Any Feedback About These Wood Stoves...

We considered the possibility of switching to a furnace but decided against it given the amount of timber we have. It would be like owning an electric company and burning LP. We may run an electric 'oil' space heater in the bedroom but decided to stick to wood as primary heating. We kicked around the idea of a wood cook stove but found that most fireboxes are too small to heat our 1200 ft + main floor. I am getting an electric range but plan to keep the Box wood stove as a back up cooking source.

Any Drolet stove owners out there? Would like to hear from you as we can also get Drolet from a local distributor in the town where we commute to work.

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I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

we upgraded to an Empyre Elite stove this year, the larger model, have only used it in the test mode in July so far, but it appears it will save us more than 1/2 on our firewood use this year, uses much less stove, emits almost zero smoke, love it.

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

How well insulated is your house? Are you burning split or round logs? It gets down to -40 here frequently in the winter and we heat 800sq ft with an old Blaze King Princess. At most we use 3 cords of wood for the entire year. I always start the fire with split wood then put on a few rounds then turn the stove down.

Our house goes from well insulated to who knows. Seriously, it was previously owned by an Amish family. We spent the first two winters caulking windows and keeping spray foam companies in business. Some walls are very well insulated and some are better since we bought the place. With each winter we seem to have less drafts and are able to heat the house faster from a cold start and maintain an even temperature of 78-84 degrees during the coldest parts of winter. So we must be making headway.

Our current stove is a Vogelzang deluxe box wood stove. It puts out it's best heat with split wood. Like Mrs Swirtz, once the fire gets roaring, we use larger 12 to 14 inch long rounds in it to maintain. The stove is large enough to hold a good sized 'keeper' log that will last 4-5 hours on lock down before it's embers. To keep it putting out even moderate heat, however, we need to stoke it every two hours if not more often, over night. It's a wood hog even during the day, although it' does produce excellent heat with steady reloading.

Time to upgrade.

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I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

My goal is to be off the grid and was wondering about wood cook stoves, can you take a picture of yours, I am curious what you have been using? And you say you need to be up every couple of hours to put more wood in?

This is a picture our current stove. It is a Vogelzang Deluxe Boxwood Stove:



We've used it for three winters now and it has adequately heated the 1200 foot main floor of our house and served to cook meals for us. It's not as versatile as a Pioneer Princess but it cooks a mean roast or dutch oven full of stew.

In the dead of winter, temps ranging from zero to 15 above., we are having to stoke it every two to three hours to keep the overnight temps in the house from dropping below 50. Not so hard during the day when we are inside and we can throw a log in it every hour or so.

We were out today doing some power shopping at good old Menards and looked at the wood stoves that they had on hand. The Shiloh is definitely out. Too small. The Drolet they had is a possibility though but at the moment my brain s hurt from looking at stoves.

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I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

Okay, that is the stove I pictured in my head and wondered if it was the same one. Thanks for putting up the picture. It also answers some questions I had in my head about how to heat vs cook. Thanks for doing that.

I currently and for the last 30 years have heated with my Orley Woodstove. I currently heat my 1300 SF great room with it and if you aren't careful you need to open windows to control the temp. It used to heat my 2300 SF split level in Edmonds, WA.

And the winner is....
http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/produ...-6399476dt.jpg

We have done more looking, comparing and debating about this stove than we did on our first one. But decided on this Century CB0004 wood stove. The big defining factor was that we could get it locally (no shipping, no freight) and we were keeping our purchase local. It was also just under 1000 dollars which is what the budget could afford.

Hopefully it will give us a lot of years of good use and keep us warm...the big factor!

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I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here!

I have had one over three years. I am very happy with this stove. It will take a 19" log and the air wash works really well. It heats all the bottom floors of our farmhouse, and with door fans also keeps the upstairs in the sixties. We went from 800 gal. of oil a year, with a new energy efficient furnace; to less then 400 gal. We are lucky to live on a large hardwood tree lot so the wood is free too. I researched all the top and newer brands at the time an recall coming away comparing it to a Pacific Energy, without all the bells and whistles. The Drolets top steel plate is thicker then the Pacific Energy and the Drolets five year limited lifetime warranty was equal or better. Many similar stoves made with less steel had a one or three year warranty and the prices were comparable. The Pacific Energy was about $700.00 more. If you compare the specs. and prices with other stoves you will be impressed how well it is made.

I have an england add on wood furnance that has a blower and hooks to the duct work. does a good job.