Wood cookstove..how to increase oven temp?

WeaverRose · #1 11/12/07, 08:22 PM

Hoping someone has a stove like mine, or similar. It's a Majestic cast iron wood cookstove, the cream and green version, and it's great for frying or boiling on the top of the stove, but I can't find any lever to cause the heat to go around the oven. The highest oven temp I've had it to was 200, measured by a little oven temp device I bought at a kitchen store, and that was when it was almost roaring.
It seems like on many of the old stoves, there was a lever that you pulled over when directing the heat around the oven, after getting the fire going. No lever. There are a couple of places on the firebox to let in air, the cover for these slide sideways, one is below/to the side of the grate, and one is on the little door that can be opened to put in wood. I've checked the back, the cooktop all over, no lever. The stove was my grandma's but she passed away a couple of years ago, and I didn't have it installed till last winter, and didn't think to ask her - she baked/cooked on it for 5 or 6 decades (she was 104 when she died, a wonderful person who could do about anything).
Any suggestions would be most appreciated, I love cooking on this stove but would really like to bake too

Thanks to all in advance!

haypoint · #2 11/12/07, 10:49 PM

Thousands of different brands and styles of wood stoves, all different. My wood cook stove has a lever at the back of the cooking surface that slides right or left. It closes off the exhaust area, so the smoke has to go around the oven before it escapes out the stove pipe. Look around in that area, just below the stove pipe.

Freeholder · #3 11/13/07, 12:04 AM

I'm sure you already know this, but for readers who might not, in addition to a lever to open the vent to allow heat to go around the oven, you also have to keep ash cleaned out from under the oven. There should be a cleanout door and an ash scraper (may be missing from old stoves) to pull the ashes out from under there. If too much ash builds up, even with the vent open, heat won't go around the oven.

Kathleen

susieM · #4 11/13/07, 01:41 AM

Use smaller bits of wood...more surface area to burn.

akhomesteader · #5 11/13/07, 01:57 AM

I just googled "Majestic Wood Cookstove" and came up with a ton of links. I didn't click any, but it looks like you might be able to either find an antique dealer who may be able to help you figure out how your stove works, or maybe find someone who has one. I saw at least one eBay listing, so maybe you could contact the person.

I cook on a woodstove. Mine is an antique Waterford Stanley. Like Kathleen said, you have to keep it clean for the hot air to circulate around the oven, and also use small, dry wood. Since we also heat with ours, it's going all the time, but if the oven does cool down and I want to heat it up in a hurry, I put in relatively small pieces of dry spruce. Some woods don't heat as well as others. What are you burning? When we burn cottonwood, it keeps the oven cooler. Cottonwood is fine for most cooking when I don't want to heat the house, but I can't use it for frying or when I need to bake. Birch is much better, but takes a little while to heat us. It sure gets hot and stays hot, though. Nice coals and perfect for baking once it gets going. Spruce is the way to go for getting things going fast, though.

I didn't check on your kind of stove, but is it really made for baking. We once rented a little cabin that had a woodburning "cookstove", but I can't remember the brand. Worked great for cooking on top of the stove, but the over never would warm up. It didn't have any kind of lever or slide to get the heat to go around the oven, and the oven never would get past about 250, no matter what we tried. It had a large woodbox and worked well for heating our cabin, though.

Jenny
Frontier Freedom Online Magazine

steff bugielski · #6 11/13/07, 05:20 AM

I have a wincroft. It does have a lever but it won't move. Last coupje years it was only getting to around 200. This year we did a real good cleaning. removed all part on the stovetop and with an old shop vac cleaned tons of ash out of every crevice. We even removed the stove pipe and there was a ton of ash at the botom of it.

This morning I lit the stove one hour age the oven temp is 300 on the far side of the oven.

Since Dh had Lyme last year nothing got done as it should has. I can't wait to put a roast in there this year

Beltane · #7 11/13/07, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueJuniperFarm

I'm sure you already know this, but for readers who might not, in addition to a lever to open the vent to allow heat to go around the oven, you also have to keep ash cleaned out from under the oven. There should be a cleanout door and an ash scraper (may be missing from old stoves) to pull the ashes out from under there. If too much ash builds up, even with the vent open, heat won't go around the oven.

Kathleen

Wow - just amazing. You posted this and DH and I were trying to figure out how to clean the ashes out from underneath the oven. We just looked underneath the 'lip' to the oven and sure enough...there's a door!

The sad part is that we have been using this stove for about 6 years now and never knew the small door was there.

THANK YOU! BTY, the stove is a 1930's monogram.