Hi All, I'm new here. Thought I'd start of with a question.
I just built a 55Gal. wood stove. And I'll be using it for Heat in my house.
And I was looking for some input, pros and cons, from anyone experienced with these type of stoves.
I put aprox. 1-1/2" of sand on the bottom, and then put fire brick on top of the sand.
Should work ok.
Any info would be helpful.
Thanks
Steve
sounds like it should work good like that just remember to put a damper in to shut it down so it is not just a rawring fire all the time. Ive have some buddy's that have build them like that and it would burn them out of there houses or shop or whatever they had it in.
Welcome to the Forestry Forum.
Would help if you would go to your profile and add your location. Answers may be more forthcoming that way.
Such stoves can get very hot and very fast, and sometimes can last a very long time. However there are exceptions. :)
To be alittle safe ,once a week shut off the lights in the room with the stove and see if you can see the light of the fire through the wall of the barrel.first time you see a pin hole throw it out.this is from experience .
i was thinking about building one for my shop but then i found a old sears wood stove that has a blower on it so i went with that instead just for safty reasons as my shop will be for wood working. That is a good idea tho loghorse to keep up on the maintaine
I added my location, and avatar. My 1st Pa deer.
Thanks for the advice, keep'em coming.
I have built several of them with 3 inches of sand or clay but you should be ok with the sand and fire brick. when I get to my B I Ls I will take a picture of his
BowHunter58,welcome to the forum.
I never built one,but I always liked them double ones.
I know someone is going to say it so let it be me, your insurance company might not approve of it!
That being said, as with any wood stove there are inherent dangers. Be sure and keep safety a number one concern! We don't want to read about you losing your home or a loved one. If you can control the air intake you can control the fire, make it as tight as you can. Did you buy a kit? I built one for my garage last year, I used the Volgazang kit I bought at TSC. I love it, I made a couple of modifications that allows me to control the air intake, I don't use the damper that came with the kit, I put my own in the pipe about a foot up. It heats great and I can get it to go all night if I want it to. I used 1" firebrick in the bottom.
Take care,
dave
OH yeah, welcome to the sight!
I used one to heat my house 4000 square feet for 20 years Keep it away from the walls cause that girl will throw HEAT I am using OWB and forced air. Not as nice of warm feeling but I guess it's safer and is cleaner
If you didn't put it in the house yet make at least one good hot fire in it OUTSIDE to burn off the paint, it will smoke and stink.
Like mentioned above - insurance.
I use one to heat my shop - and it works very well. An old SOTZ door, and homemade rack to hold upper and lower barrels. Like mentioned above they throw alot of heat. I just let the ashes build up to protect the bottom. Frequent use keeps it dry inside, 2nd set of barrels in 30 yrs. I never let them get red hot either.
Don't quote me but I believe it is 36" min to any combustible surface for an un registered wood heater.
Quote from: gspren on January 04, 2015, 09:05:59 AM
If you didn't put it in the house yet make at least one good hot fire in it OUTSIDE to burn off the paint, it will smoke and stink.
I second this motion...there is a ton of crud that burns off. I even had some of the paint on the outside of the barrel flaming.
This is what I did
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0425.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/33477/DSCN0424.JPG) we had the local machine shop role the sheet metal for us the we welded the seam cot holes in the barrel then welded the tube in but a box fan behind it on low works good and don't use a lot of wood
goose63,never saw one like that. But I can see why it would work good. Looks like that brown heater is an old one too. Seem like I was somewheres and some guy told me these are best heaters ever.
Thanks for all the great tips.
I'm in process of burning the paint off the barrel now.
The insurance thing, is on my mind. But so is, there not paying my bills, they are one of them.
I'll check into it.
Thanks for all the help.
Goose63, That's a great looking stove.
DMcCoy, I think it's 36" to 40" clearance.
The door needs to be reasonably rigid. I ran an one for a season 25 yrs ago, it was homemade and old when it was given to me. The door was just a piece of the end of the barrel with hinges on one side and a latch on the other. I still remember the woof woof noise it made when I had too much dry lathe in it and it was sucking in the door to get another gulp of air. I think it was glowing before I got a pail of water into it to slow it down. I have always heard great things about double barrel stoves but that one with the Dyson fan hole in the top barrel looks like a great design.
I've known of two that were used like you have, and they work, work good. Not sure on the insurance issue, but careful attention covers a lot of ground. Moisture is the biggest killer to the thin walls of barrels.
I fabbed one up in my first shop (wow... thirty some years ago) from two 30 gallon grease drums. It kept that 25' x 25' garage toasty. A friend of mine has 55 gallon drums in the same size building at his cabin and we're down to our t-shirts with a window open when we're out there working. It can cook us out.
The nice thing a bought the one we made you can put a rack in the tube and cook a pizza or a #10 Dutch oven
The barrell stove as urban legion has it was a brain child of some GI half frozen to death during the building of the AlCan highway.
Thousands of empty oil drums ,lots pf wood on hand some yankee ingenuity and viola the barrell stove .
The Sotz kits used to be the best on the market .FWIW they are only approved for usage on a concrete floor .I'm thinking the double barrell assembly was upwards of 250,000 BTU .That's a lot of heat in anybodies book .
I ran across a the barrel kits at a couple of local farm & home stores. One was at 45 dollars and the other was 55. I think paid 40 for mine but it was after winter was over. They have feet, door and pipe adapter. The kit for stacking barrels was an additional 20 dollars at both stores. I may pick up one of those and add to mine.
30 gallon barrels work good.
my 90yr old grandmother still stokes one daily.
another nice addition to one is a 40 gallon nickel tank "old hot water tank" behind it.
makes a great pre heater to your source of domestic hot water.
I heated with a barrel stove for 20 years.It was made from a galvanized maple syrup barrel.50 gallon with the galvanizing burned off before installation in the house.It was ugly and could get real hot.We switched to a Mansfield soapstone stove 4 years ago and could not be happier.Much more even heat,the house is warm in morning and we feel much safer.A barrel stove will work,but if you can afford it buy soapstone.Mine was $1500.00 used in good shape.
Same barrows 25+ years no sand or brick, A kit I saw in a mag. I cleaned it out with a long handle spade.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22511/DSCN2814.JPG)
Those barrel stoves do take up a lot of room.
My Dad and I made a heater for a shed once with a 40 gal. water heater tank and old metal toilet seat hinges. It was in the standing up position and took up very little floor space. No were near air tight as we just cut out the loading door, clean out door and stove pipe hole with a jig saw.
That double barrell stove looks like a Sotz kit .It had a stamped sheet metal door and was probabley one of the better kits on the market at the time .Those things could heat a barn if you fired them hard .
Quote from: Al_Smith on January 31, 2015, 09:35:12 PM
That double barrell stove looks like a Sotz kit .It had a stamped sheet metal door and was probabley one of the better kits on the market at the time .Those things could heat a barn if you fired them hard .
It is.