Wood burning stoves

[RBHarter]

For 30 yr I burned pinion pine cut as late 6 weeks before the first fire . It's affectionately known as pitch pinion because any injury to the tree is covered or oozes thick gooey turpintine fueled pitch that's never really down . It rivals oak for burn time and heat just not as clean .

We only brushed in October and April if the fire seasons ran that long . Every reload we would just leave the dampers running wide open for 5-10 minutes then shut them down to run settings sometimes you could the crackle and pop when it was really good and the loose stuff falling . We just reburned the scale if it was needed mid season .
Shoveled out about a 5 gallon bucket of ash once a week from just before Christmas through January with the wood heat as sole heat source on 19-2200 sqft . Burned 512-640 cuft so stacked that a rat could run through but a cat couldn't follow . In truth a common rat would have been mostly ok but the desert kangaroo variety wasn't gonna make it .

I took a load of 2 of oak back to Nevada with me . One trip stands out because I had a pickup bed full and a case of Lone Star in the aluminum tool box . It was 114 when I came through Vegas and still 109 at Indian springs . I don't remember what I got in the tool box for but I remember that the beer and infact the whole tool box was cold . It may have only been 60° but when I walked the trailer the load was easily 400# lighter . That is why swamp coolers work so well is the heat exchange through evaporation under 25% humidity .......and why this is the green hell ..... It like the moss grows on you after a while .

 

[Bret4207]

I tend to drive my boys crazy because I will take almost anything in the way of dead wood that isn't rotted to the point of falling apart. They can't grasp I'm trying to clean up the deadwood as well as get firewood. It also irks them because both have a habit of knocking stuff down and leaving "the bad parts" (???) laying there. It seems that dragging out the evidence of the 7 attempts at making a notch is too embarrassing to do. So I end grabbing those pieces when I run onto them and that irritates them somehow. We get a lot of trees along fence lines that are horribly curved because they grow out into the field to get light. Apparently they think curved wood is inferior when it burns somehow. A lot of that stuff is what we call "Balm of Gilead" and it is a poor firewood, but the stuff has to come out. Both also hate stacking wood to dry. I do too, but it's got to be done. They make the whole process a lot harder than it has to be, especially Gord, because they won't listen to the voice of experience- that would be me. So they end up doing a lot more heaving and lifting and generally wearing themselves out. But, help is help, so let them live and learn!

 

[L Ross]

Warning, warning, thread drift in the making. Balm of Gilead Poplar has a bud in the Spring that is full of sticky resin that can be harvested and made into an ointment or salve. Bret, you can probably make ointment, sell it and buy good firewood.

All kidding aside. We used to have time on our hands at week long rendezvous encampments and do things like render out mutton tallow and pick plantain leaves and make salves, same with Balm of Gilead Poplar buds. The best one, where a couple of my friends and I drove an entire camp batty, was where we dragged a large black Ash log out in the "work/skills" area of the encampment and pounded the log with clubs for hours to pull Black Ash splints off for basket makers. The pounding on that green log with hard wood clubs must have resembled the sound track of an old Tarzan movie.

 

[Bret4207]

I'm familiar with Balm of Gilead salves. It was considered something of a good thing to have any where I grew up, but here it's a weed tree.

 

[Bret4207]

100% THIS^^^^

Mine is a 602N - a tiny thing, and can run you out of a 16' x 20' room with 9' ceilings. I've run this stove for 20 years and all I've had to do is repace the door gasket about ten years ago. I get a CUP of dry, black, sparkly residue out of the chimney each year when I clean it.

I finally saw the model number on ours- 602. Neat little stove!

 

[Rally]

One heat source providing heat to 2 buildings, 24/7, with no danger from chimney fire (we're a good 20 minutes from town at fire truck speed), reduced insurance costs, no smoke/ash/dirt/wood in the house, nice even hot water heat in any room I choose to run a line to, plus all the domestic hot water I can use AND only having to fire it 2-3 times a day? I go though massive amounts of wood as it is, I'm not seeing much of a downside outside of setup and cost.

You really should check them out Bret, but I would avoid a Central Boiler. I've know several people who bought them and life span and service were terrible. I'm running a Heat More, our second (a tree fell on the first), and am pretty tickled with them. The hot water in any room thing is just a selling point, because you'll want to have anti freeze in you system in case you ever have a long term power outage, and also as a lubricant for better pump life.
I'm heating two buildings, the house is 92' from the stove and the shop is about 45'. I buy wood in 100" lengths, (Oak, Ash, Maple) for $110.00 a chord, and he stacks against a tree that is just about touching my wood shed. When it's stacked I can cut pieces off the pile and they will roll into my wood shed (how's that for convenience). I rarely stack wood, just throw it in a pile in the center of the wood shed, and cut it as needed. I can burn Oak that was cut and stacked at a landing in 7 months. I've cut green Popple out of my woods and burned it in a couple weeks. The fire box on my stove is almost 5' in length, so burning rate is determined by what wood goes where, and type of wood being burned. There is no bottom in my stove, it sits on a slab, and a bead of caulking seals the bottom. The inside bottom has a grate with an auger to remove ashes, but I shovel them out the front and add them to my leaf/ mulch pile area. The bottom of the stove has sand in it originally, but probably half ash now. The boiler tank is half moon shaped and stainless, row of fire bricks on bottom outside. Two blowers, one front bottom, one back to top venting, thermostats in tank to maintain water temp, and chimney goes through water tank. Outside light on stove front that comes on if door is open and fan switch left off, so you know you forgot to turn blower back on after filling. Water/antifreeze is pumped from outlet /pump on back panel service area of stove, which has it's own insulated door, and also where water lines/ return lines enter stove, which go straight down through a opening formed in the slab. Exterior of stove is all corrugated metal, insulated chimney that they sell extensions for if you want them, insulation on all sides, and water cooled door on firebox, with exterior front door also. In the shop and house (two floors in house) we have floor baseboard radiators along all outside walls. No fans blowing, very little noise from pumps, of which I have two on each building, one at stove, one small helper inside on each building. Bleeder valves for any air locks at high points of piping, and shut off valves to isolate sections to replace a pump. Pumps are on flanges, four bolts and unplug the pump to replace one, literally takes 15 minutes.
We have about 20K in our system, which also pre-heats our hot water, to include machine time to bury the insulated lines to shop and house, and includes baseboard heaters. The baseboard heaters were $5 a foot when I installed them, but they are about $8 a foot now. Our intentions are that when we get too old to heat with wood, to install a propane boiler to the existing system. We have some electric heat still but can't tell you the last time we used it. We also still have a brick chimney with liner, and a spot in the basement we can hook up one of the many wood stoves my wife buys, just in case of long term power outages. Also plumbed in water fill system in the house, but I couldn't get a full two gallons of anti-freeze in it this fall.
The hard part is installing all the baseboard heaters in an already built home, but you can also pump the water into a plenum/ radiator that goes into the duct work of your existing forced air system, or pipe to standing / ornamental radiators with built in fans, throughout the house. Lots of options out there.

 

[Bret4207]

I agree, it would be a wunnerful option. It's the expense stopping me at this point. Perhaps in a couple years when I'm done playing a sort of Dave Ramsey inspired Scrooge it might be possible.

 

[GaryN]

I've been heating my house with a Blaze King since 1987. I use coal and wood. Haven't even turned on the furnace for about 25 years. It was looking kinda worn out. I bought a used one that looked brand new. I still haven't installed it because the old one still works. I use the princess model. I've had it 25 below and still kept the house in the upper 70's.

 

[Bill]

There's no magic to a wood stove, it's a box that holds burning wood. Some designs are clearly better than others with elements to increase durability (fire brick, extra plates, etc.), elements to increase efficiency such as smoke chambers and baffles (Jotul is very good at that) and features that make them easier to control and use (air inlets, ash pans, etc.)
The real differences are the sizes of the stoves.
There is a tendency to go too big when sizing a stove. That often results in either inefficient operation or way more heat than is needed.

There are times and places a big stove is needed (Big spaces, poor insulation, long unattended burn times, etc.) However, more often than not, a huge stove is a mistake.