Post Your Favorite Wood Burning Stove!

[Tree Reb]

That's a good setup DMc, reminds me of my grandparents stove as well.

Al, I liked the Lopi but it wouldn't fit my fireplace. They are nice.

Jay, that's a good looking stove. There was a guy on Arbtalk a while ago making something similar out of old gas bottles. I found this site then, looks like yours only smaller. http://www.ozpig.com.au/gallery

 

[brendonv]

Hadn't made one yet, Jay. I was speculating for when I get a shop, or garage. I was poking on craigs list after this thread yesterday, and found a real nice smaller Vermont Castings perfect size for a shop. Probably going to look at it Monday.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I think that it is hard to make a stove that measures up to the efficiency of a good commercially made one by a company with history. I can just about shove an entire small to medium sized tree into mine at one time, so it helps make up for it.

 

[Al Smith]

From the info gather it seems the barrel stoves either got their start from the forrestry service or when they built the Al_Can highway during WW2 .Makes sense though ,troops freezing their behinds off and empty oil drums everywhere .Neccessity they say is the mother of all invention .

If I'm correct a single barrel will put off around a 100 thou plus BTU's per hour and about double with the second barrel . There's a lot of radiant surface on a barrel .

 

[Al Smith]

My actual favorite of stove designs is patterned after the "Vermont down drafter " .This design passes the volatable gasses of combustion through the coal bed and is extremely efficient using secondary air to burn off the gasses which burn with a blue flame much like natural gas .

Being a tinkerer and putser in addition a tightwad ,I built one some 30 years ago but increased the dimensions by 50 percent .In a 1400 square foot house that was a tad too much over kill and the ex would open the windows and door at 10 below zero before I had learned how to run the thing .

 

[Cut4fun]

Trying to get a pic of the old wood burning cooking stove my mom has. My dad wouldnt let it in the new house they built, due to the super heavy weight of it, so it sets out in the new garage.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

That is how ours is Al.
At first I thought I would hate the catalyst idea because CA just pisses me off with all their emissions requirements. But that dang second gas burn throws some serious heat. Very efficient. I am sitting here no shirt at the moment all the way down the hall with my bedroom window open. Should have used pine today and not oak..

 

[woodworkingboy]

They are marketing stoves here specifically designed for burning Pine, an abundant and cheap firewood, but disliked because the chimney quickly loads up with burned pitch deposits.. A different design from regular stoves, and are supposed to solve the pitch problem.

 

[Al Smith]

From what info I remember when delving into designs of stoves years back there evidently are several levels of combustion .The burning stage ,the gassious stage and the charcoal stage .Without high enough temperatures and secondary combustion air it seems a lot of the gasses are just vented off and don't really produce the heat they are capable of .

There have been designs with kind of an oven above the fire box which kind of bakes a secondary load of wood and those gasses vented above the live fire in the main fire box . They evidently didn't prove too popular because I haven't heard much about them for decades .

 

[Al Smith]

On that creosote thing . With the stove I built by basically copying another design there was very little accumulation of same because in actuality the vapors which cause the build up were burned in their gassious form .Another plus with that design .

What actually happened is after using that homebuilt which the insurance company marveled at they could not find a UL label and as such could not insure it .

 

[woodworkingboy]

I smoked some bacon in my stove yesterday... It turned out very yum yum.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Lordy.... gimme sum!!!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Ha! That's what I thought too when I pulled it out.

 

[SkwerI]

I don't know whether to praise you or hate you, Jay.

 

[woodworkingboy]

You just don't like to picture me in my shop with the shades pulled down eating all that delicious bacon!

 

[Paul B]

I spent the last couple nights up at the inlaws, I love futzing with the woodstove. we have baseboard heat here at home, no fun at all.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Fire is primal.... There is no substitute

 

[stig]

Come on Baby, light my fire!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Why not install a wood heater, Paul? Those baseboard heaters look pretty inefficient.

 

[squisher]

In my new place I've got a big azz Lakewood stove. It's nice, brick lined, huge box and a fan/blower if you so desire. That's in the basement and then a real nice open rock fireplace on the main floor, one of those ones that's supposed to cool your place but I've found so far it works damn well for a old open fire. If anything it draws a little heat from the bedrooms, I prefer a cool bedroom anyways. And then one more big azz old sears woodburner in the shop.

Three indoor fires going at once at times, a treeman's dream come true!

 

[Cut4fun]

So much so that we designed our house around wood usage. We wanted a stove that would multi-task. Once again, we looked to the past to find the answers for our current day needs.

Dave

Maw sent me a pic of the old stove. Not in use anymore and dont look as nice as your wood cook stove. All I know is it is some antique stove she had in the old house I grew up in.

 

[Paul B]

Why not install a wood heater, Paul? Those baseboard heaters look pretty inefficient.

No options here Boss, I am a condo dweller.

 

[DMc]

Maw sent me a pic of the old stove. Not in use anymore and dont look as nice as your wood cook stove. All I know is it is some antique stove she had in the old house I grew up in.

Beautiful stove. Smaller and a different style, but it was built to last and it has. I bet in its time it was the prettiest thing in the house to snuggle up to when it was cold and wet. Well, Paw may not have thought so.....

 

[Bounce]

Hey Brendon - I grew up with that exact same Vermont Castings woodstove you are getting. It was the best of the 6 I have had experience with. I love a top loading unit, so you can still load it while it's 1/2 full. My current one a cheapo piece of crap that keeps the house warm, but it puts more heat out the chimney than it does into the building.

 

[Al Smith]

Now I know because of living conditions etc. not everyone can but if so it's silly not to have a woodburner if you're in the tree biz .

Think about it now, how many people get paid to cut their own wood plus haul it off .Not many .Money saved is really better than money earned,you don't have to pay some dunce taxes that a way unless they determine a way to tax you on your own labor .