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What is the best wood burning stove?

41K views 60 replies 32 participants last post by  jmanatee 
#1 ·
1. How much better are the new high efficiency stoves? I have a big Woodsman wood burning stove with no blower. (about 36 inches wide) Will a new high efficiency stove serve me much better...especially in an emergency?

2. If I go with a new stove, what is the best one (that is not ridiculously priced). I would like something that will take a BIG log, is efficient and that I could use for heating water/food in a pinch.
 
#2 ·
Everyone wants something different from their stove.

Every manufacturer calculates 'efficiency' differently.

We use a Vogelzang two-barrel stove. It's opening is 12"X10". I am able to feed it most stuff without need to split firewood. So I do not split wood.

It takes up to 34" wood.

The upper barrel actually doubles it's heat output. Which is rated at 200kBtu.

It draws away so much of the heat from the fire into the room that the stove-pipe is cool enough to touch most of the time. [not to hold your hand there, it would get burned, but to lay your hand on it and remove].

Our stove's upper barrel has 50' of 5/8' copper-tubing coils inside it, which heats water, which flows through our radiant floor system. By heating our floors, it spreads much of it's heat equally through-out our home.

Is it EPA rated? No.

Are we very happy with it? Yes.

We have used ti for six years, and we expect to use it for many more years.

Also it costs less than $200.

:)
 
#3 ·
If your current one has fire brick and is airtight I would spend the money on other preps. If it a cast iron franklin I look for something else. All the new stuff I have seen has a catalitic praverter just something to plug up. I am considering adding a rocket stove with the firebox outside. They say I'll burn 1/4 the wood.
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp
 
#8 ·
... Hey frostbeekeper have you ever thought about welding tubeing into the second or so barrel for a better heat transfer I have seen A few people have done this and swear by it
You could do that.

I judge how efficient the heat-transfer is by how much heat is removed before it gets to the stove-pipe.

Two steel drums has a lot of surface area, and they are very good at radiating heat into the room.

By also heating water for me, I get a lot more heat from the fire. Into a thermal-bank down stairs and flowing through the floors.

Our stove drafts real good. However if we sucked much more heat from the exhaust then drafting might become as issue. You can not suck 100% of the heat away and still expect it to draft for you.

:)
 
#7 ·
Harbor freight sells a very simple log stove that will work just fine.
The trick with the stove is how it is set up to begin with .
It hss been my expirence 50 years or so ,that having apair of L's in the stove pipe makes the stove burn more effecient. the damper needs to be about 3 feet up the pipe from the stove.
People tend to go cheap and run one strait pipe, but it only causes the air to be drawn more quickly into the stove and much harder to control. I get a warm house using a quarter of the fuel during the winter,compared to my neighbors . and the stove pipe is not so hot to the touch passing through the celling, even though the stove is regestering over 600 degrees.
If the stove pipe is too hot to touch near the celling, the system is set up wrong.
Set up this way the pipe needs to be sheet metal screwed for security and disassembly and reasembly for cleaning in the spring. Hard woods are best , I mix them as I go.
You can cook on the top of a log stove just fine , and they are large enough that the wood can be generous in size.
Split wood is best for starting, but unsplit logs roughly 6" in diameter, will burn well once the stove is going.
Great thing about log stoves is you can stoke them for the night cut down the air in and dampen it with in reason, and it will cook all nite.
We keep a tea kettle of water on it all the time ,keeping the moisture up especially during the winter months when the air tends to dry out from the freezing tempretures out side.
The stove I use right now is an antique cook stove, I rebilt . the fire box is about the size of a loaf of bread and the oven is just big enough for a 20 lb turkey.
 
#11 ·
Thats a beautiful thing
Our stove drafts real good. However if we sucked much more heat from the exhaust then drafting might become as issue. You can not suck 100% of the heat away and still expect it to draft for you. -
Very true, but even in todays hightech boilers their only getting about 96% efficency and thats no wood stove
most drafting problems are chimney issues

arleigh sounds like you your self have drafting problems / sounds like you need to adjust your primary air and/or a draft regulator
 
#12 ·
I second the soap stone stoves. They are excellent at holding more heat (see below)...

The things that going to add the most efficiency are going to be thermal mass, insulation and the space you're heating. If you can get thermal mass around your stove (we pile bricks around ours), it is going to store more heat and release it slowly, giving you more bang for your buck, and of course insulation slows heat loss.

The last one -- space you're heating -- can be difficult to adjust if you're already in a large house, but it might be possible to close off parts of the house in winter that are not in use and use them for cold storage. It's common sense that the less space you're heating, the less fuel you'll need.

Sorry, I know this doesn't address the OP directly, but my experience is that any reasonably efficient stove will do well if these other issues are covered. :)
 
#17 ·
Woodstove

I have a country woodstove I bought almost 8 years ago used w/ 3 pieces of unused triple wall and the stove pipe for $350

My gas bill last month was $15.96, I have gas heat and gas water

My country wood stove has a glass front door, (which I highly recommend), and is EPA Tested and Oregon approved, it is a 1992 model and I have looked at 2006/7 models and there is no difference.

Best thing I ever did was install that woodstove

I got home to tonight at 5:30 and got up on roof and cleaned it

Last summer I bought a Fisher woodstove, the baby fisher, for a $100
A $4 can of high temp paint and it looks brand new, sits out in my garage, I know I could double or triple my money but I cant part with it!

I live in the Pacific NW at 2800 foot level and unless the low is in the 20's I wont even light it, after it warms up and I stoked it down to a flame the size of your thumb I have to crack the garage door all night or I wake up to 78 degrees.

And many times I have come home after work and with the heater off all day it will be 58 degrees inside my house and 10 outside. I lite the woodstove, leave the door cracked open and about an hour later you can take you coat off and by bedtime it is 70 or higher. 1465 square foot house
 
#31 ·
The Southern yellow pine in this area rots really fast if not protected. It is bad for burning due to the high level of pitch. Back when I lived in Washington State I burned mostly alder, cotton wood and maple. They store for really long times in the milder climate of the PNW. I expect that is a similar climate to what you have in Maine. :)

When I lived in Montana for a few years I burned a lot of pine. Ponderosa I seem to recall. It was about all that was available plus cotton wood.
 
#32 ·
The Southern yellow pine in this area rots really fast if not protected. It is bad for burning due to the high level of pitch. Back when I lived in Washington State I burned mostly alder, cotton wood and maple. They store for really long times in the milder climate of the PNW. I expect that is a similar climate to what you have in Maine. :)
We lived in Western Washington for a few years, the climate was pretty mild.

To our experience sap / pitch is only an issue if it is still wet or green; and not properly cured.

When the water evaporates out from the sap, it leaves behind volatile oils that burn real good. A lot more btu than wood cut when the sap was down in the roots.

Of course some folks build homes in such a manner that combustibles are left within reach of the stove and/or stove-pipe. So when it gets real hot, it starts a house fire. Bad idea. Those idiots need to be more careful about creosote build-up.

:)
 
#34 ·
How about
heat your home with 80% to 90% less wood
exhaust is nearly pure steam and CO2 (a little smoke at the beginning)
the heat from one fire can last for days
you can build one in a day and half
folks have built them spending less than $20
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

It's call a rocket mass heater
http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp

I been researching this thing for several years now. Recently a few of my friends and I went over to Lawrence to a work shop and got to see one up close.
He was heating an addiction he added to his garage with about 4 hand fulls of kindling for TWO days.
Not for everyone but IMO everyone should at least look into the.
We are prepping our site to build one. First will be where the green house is planned. Then the milking shed,one in the garage and finally in the house.
Hope to get a good portion done by next fall.
Lots of people are interested and the more hands the less time and work per person.
 
#37 ·
We have an old cast iron cook stove. I hate it. It has many cracks, and it puffs a lot. I will be throwing it in a landfill soon as the ground thaws.

My wife wants a flat surface grill to cook on through the winter, so I may be throwing a 1/2 plate of flat steel on top of a one-barrel stove for her to cook on.

So far this is our wood stove.



















Currently the tubing is inside the upper chamber.
 
#40 ·
needed features

I've owned and used wood stoves for years. Right now I'm living where I don't want to be living, so I'm not investing in that sort of thing. All I have right now is a fireplace insert w/blower -- which are better than nothing.

Get a BIG stove. Once I had one that took four of us men to properly place. Oh, let me give some background: raised in Southern Appalachia; grandparents had coal furnace; from grammar school on, I maintained stoves fireplaces furnaces; cut firewood, shoveled coal, ... all that stuff. Been in country stores that had huge central coal stoves. Relatives who lived up in the mountains had the central huge stoves. You know, pot belly stoves, but these were 5 feet tall or more. I guess to young urban folk, I'd be a person who came from another world.

So what do you need as a base minimum? (I do not know the new things that are out there.)

> Your stove needs fire brick. I've seen iron glow red. Iron does NOT hold heat at all. Big stove, lot's a brick.

> Your stove should have a burn chamber and a second burn chamber above the first. Primary chamber (lower) is where you burn what you are gonna burn. Second chamber/baffle is for secondary burn of unburned gasses from the primary. The second chamber gets HOT -- it's almost too hot to cook on. Atop it, water drops turn into steaming bouncy balls. It will start grease fires. Be careful. Always wear thick gloves when around these. I've had all manner of things fly outa a stove at my face and hands. One log will give way and here comes a glowing top log at you.

> As others have told you, you've got two locking doors up front. Their gaskets should be asbestos. You'll have an adjustable port for each door. When learning to use this big boy, err to the side of too much air, then work your way into the realm of having logs glow all night. Initially, you'll have a lukewarm (maybe cold) stove in the morning, but you'll learn your stove and how much air/oxygen it needs. Too much air = ashes in the morning. Too little air = full size logs in the morning (not glowing at all).

> The flue has to be big even if you are not going to run a bunch of air through there normally. When starting that beast you want it to be able to roar like the gates of hell -- especially if you're going to burn lump coal. I wouldn't have a flue under eight inches in diameter. Roar to begin, then crank down your air vents until you get a steady breeze of intake. I will take a bit of time to get it just-so.

> Run the flue out your house through a masonry wall. If going through a frame wall, get a person who really, really knows what they are about in protecting walls. I've NEVER put in a stove whose flue went through a flammable wall. I was over-careful when going through brick or cinder block. Guess where a flue fire starts a house fire!

> If possible have a masonry liner to your masonry chimney. Between the liner and the outer chimney, fill with sand. If the inner liner cracks, sand will fall down into your clean-out and you will see it. You can have the chimney fixed (rather than have a house fire). Metal chimneys are much better today than they used to be; however, don't pull the outside air down between layers of the flue. If you do that, make sure you have your flue cleaned once or better yet twice a year like they do in Deutschland (by law). Bringing cold air down through there DOES heat it up, but what you have created is a fractionating column for creosote. Bring your outside air to the stove through a dedicated pipe.

> Cut your own wood if you can. Me, I used to live up against national forest land. Here in this city, I've cut down my own trees and made firewood of them. As a boy, I worked a short time in the Forestry Service -- got that Dept of Agriculture check and all. Back in those days they worked teenagers cutting scrub trees, but they didn't trust us with chain saws, no-sir, it was axes, crosscuts, and log tongs.

> Rick your wood over 50 ft from your house, your neighbor's house. Termites. Termites travel FAR.

> If you cheat and use a device to split your wood, Good. My back is shot. Cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat cheat

> This is where I'll stop. There's all manner of reading out there. Avoid gimmicks. Go as primitive as possible, because there ain't gonna be fancy supplies if times go hard. Learn from old sh!ts, because they've gotten by in hard times already.
 
#41 ·
I've looked at these rocket stove things that vent into the living space, and I worry a bit about that.

I understand that they vent MOSTLY vapor and stuff...but it is the mostly that makes me leary.

Also, no EPA certification worries me a little too.

In a living space that is closed up tight, I would really worry about a wood burning ANYTHING that has no outside vent.

thoughts?
 
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