Kathy, I am new to this forum. I heated for ten years with an Earth Stove, loved it. But then sold my house (and left the Earth Stove, shame on me) My current home had no stove or fireplace. This last fall I installed a Quadrifire pellet stove. Not quite the same as the old Earth Stove but I really like it. I am in Colo. temps have been 25 below. Have used pellets as suppliment to forced air. Since Nov. I have gone thru a little over a ton of pellets and my gas bill has been less than half of last year.
Good luck

My next door neighbor has a Fisher. And it too is showing it's age.

But you don't need to burn 20 inch logs today to get the same heat as you do with the fisher. A good 18" log will do more than the Fisher. You'll get more heat from the new stoves using less wood.

Avalon has some nice stoves and since they're made in Washington, I'm sure they meet the standards. But they're steel. And personally, I prefer steel as it's more forgiving to an overfire as opposed to cast iron. I had an Avalon for many years in my last home. And I prefer non cat stoves since they burn the gasses in front of you. A nice blue flame goes by every now and then. And you can put just about anything in a non cat stove.

I don't like pellets simply because the fire is to "busy" for me. I can't relax in front of one. And in a power failure...

Technology certainly does change. My husband is concerned about the ability of smaller wood (especially in diameter) to hold a fire overnight. We would certainly need to chop smaller pieces. The current stove will hold 10-12" diameter stuff with ease.

The steel stove we have has held up amazingly well during it's lifespan. I am a bit tired of the look of a step top after so many years and we do like to look of some of the cast iron stoves but many of them are a bit too fussy for our taste. I wish there were more styles available that met WA standards - clean lines are a plus in my mind.

We would prefer a non-cat stove and pellet stoves are definitely out of the running. It is hard to keep pellets dry enough and we have do have power failures during the winter. Our most recent one lasted two days.

Kathy

Kathy:

Check out Quadrafire - they have both steel and cast iron. They are clean-burning and non-catalytic. www.quadrafire.com.

Kathy, we recently replaced our 24 year old soap stone stove with a Harman coal/wood steel stove and are very happy with it. The soap stove was very slow to heat up and one of the stone cracked and could not be replaced with the same color. The Harman Mark III stove heats very quickly and puts out a ton of heat ,, 92k btu's and has a blower to add additional heat as well. Since we have been in a very cold period here in the NE we have been using nut coal only. The benefits to coal are it will burn much hotter and last many times longer ,, up to 24 hours before a reload. Coal does make more ash but after it cools I put it out with the trash. Also coal is easier to store and does not create creosote. Ours is a manual feed so no electricity is needed to run it vs the stoker that uses electricity to continually feed the rice size coal via an auger.
Hope this helps,
Eric

Our Woodstock Soapstone stove is 16 yrs. old and showing no signs of structural fatigue. We have replaced the catalytic combustor 2 (maybe 3) times and are due again. This is a normal maintenance thing that turns many people off to cat. stoves.

It has been efficient and a handsome addition to our home. We have never regretted or questioned our decision on our "first major appliance". Check 'em out!

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodstock Soapstone stoves

Kathy,

Lopi Liberty. Non catalytic. 2.8 grams. EPA II compliant. 20 inch logs. Made in the northwest. I recommend them.
Check out their website.

Had an answer model in our old house. Built our new house around a liberty.

We did look at Lopi stoves and they are a possibility. I have to admit that after 26 years we are somewhat tired of the look of a steptop stove. Are there any advantages to this style over others? The outside appearance, other than having glass inset into the door instead of solid doors, is the same. We don't like the fancy look of brass or nickel doors / legs but understand they are options we don't need to choose. If we decide to go with cast iron we would also choose matte over porcelain.

Another question: many of the cast iron stoves have a top load door. The size of these doors means wood added to the fire in this manner would be small chunks. Do folks have an opinion about top loaders? Are they easy to work with? QuadraFire uses end doors. Any thoughts / opinions about end doors?

Thanks,

Kathy

What is a "steptop" stove? I don't understand what that description means. Does it refer to the elevated area that vents the stove?

I grant you, I am "biased", I like soapstone and know well how even the heat is. Hearthstones don't have solid sopastone sides (their sides are comprised of "tiles"). There is nothing in the Lopi line up that remotely appeals to MY aesthetic sensibility; though that has little to do with the efficiency of the stoves they offer!

I understand that many read, "catalytic combustor" and "turn tail", but I think that's largely a "knee jerk" reaction, based on hearsay, NOT practical experience. Cat. stoves are easy to operate and maintaining a combustor is really very simple... no more complicated that maintaining the convertor on your automobile!

A steptop stove has a two level top like a Lopi Liberty - not particularly aesthetic in my book either. Soapstone stoves look great but their slowness to heat, and slow heat release isn't ideal for us. Sometimes we need a small, quick, fire to warm the house in the morning before the sun takes over. Since wood heat is our main heat source we use our woodstove from September - May with small fires at the beginning and end of the season and full burns the remainder of the winter. The stove occupies a prominent place in the living room so looks are important although secondary to heating ability.

I'm still interested in folks experience with top loading stoves. The idea seems unusual to us but since many stoves load that way it must work.

Gee, I'm SO sorry I stumbled across this so very, very late! Kathy, soapstone doesn't take LONGER to heat, at all. It simply radiates the heat over a longer period of time.

We routinely light a fire in our stove (often using the previous night's embers!) and the "chill" is gone in no time flat. We allow the fire to die out during the day, and start a new one the following evening.

Only on the very coldest days/nights do we ever keep the fire going all day long. The beauty of soapstone is that you don't have to keep it cranking to extract the most heat from a "burn". That aspect of soapstone's heat retension is what adds to its efficiency.

What about the Vermont Castings Dutchwest Large Non-Cat, they claim only 1.5g/hr burn.

We are getting a hearthstone phoenix. It is a hybrid with cast iron on the front and back and soapstone tiles (thick) on the sides and back. It is a great looking stove and has good reviews on hearth.com. It is non-cat 2.4 grams/hr holds 21" logs. We really like the look of it also.

http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/wood_stoves/phoenix/