[upthesaukee]

The first woodstove in our house was Fisher Mama Bear cast iron stove, which served admirably from the mid 80's to the early 2000's. We then switched over to a Hearthstone Mansfield soapstone. Plusses on the change was a more even warmth, no need to polish the enameled cast iron portion, no damper in the stove pipe, and a glass door to enjoy the flames.
Disadvantages required a reducer for the 8 inch triple wall chimney (6 inch stove pipe), not easily cleaned by me (2 brushes needed 6 in & 8 in)(unscrewing slip sleeve in stove pipe and sliding up to vacuum out ash from the top of the stove) (Enter The Chimney Sweep- Dan R), slower to heat the room from a new start after room cooled down, keeping glass clean, replacing door gaskets every year or two.
We burned 5-6 cords of wood annually. Wood was delivered cut and split. I would supplement with fall downs I cut and split. Wood delivered late spring, early summer, stacking in September.
We decided to bite the bullet this year and heat with oil. Cost is very similar. Advantage: house stays far cleaner, no ash residue in LR from emptying the stove, no almost daily vacuuming of the trail of wood dust etc, , and no daily exercise of moving the wood from the wood pile to the mud room. Disadvantage: house is poorly insulated (a ton of sliding glass windows) and we keep the thermostat set at a lower temp. Love my sweatshirts.

Will we go back to burning wood? Probably not full time, but maybe a cord or two., unless oil prices skyrocket.

Dave