Some Silly Wood Stove Questions

[ThreeJane]

To start with - what kind do you like? Will be used to heat mainly living room...we liked the size of the Jotul and the look of the QuadraFire 2100. (SMALL stove)

For underneath the stove (the "pan") - I wondered if I had to use something like slate or river rock, or could I just put plain old tile under there, i.e., bathroom floor tile, or the 12" kitchen/flooring tile? In other words CERAMIC tILE? Any special grout or mortar you have to use?

Better to build a pedestal to sit on or just have it flat on the floor? Stove is located on the "middle" floor of a "three story" house (two stories and daylight basement).

Does a pipe going straight through the roof require a chase?

I'm sure I have more but baby is makin' a mess.

Oh yeah there's some kind of gate you can put around it right? Small one is 10 mos old, may have another, hospital is 35 minutes away.

[HeavenHelpMe]

Bumping this because I need to know all of this, too! We are going to install an old one this summer, and we are completely clueless on what to do to make it safe.

[Dan in Ohio]

I'd recommend going to hearth.com. Between the discussion forums, FAQs and stove reviews you'll be able to find out everything you want to know and more.

[The Paw]

If you are buying from a dealer, they will have info about your local code to follow. I am sure some get by without following code, but in my mind it isn't worth the risk.

Walls within a certain distance of the stove should have heat shields/and or tile backing. The heat sheild is a metal sheet mounted on the wall with spacers, allowing for air to circulate behind.

For mounting on a wood floor, you should have a base of firebricks. Some codes require that the bricks have holes in them, and by using the bricks on their sides, the holes vent the pedestal. This keeps a too-hot fire from overheating the bricks and causing wood subfloor from igniting.

Double wall chimney is generally used for going through roofs, and while it is more expensive, it is safer. If you have a stove on the middle floor you might be able to go through the wall with a double wall stovepipe and then up the exterior of the house. The top of the chimney also has to be something like 6 ft up and 10 feet over from the roof peak to prevent wind currents from pushing carbon monoxide back down the chimney.

Hope this helps.

[Cabin Fever]

First of all, everything you need to know is in the owner’s manual. If you go to the Jotul or the Quadrafire websites, I’m sure there are owner’s manuals that you can download that will answer all of your questions.

Q: For underneath the stove (the "pan") - I wondered if I had to use something like slate or river rock, or could I just put plain old tile under there, i.e., bathroom floor tile, or the 12" kitchen/flooring tile? In other words CERAMIC tILE? Any special grout or mortar you have to use?
A: Most stoves require a hearth underneath them. Generally speaking the hearth extends 6” beyond the sides and back of the stove and 12” beyond the front of the stove. The purpose of the hearth is to protect the floor from burning embers; the purpose is not to protect the floor from heat. Any non-combustible material can be used as a hearth and there is no special mortar that must be used.

Q: Better to build a pedestal to sit on or just have it flat on the floor? Stove is located on the "middle" floor of a "three story" house (two stories and daylight basement).
A: I prefer a “tall” hearth for two reasons; (1) you don’t have to bend over so far to feed the stove and (2) it is easier to view the fire if the stove has a glass window.

Q: Does a pipe going straight through the roof require a chase?
A: The pipe going thru the ceiling, attic and roof must be Class A chimney. There must be a 2” clearance from combustibles around the chimney pipe, consequently a “thimble” is used where the chimney goes thru the ceiling and another thimble where it goes thru the roof. No chase is needed.

Q: Oh yeah there's some kind of gate you can put around it right?
A: Not sure, but all the kid has to do is burn his fingers once and he’ll learn not to touch it again.

Our woodstove is installed to code and manufacturer's recommendation. It did not result in any increase in our insurance premium:

[wvpeach1963]

Beautiful set up there cabin fever.

And yes I have seen great big metal gates like six foot long on hindges designed to sit out about two feet from the stove and keep little ones well away from the stove they set up kinda in a U formation around the stove.

I'd say you'd have to go to one of the better stove retailers for the gate.
They will be pricey too as they are pretty and made out of wrought Iron type scrolled metal.

[wvpeach1963]

Oh an a hearth. If you have a good strong floor I built mine from regular flat creek rock.

make a 2x4 base with a plywood bottom. (hubby had a fit because I insisted it go in the corner making the carpentry harder.)

Then fill to about a 1/4 " from top of box with sand.

Get some nice creek rocks. As flat as you can find. Fit then in and kinda wedge down in the sand to level. You may have to use a chisel and hammer on the last couple depending on how tight a fit you want.

When you get all the rocks in you are done. Or and a very big or.

you can spread some quickcrtete concrete on top and water (mist) it in and sweep with a small broom between the cracks.

I love mine as it holds all the wood I want to keep inside. Its large like a 4 x six built into a corner.
I just occasionally run the sweeper hose over it.

the rocks stay nice and warm and my cat loves it. Makes a great place to dry your boots too.

I did the wall in a gray Z brick to keep that heat proof too as hubby likes to crank the stove up on cold days.

[gardenwitch]

This is my cookstove, and babygate. I got the babygate Here:

http://www.babyuniverse.com/pro/baby...earthGate.html

You can sometimes find cheaper ones on eBay. They are pretty expensive, but worth it.

My dads wife said that too, "If they touch it once, they will never touch it again"

Well, I don't want my kids to fall on it, trip and put their hand out, and grab the stove on accident. We got the stove before we got the gate. There were so many times my 18 month old ast the time and 4 year old almost ran into it, got pushed close to it. This gate has saved a lot of pain. Have you ever got a burn? Hurts like heck!!! I don't want my kids to be in that kind of pain, even if they did touch it when they wern't suppost to.

The stove is the one they advertise in Countryside magazine. big bear.

[gardenwitch]

That picture wasn't the greatest, here is my album with better ones.


http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/gardeningwitch/

[ET1 SS]

DW and I spent 2 hours today shopping for wood stoves in Bangor today.

She wants to order a cook stove from Lehman's. That way she can: cook on it, bake in it, and heat hot-water in it's tank.

We need the wood stove to heat water for the radiant floor tubing.

We were in two different stove stores. WOW! their prices are crazy! The smallest simplest wood stove was $700. And the cheapest water-boiler was $3600.

When we got home, DW went online to Lehman's and found the exact same model that we saw for $700, selling for $500 [including shipping and a water tank].

[ThreeJane]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like we are going with a Lopi.

[Dubai Vol]

Lots of good info here:

http://www.woodheat.org/index.htm

ET1 SS I highly recommend the article there about heating water with a wood stove before you buy a stove.

[minnikin1]

We have the jotul and although it's a nice stove, we regret choosing one that
doesn't have firebrick liner or soapstone -
(the salesman brushed that question right off when we asked about it - now I wish I hadn't let him get away with it)
the trouble is the stove is very warm when it's burning but there is no
thermal mass to keep it warm once the fire goes out. I Hate that.

My favorite stove ever was an old timberline fireplace insert that we had.
The stove was just a steel model, but it would heat up that brick fireplace and the place would stay warm all day even if the fire went out.

This house has no fireplace, but at least a stove with firebrick would've been a better compromise.

[danb98577]

A little info on chimney setups can be had at a GOOd lumber yard or hardware store. Ask about Selkirk Metalbestos chimney products. They are really top drawer and the literature you find should answer any questions you might have.
Years ago when the first fuel crunch hit, friends of mine got a Buck stove. They put in a good chimney, hearth, etc., but ran shy of money for baby gate. I had several lengths of wrought iron railing that had come off a porch remodel. With a little welding(hinges, latch), some paint and wall anchors it made an attractive and safe baby gate for next to nothing. Dan

[sagecreek]

Kuma's a local company in Hayden that makes wood stoves and we're very pleased with ours. http://www.kumastoves.com/ We have 1600 sq ft. and it's more then enough stove. We have the pedestal model and what I found interesting is that they vent the stove from your crawlspace. Another thing thats cool is you don't need to tile the back wall and the back clearance, if I remember correctly, is less then 12".

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by Dubai Vol

Lots of good info here:

http://www.woodheat.org/index.htm

ET1 SS I highly recommend the article there about heating water with a wood stove before you buy a stove.

Very nice.

I have seen much better shots of steam plants that have blown up however.

Before the invention of reliable press-relief valves, Steam locomotives were very dangerous too. Spectacular explosions with lots of deaths. On-board ships steam-plants make very impressive explosions. By far the most dangerous component even on nuclear powered vessels [I have been on many] is the steam plant and it's components.

I really was not planning on a steam boiler anywhere. Though I have seen them installed in commercial stoves.

Years ago when DW and I were on the goat-dairy we used a pot-belly stove to provide hot water for a forced-air system. It working very well and we liked it. Just copper-tubing wrapped around the stove-pipe and then pumped through a car radiator with a fan, but it really did triple the effective heat from that pot-belly and it did move the heat back to the far end of the trailer we were living in.

Right now we are looking at linking an electric water-heater in series to a propane water-heater [stair-stepping the thermostats of course], then through the lehman's and any other wood-coal-peat stoves, then an expansion tank, a tee to the domestic faucets, and a thermal-bank [of four 55 gallon barrels] and off to the radiant floor loop. Then finally back to the pump and filter. A few check valves to keep it flowing in the correct direction [one as the water comes from the well, a second as the water line tees off to domestic supplies, and a third at the pump].

You should rarely heat water in a sealed tank [boiler]. It should always have a pressure relief and expansion tank, and for the sake of radiant loops it should really be kept circulating.

Air-water separators are nice too. I discovered air-separator towel racks while skiing in Austria, and I fell in love with them. Our last two houses both had them. I have even installed them in each of our rental units in Ct. A three feet wide ladder affair with three or four 'rungs' and a air-valve on the top rung. When placed in the bathroom, they can easily be draped with wet towels. Every time you step out of the bath or shower you have a toasty warm towel. These are placed in series with the baseboards so all heated water flows through them, but if there develops any air in the system it will collect in the top 'rung', where it can easily be bled off.

[Alex]

Here is some info from another post which answers most of your questions (as have already been well answered by others here.)

I too don't think you need a cage around the stove, we never did (of course you get to decide about that.)

It depends where you are, what you winter outdoor design temperature is, insulation, window quality, infiltration, and as mentioned layout. A 1,600 ft2 house could be a challenge for air distribution without a wood furnace and duct distribution system.

You want to get the highest efficiency wood stove or furnace you can. You will burn less wood and it will last longer.

We have 560 ft2 log cabin, two floors, 1060 ft2 total. Our outdoor temperatures can be forty-below for awhile in the winter.

We have, and love, our Blaze King 82.5% catalytic wood stove, with dual air distribution fans (which we rarely use – mainly for start up.) The room temperature is thermostatically controlled [a bimetallic adjustable knob controls the inlet air for up to 47 hours (on warmer days/nights) of continuous burn time on wood load. Speaking of start up, literally start up is once a year. Depending on wood quality, clean the ash into the ash drawer only every two or three months.


Flue needs to extend 2' above roof (and must be 10' away from anything horizontally.)


This package shows all the things you need to be safe.


An insulated flue, and double wall Stainless steel is a type A flue, and what is required for wood heat, we used an 8" ID flue, with 2-1/2" high temperature insulation all around.


The double wall air insulated steel flue is below the ceiling flue support thimble at the top. Our wood stove is a catalytic Blaze King, 82.5% efficient (you will burn 17.9% less wood, and longer than with a standared air tight)


Finally you need to protect the floor from all those sparks.

Enjoy your wood stove, talk to a supplier about your exact situation (re heat distribution, size of unit and placement),

Alex



BTW
The soapstone will work, if your instantaneous heat loss is less than the continuous output of the rock mass. This means, in mild climates, or in buildings with excellent (LOW overall heat loss) exterior envelopes, and with properly sized rock, soapstone, or any other mass-heat-storage heaters them will work. However, once the outdoor temperature gets low enough, and heat loss high enough, you must put more wood into these units at regular intervals to maintain the desired indoor temperature -- the same amount of wood you will use in any other wood stove of the same efficiency. You must size this unit carefully, and be willing to accept possible variations in the indoor temperature, or supply it with wood same as any other wood stove.

[RedneckPete]

My stove, and the only source of heat in our house last winter.

Pete

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by ThreeJane

Thanks for the replies. Looks like we are going with a Lopi.

Excellent choice! That's a Lopi stove in my photo up above. Several of our friends also own Lopi's. WIHH was out garage saling yesterday and found a Lopi used only one season for $100! That's over one thousand dollars off the new price!

[motivated]

We have a Regency wood stove it works great. We heat our entire upstairs area with 14ft cielings and if I don't watch hubby we have to peel off the clothes!!