Anybody have a wood cook stove share your pics and vids

Anybody in here have a wood cook stove?
We have a kitchen queen grand comfort and it’s the best money I ever spent. Here is a video of it working hard!

 

I concur ^^^

Awesome stove.
Thx for sharing that video.

 

Kitchen Queen 480 here as well.
Dries my underwear

Dries my onions

Canning

25 gallons hot water

Dinner


I added this thermostat before they were optional. Instant ignition with under fire air, also allows coal use.

 

Amazing stoves! Makes me jealous!

 

Nice stove sir. Nice lanterns on the Hoosier(?)

 

Love it, Coaly!!!

Finishing an install this minute on a Hitzer 354 double door with a bi-metallic thermostat on it. Can’t wait to get a fire in her belly. Well, we test fired on the driveway.

What kind of onions? A few years ago I raised 12 bushel of sweet Candy onions...5 big long 160ft rows of them. I laid them out, and when I looked back my 6 year old son was poking them in the ground...and he finished every last one of them too...and I didn’t even ask him to help. Pap always said you was either born with or you wasn’t. Lol!!!

Love the stove!!!

 

Yeah, I collect lanterns, they are the users in the kitchen. Not a Hoosier cabinet in background. The white metal top on the far left is an actual Hoosier. Across from it in foreground, far right, is a Western Electric crank phone that is hooked up and works! Modeled kitchen with 1921 ice box for cabinets, Hoosier bakers cabinet, stove top ovens for bread boxes..... Other than a sink base, I can take everything out of the kitchen down to a bare room. It’s unique.

 

That thermostat is from Hitzer. Had a conversation with Duane Miller from Kitchen Queen years ago about adding t-stats on the stoves for the Amish households. That’s what I came up with. A couple years later the new ones were tested and UL Listed with them!

Not sure about the onion variety. That year they all grew tall and split. We had an Amish Bishop visit at a men’s church breakfast, so I asked him what we were doing wrong. He said, I don’t know, I’m a welder! So much for thinking they are all farmers!

 

Erratic watering patterns can cause splitting. Sometimes we don’t get rain when we need it and the amounts needed. Might be other caused too.

Can you recommend a Fisher stove for 1300 sq. ft. ranch, inside masonry chimney, centrally located open design? Would love to find something with glass doors for the wifey, but I’d settle for a much older stove.

 

I’ve talked with Dean Lehman at Hitzer...owner...his dad and son, and they are a first class family operation. All Amish working for them and they all seem like family.

Went to a coalpail get-together (used to be NEPA crossroads) there at Hitzer and took a factory tour. Spent some time with one of the Amish workers and his family, was invited to their home and visited there etc. It was great.

I like the modification to the baffle plate on that bi-metallic. Lots of people use a paper clip to maintain some minimal air flow for idling coal.

Is the 480 a wood/coal cook stove? If so, how heavy are the grates?

I’d like to find a Good coal cook stove. I here some of the wood cook stoves weren’t designed to burn coal on a daily basis, but coal can burn wood daily if needed.

 

They lose their UL Listing burning coal since they were only tested with wood. It works fine with intake under stock grate, but you can’t shake until you put a moveable grate system in. Best I’ve found is from an old Gibraltar (later Glacier Bay). My thermostat adds air under grate from the back. Fisher type air dampers on the ash door allows a low volume air intake for when thermostat is closed (like Hitzer). My solid door without glass has wood air intake for low burn with t-stat closed. Cracking that slightly for coal allows secondary air for coal gas ignition. The Queen handles coal better than other cook stoves since it is made with 1/4 steel compared to gauge steel of others.
The only thing Kitchen Queen needs to make them better is a nest type stove top lid over firebox. They are so big, it takes a big pan or skillet to cover the opening when removed for direct flame contact. A normal size kettle only needs a small hole, so a 3 piece ring set, you only remove the center for the right amount of opening. Even a 2 piece nest would help considerably. Otherwise you’re cooking on a solid stove top like any freestanding stove. Much slower. Antiques used the nest type made from cast pieces. They all fall through the Queen, so you need to weld rings for steel plate discs to set inside each other. A time consuming task, and probably why they don’t offer it as an accessory. Definitely need a nest with summer grate.

 

The wood grate is 1/2 inch steel rods with the perfect opening between them. I believe 1/4 inch. This allows scraping across the top to allow wood ash to drop, and if you don’t clean too often packs on top to burn on more of a solid bottom prolonging the burn. I only clean down to a clean grate when starting. The long poker supplied cleans well from the top lid opening. It has a bend on the end that sweeps ash through the spaces between rods just right.
Any coal grates you use, you need to make an angle iron frame to set them in. Preferably for Chestnut. Stove coal burns way too hot with that large of a firebox.

 

Mama Bear. No glass option with it, but the burn characteristics with a deep. narrow stove and large cook top make up for it. They burn much better than square stoves with glass loading sideways.
Glass would be a Grandma III or IV. They are also the best for adding secondary burn tubes. Then you have the performance of an EPA stove with an old one. I prefer to drill holes in the bottom plate of a double baffle for secondary air. The baffle being the hottest part in the stove preheats the incoming air. A pipe flange on the top baffle plate allows a black iron intake pipe to be inserted through the exhaust vent, and out the side of the pipe so no alterations to the stove are made.
Anyone down south or with extremely insulated home can use a Honey Bear with glass.
The 6 inch stoves (all but Grandma) should have a 6 inch insulated liner if the masonry flue is 8 inch square. 6 inch with Grandma works fine with a straight up chimney, but against code to reduce.

 

Thank you much for the detailed response.

I really like the idea of adding secondary air without cutting holes in the stove. I’d like to see some pictures of that as well as the double baffle.

 

I measured the wood grate spacing when my fire was low this morning. It is 5/16 between steel rods. I rake across it in the morning exposing a few slots, but not too much so it loads back up with ash during the first burn. That slows it down just right. Many times when it's cold and we're burning hard 24/7 (as our only heat source) I don't scrape any through the grates to burn on a good layer of ash. It doesn't need air from the t-stat below grate when the front intake through door is wide open. We run about 1/4 open heating 1880 square feet, and only open t-stat when starting, or higher temps are needed in oven.
Here are the pictures I took when adding the thermostat back in November 2015. ALL my references in above posts are for the Queen model.

I mounted the thermostat housing so the chain was centered in the ash pan rear wall area.

Centered intake opening with chain from thermostat.

Drilling corner holes.


Sawzall ready to connect the dots.


1/2 inch thick square tube mounted with angle brackets.

Side view shutter open.

I didn't take pictures fabricating the hollow baffle in the Fisher experiment. It was before I had a digital camera, and I was one of the last on the planet to have a cell phone. (been 1 year this month!) I document and give specific instruction on another website in a thread called "Simple Baffle Solution for your old FISHER! More Heat Less Smoke Under $25". That gives angle and size for single door stoves that never had factory baffles. The double door factory baffle was very conservative to allow use of larger existing chimney flues. So you can fine tune the baffle to the chimney and get much higher efficiency out of any Fisher adjusting the baffle correctly.

I tried secondary burn tubes, but they are more complex and if you are making one baffle, why not make a second, weld them together with 1/2 inch steel spacer strip around the edge to keep them 1/2 inch apart. Drill 1/8 inch holes in rows through the lower baffle plate. (where you would want burn tube inlet holes) The upper plate only needs one large hole in the center for a black iron pipe flange. I used 3/4 pipe flange like mounting a railing to a wall. The pipe screws in through the exhaust vent opening, elbow up with a 45* and run the 3/4 pipe up the stack a bit to a 90* elbow. (in the first pipe section below damper if used) I hole sawed through the side of connector pipe, and used a short nipple through the wall. Double nutted 3/4 electrical conduit type nuts inside and outside of pipe to hold tight. The exhaust heat warms the intake pipe, the air is heated between the baffle plates and ignites easily. No tubes to burn out, built as heavy duty as the rest of the Fisher. Don't know why more manufacturers don't use the baffle for an intake. DS Machine (another Amish stove manufacturer) is one of the few that you can see their products that use this type secondary inlet online. Talking to them there is where I got the idea of a hollow baffle plate to admit oxygen above the fire. No tubes to fall out, no expensive stainless tubes required, and doesn't affect fuel load. (of course it is more expensive to manufacture, and they will never sell burn tubes, could be the reason?)

You only need the pipe damper to slow an over drafting chimney, or for open door burning with screen in place if you don't have glass. I put them in all installations as an emergency brake, or if you get something stuck in the door that takes awhile to get it closed, or have to work on it..... like cleaning door seal or back of door. In the case of broken glass, you will need it to control fire as well.

 

I couldn't help but notice your bi-metallic door flap has 4 fairly large holes drilled in it. This means you always have some under-fire air coming in, correct? Of course, you're burning wood mostly with this stove, but many Hitzer users (and D.S.M.) use a similar technique when burning coal to maintain a slow and low stove temperature; they use a paper clip. I'm sure you're probably aware of this, and obviously the wood would need more air to maintain the lowest burn you choose.

On a side note, I took the time to look up that article on the Fisher baffle solution article you mentioned on another forum, that I am not a member of, and I read the entire article. Specifically what stood out to me was your posts 3-5 on the last page of that article. If you don't mind, so as not to derail this thread, I'd like to talk to you privately with regard to some of the things you mentioned in those last few posts. I have a project stove I am going to be working on, though not a Fisher...a Solarwood…but you said some things about stove outlet reduction and chimney size that I'd like your input on. Let me know and I can send you a pm.

Thank you for the link to the article and for your contributions here in this thread. WeldrDave told me about you, and I have already learned a ton from you...more from you in just a few posts than most of the time I've spent on forums related to burning something.

 

Sent you a pm, Coaly.

 

No, the holes in the door flap are outside of the intake opening it seals. Closed allows no air flow.
That plate was from a baffle type partition in a microwave oven. I didn't cut it down to eliminate the holes because I liked the weight of the flap using gravity to securely close it. It was just the right gauge, not flimsy and flat for a good seal.
Like older Hitzer's, when t-stat closes, it requires a small intake elsewhere under grate to admit low fire air. Easiest place on a Queen is the ash door using a Fisher style intake damper. I do have a Hitzer EZ-FLO hopper style stove for a break from wood heat some years. It is a much more even heat, and I don't always have enough wood dried ahead of time. with no thermostatically controlled heat source in my home it also serves well if we have to be away for longer period of time than the wood stove allows.
I find using the low fire manually to maintain house temperature is much more efficient on fuel than using a thermostat that burns hard when it's open, allowing cool down while closed. My t-stat on the Hitzer only opens when starting, or in need to save the fire, or bring house temp up after a long period between shaking.

The t-stat on the Queen ignites this thing like a light bulb. Instant flame when kindling.

 

Ok...it was a little harder to see at first, but after looking again and studying the photo I can see the flap is wider than by a good bit than the intake. That's why I thought the holes were allowing air through. Glad you pointed that out. That's likely a better flapper than the Hitzer. The D.S. Machine flapper is cast...and really nice.

Thanks for the pm's. I'm burning coal in order to let my wood season for a while as well.

I believe I am going to have Dean at Hitzer build me another ash door for my stove, just so I can control it manually as well. I think it will be a great help and save wear on the ash door hinge pins and gaskets...which I plan to lubricate with high temp never-seize.

I also plan to make the same bi-metallic modification to my project wood stove.