In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Anybody have a wood cook stove share your pics and vids

Discussion in 'Non-EPA Woodstoves and Fireplaces' started by Danny Rossa, Dec 22, 2019.

  1. Coaly

    Coaly

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    Yeah, Hitzer's thermostats are the best, heavy duty and affordable.
    I modeled it on the Hitzer flap using heavier gauge metal. My concern was my cat sleeping behind the stove rubbing up against it, knocking the flap off, (overheating the stove while we were gone) or getting her tail in it preventing it from closing.

    European stoves use a hydraulic type with sensor bulb and capillary tube. They are much more precise, but like anything else they build, complicated and expensive.
     
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  2. Hoytman

    Hoytman

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    I don’t mind sacrificing a little precision for simplicity.

    I love those wood cookstoves. The wife would like one of those and I like that model.

    You may find this Country Charm interesting ... Hitzer/Schwartz/Country Charm | Hand Fired Coal Stoves & Furnaces Using Anthracite | Coalpail.com Forum ... it utilizes a Hitzer stove...likely a 55 UL ... unless Hitzer is building a slightly smaller unit for them for the conversion. They’re just up the road from Hitzer...no phone. Dean from Hitzer took us there and they are building the unit for the conversion. I have a price sheet somewhere if you’d like a picture of it.
     
  3. Meche_03

    Meche_03

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    I don't have one but my Aunt in Missouri has one. I believe it's a FlameView out of Canada. It has a glass door on the right side. It heats her entire 2 story farm house.

    My kids and I visit her every Thanksgiving and Christmas. The kids favorite part is bacon cooked on the stove in cast iron skillets. It does taste different and the extra wiff of hickory and oak in the air adds to the whole breakfast flavor.

    My house uses a gas stove. I'd love a wood stove like my aunt's but the house is too modern and not laid out correctly for it. It would still work well in the detached shop for heat and cooking.
     
  4. Hoytman

    Hoytman

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    Coaly, can you describe what it’s like to clean wood cook stove like you’ve shown? I’m talking about the models in this thread and specifically talking about cleaning the air passageways. I’ve always heard the wood cookstoves were a lot more trouble to keep clean and that the cookstoves burning anthracite were much easier to clean. Having experienced neither, it’s simply hearsay to me.

    I’ve also heard the advantage of a coal cookstove is that you can also burn wood ... but cannot burn coal in a wood cook stove ... because of the grates. I’m sure grates and fireboxes can be modified.

    I will admit the smell of burning oak, mesquite, and especially hickory while cooking breakfast could be most appealing ... even to the neighbors. Lol!!!
     
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  5. Coaly

    Coaly

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    Older cook stoves were notorious for gunking up under the oven using wood. (they were primarily coal stoves with very small fireboxes) The oven flow was from the firebox, across the top and over the oven, down the side, across the bottom, and up the back to the outlet. This allowed moisture to condense with soot, creating sticky creosote goop under the oven that needed removal on a weekly basis. The Queen burns upward and across the top when the oven is off. It also is open to circulate around the oven at all times, it just takes the path of least resistance toward the chimney until you close the upper outlet forcing it to go around the oven only. With oven "on" you're closing the top vent that doesn't allow it to vent across the top to get out. The fire has to go sideways, under the oven first, up the side, across the top and out. No more condensing of liquids sooting up under the oven! I clean around the oven a couple times a season just because I know how much a layer of soot insulates the oven sides from the heat. I made a scraper about 3 inches wide X 1 inch tall on a long rod to scrape the powdery black and brown soot. You also remove the lid over the oven to clean above it. Fly ash will accumulate above the oven on its way to the chimney vent as well. If you clean it with fire going, all other intakes closed, the opening you clean from becomes the intake, allowing incoming air pressure to push into the stove, as its only intake preventing any dust from coming inside the house. Not a big deal at all.
    For heating more area, or during exceptionally cold, you can leave the oven door open at night for added heat. (not turning oven on to circulate around it - you always have a certain amount of circulation around oven, normally 300* without turning oven on) This works great when up to temp, but if you leave oven door open without being up to temp, it cools too much, allowing accumulation around oven. I never fill my firebox more than half since we heat under 2000 sf. It is capable of heating up to 3000 sf. so I squeeze all the heat out of a little wood I can, still keeping the chimney hot enough to stay clean. Mine is a 7 inch outlet, which the manual cautions against reducing to 6. I did the calculations, and experimented with plenty of baffles with this 6 inch Dura-Vent chimney, so I knew it had the capacity and draft required for firebox size, system resistance and our use. After using it many years, Kitchen Queen now passed the UL listing with a 6 inch flue collar on their new stoves. The newer stoves no longer use stainless for the oven box. I changed all my hardwire to stainless and added a probe type thermometer through oven door instead of a surface mount. Much more accurate.
    I have a summer grate as well. You can't use the oven with a raised summer grate. But you can fire the stove lightly with kindling, leave the chimney bypass open (a lever you pull open when starting) so it doesn't circulate across top or around oven, and doesn't heat the rest of the stove. Firebox dumps directly into chimney vent. You cook over direct flame with lid over fire removed. You can cook breakfast quicker than a gas range and let the heat directly up the chimney with very little heating of the stove. Like wok cooking, you have to keep the food moving or it will burn. It's fast. I have waffle irons and stove top toaster as well.
    I have a double oven commercial Garland range in the same kitchen (I'm a spoiled gas man by trade) and my wife would rather cook on the wood stove than the gas range. They are that good.

    Oven cooking and baking is always better in a wood oven because they are sealed with door gasket. They do not circulate air like a gas or electric oven. So food stays moist, never dried out and doesn't burn easily with so much moisture in the oven from the food. It is difficult to brown the top of a casserole. Temps are adjustable to reach 800*f. The thermometer goes to 1000. You can literally make pizza in 5 minutes at higher temperatures. You will also smell the food in the oven outside. There is a small vent from the oven interior leading into the exhaust vent to relieve any pressure build up. So you will get a whiff of dinner outside.
    No gaskets require any cement or glue. They all use a channel that you fold flat gasket material in half and insert into the slot. So you can actually change one hot if you have to.

    Yes, you "can" burn wood in any coal stove, just not efficiently. It burns fast getting oxygen from the bottom. Wood is best on a 1 inch bed of ash to prevent too much oxygen from making contact with the wood. This forms charcoal slowing the burn. My Queen was built for wood, so had air through the door. Adding the bottom intake and coal grates allows coal, but I can also let ash build up without shaking and burn wood using top air only as designed. Most people would need glass burning coal to control the fire and make sure the gas was igniting on top. We have enough experience to know by stack, oven and stove top temp how it's burning. Cracking a lid for a quick peek assures gas ignition on top. These are big lids to have go sailing if you had a big poof of coal gas ignition, so it's imperative to have upper secondary air cracked during coal use on any coal stove.
     
  6. Hoytman

    Hoytman

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    Great detailed post. All this has peaked my wife's interest because she likes wood burning. I let her read this and you got her attention with 'it's faster than gas', and "they are that good". I've been wanting a cookstove and you just may helped me out. LOL!!!
     
  7. Coaly

    Coaly

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    Yes, all winter the oven hovers around 300* during home heating. It's ready to bake anytime. You only need to pull the oven control open to climb to what you need. After opening of the door and cold food brings the temp down, it climbs right back up. Then shut off oven and it pretty much stays there. Leaving the oven on will creep up in a hurry. I thought we would be burning things or taking forever to cook, but not at all. The moisture it holds in oven prevents burning things that would dry out quickly in a circulating oven.
    The ONLY thing she ever burned was the bottom of a tray of cookies. She was taking a few trays out, and ran out of room on the kitchen counter, so she sat the tray of finished cookies on the stove top a few seconds to make room on the counter. Instant burn. Don't do that.

    Another thing we learned was when opening the oven door with a roast or meats cooking, the door will drip on the floor when open. There is so much moisture in these ovens while cooking, the door condenses when open, so we learned to put a towel on the floor under door to catch drips while basting turkey or turning something for even heating.

    You control the cook top temps by moving pans around instead of controlling the heat. When something starts to boil over, simply slide it away from the hotter side to the heat you need. All the way from the firebox side will keep things hot, like a ceramic cup of coffee or tea or a low simmer to keep things hot while other things finish. We never needed to put anything on a trivet to keep it cooler.
    Removing a lid for placing cookware over the open hole above fire does not smoke inside. Atmospheric air pressure is greater outside of the firebox than inside and pushes in feeding the fire. Antique pans will have a smoke ring on the bottom to get a good seal, but not necessary to have rings on all cookware.
    It's difficult to find large tray type skillets that are flat on the bottom. Any new ones you buy have a lip around the edge to set on a range top over electric or gas burners. You need one that sits flat and has contact with stove top over the entire skillet surface.
    Those are the first things we learned using a cook stove.

    The other word of caution is waffle irons on the stove top. You preheat and oil them. Oil lightly ! When opening, the oil runs down the upper lid onto the lower half AND onto hot stove top. Smoke, flame, generally a mess ensues.
     
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