Godin or Fireplace Insert Western MA

Hi:

New here so please excuse any lack of knowledge. Some years ago my husband & I purchased a Godin Petite Oval which nicely heated our 200 year old center hall colonial. We moved and it was "retired" to a storage shed. We have moved again and with the rising cost of oil are fondly remembering our coal burning Godin which we loved even when oil was "cheap".

We currently live in a house we totally remodeled and which was rather meticulously designed at a very large expense. My husband wants to install the Godin in our great room area adjacent to the existing fireplace, taking down a half wall we had built and necessitating the relocation of much of our furniture and basically completely changing the area which was designed around our fireplace.

I began researching and see that there are coal fireplace inserts which seem able to do the required job. I have seen comments indicating that their efficiency is not as good as that of a freestanding stove but not any actual comparison. I am currently thinking I would much rather have an insert than completely change my just remodeled house to accomodate the Petite Godin which I can't even evaluate in terms of whether it would be more efficient than an insert. I don't really care about the cost of the insert as we would need to spend money on installing the Godin (building some type of attractive hearth area to match the existing one) and building a new chimney which would need to match our existing brick chimney as it is very visible.

I would welcome any and all comments, suggestions, advice on insert dealers in the Berkshire County MA, southern VT, northeastern NY area. Also, is the issue with inserts that they need to be "fed" more frequently than freestanding units because they are less efficient or do they heat less well or is it something else?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Hello Zaron, welcome to the forum..
The main difference between the efficiency of a freestanding stove and an insert is the amount of radiant heat that is trapped in the fireplace and not radiating into the room.. But most inserts have hot air distribution fans that wash most of the heat off the back of the insert and direct this heated air into the room through air vents on the front of the stove..

A Godin is not a real big stove, so I can't imagine getting much more than 12 hours out of a load of coal.. of course this depends on how hot your run the stove, which changes the burn rate..

I would recommend looking at the Hitzer 503 insert.. They are very well made, reasonably priced, probably still available within a month or two, and they are designed with a Hopper feed.. This hopper allows you to fill the stove once every 24 hours, and shake the ashes every 12-24 hours, again these numbers depend on the burn rate..

We have quite a few very happy Hitzer 503 insert owners. I think their site address is http://www.hitzer.com if not goggle hitzer coal stove and you will find the site.. the dimensions for the insert and their other stoves will be available there..

Hope this helps..Greg L.

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The Petit Godin will output 20-26 thousand Btu/hr against 50 thousand Btu/hr for the 503 Hitzer http://www.hitzer.com/model503.html
The Hitzer will hold more coal than the Petit Godin and therefore have a longer burn time for the same heat output.
My vote is leave the room and furnishings alone and spend the money on the insert.
If the Godin is good shape it will fetch a few bucks, $450-900 on craigslist. Someone has a Godin posted for $3000.
The Godin is a great parlor stove, very efficient round design.
The inserts were designed to be placed inside a existing masonry firebox and therefore probably do not radiate much heat on the back and sides.
A free standing stove however will radiate heat from all sides and be relatively inefficient in a fireplace.
Hitzer will ship direct if you do not have a dealer nearby and a 503 goes for, last I checked, $1675 plus shipping. The shipping should be low to mid $200.
Hitzer wait time is about 8 weeks now, it was 4 weeks June 26, so you can have it in before winter.
The Hitzer 503 should hold about 70-80 pounds of coal with the hopper.
Can not help with a dealer as the closest to us is over 2 hours away and we will be doing our own install.
Will post the install photos for a little step by step manual.

Thanks Guys:

I appreciate the feedback. It reinforces my inclination to go with the Hitzer. I also hadn't thought about how much coal the two hold, respectively and it sounds like the Hitzer will require less fillups and that's a big plus.

It looks like the closest dealer is about 76 miles away in Glens Falls NY. In MA there is one in Granby (80 Miles) and Monson (90 miles). This sounds like a good project for my husband-he likes to dicker and negotiate so maybe he can get us a good deal. If not, perhaps we can go the Hitzer direct route but I don't know what they consider too far from a dealer in terms of distance.

It's funny how most people have never thought of heating with coal. Sitting at my neighbors pool today I was talking about our plan and everyone was fairly astonished that someone would be heating with coal and that there were stoves that burned coal. With prices what they are I have a feeling that may change so I want to make sure we order my Hitzer soon!

I'm sure this forum will be one of my regular haunts now that we're taking this step into coal. We novices always appreciate these forums where people so generously share their knowledge.

If you are going with a Hitzer stove you may want to hurry up and call around to see if anyone has one if not then it's going to have to be ordered if you want it for this year. We drove 2 hours one way to get our Leisure Line Pioneer LE stove because there are none around here in stock and they wouldn't be in until December.

You can order direct. The drive time would be at least 1.5 hrs and the dealer would have a 3 hour round trip. But call soon if you want a stove this heating season.
You will not be able to "dicker" this season. If some dealer has any in stock they are going for full retail, if not more.
I helped out on the sales floor, I normally just do their computer work, on Saturday because so many people are shopping. The comments were interesting.

We just filled our oil tank and it was $800. We have to do something.
We thought we would get a jump on the season and start shopping early. What kind of deals do you have for us early birds?

Sold two Pellet Stoves both direct vent, the last two in stock. Everybody wants the 'ease of use' of the pellets and little cleaning out of the ash.
Told them about coal but the words 'dirty' and 'too much work' were usually mentioned.

Glad I stopped by today. I asked my husband if he had called about the insert yet-nope. Anyway, he quickly made some calls and found one in fairly nearby Granby MA that can be delivered-well, it will be there in September- the guy is getting 3 and 2 are already sold so we can have the third one.

My husband said he tried to call Hitzer direct but no one was there.

I have seen tons of interest in pellet stoves. We don't know anything about them and whether they're good or not. Our experience with coal was super so we're sticking with that-maybe we'll even find a use for our Godin again someday!