Wood Burner

[mom45]

The glass on our stove is always covered in soot. I don't even bother to try to get it off as the stove runs 24/7 during the winter and is always hot. It heats the house and that's what it is meant to do. The catalytic combustor does a great job of making it more efficient as well.

 

[maxwelhse]

This one installed about 5000.00 which is nothing to sneeze at.

Realizing I'm the Debbie Downer here, that is exactly what I was quoted to have a similar unit installed 10 years ago. That exact number is what led me to the conclusion that a wood burner would cost roughly the same as ~10 years of propane plus the cost of a second "emergency" tank that would last an entire winter on its own. Granted, it was a small house. Also, like you, I also had no ready source of wood so that was part of it.

I don't know what your goals are other than "wood stove", but as far as prepping and heating there are other options that are actually quite reasonable when you really think it through. If you just like the look and general "feel" of it, go with a ventless gas log and you'll cut the price of the installed unit in half and the hassle down by 99%.

 

[churchmouse]

Lots of stoves soot up the glass. When I was a kid that was one of my weekly chores in the cold months. use a razor blade scraper to get the worst of it off and then finish with a wet rag. Dont see what the big deal is.

Bingo. Some people.......

 

[patience0830]

The glass on our stove is always covered in soot. I don't even bother to try to get it off as the stove runs 24/7 during the winter and is always hot. It heats the house and that's what it is meant to do. The catalytic combustor does a great job of making it more efficient as well.

The soapstone stove we have is pretty good about self cleaning the glass if it is burned with the catalyst on for any length of time. I just hate moving it to clean the flue. Thing must weigh 400#.

 

[Gluemanz28]

In the manufactured housing industry those units are so tight that they actually require an out door air make up on the HVAC system. At least the ones I have seen and I have seen a few doing HVAC upgrades and installs. If you doors are leaking fix the damned things. Seriously. If your windows are leaking....same thing, fix them. I have done a sweep of the house every winter looking for intrusion. And I find something every year. I want to choose how we control the house and no it is not as tight as described above. Its to old. But hey, we can split hairs all day on this one.

An outdoor air source should be well adjusted for the house. A positive pressure measured on a manometer. is not a bad thing. It is not all that spendy on a balanced system. We considered this when I put in the new furnace and duct last year. Just to many other real world things to deal with. But now that this thread has re-opened that can of worms.....

I sell adhesive, tapes and sealants into the manufactured housing industry. They glue, seal and use butyl and foam tape at every connection. They got them so tight that they had to add a blend air system in them. I don’t know much about them. I have only seen the vents on the outside of the units.

 

[churchmouse]

I sell adhesive, tapes and sealants into the manufactured housing industry. They glue, seal and use butyl and foam tape at every connection. They got them so tight that they had to add a blend air system in them. I don’t know much about them. I have only seen the vents on the outside of the units.

Yup. And people think those units are crap.....

 

[Gluemanz28]

Yup. And people think those units are crap.....

Highly regulated manufacturing process. Just like anything out there you can buy. Some are low end and some are high end. I’ve been in about all of them from California across to New York, probably around 300 factories in my 32 years in the industry and I would have no problem living in a manufactured home. I’m mean come on at our age we’re not really look at a home as an investment.

 

[churchmouse]

Highly regulated manufacturing process. Just like anything out there you can buy. Some are low end and some are high end. I’ve been in about all of them from California across to New York, probably around 300 factories in my 32 years in the industry and I would have no problem living in a manufactured home. I’m mean come on at our age we’re not really look at a home as an investment.

 

[Cozy439]

We have two Vermont Castings Stoves. Very well made. You can find used ones reasonable on CL or Facebook marketplace. Our main stove is the Dutchwest with the catalytic combustor.

We also have the exact same Dutchwest model from Vermont Castings. Going into 21 winter with it. It sits in the basement and heats the whole house as long as the winds aint howling or the temp aint below O degrees F. Love it.

 

[mom45]

We also have the exact same Dutchwest model from Vermont Castings. Going into 21 winter with it. It sits in the basement and heats the whole house as long as the winds aint howling or the temp aint below O degrees F. Love it.

Ours has been in for at least 22 years and other than changing the catalytic combustor every couple of years and keeping the chimney clean, we haven't had to do anything to it.

 

[kolob10]

I have burned wood for 50 years. Stay away from catalytic stoves. The catalyst are expensive and fragile. My pick is a Jotul. There are other brands but Jotuls are durable and trouble free. Cast iron is the way to go. Burn good dry wood and keep your chimney clean.

 

[thelefthand]

For my 2200 sq ft, I went with an add-on style wood furnace that connects to our normal central air furnace in the basement. Our house was set up to heat with wood when it was built, which makes certain aspects a little easier. We heated this way when I was growing up, and it did a better job than our neighbors who used a wood stove. I bought my wood furnace used because I wanted to put extra money into a stainless chimney liner, which I'm glad that I did. I clean my chimney between 2 and 4 times per season. The colder it is outside, the hotter the chimney stays, and the less I have to clean it. It has paid for itself, and all my associated equipment 2x at this point. The furnace was pretty old when I bought it, and will need to be replaced in the next few years. I'm looking at moving to an OWB at that point, but I'm still up in the air on it. I also cut my wood (mostly dead hickory) about an hour away. I ended up buying a used heavy duty 6x15 equipment trailer to haul my firewood on. I can haul close to 2 cords with my one ton, so that makes it worth the 90 mile round trip. Eventually I bought an old tractor with a loader, so now I winch the wood up onto the trailer as 7' logs. Leaving everything as logs isn't actually much faster, but it's a hole lot easier on my back than loading everything one stick at a time. Cutting everything first, it would take me about 10 hrs to cut and stack 2 cords of wood onto the trailer. With logs, the time is down to 6 hrs, but I still have to cut and split them before I use them, so I figure the total time is about the same, but more of it can be done at my convenience in the back yard instead of out in the woods where its harder to adapt when something goes wrong. I use my tractor to drag the logs off the trailer, then use the loader with forks to stack the logs where I wan them. They get stacked on top of a pair of RR ties, 2 cords to a stack. I use the tractor to bring several logs up to the house where I cut them to length, split them, and drop them into the basement. I do it this way because the length of the wood depends on the weather forecast. My furnace prefers 24" lengths, but on a 25 deg day, it will get the house up into the 80s. By adjusting the length that I'm cutting, I can keep the flue hot and clean, and still burn up into the mid 30s without getting the house too hot. Until last year, I split everything by hand because it's always been substantially faster than using a hydraulic splitter. After 30 years of splitting by hand, my 45 yo shoulders are starting to have problems swinging an 8 lb maul, so I finally bought a used splitter for $400. it has worked great because now the kids are old enough to pick the splits up and throw them in the basement, as well as roll the rounds over to the splitter after I cut them. Speeds the process up, and lets the wood heat them a 2nd time as well

 

[Clay Pigeon]

I have burned wood for 50 years. Stay away from catalytic stoves. The catalyst are expensive and fragile. My pick is a Jotul. There are other brands but Jotuls are durable and trouble free. Cast iron is the way to go. Burn good dry wood and keep your chimney clean.

I'm with you, my older sister has a side loading Jotul in her home.
I clean both of my triple wall chimneys each year and just get black dust floating down. Good dry hardwood.

 

[churchmouse]

Our little Franklin does everything we need it to do.

 

[dprimm]

Bringing this back up. I want a small wood stove for our new place. Supplement heat or to keep things warm if the gas gets stupid expensive.

Problem with pellets is I rely on someone else to make them. Though I could get a pellet maker and use free sawdust. I have access to woods and lots of them. Just have to haul logs home

 

[Cameramonkey]

And I have been toying with it as well.
If pellet, most of them require electricity to run the feeder. Find one that is native 12VDC so if push came to shove you could run it off a deep cycle battery. (preliminary idea, havent looked any farther than knowing you could run the right motor off a marine battery in a grid down scenario)

Also make sure the stove has a fresh air intake. I think its also called make up air. It pulls in outside air for combustion directly into the firebox so you arent sending room air up the chimney, drawing cold air in from the outside that will have to be heated, making it less efficient.

 

[Magyars]

Had a hearthstone years ago, it was great but expensive. We now have a Jotul and it's been outstanding, and as an added benefit it looks like a moai.

 

[Magyars]

Bringing this back up. I want a small wood stove for our new place. Supplement heat or to keep things warm if the gas gets stupid expensive.

Problem with pellets is I rely on someone else to make them. Though I could get a pellet maker and use free sawdust. I have access to woods and lots of them. Just have to haul logs home

With a Woodstove, you can always find something to burn

 

[nra4ever]

I use an osburn 2200 insert. It’s great supplemental heat. Plus if there is a power outage it’s a nice back up. I also have an old Vermont casting defiant out in the barn I’d part with. I was going to install out there but I never did.

you will probably want to buy a stove soon before they are all gone or crazy expensive. Not sure what this winter will bring but it’s better to be ready. I’m going to cut up some down trees when it cools down some so I’m ready.