Wood Stove Manufacturers List Update 1996

By Molly Miller
Published on October 1, 1996
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Hearthstone's Phoenix high-tech, non-catalytic wood stove.
Hearthstone's Phoenix high-tech, non-catalytic wood stove.
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Barbara Sussman and her sons Spencer (on lap) and Max, of Hoosick Falls, NY, warming up in front of their Jotul steel-enamel wood stove from Norway.
Barbara Sussman and her sons Spencer (on lap) and Max, of Hoosick Falls, NY, warming up in front of their Jotul steel-enamel wood stove from Norway.
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Quadra Fire 1900 high-tech wood stove.
Quadra Fire 1900 high-tech wood stove.
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Vermont Castongs's Encore wood stove in sand porcelain enamel.
Vermont Castongs's Encore wood stove in sand porcelain enamel.
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Waterford OSA Irish wood stove.
Waterford OSA Irish wood stove.
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Waterford Stanley wood cook stove.
Waterford Stanley wood cook stove.

High-tech wood burning stoves come of age with an updated wood stove manufacturers list and the best models for 1996. (See the wood stove photos in the image gallery.)

Wood Stove Manufacturers List Update 1996

Not too long ago, I found myself rubbing shoulders with wood stove and fireplace manufacturers and retailers at a meeting in a North Carolina inn. We left the door open and the Charlotte blossoms drifted in on evening breezes. The weather was coolish, and, as a matter of no coincidence, there were fireplaces in all the main rooms of the inn, providing atmosphere even if the heat was going out the door. Significantly, the fireplaces were gas.

One thing I’m smart enough to figure out is that you can’t rely on representatives of an industry to accurately inform you of the issues within that industry. Vested interest runs too strong. Fireplace people want to make money like anybody else. But for a group of salespeople there’s something pretty down to earth about the folks who show up at the annual Hearth Products Association trade show. A lot of Canadian manufacturers and retailers were floating around and a lot of hiking boots and cowboy boots walked the floors.

It is interesting to find out how they regard the EPA now that EPA regulations that transformed the wood stove industry are four years old. They had to invest a lot of money to improve their products. But now, people in the industry say they’ve done it and the EPA isn’t such a bad guy. Finally, competition between stove makers is centered now on who can make the high-tech stove with the least emissions.

These are stoves that use sophisticated combustion-air and smoke channels to create an engineered fire that preheats the secondary air supply and pulls it in like a blow torch to burn smoke particulates before they reach the atmosphere. And the industry designs products in constant anticipation of stricter emissions controls. To summarize the prevailing attitude: “We can make a clean-burning, efficient product. We have the technology. We spent the money to make it work, and now we’re proud to offer you high-tech stoves.”

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