I live in northern MN. Winters can be brutal. My house uses gas for heat. I am thinking about installing a wood burning stove. Lead times on these are not bad right now - it seems not many are looking toward heating when it's 90+ degrees.
Are any of you moving in this direction as part of your prep? Thoughts?
I believe it's a Rangeley and I don't think they still make this exact model. It has a cookplate on the top and a little door opens on the top and there's a little grill inside. Ask the dealer about them. I think they do still make stoves with the cooking plate but not this one. We have never used the top load feature for loading firewood and can't use the side door because it's against the wall of the brick hearth wall. We use the front load. You might be able to find one that has just never been sold or is a trade in. Just make sure the steel vents inside the stove (inside ceiling of stove, you'll see what I mean) are in good shape. That's what does the efficient burning.
https://www.acmestoveco.com/product/jotul-rangely/ you can see the cookplate in this photo and if you look closely, you can see the little handle on the front of the cookplate to lift up for the grill inside. The cookplate is steel colored.
I believe all of their stoves have the technology that gives them great efficiency. It's amazingly better than the standard woodstove we had.
Looks really nice. Note the efficiency is about 10% less than the Oslos, I guess because it doesn't have the catalytic technology? Also they but not the Carrabassett qualify for some kind of biomass tax credit. That might make a difference if it's a big enough amount of money. Anyway, all of the Jotuls are very good stoves. Mine came with the gloves - very good gloves - and the thermometer. You can pick those thermometers up at Tractor Supply for a very few bucks.
Glad to help and I hope you have a warm and toasty winter! Holler if I can help with anything else.
The catalytic technology (it's not a bunch of fancy stuff you have to worry about going bad, just a way of making the stove draw and burn very efficiently) makes a huge difference in how much wood you burn, how much heat it puts out and how clean the burn is.
BTW, one tip - if you burn hot (efficient), you'll have virtually no black burned on creosote to clean off the glass. I hardly ever have to clean the glass other than wipe it off. The old stove I had to use stove glass cleaner and scrub like crazy to get the black off the glass.