Smart Buying
Satisfy Your Burning Desire
Modern wood stoves smoke the older generation with hot looks and clean combustion.
By Pat Mertz Esswein, Associate Editor
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, October 2005
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Jøtul and Quadra-Fire products are sold by retailers in all 50 states; Woodstock Soapstone sells its stoves directly from its home base in New Hampshire and will ship to all 50 states. In the lower 48, freight costs range from $95 to $325. The stoves come with a money-back guarantee that includes shipping.
If you want a stove that's as jaw-droppingly sleek as a Frank Gehry building, Issod suggests the intensely contemporary Krog-Iversen SCAN DSA 5 (www.scanstoves.com). Made in Denmark, the SCAN comes in black, gray or stainless steel, and is available with soapstone or optional marble or granite accents. The large, curved glass door gives you a wraparound view of the fire. But at $5,300 for the base unit, the SCAN costs two to three times as much as more traditional stoves.
If you live in a part of the country where longer-burning hardwood is scarce, or in an urban area with limited space to store cordwood, Issod suggests that you consider a pellet-burning stove, such as the Harman XXV ($3,000; www.harmanstoves.com). The pellets are formed from sawdust and come in 40-pound bags (about $3 each). Such stoves cost more than similar-size wood-burning models, but because they don't need a conventional chimney, installation is comparatively cheap -- usually less than $500 if you run a venting pipe through the wall behind the stove.
Unfortunately, pellet-burning stoves deny fire gazers some of the fascinating flicker of flame. The stoves use a blower that forces air through the pellets to produce a steady, blowtorch-like blaze. However, the stoves have an auger that automatically feeds pellets into the fire, so you won't have to lug logs. Both the blower and auger require electricity, so unless you have a generator, you can't run the stove during a blackout.
Location, location
Ideally, your stove should be placed in a room where you will want to spend time and which is open to other rooms or to a stairwell so that the heat can spread. For convenience, your woodpile should be close by. Unfortunately, you can't drop a wood stove just anywhere.
It's easiest to install a stove in front of a fireplace, which lets you run a stainless-steel chimney through the existing masonry chimney, says Issod. That will run you about $1,200. If you don't have a chimney, you'll have to decide where it's best to add one.
A new chimney can cost from $900 for a single-story prefab unit to more than $2,500 for masonry construction with exterior brickwork that's two or more stories high. You'll also have to protect the floor around the stove with a hearth extension. That can cost between $150 and $200 for a ready-made extension for an existing fireplace or $200 to $300 for a hearth pad made of ceramic or stone.
Once you decide where to put the stove, the retailer will help you determine what size firebox you'll need to heat the space. In addition to the immediate area's square footage, you must factor in the number of exterior walls, the number and size of windows, and the height of the ceilings. It's also important to consider that wood stoves are designed to run most efficiently on "high." "Stoves don't like to smolder," says Issod. "If you get a big stove and turn it down (by reducing the air flow) because it's roasting you out of house and home, you'll waste wood and generate more pollution."
All of Issod's top picks are medium-size (except the SCAN DSA 5, which is large), and all are available nationally. He defines a small stove as one with a firebox of less than 1.6 cubic feet; medium, 1.6 to 2.3 cubic feet; large, more than 2.3 cubic feet.
-- Research: Jessica Anderson