As promised (almost), I drove down to the wood stove store today to check out the scene. I was having a little trouble with the price of the wood stove insert that I wanted and needed to see if there was anything less expensive. I also wanted to see what the free standing wood stoves looked like. We can easily put one of them in the fireplace.
When I got there, I did my typical “guy” stroll around to browse all the stoves and inserts. I see it every time. The guys walk in with their hands in the pockets making grunts and noises, like “hmmm” and “hmmph.” It’s so funny because I do it too. There is kind of a lot to take in. Good thing the sales guy walks out to put things in perspective. I must say, I really love wood stoves and stuff like that.
I saw the “Hampton HI300 Wood Insert” that I wanted. It’s just as nice as I thought it would be. If money wasn’t an issue, I would tell them to pack it up and bring it over. Since I really don’t want to drop that kind of coin, I am becoming more and more interested in a smaller free standing wood stove. Remember, we already have the pellet stove, so we don’t really need that much more heat. Just something to keep my toes warm, something that doesn’t use electricity and something that will burn all the wood I am cutting down so I don’t have to watch it rot in the woods.
The sales guy introduced me to the more “economical” line of DutchWest wood burning stoves. They are pretty good looking and don’t have a lot of frills. Here is a picture I just took from the brochure.
It’s cute, isn’t it? It’s also about $1000 less than the other one. A large part of the expense comes from the lining of the chimney and the installation. Heck, if all I needed was the stove, I could just run over there with the trailer and pick it up. That’s not the way it works anymore. Now, you need to have a 35 foot piece of insulated lining stuffed down the entire length of the very tall chimney and attached to the stove. All of that extra stuff actually costs more than the stove itself. At least I managed to drop the price somewhat.
I am hoping to have the stove stand on the stone outside the fireplace. The stove is 17 1/2 inches from front to back and the slab of stone is about 20 1/2. If we can do this, I can still access the side door to put longer (up to 19″) pieces of wood. That would be good. Otherwise, I will have to load shorter pieces through the front and cut about two inches off the stove legs so it fits inside the fireplace.
Anyway, I’ll get into all that stuff later if I decide to get this stove. I’ll make my decision by Saturday.
Check Out These Related Posts
Wood Burning Stove Update
Hampton HI300 Wood Insert
The Search For The Pellet Stove Begins
Firewood Box vs. Firewood Rack
Wood Pellets vs. Firewood – Where to Put Your Money
White Mountain Hearth Gas Log Set
Firewood Prices – Maine vs. Lower New York- Pellet Stove Vacuum Switch Error – St. Croix Prescott EXL
Cleaning the Chimney and Pellet Stove
The Pellet Stove Was Inspected
The First Fire Of The Season In The Fireplace
This is Going to be One Cold Winter
So, what did you finally buy? and how much was it? I’m looking at putting a woodstove in our basement attaching to an existing chimney line (in Oregon) and am wondering ~exactly what our costs are going to be.
we went to one dealer today; they seemed to see money walking in the door when we came in! We want ~small, easy; there may not be any of that here in Oregon (what we’re finding out about everything here.. and it’s not funny.)
Meran
I’m a little late to this discussion but we have had the above stove for five years. I have a large home and it heats my entire house,, running me out of the room above it. It’s in the basement. My gas bill last month was 28.00. I love, love this stove. Well worth the 1500.00. We used an existing stove spot with creek rock wall and floor. Very safe.