hot my fire is burning? There really isn't a place to put one of the magnetic ones in order to get an accurate read. Thanks.

First off, do one at a time, until you learn more about what's involved. Secondly, to answer your questions, it depends on what you objectives are. If you want to heat your house efficiently and don't mind the extra effort, then a wood stove or a wood burning insert may be the way to go. If you aren't trying to save money on the gas or oil bill, and just want the ambiance and an additional heat source than a gas insert may be the way to go. It takes time to split and stack wood, clean the wood stove daily, light fires, feed fires. My sister has a gas insert and it works well for her lifesytle. She's single, extremely busy with work and just likes to have a glass of wine in front of the fire at the end of the day. A gas fireplace insert worked out perfectly for her. It has blowers and heats up most of her house quite nicely. She's not saving any money on the gas bill, but that wasn't her objective. She got a jotul Katahdin BTW. For me, I have an old house and was concerned saving money on my heating bill, so a wood stove made more sense. I don't mind the additional work, but realize it's not for everyone. There are other options, like pellet stoves/inserts which can be a compromise. They have blowers too and a large storage bin which you put the pellets into. They feed the pellets automatically and have a thermostat. My neighbor (who is retired) has one and it heats up his house nicely. Pellets can be expensive if you don't buy at the right time of the year. Check out www.hearth.com for more info too. Good site. Here is a link that might be useful: Jotul Gas Insert

A stove shop is in the business of selling stoves and will quite understandably push the brands it carries. Better to check at hearth.com for owners' evaluations of nearly every wood stove currently manufactured. There are code requirements for the heat resistance and minimum size of the hearth as well as clearances to flammable surfaces. The latter is generally a minimum of 18 inches. These can sometimes be reduced with heat shields of various types, but in the photograph above the stove at least appears to be much too close to a wooden wall. The cost estimate from Dream Home Finishers above seems pretty reasonable. A quality wood stove will run close to $2k. Triple wall chimney pipe plus its accessories, hearth and labor will easily add another $5k. The triple wall chimney is the most expensive item and total cost will depend entirely on how many feet are required.

Have you had your chimney looked at? That's a giant stove to have only what looks like a 6" collar, and there may be other issues that aren't immediately apparent. It is hard to get a clean burn in those old stoves without burning them really, really hot, which is usually too much heat for the house. They're really more suited to being used as shop heaters where you don't particularly care how much you have to burn. If that is a 1976 stove - and it certainly appears that it is - you'll probably need to get it to about 400 - 500F on the stove surface (not the connector pipe) to burn cleanly. The combustibles in the white smoke burn at 540 - 1225F. That being said, I'd take a real hard look at the required clearances before getting it that hot. If the wall to the left and behind are solid masonry, you're probably OK, but if there is wood behind that brick, your clearances are questionable. I hate to be a spoilsport, but if the house has been tightened up - new windows, insulation, etc. - or if you have a leaky central HVAC system, there may be some drafting issues that the stove didn't have originally when it was installed. Your best bet is to install a new EPA-certified wood stove, but a good chimney professional might give you some tips on how to make the one you have work better. You can find a certified pro here: Chimney Safety Institute of America One thing a Certified pro will tell you is that you need 18" of floor protection in front of that stove, unless the specifications for the stove say otherwise (typically, 16" is the least you'll see). You're a little short in that department. I'd recommend taking care of all of the potential safety issues before worrying too much about how the stove burns. Hope you can get that old stove to work to your satisfaction.