10 Easy Pieces: Freestanding Wood Stoves

Not your grandmother’s wood stove: A new generation of designs offers high fuel efficiency, high combustion temperatures, and lower emissions. They’re powerful, cost effective, and environmentally responsible heaters for your home.

Many of these new stoves combine the best of the old (baking/warming shelves, wood storage) with new technologies that greatly reduce ash, carbon emissions, and lost heat.

N.B.: Different stoves generate varying levels of heat. Be sure to consider a stove with heat output appropriate to the size of room where it will be located.

Above: An affordable option is the Englander Blue Ridge 100 Stove. Crafted of black steel, this freestanding, top-vented stove will heat rooms that are up to 1,200 square feet. It’s a high-efficiency design that meets EPA standards; $999 at Ace Hardware.
Above: We like the simplicity of the Stûv 16-H Wood Stove. This high-efficiency model from Belgian company Stuv is designed in such a way that the combustion gases provide the room with as much heat as possible. Contact Stuv for retail locations.
Above: A slim pedestal option, the Norwegian-designed Jotul F-136 Modern Wood Burning Stove has cast-iron construction and a modern combustion system, designed to reduce wood consumption by up to 40 percent. Contact Jotul to locate retailers.

Above: The Morsø 6140 B Wood Stove Low Model is available through Morsø dealers.
Above: Another model from Stûv, the Stûv 40 Wood Burning Stove is available through Stûv dealers.
Above: From Denmark-based Rais, the QTEE-II Gas Stove can be used with or without legs. The QTEE-II has a wood storage cubby at the bottom. Contact We Love Fire, Rais’s US dealer, to locate a retailer near you.

Above: Our UK-based readers can consider the Dovre Astroline 4, a clean-burning, high-efficiency cast-iron wood stove with a small footprint. Available with an anthracite finish. Contact Dovre for retail locations.
Above: The MF Fire Nova Tower Wood Stove has built-in wood storage below; it’s available straight from Woodland Direct.
Above: The Wittus Shaker Wood Stove designed by Antonio Citterio is made in Germany of black steel. Offering the look of a fireplace with the efficiency of a wood stove, it is available with a short bench under the door (as shown) or a long bench, so you can sit comfortably close to the fire.
Above: The classic Morsø 3112B Wood Burning Stove is available through Morsø dealers.

Want to warm your hands by an outdoor fire? Take a look at our earlier post Playing with Fire: Favorite Fire Pits and Bowls on Gardenista.

N.B.: This post was originally published on December 19, 2012. We have updated it with new and additional product selections and current pricing.