Your We Love Fire Expert

Northern Lights / Farmington, ME

If you’ve ever crested Jay Hill on a clear winter night and stopped your car just to take it all in, you might understand exactly why Northern Lights Maine exists. That’s the moment, back in 1974, that gave this business its name. More than fifty years later, that same sense of wonder and warmth still defines everything they do at 639 Wilton Road in Farmington. Northern Lights isn’t just a hearth shop, it’s a full-service community institution that has been heating Maine homes, tuning Nordic skis, and fitting families for bikes through every season the western Maine mountains can throw at you. What sets them apart isn’t just the depth of their hearth expertise, it’s that the people behind the counter have spent decades living with these products, installing them, servicing them, and genuinely standing behind them.

History
Facilities
Certifications
Products

Company History

The story of Northern Lights Maine begins on a long drive home in 1974, when founder Tom Upham crested Jay Hill, watched the Northern Lights blaze across the sky, and decided right there that whatever business he and his wife Judy built, it would carry that name. It started with a Jøtul wood stove in their home entryway and radio ads on the local station, and grew into Maine's sole Jøtul distributor, eventually landing at its current home on Wilton Road in Farmington. Along the way, longtime employees Marty Farnum and Todd Richard, who between them spent decades mastering every aspect of stove installation and service, purchased the company in 1994 and ran it with the same customer-first values Tom had built. In 2021, after fourteen years with the company, technician Josh Bell and his wife Alicia became the third owners, with Marty and Todd staying on to ensure a seamless handoff. The Nordic skis Tom first sold? Still here. The Jøtul stoves that started it all? Still on the floor. More than fifty years in, this legacy is very much alive.

Facilities & Showroom

The showroom at 639 Wilton Road in Farmington is exactly the kind of place that makes you want to linger. A working floor filled with the latest models of wood, pellet, and gas heating equipment so you can see them up close, compare them side by side, and get a real feel for what's going to work in your home. This isn't a catalog on a screen, it's a hands-on experience where the staff can walk you through the differences between a high-efficiency pellet insert and a traditional Jøtul wood stove, explain how a Mendota gas fireplace installs into your existing opening, or talk through venting requirements in plain language. Whether you come in knowing exactly what you want or arrive with a stack of questions and not much else, the team here is patient, thorough, and genuinely happy to spend whatever time it takes to get you to the right answer. This has earned them loyal customers who keep coming back for the next project.

Some of our services include:

Wood stove, gas fireplace, and pellet stove installation (new and replacement)
Propane fireplace and stove installation
Chimney installation (full, from start to finish)
Chimney cleaning and sweep
Annual heating unit maintenance (concierge service — they call you in the spring to schedule)
Stove repair and service (in-home visits)
Preventative heating maintenance
Free on-site consultations
Free estimates
Parts sourcing and stocking for heating units
Rinnai gas and hot water heater installation and service
Thule and Yakima roof rack sales and vehicle installation
Bike assembly, repair, and maintenance (year-round)
Alpine ski binding mounting, tuning, and stone grinding
Nordic ski sales, fitting, and waxing consultation
Snowboard binding mounting
Skate sharpening (on-site Blade Master machine)
Ski and snowboard rentals at Titcomb Mountain (winter season)
Snowshoe rentals

Certifications / Affiliations

NFI Certified

Product Summary

Northern Lights Maine has always been about warmth in every sense of the word. The range of heating products they carry reflects more than half a century of learning what Maine homeowners actually need when winter sets in hard. Their hearth lineup covers the full spectrum: wood stoves and inserts for those who want the real deal, pellet stoves and inserts built to a quality standard you won't find at a big-box store (and backed by parts they actually stock), and propane and gas fireplaces for the convenience of instant heat with the ambiance of a living flame. And when the snow finally melts, the shop transitions into an equally impressive selection of bikes. Offering electric, full-suspension, hardtail, gravel, fat tire, and youth, alongside Nordic and alpine skis, snowshoes, and seasonal accessories that serve the same communities that count on Northern Lights for their heating needs year-round. This is a store that was built by people who live the outdoor Maine life, and it shows in every product they choose to put on the floor.