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Home heating costs continue to rise. As they do, wood-burning stoves are filling a need to reduce those costs. The basic idea of burning wood for heat is old. However, that idea, along with modern advancements in wood stove efficiency, has resulted in lower energy bills for those that have them installed in their homes. Portable Puppy Crate
There are a number of factors to consider when deciding which is the best wood stove for your family. To make your decision easier, we’ve compared the top wood stove models and chosen our five favorites. We’ve also included the most important things to consider when making your purchase.
We developed our list of the best wood stoves by first identifying competitors that met basic criteria. We reviewed the 17 most widely available wood stoves from that list and scored them all based on eight different attributes. We further pared our list down to the top five wood stoves. Our ratings take into consideration factors like pricing, warranty, energy efficiency rating, ash chute/drawer, glass viewing window, EPA certified and mobile home approved. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.
Why you can trust Forbes Home: The Forbes Home team is committed to bringing you independent, unbiased ratings and information. We use data and expert advice to inform all of our content. Plus, our advisory board of licensed professionals fact-checks and reviews our content for accuracy and relevancy.
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Our list of the best wood stoves of 2023 starts with the Columbia II Wood Stove, model DB303216, from Drolet. It takes the top spot for its versatility and a modest suggested price of $1,149. It’s perfect for heating a large living space. Even more if it’s used with the $149 optional blower assembly.
Another $200 buys you the optional fresh air intake, and the stove weighs a mere 312 pounds. Together, these factors make this wood stove perfect for mobile home or cabin installations.
Don’t be deceived by its small 19-inch firebox. This stove puts out a maximum of 65,000 BTUs and can burn on low for six hours. Just remember to cut your logs no longer than 16 inches long.
It boasts Google’s highest rating, EPA certification, an energy efficiency rating of 78% and a 1.26 grams-per-hour emission rating. Drolet’s warranty is excellent, but can be confusing. The combustion chamber and door are covered for life, while other parts are covered for variable durations.
Drolet takes up several spots on our list. Their next best offering is the Deco II Wood Stove, model DB03205. It’s in second place on our list and costs $1,199. Like all Drolet wood stoves, though, a blower and fresh air intake is not included in the price.
Its 1.9 cubic foot firebox is adequately sized and can handle 18-inch logs that can burn for up to six hours. But, it only produces a maximum of 65,000 BTUs per hour. That’s fairly low for a larger-sized firebox. What it lacks in power, though, it makes up for in energy efficiency and style.
The Deco II Wood Stove emits just 1.26 grams of contaminants per hour and is more efficient than 78% of other wood stoves. The pedestal underneath the stove makes an attractive log storage area and gives the stove a unique appearance.
This stove is approved for use in mobile homes with the addition of the optional fresh air intake. It can heat up to 1,800 square feet and carries Drolet’s limited lifetime warranty
Another Drolet product, their Escape 1800 Wood Stove on Legs, model DB03105, is our pick for the best high-output wood burning stove It’s no wonder, with its elegant design, useful features and immense heating capacity, that the Escape 1800 on legs retails slightly higher than our earlier picks. It costs between $1,199 and $1,399 depending on where it’s purchased.
75,000 BTUs can be generated by its 21-inch wide firebox while burning logs up to 20 inches long. That’s enough to heat 2,100 square feet with up to eight hours of burn time. In other words, it delivers plenty of warmth for a large mobile home or the entire first floor.
The gently curved cast iron legs elevate the stove and offer a classic look. It’s emissions of 1.54 g/h is a little high for a Drolet product, but it does have a respectable efficiency rating of 77%. It weighs 382 pounds and is covered by a limited lifetime warranty.
The Pleasant Hearth 1,800 Square Feet Wood Burning Stove, model LWS127201, tops our list for energy efficiency. The features you get for just over $1,000 is what land it on our list. First off, although it’s emissions are a bit high, at 4.3 g/h, it has an energy efficiency rating of 82%.
Second, it provides up to 10 hours of burn time and a maximum BTU output of 65,000. Finally, it can burn 20-inch long logs in its 22-inch wide firebox.
This stove works well for mobile home use and weighs just 335 pounds. It comes equipped with an ash drawer and a convenient draft control slider. It’ll keep about 1,800 square feet of space toasty. On top of that, the blower assembly is included in the price.
Pleasant Hearth has been around for over 100 years. They back their products with a confidence-boosting, five-year limited warranty.
If you have a few extra dollars to spend on a large wood stove, you’re in luck. The Escape 1800 Wood Stove with Brushed Nickel Door from Drolet is just that. It retails for $1,499. But, you can find it on Amazon for $1,249. It weighs 382 pounds and can burn 20-inch long logs for up to 10 hours in its large 2.4 cubic foot firebox.
It’s too big for mobile home use. 75,000 BTUs is likely more than would be needed in a mobile home anyway. It does, however, have enough power to heat 2,100 square feet easily and efficiently. It’s EPA certified with a 77% rating and emits just 1.41 grams per hour of pollutants.
The stove features a brushed nickel door, and a large ash drawer is housed in it’s attractive pedestal.
Choosing which wood stove is right for your home can be a challenge. There’s a lot to choose from, and they all have appealing features. Consider the following factors to make choosing yours easier.
How you use it is the most important factor when choosing a wood stove. Calculate how many square feet you’d like to heat and when you’ll be using the stove. The square foot calculation will tell you how much heating capacity in BTUs you’ll need. When you’ll use it will determine how many burn time hours to look for.
If you’ll be using your wood stove for only part of the day or evening, a long burn time won’t be beneficial enough to offset the higher cost. For overnight heating, look for wood stoves with burn times longer than 10 hours.
Will you be heating one room or several? Heating several rooms may require a blower motor to distribute heat. Or, your home may need more heating capacity than expected.
Two main types of wood stoves meet EPA standards for efficiency and emissions. The first, called non-catalytic, is the most straightforward type. Non-catalytic stoves burn efficiently at high temperatures for high heat output. However, at lower burn temperatures, the emissions increase somewhat. These stoves are easy to maintain and have short, hot burn times.
Catalytic wood stoves, on the other hand, include a component that traps and burns some of the emissions and excess particles after the initial wood burning. Catalytic stoves require more maintenance, produce slightly lower BTUs, emit less creosote and feature longer burn times.
Non-catalytic stoves are excellent for producing a lot of heat for a short time, while catalytic ones generate more moderate heat output for a longer period.
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How you use your wood stove will determine the heating capacity that yours will need to produce. Smaller wood stoves with heating capacities of under 1,000 square feet are excellent for heating individual rooms or spaces, or for use as supplemental heat for your primary HVAC system.
Units with larger heating capacities of between 1,000 and up to 2,500 square feet can produce a houseful of heat to supplement HVAC in a large home or act as the primary heat source for a home less than 2,000 square feet.
BTU output describes how much heat the stove can generate. Unlike heating capacity, the BTU output quantity only refers to its heat generation, rather than how much space it can condition. Higher BTUs indicate greater heat production, whereas higher heating capacities refer to the distribution of the available BTUs. Look for higher BTU output ratings in colder climates due to the higher temperature variation between indoors and out.
A wood stove’s burn time refers to the amount of time between ignition and practical fuel exhaustion. A stove’s burn time designation is somewhat arbitrary, as you’re unlikely to let your stove completely extinguish before adding more wood fuel.
However, the burn time can tell you a little about the stove’s heat output. Extensive burn times of more than eight hours generally produce less heat over a longer period, while the opposite is true of stoves with burn times of less than eight hours.
Additionally, you can control the burn time to an extent by allowing more or less air to reach the combustion chamber. Less air intake produces a longer burn time at a lower temperature.
Burning wood releases pollutants. How well a wood stove expels these pollutants through the chimney is important to your family’s health. The EPA has strict performance standards for new wood stoves regarding their emissions. Be certain to only purchase an EPA-certified wood stove.
Basic efficiency ratings for wood stoves are fairly simple to understand. The percentage rating is an indicator of how much fuel is required to produce a specific amount of heat. The higher the percentage number, the less wood is required to heat your space. To keep your labor to a minimum and conserve resources, look for wood stoves with at least 70% efficiency ratings.
Finally, a wood stove is designed to be a room’s focal point. There are numerous design styles available, from classic to contemporary. Choose a style that compliments your home, or one that just makes you happy when you see it.
The vast majority of new wood stoves for sale in the United States are certified by the manufacturer to meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Look for the EPA certification marker on the stove’s packaging and on the stove itself to ensure that it meets current health standards for emissions and efficiency.
The weight of your wood stove is critical to determine if the floor you place it on can handle the load. Wood stoves are heavy at 300 to 700 pounds with all components in place. Ensure your stove’s weight is under the floor’s capacity, which is especially important in a mobile home or older house.
The stove’s size is crucial when determining if the appliance will fit in its intended location while meeting any clearance requirements and aesthetics.
The installation requirements for the stove you choose are important to maximize the efficient use of space while minimizing installation costs. If the best exhaust method for your home is through a nearby wall, choose a stove approved for that type of installation. If you have an existing masonry chimney, consider a wood stove insert to keep installation costs low.
Several factors determine the total cost of installing a wood stove. The overall price for materials and installation averages $3,250, ranging from $1,500 to $5,000.
The first cost is the price of the stove and any additional components you choose to incorporate, such as a convection blower, remote control or other accessories. Wood stoves and accessories range in price from about $500 to $2,300, depending on size, appearance, efficiency and other specifics.
Wood stoves aren’t intended for DIY installation and should only be installed by a licensed professional. Installation costs range from $2,000 to $3,000, including materials, permits and fitting the exhaust to your home.
A wood stove purchase is a large investment. That’s especially true if your situation requires a more expensive wood stove installation than normal. Be certain that the benefits are worth the costs to you. Here are some reasons to buy a wood stove:
Wood is one of the least expensive heat sources available. You can give your heating energy bills a break by adding supplemental heat from a wood stove. Wood is also a renewable source of energy, as opposed to the fossil fuels that most furnaces run on. A wood stove is more efficient, and can distribute heat better, than a traditional fireplace while providing a similar elegance.
Defining a good selling point in a home depends on what features are deemed valuable to a set of buyers. A wood stove requires maintenance, but also provides convenience. It carries a fairly low, 5% average, return on investment, but also provides elegance to the home. In general, for most buyers and sellers, a wood-burning stove is a great selling point for an otherwise standard house.
In most places, power outages aren’t common. But, they do happen. When they do, you’ll have little, or no, heating concerns if there’s a wood-burning stove in your house. Even gas furnaces need electricity to operate. The electrically powered blower on your wood-burning stove won’t operate without electricity, but the stove can still produce heat in that situation.
For the few people that have chosen to cut ties with the power grid, wood stoves are a common method of heating their homes.
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To determine the best wood stove ranking, the Forbes Home Improvement editorial team analyzed 17 major wood stoves, with each product’s star rating determined by evaluating a variety of metrics, including:
Because purchasing a wood stove is often related to saving money on your energy bills, the price of each wood stove was compared against its overall value. That ratio was used to compare products and determine the first rating parameter.
An extensive and comprehensive warranty protects you as the consumer and displays confidence in the manufacturer that it’s providing a high-quality product. We analyzed warranty duration and inclusions to determine an independent rating for each wood stove contender.
How well a wood stove performs starts with its energy-efficiency rating. Higher efficiency ratings equated to higher points in our review. We used percentage ratings directly to determine each product’s efficiency score.
The inclusion of an ash chute or drawer in the price of each stove was scored as a convenience feature that increased the purchase value of the product.
A glass viewing window offers another convenience feature that increases a wood stove’s value. Stoves that include the element scored higher in our review than ones without a viewing window.
EPA certification is mandatory for wood stoves used as a heating source in the United States, and we rewarded products in our review that meet this crucial requirement.
Wood stoves are often used as primary and supplemental heat sources in mobile or manufactured homes. Products approved for these applications were awarded higher scores in this category.
Wood is an inexpensive fuel, and burning it is less costly than burning natural gas. In most cases, it’ll save several hundred dollars a year in heat costs. But, there’s some maintenance and manual labor involved with owning a wood stove.
The decision of whether a wood-burning stove is worth it or not will depend on how willing you are to do a fair amount of labor to save a lot of money in the long run.
Installing a wood-burning stove is generally less expensive than remodeling a room to accommodate a traditional or gas-fired fireplace. If you need supplemental heat in your home, a wood stove might be your best bet.
A large-capacity wood-burning stove can technically produce enough heat to warm an entire house. However, a wood stove relies on convective heat and doesn’t have the benefit of ductwork to move its heat around the home. For that reason, the heat from a wood stove is generally confined to a small number of adjacent rooms in a best-case scenario.
That said, adding heat to a single space in a home can have a small heating effect throughout the whole house.
The biggest disadvantage of a wood-burning stove is its initial cost. Permitted, professional installation is required in addition to the cost of the stove and its accessories. That can get expensive quickly. It’ll likely take several years to recover the cost through lower energy bills.
Another downside is the required maintenance. It’s generally not a large commitment. But, wood stoves do need to be kept clean, and the wood has to be carried in each time it’s used. Having your chimney cleaned from time to time will likely be necessary too.
Also, always use caution near the hot surfaces of a wood-burning stove to avoid injuries and reduce the risks of an unintentional fire.
Having spent 30+ years in residential construction, contracting, remodeling, maintenance and home repair, Deane now contributes DIY, informational and financial content as a freelance writer and consultant for several publications. Throughout his career, he strived to assist his clients in finding the potential hidden within the walls of every home and empowering them to take control of their household repair and remodeling endeavors. Deane’s primary career goal involves sharing home-related knowledge and providing self-sufficiency tools to as large an audience as possible.
Samantha is an editor who covers all topics home-related including home improvement and repair. She edited home repair and design content at websites like The Spruce and HomeAdvisor. She also has hosted videos on DIY home tips and solutions and launched multiple home improvement review boards staffed with licensed pros.
Wood Stove Lexie is a Deputy Editor who is responsible for writing and editing articles over a wide variety of home-related topics. She has over five years of experience in the home improvement space and harnessed her expertise while working for companies like HomeAdvisor and Angi (formerly Angie’s List).