Wood cookstove question

pcdreams · #1 09/13/05, 10:58 AM

anyone have any experience with the pioneer maid and/or the bakers choice?

What I'm needing to find out is if the bakers choice is also air tight.

The pioneer maid is to big but the bakers choice would be just right IF it is air tight

thedonkeyman · #2 09/13/05, 11:30 AM

My grand mother used a Wood Stove. It had a trash burner on the left side and there were pipes in it that heater the water for the whole house. As far as the brand name I couldn't say. I remember her making TOAST on top of the stove. GREAT times growing up at grandmas house. My wifes folks had 13 children and they all used a Wood Stove also. We used to Log with mules and sold fire wood to lots of people who had Wood Stoves years ago. We heat with one now and love it. The fall is here in Oregon and we just might have to fire it up soon, have to go cut wood today. retired .....thedonkeyman.

raymilosh · #3 09/13/05, 11:34 AM

i had the exact same question last year. A call to Lehman's got me the following andwer...
It is not airtight. The stove is very good at what it does, but in order the keep the price down, the construction is such that it won't last as long as a cast iron stove. The fellow there recommended i buy a waterford stanley. I found one used. I love it.
BUT, it is definately not airtight. At first i thought i was going to be really disappointed with it, because i thought it would not be as efficient with wood as my old stove. What i found out, however was that it is definately more efficient than my old airtight stove. Here's why i think so...
the flowpath for the exhaust gases from the firebox goes over the oven, then down the side, then under the bottom then up the back before it exits. All the heat (and creosote) are deposited in the castiron. My flue temp rarely gets over 250 degrees. Very little heat or creosote goes up the chimney. I have not needed to clean the chimney pipe since I got the stove. Now i clean out the passage ways inside the stove every month. Its a lot easier than cleaning out the chimney, once you get used to it. With my airtight, i was cleaning the chimney every month or so in order to keep it drafting well.

pcdreams · #4 09/13/05, 11:47 AM

I don't know much about wood stoves but I was under the impression that air tight was better if you were also using it to heat with.
Would hold a fire overnight as opposed to starting cold in the morning.

Can anyone confirm or deny that theory?

btw waterford stanley is what the wife would LIKE to have. They are nice looking stoves but $$$

raymilosh · #5 09/13/05, 03:31 PM

oh yeah. I forgot to mention about the firebox. the firebox in my woodstove is a good bit larger than most any other wood cookstove. However, It is smaller than the firebox in a baker's choice or a pioneer maid.
If i don't get up during the night to restoke it, i have less than half a chance that there will be coals left in the morning. I restart it all the time. I have gotten really really good at it though. It's just one of those experience things. I thought it would bug me to have to constantly relight the fire, but for whatever reason, i haven't minded this new chore. Maybe it's because i like cooking on it so much.
it is about 15 minutes from when i'm crinkling up paper until the tea is boiling. That's longer than on a gas range, but not bad all in all.
ray