Hi I'm Michael, I'm the newest guy in the hood. I heated two homes for 18 years with wood, so i used to be a hoarder in the 3rd degree. Got away from it due to a back injury, divorce, and a career change. I'mmmm backkkk!!! LOLOL Looking for a nice small stove and strong saw for next season. I like that guys Mighty Mini 12 outdoor stove. its a shame he's having trouble with the testing, that stove soes exactly what all stoves should be doing!!! I have a small homesteadish home of 900 sq ft. well insulated and sealed, a mall stove like that at full throttle would be perfect!!1 Nice to meet you all!!!!
Welcome to the club, you're in good company here! Where do you hail from? Oh, and if you or shoot like firewood videos send me a PM!
Hey Burns… Welcome aboard the hoardin train. A 3rd degree Hoarder… cool. Lots of good people here.
Welcome burnswod. For a well sealed home of that size, consider one of the smaller to medium cats. Give some more pertinent info, and the ideas will start flying.
Im located 70 miles south of Chicago in the middle of a windy cornfield. House is older ranch style but completely remodeled, new windows and attention to detail went into the remodel. 10" added in attic, floors insulated over a crawl space. I currenty use LP for a total use of 400 gallons per year including water heating and cooking. I believe i need something along the lines of the "squirrel", Jotul 602, Sardine, or only slightly larger. Like I said, I liked the Gray Stove companys Mighty Mini 12 CT. I have forced air heat now but i dont mind a cold bedroom at other end of house. I'd like to see the fire. I have heated homes with wood before, this would be a self install.
Welcome, Mr. burns! We've got a similar place, just under 1000, but not as well sealed and insulated (a bit warmer here, though.) I've got a Woodstock Keystone cat stove. The great thing about it is the flexibility; You can have flame in the box for a few hours if you want but if you need to be away for a while, you can cut the air more for a low, long cat burn that will still have your house warm ten hours later with a big coal bed left to re-load on. With the small non-cats you mentioned, you may find yourself having to get up to re-load on the cold nights or else wake up to a cool house, having to build a new fire from scratch.
Thankyou Mr. Woody, very good points you bring up. Obviously you can tell I have not used a wood stove for 20 years. I had never seen a cat stove in 1993 around here and only heard of them back then. I know one manufacturer sold retro fit kits to add on to the stove pipe that had a handle connected to a cat disk to be pushed inline of a very hot fire. I need to get reaquointed with the new equipment available. It sure would be nice to wake up to a big pile of coal in the morning just waiting for a fresh log!!! Thanks guys for the fireside welcome and be patient with my learning curve. I enjoy welding, fabricating, and otherwise building stuff, so who knows where this will lead me to??
+1 on the cat stove. You need something low and slow, but can crank when needed. If you go with too small of a non-cat stove you probably won't like the burn/reload times.
Oh and we like pictures also! Doesn't matter of what we just like pictures! Food,guns,beer,wives and or girlfriends! Some people around here will also inquire about your wood stacks but beware of them as your stash may come up missing! Gary
The early cat stoves got a lot of bad press, the majority of it probably due to buyers who previously ran old stoves, where you could still get some heat out of the stove even if your wood wasn't very dry. The new EPA stoves (since the early '90s,) cat or non-cat, burn the smoke and gasses that come off the wood to extract more heat and burn cleaner. But you need dry wood or the re-burn process will be inhibited and you won't get the heat or clean burn (and clean flue) that you want. The great thing is, the new stoves burn from 1/3 to 1/2 less wood than the old smoke-bombers did, for the same heat. From your '3rd degree hoarder' and 'homestead' comments, I'm guessing that you may already know the value of dry wood, which helped even the old stoves (but your 'fresh log' comment is worrisome...implies un-split wood.) If you know about dry wood, we don't need to tell you that the time to stack more wood is now! I would stack in single rows where the wind can blow through, stack loose and focus on the quickest-drying stuff I could get....dead standing trees (White Ash especially,) or soft Maple, Black Cherry, etc. and split it medium-small to make sure it'll be dry by this fall. You can split medium or medium-large in subsequent years. Any Oak you get will need a couple of years in the stack at least, even if it's already dead (although a few upper branches could be pretty dry.) The stove I've got my eye on is the smaller version of the Woodstock Ideal Steel, due out in ~1.5 years. Welded steel box, so no seams to maintain, cat and secondary air re-burn for a wide output range, good ash disposal system, and plenty of firepower even if we add a room.
When I was living in an old trailer( 1980,about 900sq ft) I was heating it with a late 90 ish stove rated at 1100 sf (trailor had lousy insulation) but you could get the main area up to 90 ( about 1.5-2 cf fire box I think) It has all the current 2nd burn functions. just for a stove size ref. It would keep the trailer above 60 for about 10 hours unless it got to be sub zero out. Mfg got out of the biz when the EPA rules came along. plate steel stove.
Any wood i have ever burned has always been very dry and at room temp. To speed the drying process I used to cover the single deep rows of southern facing rows with clear plastic and left the ends open. You would be amazed how much faster a solar dehydrator like this dries wood!! LOL think of an Excaliber on steroids. LOL
Welcome there burnswod. With that small of a home and it being well insulated it should be pretty easy to heat. I see you said back injury and it has been a long time since burning wood. Do you have a wood supply that is cheap? Cut your own wood? Considered a pellet stove? Are you in an area with pretty cold winters?
Welcome aboard! Love to have a new member aboard and these guys on here are great. I'm always learning new things on here, and yes we are a little nuts.
