Wood stove and chimney ideas wanted

Working on buying a different wood stove myself. My current stove is a 35 yr old monster that runs us out of the house when it gets really blazing. But if you run a stove low for hours you make creosote so more roof climbing to swipe out the stove pipe. Every 6-8 weeks with my current stove. Probably the best way to minimize roof climbing is get the right sized stove that you can burn hot enough to minimize creosote without running you out of the house.

We're heating a 1600 sf older but fairly draft free farmhouse and narrowed it down to the Quickfire 4300, Hearthstone Heritage, and a Jotul S-500. You may want to look for something with about 1.9 cu/ft firebox with your smaller well insulated home. Maybe a Jotul S-400 or a Hearthstone Castleton.

Smaller fireboxes sometimes can't burn as long but they burn hotter for less creosote. Newer EPA stoves can't be run super low to minimize "smog" but that also helps minimize creosote. Long ago working for a wood stove company I saw some impressively blown out brick chimneys from creosote catching. Old 7" thick brick and stone chimney walls blown into someone's bedroom.

Since we never intend to cook on the woodstove we're going with the Hearthstone Heritage. While it only burns for 7-8 hours on a loading with it's 2.3 cu/ft box the soapstone should give a few extra hours of heat after the fire has gone out. It's also a gentler heat which after our current monster of a wood stove would be appreciated.

To make chimney cleaning easier we're hooking the pipe in the back of the stove with a T shaped cleanout box on the stove pipe so when we do run a brush down the pipe the soot drops down into the bucket under the cleanout instead of in the stove and on top of the heat reflector which all modern non-cadyalic stoves have to promote wood gas burning.

Steel stoves heat and cook the fastest, Cast Iron is a close second, Soapstone stoves are slow to heat, have a gentler heat, and stay warm for a few hours longer after the fire goes out.

Long ago I worked for a woodstove company that still has the same owner so i called him, He suggested the 3 stoves above. I asked him about perhaps a less expensive sub $1000 stove. He said that if you're going to be burning for months every year (wood as your primary heat) it's better to spend the cash and get a stove that will last 30+ years ad be sure to use the manufacturers suggested chimney pipe to wall measurements and get the double walled stove pipe.

If you intend to cook on your wood stove go with one that has a steel top, they get the hottest but make sure it has a firebrick bottom for durability.

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Wood stove and chimney ideas wanted