# Ridiculous price for woodstove and installation



## Randy Rooster (Dec 14, 2004)

I went to the only local source for buying woodstoves to get a price on a small stove ( the Vermont Castings Aspen) and the whole shebang inclding all the necessary pipe and installation and the price was slightly more than $2500. My heat pump and duct work was only a couple thousand more than that so it sonds very expensive to me. What do you all think? I do need about 25 feet of the doble wall pipe to install it. Any suggestions appreciated. We were really hoping to get a little stove in for this winter but now it looks about undoable.


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## stranger (Feb 24, 2008)

Randy Rooster said:


> I went to the only local source for buying woodstoves to get a price on a small stove ( the Vermont Castings Aspen) and the whole shebang inclding all the necessary pipe and installation and the price was slightly more than $2500. My heat pump and duct work was only a couple thousand more than that so it sonds very expensive to me. What do you all think? I do need about 25 feet of the doble wall pipe to install it. Any suggestions appreciated. We were really hoping to get a little stove in for this winter but now it looks about undoable.



I bought my double wall pipe at HD and put it up my self, you can get a decent stove at tractor supply or look on craigslist in your area.


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## RVcook (Mar 29, 2008)

A lot depends on the type of woodstove, hearth, pipe and installation required.

When we put in our last stove, we purchased a smaller stove, found used stainless steel pipe, built the hearth and wall shields ourselves and had a local handyman install the stove. We got all the requirements from our insurance company and went with that. The whole thing including installation and the hearth was less than $700.

A friend of ours just purchased a new Osborne airtight stove with blower and new pipe to heat 2300 s/f. It cost him *$1700*, but he used a local guy to install it and did the hearth and sidewall protection himself. 

A different friend purchased a new Quadrafire airtight stove with blower and new pipe to heat 2200 s/f. and it cost him *$5000* for a complete installation including a new hearth but no sidewall protection...which they now realized that they needed!

There are a lot of different ways to approach this. I think you could easily get a decent stove installed for less than $2500. I guess you just have to be creative.

RVcook


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## Beeman (Dec 29, 2002)

Randy Rooster said:


> I went to the only local source for buying woodstoves to get a price on a small stove ( the Vermont Castings Aspen) and the whole shebang inclding all the necessary pipe and installation and the price was slightly more than $2500. My heat pump and duct work was only a couple thousand more than that so it sonds very expensive to me. What do you all think? I do need about 25 feet of the doble wall pipe to install it. Any suggestions appreciated. We were really hoping to get a little stove in for this winter but now it looks about undoable.


 Hard to say what a shebang is worth. I'm guessing the stove alone is about $1500 or more, I know my Vermont Castings was expensive back in 85. I'm guessing you mean insulated chimney and not double wall pipe which is also pretty pricey. I installed my stove myself in this house chimney and all including the hearth. I've got a pretty fair amount of money invested even doing it myself and scrounging the rock from the side of the road.


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## Dexter (Sep 27, 2008)

The good quality stoves I've looked at are $1200-$1600 for the stove alone, plus everything else. Double wall piping costs extra but I feel is worth it. $2500 sounds about right, if someone else is installing to code.
The cheap stoves I've seen locally have a shorter burn time, so you either get up in the middle of the night to stoke or wake up freezing.


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## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

We spent nearly 5K for our new stove, but it had to be professionally installed for insurance purposes. We have high ceilings, nine foot in the house, plus the living room is vaulted. That made for a lot of pipe, lol Probably 20 foot? To clear the roof the minimum distance. We have a 30 year guarantee on the installed portion on the roof, tho. 

We decided against Vermont Castings because maintenance is an issue. We have a Blaze King Ultra (with the optional fans) and we are doing a pretty good job of heating 1800 sq ft and it's about zero out. Its a toasty 78 in the living room, with the blinds opened, lol


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## Beeman (Dec 29, 2002)

Pouncer said:


> We spent nearly 5K for our new stove, but it had to be professionally installed for insurance purposes. We have high ceilings, nine foot in the house, plus the living room is vaulted. That made for a lot of pipe, lol Probably 20 foot? To clear the roof the minimum distance. We have a 30 year guarantee on the installed portion on the roof, tho.
> 
> We decided against Vermont Castings because maintenance is an issue. We have a Blaze King Ultra (with the optional fans) and we are doing a pretty good job of heating 1800 sq ft and it's about zero out. Its a toasty 78 in the living room, with the blinds opened, lol


 What was the maintenance issue?


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

Don't know much about wood stoves but we bought a Quadrafire pellet stove(Mt. Vernon model) & it vents directly out the living room wall, with the hearth pad, venting & little bit of pipe needed & professional instalation it all costs I think about $3500..
We think our stove was well worth the money, this will be our 3 winter with it, we have a 2300 square foot house & with the stove pretty much centrally located as it can be it heats our whole house. We figured 1 more winter & it will have paid for itself.
January & Febuary of 2006 or propane costs were $724.00 on a keep fill basis at $1.39 a gallon. This year propane is 250.00 a gallon. The only time I use the propane furnace is when I clean the pellet stove. 
Oh and the Mt. Vernon model also will take corn, sunflower seeds or wheat, which is ever most economical in your area, and when new types of fuel come out then they can come out & reprogram my thermostat so my stove will burn that too.
I know it's a bigger cost than what you were already anticipating but we did ALOT of checking on different stoves for over a year before we decided on this one. Well worth the money in my opinion.


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## NorthCountryWd (Oct 17, 2008)

Beeman said:


> What was the maintenance issue?


x2. :shrug:

Vermont Castings stoves are not cheap. Just bought an Encore in flat black and it was $1850 just for the stove on the tax free weekend and with $100 off the MSRP. I think the enameled ones are closer to $3000!! I think any stove other than soapstone would be cheaper.

I've owned other stoves and this is my favorite so far. Tight, draws well and makes absolutely no noise. I hate stoves that tick and clang. 

The price of regular pipe has also gone up recently and insulated pipe is over the top ridiculous. Some cost up to _*$5 an inch*_ so depending how much you need, it could get pricey.


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## mamita (May 19, 2008)

we spent $1800. on our woodstove, and with piping, new flooring (cement board & tile) it probably came to at least $2500. and that was with my hub doing all the installation. he had this moment one day when he realized it was WAY more than our new furnace we installed last year. I told him just not to think about it. lol the woodstove was the best thing we've purchased in years. in the long run, it'll be well worth it.


he put a woodstove in his garage last year that he bought half price on sale at HD for $250. it's ok for the garage, but just not as good as the Jotul we bought for the house. he had the piping, so that was an inexpensive installation. it was a different set-up, too, with the pipe running straight up thru the roof. in the house we were installing the pipe up thru the masonry fireplace chimney, and had to buy a stove to accomodate that type of installation.


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## Beeman (Dec 29, 2002)

NorthCountryWd said:


> x2. :shrug:
> 
> Vermont Castings stoves are not cheap. Just bought an Encore in flat black and it was $1850 just for the stove on the tax free weekend and with $100 off the MSRP. I think the enameled ones are closer to $3000!! I think any stove other than soapstone would be cheaper.
> 
> I've owned other stoves and this is my favorite so far. Tight, draws well and makes absolutely no noise. I hate stoves that tick and clang.


 I own a Defiant encore, that's why asked about the maintenance costs. Stove hasn't cost me much over the years, I guess the most I spent was when I broke the handle for the griddle top.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Picked up a Quadrafire stove, floor model, did the piping my self, but still was about $2000. Has a blower, but realy don't need it.
Heats 100 sq ft wityh no problems.
Money well spent. You get what you pay for.


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## emmas_acres (Mar 30, 2008)

We put in a small Dutch West I believe from Vermont castings couple years ago. Stove and pipe instalation ran 2200 or so. And we had a relative working at the woodstove store getting us a discount. When you go by code and liscensed contractors to cover the worst case it adds up.


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## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

Our stove cost about $500. It does have a blower but it is nothing fancy. Darn double wall pipe for the outside cost about $1,000 and we only have one story to clear.

I'm not going to include what we did inside to make a hearth for the stove. I did the inside part and DH installed the stove and chimney.

It's not hard to get a deal on a stove - but the chimney can be the most expensive part. Worth every penny in my opinion.

Cathy


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## TundraGypsy (Feb 25, 2005)

We recently had a woodstove installed in the mobile home we are renting out for the winter. It cost around $2500; that included the guy driving 45 minutes to the location and installation. The woodstove had to be mobile home approved as well. The renter is thrilled. 

The last one we had installed cost $1600, and another bunch of money for parts and installation. We really got ripped off by that company. The stove was a piece of crap; the renter couldn't get is started and then it wouldn't hold the fire for very long. It is now sitting out in the carport. Not where my DH would have liked to put it, if you know what I mean.....


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## NEOhioSmiths (Sep 28, 2007)

$2500 is not unreasonable. I spent about $1300 on a stove, just over $1000 on the required pipe, and then a few hundred on hearth materials - did all the work myself. You DO NOT want to scrimp on materials. Use the best materials and pipe and install according to code. Safety has to come first! 

The pipe is getting more expensive. Go to www.ventingpipe.com and you can check prices out. That's where I ordered my stuff from.


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## Pelenaka (Jul 27, 2007)

$2 per foot thru a local M&P stove shop quoted in Sept. with a 3 week waiting list for installation.
Pellet stoves have dropped slightly in price due to the huge shortage of wood pellets.
6+ weeks in most areas here.
Plan so far is to have the pipe installed this year until I can decide on a stove. Once the decision is made then I can work on a great deal on it either retail or used. 
We do have a 150 y.o. parlor stove that in a power outage could be installed or my 1900laundry (canning) stove. Of the two the parlor stove is in great shape.
Needless to say I curse the people who removed the 3 wood stoves from my house back in the 1920's.

~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/2008/06/h-bush-rochester-new-york.html


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## NEOhioSmiths (Sep 28, 2007)

$2 per foot for installation or installation and materials? Maybe pellet stove pipe is substantially cheaper than wood stove pipe.

For wood stoves there are 2 types of pipe: (1) stove pipe which is used from the stove to whatever style pass-through you are using (support box through a ceiling, thimble through a wall). Stove pipe can be either single-wall or double-wall. From the pass through you must switch to class A chimney pipe which is all double-wall (you can actually get triple wall now as well). I could see single-wall stove pipe costing $2 per foot, but certainly not double-wall stove pipe and no way chimney pipe is $2 per foot.


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## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

$2 a foot has to be installation only. Or they forgot a zero. I think we paid $60 for a 3' section and we bought our pipe in the spring. From when we looked, pellet stoves took the same outside pipe as wood stoves.

Then we decided we didn't want to put the second stove in that end of the house anyway. We moved the TV upstairs, and now almost never spend time in what is now the library, so no need for a second wood stove.

DH is going to install it in his shop, so he's one happy camper!

Cathy


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## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

The "maintenance" issue that I mentioned is probably for the older Vermont Castings stoves....after a certain length of time you are supposed to ship it back so that they can check over the seals, seams and whatnot.

Rather impractical when you live in Alaska, lol My FIL had a Vermont Castings for many years, and has replaced it with a Blaze King, I just found out last week.


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

My wood stove was 5k plus stove pipe $1,347.59, plus plumbing which is a working progress.

This wood stove is in our home to be. It will heat the chicken coop, green house, do the infloor heating, aid in cooking. It is made with 3/4 inch metal and a stainless steet top. It handles 4 foot logs and will only need to be lite every 3 days due to the large heat sink. And it will heat our hot water.

It cost alot of money but a 500 gallon bill for oil cost me over 2k (PFD spent) and I used 1,000 gallons a year. It will pay for it's self quickly. I will be posting pix of it soon ---and it is pretty---made to look like a train engine. It is a custom job this is the 3rd of of it's type. The orginal one is going on it's 4th year - living up to all the claims I have listed here so we know that the system will work. 

The cost would have be much more but the main part was made by getting the metal from a temp bridge in Soldotna that was torn down and sold for scrap when the scap prices were lower.


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## NEOhioSmiths (Sep 28, 2007)

Kasilofhome, that stove sounds sweet. Who makes it? Please post pics once the install is completed!


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## caberjim (Feb 19, 2004)

VC went into bankruptcy and was bought by a Kentucky-based company earlier this year - something to consider when purchasing. For very good stoves for less money, look at the Englander/Summers Heat lines.


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

The stove is made by a local. He is a former USAairforce Welder instuctor. He is for more fussy than I am which is great. He knows his stuff. It is an Open/closes system (which may mean something to you all it is far over my head) It is safe. My whole community is working on building us a home this is this mans contrabution he has hours and hours of labor in it and I was only charged for the materials (what he he had to get as I see more material than what he charged me for) 

Many of the men in the community when to his shop when I told them what I wanted to do. They were worried about safety (dh is disabled). The men really check it out and saw his in operation -they saw the second one he was building for a business. The men sent people over who are involed with the safety of oil rig equip and are inspectors. They came back and said WOW this is great. Ron (the builder) is going to be doing a spread on this type of stove for Mother Earth (using my stove) so with any luck more will be know about it. Ron has spent years working on the system.


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

I found my woodstove by looking in craigslist - 450.00 for the large Fisher brand - and it cost me about 300.00 in materials to install it, but then again, the lady also gave me ALL her brand new piping.

Haunt Craigslist, the Thrifty Nickel etc. This is the time of year when people are selling them, but I bought my stove in the early spring because the lady had it one season and hated the mess so she advertised it to get rid of it. I had to pay three guys to go with me to get it and it took all three of them to pick it up and move it. Well worth the price too - I have had it nine years and it still looks new and the only thing I added was a blower to the chimney stack.

Love that stove, hope it will last a good twenty years!

edited to add: not craigslist - but thrifty nickel, I get those two mixed up and shop from both for bargains!


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

$2500 does sound like a lot of money to me.

We have a 200Kbtu all-fuel two-barrel stove with a secondary combustion chamber and water heater. It cost us $150. plus $50 for the stove pipe.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

sidepasser said:


> I found my woodstove by looking in craigslist - 450.00 for the large Fisher brand - and it cost me about 300.00 in materials to install it, but then again, the lady also gave me ALL her brand new piping.
> 
> Haunt Craigslist, the Thrifty Nickel etc. This is the time of year when people are selling them, but I bought my stove in the early spring because the lady had it one season and hated the mess so she advertised it to get rid of it. I had to pay three guys to go with me to get it and it took all three of them to pick it up and move it. Well worth the price too - I have had it nine years and it still looks new and the only thing I added was a blower to the chimney stack.
> 
> ...


A Fisher stove should last a good bit longer than twenty years -- probably the rest of your life, if you make sure the firebrick in the stove stay in good condition (replace damaged ones). 

Wood stoves are expensive and aren't likely to get any cheaper in the future. If you expect to need one better get it now, rather than later. For the price, though, if you are at all handy, get plans and build a masonry stove. It will save you a lot of work later, as they use a lot less firewood -- and, if properly constructed, hardly pollute at all, which is likely to be very important in the future. I know, or knew, a couple of families in NH who had home-built masonry stoves, and both were very pleased with them. (Both stoves were built out of cement block, so not very attractive, and needed some minor crack-mending after a year or so of use.)

Kathleen


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## All country (Dec 23, 2003)

Maybe if you considered what it would save you, instead of the upfront cost, it wouldn't seem so expensive?

We paid $2000 to have our woodstove installed 20 years ago. It paid for it's self the first winter. Previous owners paid $500. a month in 1987 to heat this home. I would hate to imagine what it would cost now. We figure our little woodstove has saved us well over $40,000 since it was installed.
We are able to heat our entire home with our woodstove and the only thing it has cost us to heat our home (and we keep it toasty) is a bit of work, gas and general maintenance for the chainsaw.


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## winnie (Sep 19, 2008)

OK we have a Vermont Castings stove ordered and yes they are high. Our Defiant will run us around $2300 but it was the only way we could go. 

Our set up in our house vents out the back of the stove. They had this stove that vented out the back and it took forever to find one. It also took larger pieces of wood. The stove we have now is a very small older Finish stove. 

These days the only stoves that vent out the back are the pellet stoves, or those ugly 'wonder stoves' at Orschelns and sutherlands. They needed too much clearance in the back for us..

Have you tried the Englander stoves? Their largest model runs 1/2 what you are going to have to pay. We had their fireplace insert stove when we lived in town and it worked wonderfully.

Note: one good thing about Vermont Castings' stoves is their ability to burn a long time. That's why we finally decided on them. Our stove kept us up most of the night; if you didn't fill it to capacity at least once, you had nothing but ashes in the morn. We also are on a bit of a list; they had 2 ordered in August and we should get ours this weekend. shop around too; they had one in Topeka and they wanted $500 more PLUS shipping.


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