Stûv Wood Stoves & Fireplaces — Authorized Dealer & Installation on Chicago’s North Shore

Name: Chimney Monkey
Price range: $$

Chimney Monkey is an authorized Stûv dealer serving Chicago’s North Shore, including Winnetka, Evanston, Highland Park and Glencoe. Stûv builds Belgian-designed wood-burning stoves, inserts and fireplaces — including the 360-degree rotating s30C and the guillotine-door s21. Call 847-994-4388.

Get in touch Call 847-994-4388

Stûv 30 rotating wood stove with glass door — Photo courtesy of Stûv America.

Why we love Stûv

It’s a piece of design that happens to burn wood

Most hearth products are appliances first and objects second. Stûv (often written Stuv) is the other way around. These are designed in Belgium — clean geometry, no applied ornament, no fake brick, no chrome — and they’re meant to look right in the room when there’s no fire in them. In a contemporary North Shore house, that matters. A stove sits in the middle of a room for twelve months a year and burns for four of them.

The s30C rotates, and it changes how the room works

The s30C turns a full 360 degrees on its base, and it operates three ways: as an open fire, closed behind glass, or closed behind a solid door. That’s genuinely useful, not a party trick. You turn the fire toward the sofa in the evening and toward the dining table when people are eating. In an open floor plan, one appliance serves two rooms. We haven’t installed anything else that does this.

The s21’s door lifts

The s21 and s21CLAD use a guillotine door — the glass lifts vertically to give you a true open fire, and drops to run the fireplace sealed and efficient. Most fireplaces force that choice at purchase. Stûv lets you make it on a Saturday night. Both come in single-face or double-face, and both install zero-clearance, which is what makes them viable in a modern build.

They’re honest about being wood

Everything Stûv offers in North America burns wood. There’s no gas version pretending to be the same product. If you want a wood fire, this is a company that has spent decades on nothing else, and it shows in the combustion and the door hardware. If you don’t actually want to handle firewood, we’ll point you at Urbana or Enviro instead and nobody’s feelings will be hurt.

What Stûv makes

Category	Models	Notes
Wood stoves	s6H · s16 (cube, H, V) · s30C (one, standard, H)	s30C rotates 360°, three operating modes. s16 hinged door, three variants. s6H curved with enlarged fire view
Wood inserts	s6in · s16in	For installation into an existing or new firebox opening
Wood fireplaces	s16Z · s21 (sf, df) · s21CLAD (sf2, df2, df7)	s21 and s21CLAD use a lifting guillotine glass door; single- or double-face; zero clearance. s21CLAD adds an integrated convection system
Fuel	Wood	Stûv’s North American range is wood-burning
Origin	Designed in Belgium, adapted for North America

EPA certification varies by model — the s6H, s16, and s30C are EPA certified; the s21 is listed as not EPA certified. That distinction can matter for permitting in some jurisdictions, and we check it before specifying.

Stûv is the right call when…

You want a wood fire and you want it to look like it was designed, not bought
The house is contemporary, or the room is
You want one appliance to serve two spaces in an open plan (s30C)
You want the option of an open fire and a sealed efficient one (s21)
You want real radiant heat, not a gas flame behind glass
You’re replacing a wood stove that heats well but looks like 1985

Stûv or Acucraft for a wood-burning fireplace?

Both are excellent and we sell both, so here’s the honest split:

	Stûv	Acucraft
Approach	Designed models, European engineering, distinct mechanisms	Built to your drawing, essentially any dimension
Best when	You love a specific Stûv model and want that object	Your design needs a size or configuration nobody makes
Lead time	Catalog model	Custom manufacturing schedule
Standout	Rotating s30C, guillotine-door s21	Any viewing angle, any size, gas or wood

If the drawing is unusual, Acucraft. If the s30C or the s21 is the thing you actually want, nothing else substitutes for it.

Installing a Stûv on the North Shore

Wood-burning means the chimney has to be right. This is where we’re useful. A wood appliance needs correctly sized flue, adequate height, proper draft, and a termination that clears the roofline and surrounding structures. Undersized or oversized flue, insufficient height, or a termination in the lee of a gable will make a superb stove perform badly — and the homeowner will blame the stove.

Combustion air is a real constraint in tight houses. Newer and well-sealed North Shore homes don’t leak enough air to feed a wood fire while the furnace, range hood, and dryer are running. That shows up as smoke rolling out of the appliance when the range hood kicks on. We evaluate combustion air supply during design, not after the first cold weekend.

Clearances and hearth protection. A freestanding stove has listed clearances to combustibles and specific hearth pad requirements. On a wood floor in a restored Evanston house, that decides the placement and often the finish. We size it before the floor is finished, not after.

The rotating base needs planning. The s30C’s flue connection has to accommodate rotation. This is a straightforward detail if you plan for it and an expensive one if you don’t.

Replacing an existing stove or insert. A common project. The old flue almost never matches the new appliance’s requirement, so relining is usually part of the scope. We inspect and document the existing chimney first — the findings are yours regardless of who does the work.

Permits. North Shore villages handle solid-fuel appliance permits differently, and a few have restrictions worth knowing about before you fall in love with a model. We check your village and pull the permit.

What Chimney Monkey does on a Stûv project

Site evaluation and draft assessment · model selection against the room and the chimney · combustion air evaluation · clearance and hearth protection layout · chimney system design, relining, or new installation · termination height, cap, crown and flashing detailing by our own masons · surround and hearth masonry · installation, commissioning, and a walkthrough of operation and burning practice · annual inspection and sweeping.

Chimney Monkey has served Chicago’s North Shore from Buffalo Grove since 2017, with masons, inspectors, and researchers on staff and more than 1,100 Google reviews. A wood appliance is the case where the chimney company and the fireplace dealer being the same company is worth the most.

Common questions

Is Chimney Monkey an authorized Stûv dealer?

Yes. Chimney Monkey is an authorized Stûv dealer for Chicago’s North Shore. We sell, install, and service Stûv wood stoves, inserts, and fireplaces in Winnetka, Evanston, Highland Park, Glencoe, Wilmette, and Lake Forest — including the chimney evaluation, relining, and masonry work a wood-burning appliance needs.

What makes the Stûv 30 different from other wood stoves?

The s30C rotates a full 360 degrees on its base and operates three ways: open fire, closed behind glass, or closed behind a solid door. That lets one appliance face different parts of an open floor plan and change character depending on how you’re using the room. It’s EPA certified.

How does the Stûv 21 guillotine door work?

The glass door on the s21 and s21CLAD lifts vertically rather than swinging. Raised, you have a true open fire. Lowered, the fireplace runs sealed. Both are available in single-face or double-face configurations and install zero-clearance, and the s21CLAD adds an integrated convection system.

Does Stûv make gas or pellet appliances?

Stûv’s North American range is wood-burning. If you want the look without handling firewood, we’d point you toward Urbana for gas or Enviro for gas or pellet — and we’d rather tell you that than sell you a wood appliance you won’t light.

Can a Stûv go into my existing fireplace?

Often, yes — the s6in and s16in inserts are designed for that. The existing firebox has to accept the appliance dimensions and the chimney has to accept a correctly sized liner. We inspect and document the existing chimney before recommending a model, because what’s in the flue determines the scope.

Will a Stûv wood stove actually heat my house?

It will heat the space it’s in, and in an open plan it will heat well beyond that. Wood appliances produce strong radiant heat. Sizing matters — an oversized stove in a small room gets run throttled down, which burns dirty and dirties the chimney. We size the appliance to the room rather than to the wish.

Do you sweep and service Stûv appliances?

Yes. A wood-burning appliance needs annual inspection and sweeping, and we service Stûv units across the North Shore whether or not we installed them. Our inspections are paid diagnostic appointments — you get documented findings you can use regardless of who does any resulting work.

Stûv installation across Chicago’s North Shore

Winnetka · Evanston · Highland Park · Glencoe · Wilmette · Lake Forest · Northbrook · Deerfield · Glenview · Buffalo Grove · Skokie · Lake Bluff · Highwood