Best wood stove for me?

Bandmill Bandit · November 07, 2019, 11:47:48 AM

The double barrel stoves I've seen locally are stacked horizontally on top of each other with a piece of 6 to 12 inch pipe (depending on barrel/fire box size) welded vertically between them at the end opposite the loading door, the chimney in the top barrel above the door with the water jacket in the top chamber when they have a water Jacket. They work very well.

Al_Smith · November 07, 2019, 12:04:20 PM

The relatively thin sheet steel of a common oil drum radiates heat well plus there is a lot of surface area in a drum .I've heard of but never have myself lined the bottom with fire brick .I suppose after many years of usage they could burn out but I've never seen it myself .
If you think about it a double with the potential of 250,000 BTU /hr is a lot of heat .As a gauge on that my slightly over 2100 sg ft house has a heat lose of slightly over 30,000 btu per hour .I'd have to leave the doors open and sit around in my underwear .Geeze would that be a sight to make eyes sore .

John Mc · November 07, 2019, 05:02:00 PM

Quote from: Al_Smith on November 07, 2019, 12:04:20 PM
The relatively thin sheet steel of a common oil drum radiates heat well plus there is a lot of surface area in a drum .I've heard of but never have myself lined the bottom with fire brick .I suppose after many years of usage they could burn out but I've never seen it myself .
If you think about it a double with the potential of 250,000 BTU /hr is a lot of heat .As a gauge on that my slightly over 2100 sg ft house has a heat lose of slightly over 30,000 btu per hour .I'd have to leave the doors open and sit around in my underwear .Geeze would that be a sight to make eyes sore .

I was kind of wondering how we got off on this tangent. The OP was asking about heating 1500 sq ft. I can't imagine using a double drum stove for that.

Al_Smith · November 07, 2019, 05:20:05 PM

Use smaller drums perhaps ;D

thecfarm · November 07, 2019, 06:01:52 PM

open a window. :D

doc henderson · November 07, 2019, 07:11:33 PM

whole house fan works when we get it a little to warm. 8) 8) 8)

Al_Smith · November 07, 2019, 07:21:49 PM

Quite frankly I have been known to open a door on occasion .Some times they can get away from you .I don't even light the fire until it gets below 30 .

doc henderson · November 07, 2019, 08:56:58 PM

we get excited for the first fire in the fall. it feels good in the living room but all the bedrooms are upstairs, and then it is too warm to sleep. heat set at 55 in the shop, so I get a fire in the am to take the chill off. I would say we spanned the gamut on barrel stoves, and would recommend a well controlled stove for the OP.

Al_Smith · November 08, 2019, 05:50:47 AM

Alright already barrel is out .Vermont castings makes a nice side loader about the right sized for the application .Weather it's worth 1200 bucks might be another subject of conversation .Just "Goggle " it .

Old Greenhorn · November 08, 2019, 06:15:13 AM

Whats the model name, they have several? They make good stoves.

Al_Smith · November 08, 2019, 01:34:11 PM

Aspen C3

rubberfish · November 08, 2019, 09:27:20 PM

Quote from: Peter Drouin on November 03, 2019, 08:44:30 PM
80° at my house all winter. ;D ;)

I am never coming to visit you. Unless I get to sit outside and look in a window.

Al_Smith · November 09, 2019, 07:47:20 AM

If you have low humidity 80 probably wouldn't feel that hot .

doc henderson · November 09, 2019, 09:17:49 AM

as a side note. we have a trilevel house. the stove in on the mid main level. the beds are up the stairs and easy to heat with the stove. in fact in the eve. we keep the doors closed so it does not get too warm. we do not use the down stairs as much, and it will stay 60 degrees if running the stove. we have a natural gas boiler with pex in the floor radiant heat. the up stairs has a water to air exchanger with forced air heat. we try to use the stove in the winter with the coiler as a back up. I installed a fan behind the stove in the med level that goes through the wall and come out in the hallway in the lower level so in a power outage we can heat out 4500 sq. foot home with our stove. ice storms are the usual reason we would have power out for a week. "be prepared" @Old Greenhorn . we can run our boiler with very little elect. current. we have to power the pump and logic board. we can use an inverter or generator.

Old Greenhorn · November 09, 2019, 09:43:11 AM

Quote from: Al_Smith on November 08, 2019, 01:34:11 PM
Aspen C3

That's a nice design. In the 80's I heated my shop with an Atlanta casting stove of similar shape and size except it was made from 5/16 plate. I'd like to get that stove going again.

Al_Smith · November 09, 2019, 10:52:25 AM

During the so called "energy crunch ",late 70's mid 80's with a resurgence of wood burning there must have been a couple hundred companies making stoves .Many had some type of end loading box stoves .They did fine depending on how large an area to be heated .You could probably find them in trading papers or Craigslist if you looked .Just look them over before you buy .

doc henderson · November 09, 2019, 12:15:34 PM

I found a small lopi nearly new. put in a nice lake house and only used a few times. wife remodeled and out goes the stove. they were asking 250$ but turns out he knows my cousin and he took off another 50 bucks. keep your eyes open. it looked great, small and if you lived closer ... loads from the front. sold it to my brother over a year ago and he still has not installed it. If I were putting a stove in my house, I would only go used if it was fairly new and in near perfect condition.

John Mc · November 10, 2019, 07:46:23 PM

Quote from: doc henderson on November 09, 2019, 12:15:34 PMIf I were putting a stove in my house, I would only go used if it was fairly new and in near perfect condition.

X2

thecfarm · November 10, 2019, 08:22:03 PM

I don't know for sure,I work in a hardware store,we don't sell the real nice stoves,but we have the cheap ones at 40% off. If we do not get rid of these "older" stoves by the end of this year,we will be stuck with them. Seem to be new regs on the amount of smoke wood stoves can put out? All that Parts Per Million stuff?

Al_Smith · November 11, 2019, 05:41:04 AM

I suppose there are some areas of the country where regulations of stoves exist pertaining to emissions however this part of Ohio is not one of them .
I'm not sure exactly what could go wrong with a heavy plate steel stove except the door seals go bad which are easy to replace .Even if it sat outside for 20 years all it would do is surface rust .Sand blast it and give it a good daubing of stove black you wouldn't be able to tell it from a new one .

doc henderson · November 11, 2019, 08:56:36 AM

our 20 y/o Avalon, had been overfired a time or two. My wife still cannot figure which way the air controls go. the box is ok, but the interior air channel had cracks at the joints. It made it so I could not shut it down as well, and the glass soiled, and it did not burn as well. I packed stove cement in the cracks and it works like new again. able to control the air flow again. when ours is going, you can see heat out the chimney but no dark smoke. very efficient. in power outages we can keep our 4500 sq. foot tri-level comfortable with just the stove. It is rated for 2200 Sq. feet.

doc henderson · November 11, 2019, 09:24:33 AM

I think the OP has to look at his goals. any stove will keep you from freezing to death. it should be air tight so it can be controlled and not a risk for CO poisoning. Efficiency should cover not only particulate output, but complete burning of fuel and getting heat for the home. some stoves are more complex to use, with slide controls and lighting procedures, and so simple is a nice feature. some may want it to look nice and others may want it to last 25 years. Many of us want all of the above! our stove has been in our great room for almost 20 years. minor repairs and occasional inspection by a local dealer. they carry and throw in replacements parts like the pins that hold the air tubes in the downward position. we used double wall pipe inside due to the long flu with a 16 foot ceiling.

21 degrees out now, my seat watching the news, drinking coffee and surfing the FF.

note fox news and griffin the shih Tzu in front of the fire.

Al_Smith · November 11, 2019, 10:57:47 AM

:D Well I don't have Fox news on , MSNBC though .Might fire the insert up in a day or two,snow they say and 11 degrees .This one doesn't belch smoke either once a nice bed of coals is established .It's a letter designation like model x or something ,double glass front doors ,blower .Most likely once the fire is lit it won't be a dog in front .Possibly two cats from time to time .
I think the fire brick lined bottom and part way up the sides acts like an oven because it burns every thing to powder .It is surprising the small amount of ash it produces .

doc henderson · November 11, 2019, 11:56:45 AM

here is a few pics of the through wall fan, that helps move heat to the lower level of our trilevel house.

this is in the hall of our down stairs, it has the fan motor with it and the fan speed control. the grill rotates and can direct airflow. it is nearly silent unless on the highest setting.

this is the intake side behind our wood stove. got power from the nearest 110 V receptacle. stove is on the midlevel, and heat goes up the open stairway passively to the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. the fan pulls heat to the basement/lowest level.