Wood Burning Stoves

17220 Views 256 Replies 46 Participants Last post by lasers, 2 mo ago

hoplite59

Discussion Starter · Feb 19, 2021

All, starting this thread in order to draw on prodigious Community knowledge we have access to. We are looking to purchase and install a wood burner in our home to have a secondary heat source. In the Generac thread I posted the backlog/shortage of product that manufacture is experiencing so plan B (which was going to be tertiary option) of a wood burner jumped to th front of the line.

In researching wood burners I came across the info of a 26% Tax Credit for the unit (from an approved EPA list) and install. If your unit meets efficiency guidelines you can reduce your outlay by a chunk.

We are leaning towards the US Stove brand . My concern is that we may not be able to cook on the unit. Also assuming electricity goes down, how do I keep the blower going without a generator ?

Woodstove Database | Burnwise | US EPA

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Potawatomi II

· #167 · 3 mo ago

hoplite59 said:
I'm having an insert installed where I currently have a ventless gas fireplace. The data I've seen seems to show the insert is much more efficient than an open hearth or stand alone. I can tell you one thing, wood burning isn't for lazy people ! I've been running my tail off the past 2 weeks between splitting old rounds, dropping trees, cleaning and limbing them as well as stacking and scrounging. Great excersize and can't wait to make my first fire and cut my gas bill.

I really appreciate all you Boys giving me pointers.

Do you have any sawmills around you? We have quite a few around here and they charge $20 for a bundle of hardwood slabs and $10 for a bundle of softwood. They stack the slabs in a 4x4 rack and they are either 8ft or 10ft depending on what they've been running so you get a full cord. I burn that stuff in the early fall and late spring when I just need to warm the house up or have a fire at night but let it burn out so the house doesn't get too hot once the sun comes up.

They might sell other stuff too like the end pieces that they trim off of cants, or bad cants cut up. I mostly burn these things. Hardwood in blocks of various length that I cut to same length and split. it comes out to 4 face cord a load give or take a bit for $125. It's green but that doesn't matter to me.

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Potawatomi II

· #171 · 3 mo ago

I took the time to read through here yesterday morning because it's my turn to buy a new wood stove. I couple weeks ago I noticed a small crack in my old Fireview so it's time for a replacement. Not finding anything I liked on the used market I decided this time that instead of buying something for $100-200 on Craigslist I would buy new.

Wow all of the effiency stuff was a surprise, also a surprise was to see so many wood stoves rated for mobile homes, that's actual progress. Anyway I ended up going with a Pleasant Hearth medium sized one for 1800sq ft. It will be interesting to see how well it burns with green wood, I'll have dry ready to go next year but for the rest of this year it will be burn what I got.

I'll toss the old stove up on Craigslist for $100 for someone to heat their garage with.

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Potawatomi II

· #174 · 3 mo ago

hoplite59 said:
I believe pleasant hearth is sold at Home Depot. I had considered it when I thought I was going with a wood stove vs insert.

They do sell it. they wanted Pleasant Hearth Medium 1,800 sq. ft. 2020 EPA Certified Wood Burning Stove with Legs and Blower GWS-1800-B - The Home Depot $1145 with free delivery to store or home but I bought it from Walmart because it was $949 plus $49 for delivery.

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Potawatomi II

· #175 · 3 mo ago

Done4theday said:
new EPA stove don't like green wood , they are meant to burn hot enough to burn even the smoke . green wood likely won't get you to those temps. no smoke means very little creosote and the most heat from the wood you work so hard to bring in.

I have some very well seasoned bark off maple that I had set aside for when temps drop below zero that I can use to finish this year off if I need to.

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Potawatomi II

· #220 · 3 mo ago

hoplite59 said:
$250-$300 is the range in these parts. I've asked several folks around here who burn and that's what I came up with.

Was it something like this? Wood – Michigan Wood Pellet

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Potawatomi II

· #224 · 3 mo ago

lasers said:
On that chart what is "MBTU/CORD"?

Millions of BTUs per cord.

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Potawatomi II

· #242 · 2 mo ago

Potawatomi II said:
I took the time to read through here yesterday morning because it's my turn to buy a new wood stove. I couple weeks ago I noticed a small crack in my old Fireview so it's time for a replacement. Not finding anything I liked on the used market I decided this time that instead of buying something for $100-200 on Craigslist I would buy new.

Wow all of the effiency stuff was a surprise, also a surprise was to see so many wood stoves rated for mobile homes, that's actual progress. Anyway I ended up going with a Pleasant Hearth medium sized one for 1800sq ft. It will be interesting to see how well it burns with green wood, I'll have dry ready to go next year but for the rest of this year it will be burn what I got.

I'll toss the old stove up on Craigslist for $100 for someone to heat their garage with.

Potawatomi II said:
They do sell it. they wanted Pleasant Hearth Medium 1,800 sq. ft. 2020 EPA Certified Wood Burning Stove with Legs and Blower GWS-1800-B - The Home Depot $1145 with free delivery to store or home but I bought it from Walmart because it was $949 plus $49 for delivery.

I've had this installed for 3 nights now and can give an initial review.

Pros: It looks nice my wife really likes it.
It does burn green wood fairly well. A big surprise from the review, and a real plus for me.
The blower that came with it is more than adequate.
The top does heat up enough to use my heat powered fans on it, and while I haven't been burning real hot during the day one of the times that I checked the surface was a hair over 200* so it would work just fine for a dutch oven of stew or chili.

Cons: This is the first stove I've had that is wider than it is deep and I don't like that. It's awkward to load it for the night.
While the stove has an ash tray you have to let the fire go out to get the ashes down into the tray. Don't know what engineer came up with that idea but I want what he was smoking.
The blower is louder than I was expecting.

That's the quick and dirty from the little bit that I've used it so far.

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Potawatomi II

· #245 · 2 mo ago

SAM 2021 said:
Does it have to have the blower to work?
Can you still heat/cook if there is a power outage?

No it works fine without it. Wood stoves don't need blowers like wood burning furnaces do but a lot of them do have blowers to help spread the heat.

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Potawatomi II

· #248 · 2 mo ago

Stwood said:
27" deep. So you could comfortably cut 18-20" wood and lay it in front 2 back.
I find long ago ours (selfmade) burns better front 2 back other than side side. And side to side theres a chance of one rolling out the doors if not careful. AIr intake flows better through the wood instead of around and over.

I cut my wood at 18" and it won't go front to back in this one only sideways. Yes I agree front to back is much better.

Edit: Need to look at the firebox depth rather than the overall depth of the stove.

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Potawatomi II

· #250 · 2 mo ago

Stwood said:
Yes, I was guesstamating the inside box depth as I only found the outer dimensions listed. No, I didn't look real hard for ID of box.
Would 16" fit. Yea, more cutting.

Unfortunately it's 13" and I'm just not ambitious enough to cut everything that short. No worries though, while it's awkward to load it gets easier every time, and I used interlocking bricks as fire resistant flooring so if one rolls out when loading (already happened actually) it's not going to start a fire.

I'm actually happy with the stove for the price that I paid so things could be a lot worse.

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Potawatomi II

· #252 · 2 mo ago

SAM 2021 said:
Wow, 13" is pretty small. Your gonna have to saw some short logs.
Your stove is only 13" deep or 13" wide?

A hearth pad is solid and no cinders can fall through to your floor and smolder.
You have a backing pad on the wall too?

11"Hx13"Dx22"W so the wood that I normally cut and split fit fine, just sideways. I might start cutting at 20"L to take full advantage of the space next year. While it's not going to be something that I could load and have a few coals left to work with 12 hours later like my old one I've found so far that loading it at 10:00pm or so I have a deep bed of coals when I get up to pee around 3:30am.

Yeah Durock and fire resistant fake brick panels for the walls, using electric fence insulators as the spacers for air flow between the actual wall and the fire resistant wall.

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Potawatomi II

· #254 · 2 mo ago

SAM 2021 said:
OK 20" that makes more sense.
I was thinking you had a trash burning stove. They are only about 12" x 12"

I'm thinking about building a mini stove for my camper.
It wouldn't take much to heat a small RV size.
Isaw some folks with one that they set up the stove pipe out a window, then they took it down for travel. But I did not get to see the stove.

A rocket stove size would be fine I think, just be able to control the heat and a safe way to load it while it is burning. Hmm, now you have me thinking.

I'd be leery of putting a wood stove in an RV. I don't know much about it, but I do know that all of the wood stoves I've seen that were small enough to work were designed for use in tents and require a lot of ventilation. Make sure you do good research before you buy.

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