Wood stove question

[Maimes]

I am setting up my tiny new cabin to live in by myself. It is 14X32 and all one room. I will heat with wood. Should I get a regular wood burning stove or should I get a wood cook stove? Would a wood cook stove put out enough heat to warm the room? If I get a regular wood stove I imagine I could put a pot of beans or something on it, couldn't I? What is the big difference between the two?

[wildhorse]

The biggest difference I can think of would be the size of wood that you could burn cook stoves take smaller cuts of wood which means more cutting and splitting.

[hmsteader71]

We have a regular wood stove. I can fix a pot of stew on it if it is hot enough. Now, we bought a thermostat for it so that it wouldn't get too hot and when it is right where it should be, it would take a long time to cook something. I have heard that wood cookstoves heat very well and if I were going to have a one-room cabin that is probably what I would go with, a small one.

[Metcalf]

Have you looked into a masonry stove? They are very efficient for space heating and some models by companies like Tulikivi have a built in stove. Come to think of it they even make a cook stove model that heats about 850 sq ft.

[redwall]

a cook stove is easier to controal the heat then just a wod stove

[wyld thang]

what kind of cooking do you do? If you're just a warm it up type you could get a regular woodstove that you can warm stuff on, simmer soup, and use a propane coleman stove to fry eggs or bacon(cast iron pans work great on the camper stove). The wood cookstove will have a smaller firebox than a heating woodstove, and cost more. Where do you live? If it gets cold you'd probably need something with a bigger firebox if you want the fire to last all night.

I love that masonry stove!! (I bet it's $$$$?)

Oh yeah, if you live to bake bread you can also build an outdoor dome oven. You build a fire in it, then take the fire out and put the bread in. You can make these pretty cheaply. Don't know how much money you have to spend, but if you don't have a lot I would just get a basic heating woodstove and use a coleman stove and an outside fire/dutch oven. Be really careful buying a used cookstove, you have to be really careful about cracks and repairs. I have an old cracked wood cookstove(I got it free) I'm going to set up in an outdoor kitchen(ah, someday!!).

Oh yeah, if you have a covered porch you could get a BBQ with a burner, just another option. I use my BBQ all year round.

I'd love to see a pic of your cabin!!

[Meg Z]

I grew up cooking on a wood stove we used for the sole heat in an 1800 square foot house. Nah, I'm not that old, but my parents were homesteaders too, although they didn't call it that. They just called it 'living'.

As someone said, a wood cookstove usually needs smaller wood than a standard stove. But then you can get a stove with warming ovens, a water reservoir so you always have hot water for washing up...and some humidity in the air to counter the dry heat. We cooked only on the woodstve during winter, but went back to the electric for summer.

Mom's old Southern Comfort is sitting out in their barn, waiting for me to come get it.....

Thanks for the walk down memory lane.

Meg

[veme]

I'd get a cook stove.

You have to stay warm & you might as well have something to cook & bake with too.

[FarmboyBill]

The reason being, as someone else said. it takes more wood, which lasts longer and involves less labor to cut it, I would also get an inline, in the pipe oven that goes one section of pipe above the stove

[goatsareus]

I would get a wood heating stove. I've cooked on three wood cook stoves, and the fire boxes are TINY, it would be very difficult to keep a roaring fire for very long.

Also, depends on how tight the house is, as to if the stove can heat the room. If it is a leaky construction, you will have trouble heating the space.

Look for a wood heating stove with a flat surface to place a pot of food or water.

[haypoint]

There is a lot more to choose than wood stove vs. cookstove. Most of the older cookstoves had a small firebox and weren't airtight. You can plan on filling the firebox every hour. But many of the older wood heating stoves were far from airtight, too.
There are several newer cookstoves that'll easily heat that area and keep a fire most of the night. The Canadian Elmira Oval has a good sized firebox and is airtight, but this beauty is pricy,too. The Amish make a few models of cookstoves. Check out Kitchen Maid and Bakers Choice. Built sturdy, huge fireboxes and priced right. They have a heat coil that allows the stove to make all your hot water right at the sink.

[diane]

I have an Amish made Kitchen Queen wood cookstove and it has a huge firebox and takes nice sized pieces of wood. It heats my water all winter and I use it for all my cooking and baking and dry my clothes on a rack next to it. It can be loaded before I go to bed and holds all night while still keeping the house warm. If I load it to the top and damper way down, I can go away for three days and come back to a nice bed of coals. It is my prize possession. It makes these Michigan winters very liveable. It took me a couple months to get so I could regulate the oven to my satisfaction, but now I can bake bread, cakes etc. with no problem. The days of the tiny firebox on wood cookstoves are past. I loved my old Home Comfort, but this new one is fabulous.

[Maimes]

Thanks all....I'll definatly keep all of your advice when I choose. The stove will be against the back wall of the cabin smack in the middle. I am in Kentucky. My winters won't be too terrible except for the occasional big freezes. I will need to be warm when need be. Most of my nights I'll just need what I call a "friendly fire" in comparison to a "roaring fire"...The cabin is new and well insulated. I admit I have never cooked on a wood stove before. I am excited about learning, though.....I will check out all of those mentioned here. I have a little to spend. I feel that this is a "one time" purchase for me.
Thanks again for the input....

[vallyfarm]

Which ever way you go, make sure it is airtight stove, otherwise you will have all the windows open! I don't know of any cookstoves that are airtight. Make sure it is small enough for your place. I put in a stove rated for 1400 sq ft in a 1000 sq ft house thinking I'd play it safe, and WOW does it heat this place up! My house is new with 6" insulation in the walls and double pane windows, but it'll get up to almost 90 in here in January if I don't keep it just above a smolder ( bad for the chimeny build-up). Lopi makes a nice little stove that should be about right. It isn't a cookstove, but it has a cook surface because it is designed as a duel use for small cabins. Mike

[big rockpile]

Was raised in a House not much bigger than that.We had both,wood Cookstove and Heating Stove.But wasn't hard to keep a bunch of Kids warm piled all up at night.

big rockpile

[veme]

My Waterford Stanley will heat my entire house (3 bedroom farm house) except through the harshest part of Winter.
It has a large fire box & will keep a fire for up to 8 hours. I have a Dura -Vent pipe on it so the clearance to the wall is 4". Most cook stoves & wood stoves can't get that close
It will also burn coal.

[Maimes]

Will keeping a smaller fire in a larger firebox bad? Does it build up more in the flue? I thought that a larger fire box than necessary would be a good thing...Please let me know if that isn't the case..I really don't know much... do I? Since my Kentucky winters aren't really that bad in comparison, I just thought I would rarely need a huge roaring fire. I believe that once that cabin gets warm enough, it should hold some...

[Cabin Fever]

Yes, you can build a small fire in a large firebox without having any fear about increased creosote build-up. Almost all modern woodstoves use 6-inch pipe, whether it's a large whole house woodstove or a small one-room woodstove. other more important factors that lead to creosote build up. In fact, small hot fires in a large woodstove is safer than large, slow-burning, cool fires from a creosote perspective.

We have a mid-size Lopi woodburning stove in our one-room guest cabin (16x24). It's used to cook on all the time during the cool months. It's top surface has two levels, the lower level is for frying and boiling water and such, and th higher level is for simmering and slow cooking.

[wyld thang]

Hi, your cabin is about the size of the main floor of our a-frame. We have a small Lopi basic stove (old, not airtight, lots of windows open), which heats the main floor fine(it has higher ceilings, like 10'), and of course the upstairs loft(too hot for me). When the weather gets for awhile in the teens then the stove keeps the main level between 60-65', which is still fine, but have to keep a quick fire going and wear really warm slippers--it's really cold on the floor! It's better when there is snow on the roof though.

A big part of using a woodstove is the kind of wood you burn, though. Get as much hardwood as you can(we use oak) and some softwood(we use fir) to get the fire going. Always keep dry wood and kindling in the house.

[mwhit]

I have a Todd cookstove and the firebox is quite a bit bigger than the older cookstoves I've seen. It was also less expensive than most of the other modern cookstoves, but it has held up well. I love it!

http://www.buffaloimport.com/stove.html

Michelle