Wood Heater?

Duh, cause it aint airtight stove. The only real way to regulate a non-airtight stove is to constantly babysit it and control its output by controlling amount of fuel it has at any particular time. Fill it up and let her rip and it will blister the paint on the back wall before doing its imitation of a refrigerator. You will burn lot more wood than necessary. You have no control of shutting it down short of a large fire extinguisher!

An airtight, you regulate output by regulating air supply. A good airtight, you can shut the thing down quickly if necessary. Have an autodraft and you can get a very even room temperature from firebox full of wood, which makes very thrifty use of your wood supply without the alternating sauna/icebox syndrome.

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"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

Big Rock, I got the very same cast iron stove that you just gave away. I'm perfectly satisfied with mine. I was thinking about getting one of those fancy window kind but a good friend of mine warned me about them not giving off enough heat. He had just sold his and bought hisself a outdoor wood furnace.

I have a drafty old house and need all the BTU's I can get. Plus, I like the ideal of being able to cook on top incase the electricity is out for a few days. From what I hear you can't cook too well on top those fancy ones, especially if they have a catalic in them. But we cook on top of ours quit often. We might get a pot of beans boiling on top of the range oven, but after about 10 minutes we transfer it over to the wood stove and let it simmer all day. We've fried bacon and eggs as well as a roast dinner and stew on top of the old cast iron stove. Plus various other meals.

No problem keeping wood in it all night. About a hour before bedtime I'll build a sizable fire and let it burn down to coals and then when I get ready for bed, I'll stick two very large peices of wood inside. Some peices will just barely fit inside the door. I'll leave the front door damper fully open. Come early morning when I get up for work theres still plenty of coals to start the morning fire with.

I think you might want to see if your son will do any trading.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

I figured BRP was going for low tech-hence the suggestion. 'Zang has some airtight stoves too for more $$$. Personally I would forgo the stove completely for a furnace like this one (the one currently heating my home):

http://www.englandsstoveworks.com/28-3500.html

I've been toying with the idea of fabbing up secondaries with some stainless steel pipe. I saw someone who did and they get much longer burn times.