These WOODSTOVE MISTAKES Are Costing You Time & Money!
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Wood heat is a fantastic option whether you're a homesteader or not (especially as we're looking at upcoming increases in propane prices!). However, there are some common pitfalls that a lot of wood stove owners make that cost them time & money. CLICK SHOW MORE
How We Built Our Homemade Log Splitter: • Making the HOMEMADE LO...
Heat-powered fan: www.pntrac.com/t/TUJGRktKSEJG...
👩🌾 Design YOUR Dream Homestead, No Matter Where You Live: theprairiehomestead.com/layout
✔️ Old-Fashioned on Purpose T-Shirts: homesteadswag.com
✔️All my favorite homesteading supplies & ingredients: www.theprairiehomestead.com/shop
🐓 LIVE OLD-FASHIONED ON PURPOSE:
+ The Prairie Homestead Cookbook: homesteadcookbook.com
+ Learn How to Cook Like a Homesteader: heritagecookingclass.com
+ Learn How to Can (Safely!): learnhowtocan.com/
+ Prairie Homestead Merch! homesteadswag.com
+ The Homestead Mercantile: theprairiehomestead.com/shop
🌎 OTHER PLACES WE HANG OUT:
+ The Old-Fashioned on Purpose Podcast: oldfashionedonpurpose.com
+ The Prairie Homestead Blog: theprairiehomestead.com
+ Follow Along on Instagram: / theprairiehomestead
Thanks for watching! Here's the link to the video with more info on our DIY log splitter: ua-cam.com/video/r5zYdxFv9iI/v-deo.html
Ive had a Blaze King Princess for about 4 years now. My sole source of Heat.
I really like the Fan that comes from the factory that attaches on the back. It's very efficient. Its another way to regulate the heat and keeping the stove from over heating when I put in a fresh load of wood.
I would like to get one of those heat operated fans like you have. They look very efficient for Circulating heat.
I don't like to split my wood as small as you seem to.
I like to put as big a round piece of wood as I can. ( about 8 inch max. ) One on the right and one on the left. Then whatever fits in the middle. Then fill in all the gaps with Small or split wood to make a solid block of wood as I can.
I find the more solid and large the wood is the longer it Burns. And still gives Me lots of heat.
Its been more than 20 below several times this week in Montana.
Our Blaze king is serving Us Well!
Enjoyed the Video!
Best Wishes! M.H.
Wood drys must quicker if it’s split.
Older video but good information. Ive decided to finally order my wood burning cook stove for the basement... and yeah not cheap to start... however itll pay off in the end.
How much did you pay for all that uncut wood? How long does it last? Is it your only heating fuel?
Here's a possible wood 🪵 source solution. Plant some Osage orange/ hedge apple and honey locust trees.
My great uncle used to stack wood on top of his stove and he called it cooking the wood for the next day. He was a world war II vet and tough as nails farmer. He lived to 91 and taught me a lot. I miss him
I put wood near my stove for the same reason. If I put it on top it will start to smoke, and that’s not good to breathe.
@@charleskelm3703 sure he had a metal rack so it wasn't directly on it. I'm enjoying my new wood stove this year!
Yup gets the wood good n dry. It’s what we do when you are paying attention to what is going on
We do the same, I told my wife she was in charge if the dry kilns. If the stove gets too hot? It will start to burn the wood stacked on top!
1979 utuber...good story. Our first house we were told and sold these insulated wall type structures , 4 'x4' to place behind the stove to prevent a fire. 36 years later I set my wood one foot away from the scorching hot stove before they are put in the stove , often sitting ther overnight. I once placed a piece of wood ON the stove just to test it. It left a black mark and I thought "enuf of that"....never been a problem with fire safety.
The best way to keep heat is definitely to first set an AIR INTAKE PIPE from outside of the house to the inside of the stove. The stove not only pulls its fire-draw sucking the hotest air around itself (the one it just went to heat) but also all the air refill comes from outside.. the cold one 🧐
Sorry for my poor English, greetings from Switzerland 🙂
Fresh air to the firebox is mandatory in frozen climates. All the air/smoke going up the chimney has to enter the house somewhere. It's simple, as much air that you are pushing outside through the chimney, is coming into the living quarters and chilling down the living space somewhere. Go up to the chimney and put your hand over the pipe....you'll see what I mean.
The air will actually come in from the chimney on a proper efficient burning closed system.
I’m not a critic after my other brother n sisters being a teacher I’m just the black sheep coal stoves growing up n wood burning house is over 100 old no insulation but plenty of fresh air lol
Good video! I also live in Wyoming, was born here in 1960. I was raised by my G-parents. Wood heat is all we had when I was a youngster, and we didn't have a bathroom until I was about 11yo. Outhouse and a bed pot near each bed that was simply covered with a newspaper, for night time use, and they were emptied in the outhouse as needed. Cast iron tub that was filled with a garden hose from the water heater, and drain went through the wall and drained on the ground outside. Grew up with 5 adopted Indian children. I was 8 when G-pa passed away, so I and two of my Indian "brothers" supplied the wood to heat the house. We were on the river bottom so cottonwood was right out the back door. The last of my "brothers" left for college when I was 13. From then until I graduated from HS, I cut the firewood for my G-ma and I, with my G-pa's old heavy Homelite saw. Never had an accident but came close to it many times. I find it a coincidence that I also have a Blaze King Princess I bought about 15 years ago. Hands down the best stove I have ever been around. Another advantage to a catalyst stove is that the chimney does not soot as quickly. I can go longer between cleanings. I find that over time, powdery ash gets deposited behind the catalyst, but I just put a vacuum to the front of it and suck it back out. Thanks for the video!
Wow, thanks for sharing your story, and for helping take care of your Grandmother. 😊🙏🌳
We purchased a Canadian buit Haugh stove and it is our primary heat source with a propane fired boiler for the heating season. We live in Michigan on 45 acres of woodland in the Manitee National Forest. In the Spring I fell dead trees or blow downs and cut them into 16 to 18 inch sections, the following Spring I split and stack them in our woodshed so our wood seasons for a year and a half until we burn. Same procedure every year and for 31 years our chimney service guys say ours is the cleanest pipe of all their customers. When its single digit temps it feels great to have our 2400 sq. ft. home at 75+ degrees all day. Great vid and tips. Stay warm and dry.
Agreed 👍, here in the UK 🇬🇧, we chop, split, stack, for 2years before using,, moisture levels below 20%, than it's good to go, 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥, thank you ☺
I love seeing community help each other. It is the way forward. Love to you all
Maybe I misunderstood,but I always cut and split firewood as soon as possible,split wood dries far faster than full length logs.
I think the point was instead of getting cut and already split wood, they are saving money by getting logs, that they then cut and split themselves. That would be not much different from harvesting your own trees from your own land. You still gotta cut and split that up, no one's doing it for you.
If you've got enough, and don't need it super quick... In my experience it's easier to split dry than green.
Oh i suppose your right on that i cut mine a year ahead and i split it right before it come in the house to the wood box do you have a splitter or maul i have both thanks for the tip lifes good
I usually buck my logs ASAP, in the fall time and then leave the rounds through winter . Drier wood is definitely easier to split, and I still manage to get the wood under 20% through the following summer.
Your right you can half your seasoning time by splitting straight away
I'm mostly dependent on local forestry work for my wood supply. I take whatever is being cleared (at zero cost). I currently have Oak, Silver Birch, Hazel, Pine, and Black Birch. The Black Birch is a lovely wood to burn and my current favourite. It was good to see everyone come together to help your friend who needed help.
Black Birch is the one that smells like wintergreen right?
The best was the official wood inspector, doing his job, guarding the wood in the trailer from any local cats. LOL
Congrats
Another tip I would make: get a stove with a hotplate on the top so you can cook/heat a kettle. The gentle heat from a stove that is ticking over is great for slow cooking of soups and stews and keeping a kettle warm, and the stronger heat when the stove is burning hotter can be used to directly bake potatoes - cover the potato with an old cake tin or similar and you'll never eat a better baked potato - or heat a wok for stir fries, for example.
My blaze king has a flat top. It perks my coffee pot, my tea kettle and soup too. No hot plate rings.
I've cooked steaks on my wood stove . Takes forever, but the best steak I've ever had.
I'm in rural France so our house is built off stone. It's made a huge difference getting the external walls really well insulated, the floor and roof too. But the stone fireplace surround is fabulous as it gives a thermal mass, this gives off heat for 12hrs after a fire has gone out. We burn oak and chestnut.
Yes but…. thermal mass is a two way street. It takes just as much “extra” heat to get the stones up to temperature as you get out of them once the fire goes out. It definitely “smoothes the curve”.
Same here, we are in the centre of France and even though we live in the centre of a small village we still prefer to heat with wood.
My dad now lives in a house with ~R250 insulation everywhere but the windows
If the AC is off, you will feel the heat from a single candle in there
You miss the point, infrared will heat the masonry and store the heat, so a huge inglenook is in your favour, heat emitted by convection goes very quickly to your ceiling and is lost. Science
If u don't let the stones breathe you May get a damp problem
When I first saw you loading all of that wood into the stove, my eyes bulged out because I’ve never heard of those types of stoves. I’ve only ever seen the more wood you add the hotter it gets based on the damper. I like the idea of that stove, minimal “baby sitting”. I’m going to look into it. Good video, Thanks for sharing!
Creosote and tar gunking stoves and fireplaces are due to improper seasoning of the wood. Cut one year and burn it 2 years later for hard woods, one year for longleaf pines after it is split. The easy way to tell when it is seasoned enough is the bark comes off easily if not by itself. If the wood is not slit wait for the bark to be loose and for the ends to have clear large cracks radiating from the center then split it and let it season as long as possible from then.
As far as beetle kill goes the only problem comes from wood recently felled. Dead stading of any kind is still wet. It will season quickly (3-4 months) if cut and split but before seasoning it is the same as dead in ground contact wet. This will make it burn poorly and crud your chimney. The other factor is beetle killed too long standing which punks. It will take very long to dry, never really seasons AND will smoke a lot or burn very fast with little heat output.
There is nothing like the cozy feeling of a warm wood stove on a cold winter day. I can't wait to install our wood stove in our cabin! Thanks for the tips!
It's the best! Especially in a cabin. :)
@@theprairiehomestead For looks, burning wood is the best, for heat, coal is. Not charcoal actual coal mined from the ground.
We used to use a fresh air fireplace insert and burn coal to heat a 2 story 5 bedroom house. It was in the basement so we just had to leave the 2 doors at the bottom of the stairs open to heat the house. Had to have a good bit of heat in the fireplace before adding the coal but it didn't take much coal to have the house toasty warm.
Now, the local regs only allow gas. no wood no coal.
@@jaquigreenlees So, go ahead and USE the coal; But don't tell the NAZI regulators you are doing it! SCREW THEM!
My parents got me a chainsaw for Christmas when I was 15. When my older brother left for the Navy the firewood responsibility fell on me to keep our house warm.
Cry baby
@@jackiebrown129 don't be jealous because you got a Barbie at 15 LOL
Ok, point?
@@JH-jd8ip I'm going to get a log splitter in a few days it will be my first yeah it's going to be epic LOL
😂
As a chimney sweep please season your wood at least six months before you burn it will create less creasote and heat your home better
dry real charcoal works right? and maybe burns cleaner in a open harth fire box ?
Unless you're here in the UK and it takes years!
@@doriannewton8440 Not true! Cut it / split it / stack it correctly and in the right location outside and softwood will season in 6 (warmer) months, hardwood in under two years.
@@dj_efk I buy mine in march/ April, start burning in October/November, it's all good
How often does a person need to clean their chimney?
A business tip: start selling basic multipurpose stoves and instructions to Texans.
I don't even own a wood stove but I still watched this. Intriguing.
Just purchased a Buck Stove Model 81 today after much research. I had never heard of the catalytic converter option until I got into the middle of my research. I opted not to go with one since my heater is going to serve as my distance second source of heat. If I was looking for a primary source heavy use heater, I would probably go with a converter model. Thanks for the video!! Lots of excellent tips for a first timer like me.
Hi from northern, rural, snowy Japan. Agree with each of your points. Glad to hear you 'talk up' the catalytic converter. We have one on our DutchWest, and agree with you regarding efficiency. We are careful about NOT burning pine, and have not had to swap out the cat. since we installed the stove 7 years ago. "Breakdown" and detailed cleaning of the stove is done bi-annually... And she hums well all through winter! Thanks! (By the way, watch that elbow... Carrying logs that way for several years, and during the winter, day-in and day-out, has cost me major tendonitis pain, for which I've been undergoing therapy for 6 months. Best to carry fewer logs, and alternate arms and muscles, as well as doing stretching before and after... ; )
As a kid in Western PA, we had unlimited supplies of Red & While Oak and Cherry with a smattering of others. I had a Baker Woodstove with 4 ceramic pipes that ran though the firebox, a 2 speed motor was attached to the intake and it would blow super heated air out - awesome stove. Love the life you're living.
This fire pit is one of a few covered pits that is on the list ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM of approved products for Disney Fort Wilderness. The product served its purpose well and provided excellent fires throughout the evening. We were able to open the door and do s'mores, but I had to be careful because the handle was a bit hot on occasions. Additionally, I wish they had replaced some of the standard nuts with lock nuts in some places. We lost the door handle after just a couple of days of usage. Not a deal breaker, just a recommendation. I still give it 5 stars.
Thank you, great video. Wyoming...former city slicker from Denver now living in the middle of farm land in Iowa. Once you do Wood stoves...never go back. High tomorrow is going be -3..but you know story. Thank you, stay safe and warm
Thanks for the video! Beginning my stove shopping process. Just bought your book, so I'm glad to find your youtube channel. I grew up with an open fireplace and 50s/60s-era cast iron wood stove. I'm a big believer in ceiling fans for heating/cooling distribution. We run ours all the time on low, summer and winter in an older mobile home (epic inefficiency), with propane and electric heating/cooling, yet have the lowest bills of anyone we know. Air movement, by some means, is definitely worth the effort. I'm really impressed with the heat-driven fans like yours!
Awesome. I have found the two biggest thanks are using seasoned wood as opposed to dry wood which is a big difference and the converter that is allSo based on the rocket stove concept is the difference between enjoying your woodstove or struggling with it. great post
The secret to firewood is having a pretty daughter.i learned this when she HAD to help me do hay,put her on the wagon,wasnt 20 minutes and young men where in a competition to impress her same goes for firewood.pretty girls have a way of attracting strong young men willing to work hard
It's all fun and games until she marries off.
@@MJorgy5 Grandchildren are a parent's suitable revenge on their children.
same goes for car repairs, competition is the key though
Hey I have a pretty Daughter too.
I should try that.
I Love it, Chumming for Sharks with your Daughter... Put her in some Daisy Dukes and a tied off button up shirt, Dukes of Hazzard style. Those who work the hardest get a piece of pie 🥧
If your house is long-ish rather than boxy, put a big fan at the distant end of the house so as to push that cold air to the stove. Also get the use of a moisture meter to test your wood by splitting a few pieces to expose inside surfaces. Less than 20% moisture is good. Too much moisture % wastes energy and puts creosote in your chimney
So helpful! I've never had a wood stove before, but am planning to upgrade my smoky, inefficient fireplace with a wood stove insert. So, this advice is timely and appreciated!
Keep in mind that "inserts" require power to move air. Best to put a free standing wood stove and put a 1/8" sheet of steel over the opening and cut a hole thru it.
@@frenchfryfarmer436 inserts don't "require power" but most heat better with it.
You did a great job explaining all the things that matter.
I'm a new wood stove user...we by grace have all hardwoods...lots of oak wilt and gypsy moths are killing the hardwood forests in mid northern Michigan...
So, we have new die-off and standing burnable.
I do have a moisture meter to avoid the green unseasoned wood until ready.
You and your family are doing the best things and with friends to help!
What I found is lots of fire brick in the stove. I took the one inch thick brick out and installed 3 inch thick brick with a higher heat rating. And ran it all the way to the top of the stove rather than just one layer on the bottom. This traps much more heat in the fire chamber giving a hotter and more complete burn and when the fire goes down the heat output doesn't fluctuate as much. Also I ran the air intake from the outside. By drawing cold outside air this creates a greater pressure difference which creates a much better draft and your not pulling the warm air from the house in the stove. After I did this I basically burn whatever I find on the forest floor. If it's wet nasty or green I'll just mix it in with dry. With my 900sq foot home I only use 10-12 pickup loads here in Michigan.
I open a window to draw cold air in. It lights miles better.
Thank you for your video here. I've been heating our home for 30 years with a woodstove and its now time for a new stove. Your video here makes that decision easier. I burn any wood, doesn't matter to me!
Great info! We love our Buck Stove Model 91. I tried the little fan on our stove, but the top actually never gets very hot, since the blower is constantly moving heat in the level below the top.
I love that you can set that stove and forget it, we might have to look into upgrading into one of those. We also heat our house with wood (which I love because I grew up in a logging family in the PNW) but our stove definitely needs babysat. With our high winds around here we have to be careful not to fill it too full, and on cold nights we have to stoke it all night long. Thanks for the video!
We have that fan and we LOVE it. It starts running at 80 degrees. We also have a corner doorway fan to bring the air into the back of the house.
What kind of fan is it? We have a woodstove but I'm hesitant to buy a fan without knowing anything about them.
I love that you're using beetle kill. I am a Colorado native, and I know the wonderful impact you're choosing to make by helping to clear out that beetle kill. Also, thank you for the catalytic converter bit, I'd never heard of that! I grew up with wood heat, but that's a new concept to me.
I'm from Colorado, but I don't understand. I know that my husband used beetle kill on the interior walls of my MIL's cabin in Cuchara. It's beautiful.
Jill your videos are always, always worth the wait.. ♥♥♥
Great advice, thanks. Just saying, we had our ceiling fan on low all the time and we used far less fuel-so much heat up there! Cheers
Yes, the old Fisher stove, made in Oregon! Still a popular stove here in OR, but mainly in the shop.
Jotul in the house, Fisher in the shop is my formula for 😊.
Such a good feeling looking at your woodpile and knowing that you have two years worth of "free heat".
Take care!
Love the mama bear😊
Wow! Crazy! Your husband was one of my teachers at LCCC back in 2010 and 2011. Cool to stumble across your video here. We also have a blaze king (larger model) and it works pretty darn good. I think most people ruin their catalytic converter by not realizing that it has to get hot enough before you close the bypass. Anyway tell Christian I said hello.
You could tell he's a teacher by the way he explained the converter :)
Finally someone from out west explaining about the type of wood they burn! I'm from the north east and want to move out west but I want a wood stove. Didn't think it was an option until I watched your video. Thanks so much!!! So you can burn pine!!
I have a Blaze King Princess also. I also grew up in British Colombia where there is always lots of firewood available. A few tricks: 1) If you have wood that is not quite seasoned enough, keep a few days supply in the house (basement?) all the time. Air is dryer in winter and if you have a rack that you can put near the wood stove but far enough away that it isn't a fire hazard outside of the wood stove, it will dry quite nicely. 2) The catalyst has a warranty of seven years. I think it's worth replacing it after seven years. 3) I work for a lumber company in Canada. There is always "reject lumber" and logs that are too short to use. They put it in a huge pile. Due to environmental concerns, it is illegal for the company to burn it in the old bumble bee burners. Employees are allowed to take it for "firewood", i.e. you aren't supposed to be using damaged lumber for anything other than firewood. The logs are logs but the damaged lumber is kiln dried! Find a friend who works for a lumber company ....
As an aside, with Covid 1984, I just don't trust the government anymore. I think NOT having a woodstove and depending only on gas or some other form of supplied heating is simply foolish. You might only need it once in your life, but it's there if you do. I live in rural Alberta now and once the power was out for 12 hours because the line broke somewhere. They were flying a helicopter around for hours before they found it and repaired it. That time, fortunately, it was summer but the power has been out in winter for shorter periods. The furnace won't run without electricity, even if it is a gas furnace.
Covid 1984-totally agree, I love your humor
I have heated with wood most of my life although I did burn coal for a few years until the rising cost of coal made it not such a good deal. I use a Blaze King also and agree that they are great stoves. I got a great deal on mine used because the previous owner said it did not create enough heat. I believe their problem was not having seasoned firewood because it heats my home perfectly.
I have never had any serious problems with my catalytic converter except when it gets plugged with fly ash which is easily corrected by blowing the converter out with canned air about once a year. It is important to never burn anything in the stove but wood, no trash or debris! Another thing with catalytic converters is the wood must be seasoned and dry. Wood that is wet from rain or covered in snow will kill the reaction of the converter until all the moisture is gone, delaying the heat from the stove. I use rubber roofing, cut into strips, to keep my wood dry.
In moderate temps, 20-50 degrees I get 12 hour burns but in colder weather I get around an 8 hour burn to keep it toasty warm in my home.
Another extremely important factor with a BlazeKing stove is making certain the door seal is sealing properly. This is easily tested by closing the door on a dollar bill and tugging on the bill in several places around the door. If the seal is working properly the bill will not slide out. The Blaze King does have a door adjustment at the door latch for easy tightening of the door seal. I just replaced my door seal this year and the replacement is straight forward and simple, just make certain you purchase the correct diameter sealing rope and use plenty of adhesive.
Another important factor of Blaze King stoves is having the correct chimney configuration. When I first got my stove I tried to attach it to the masonry chimney I used with my coal stove and it did not work well. After reconfiguring the chimney to Blaze Kings specifications it has worked perfectly ever since. I don’t understand all the science behind it but it’s apparent Blaze King did their homework on chimneys!
Agree with Jeff 100%, except the "dollar bill" test! Use a plain piece of paper torn about the size of a dollar bill. I tore a dollar in half once doing this test! LOL!
Blaze King are great stoves! 99% of people who don't think their stove is throwing out good heat are using unseasoned firewood. People think their wood is dry but there is a lot of moisture in unseasoned wood. I think the wood moisture at 12% is suppose to be ideal.
I’m having 14-16 h burning times with Sirocco 30 Blaze King with unseasoned pine when it’s around -10. When it drops to -20-30 I’ll get around 10h. The moisture content is around 20% so I have to clean the combustor every second week using the vacuum cleaner with brush attached, carefully, it takes 20 seconds and it’s done. Great stove I wouldn’t change to any other model
As an Northeastern "Hardwood snob" I was schooled to only burn hardwoods. However the real answer is only burn very dry wood. The creosote comes from the moisture in the wood combining with the smoke and gumming up your stove. I now burn pine, but its been down and drying for three years in most cases. I do however burn a higher percentage of oak.
Hardwood is nice, but in some areas pine is all that is available.
Drying is key. 👍
Agreed dry is the best no matter the species! We dont have hardwood out west so its not an option or thats all i would burn, I really like my douglas fir, cedar, larch and aspen though. Occasionally will through some pine in for the crackle. Also another overlooked species for westerners is willow, it burns super hot but is more difficult to split and needs to be seasoned for at least 2 years IMO
I grew up in Colorado. Before my father passed away, he switched to wood heat and realized why we love it. We moved south for the Shuttle program and onto five acres. It provides all the wood we need and then some. Love it.
Hi Jill😊
Thanks for the great video. Many useful tips we can use😊 here in Finland we build big stoves out of stones. It take a while worming up but when it's hot it'll keep the heat for days 🔥 cheers 🍻 🇫🇮🇺🇲
The Fisher stove in your video is the exact model that I have used for the past 21 years, without any issues. As you mentioned sometimes you simply use what you have in your area. I live in Maine, so have ample choice of what type of wood I want to burn, and would never burn pine. So perhaps the balance here is that my older woodstove because I have lots of choices for different types of firewood. I also would always have my wood undercover because of snow or rain. You on the other hand may have a newer, more effiecent stove but not a lot of choice of wood. So in the end, I think we are fairly comparable. Great video, thanks for sharing!
As a qualified solid fuel heating engineer, best to split your wood ASAP. Ideal moisture content 17% or less, if burning just wood always leave a Ash bed in the wood burner. Light as you would any fire, gas torch is cheating. One match, newspaper ,kindling small logs to start, leave a finger width gap on the door for 5 minutes then close and control with the secondary control or as per manufacturers instructions 😀
Telling someone to leave the door a finger width open for 5 minutes is a good way to have them burn their house down. I learned the hard way. If you forget to shut the door you're in trouble. But I do agree with the way you start your fire. He who uses his propane bottle has more money than me lol but they definitely have it going on and I enjoyed their video
Unless you're one of the big 4 engineering disciplines, or one of the few minor disciplines, don't call yourself an engineer. It's a slap in the face to those of us who are real engineers.
@@Zukuri620 No true Scotsman and Gatekeeping in one comment, this is a rare one.
@@delmarcrihfield8958 Not at all, the one finger allows for good air flow, as the flu is exhausting...1 finger means crank the door slightly.
@@Zukuri620 In many states the law is : “Unless you’re licensed, don’t call yourself an engineer…”
Good video. I actually have that Fisher Grandpa Bear in my shop. Your modern stove it superior especially if you rely on it to heat your home. However, the efficiency can be greatly increased on the Fisher Grandma Bear and Grandpa Bear double door stoves. The Grandma Bear and Grandpa Bear models were designed with double doors for people who wanted to have the doors wide open while using a screen. Purely ascetic. What isn't ascetic is the reason only the double door Fisher stoves got the 8" exhaust vent. This was thought to be needed for open screen viewing. Now here's the good part.....if you use a 8" to 6" reducer right off the stove and use all 6" stove pipe, your heat output will be exactly the same but you'll use 20-25% less wood! These stoves really shine when set up properly.
Don’t list to the haters! It seems like you are doing everything fairly well. If your catalytic converter is staying clean and your chimney doesn’t get creosote you’re fine. I’m in the northeast and we must dry our wood for at least a year and 3 is optimal so we aren’t used to cutting and burning right away. Your wood looks dry enough. There’s nothing better than wood heat, it heats our house perfectly and is completely silent. God bless you.
I live in the Pacific NW where there's no shortage of firewood and I've had to heat a home strictly by the woodstove. I am always looking to get more out my fuel as well as polluting less.
When I was 14, we helped our neighbors and they helped us, no matter the need, if either of us was capable we helped. 38 years later, I love watching videos like this when people are still helping people and in return helping them back. Awesome video thank you for sharing with us!!!!!!!!! You help me I'll help you
Great info, I love the way you load that stove , that should be a major consideration for a home heater, mine, I have to load the wood sideways and it is a pain because the door opening is not the whole width and sometime burning wood can fall out which causes a smoke show. My next one will load that way.
Thank You . I'm using a Baker's Choice love it , best stove I have ever had . I can cook in and on it and heart the house.
I usually only have to relight my stove a few times a winter. How you light it is up to you, whatever works. Here in S.W. Ontario my woodlot provides me with ash, maple. cherry, beech and hickory. But it irks me if I'm bucking up a log that looks like it could be sawn into boards. Lifes hard desicions. Nice video!
“....a few times a winter.”
.....and you clean out the ashes when the box is nearly full, or what?
I love your channel. We traveled thru Wyoming one winter-- it was so cold and the wind chill was unbelievable. Came from WA state. I know about the rain and wood issues in that state!!
I love that you grew up in the pasig north west. That’s where we are moving from. Very interesting in your opinions, likes, dislikes of living where you are now. Things you recommend.
This was so helpful. We are building a home in the Adirondacks and I am researching woodstoves now. Good info on the catalytic converter.
Love my stone clad Hearthstone wood stove. I’m in the NE, so we have plenty of hardwood. Thanks for your tips and ideas...one thing I noticed was the fire smudging on your glass. Using clean white ash (no burnt charcoal bits) and a rag or paper towel dipped water in to clean it works well.
I replaced a BlazeKing with a Hearthstone stove. Don’t regret it. The radiant heat great. A solid 12 hour burns.
Until you get some microscopic grit that will scratch the glass which isn't cheap.
We have a Blazeking and its great, It's 15 years old & priceless
I live back east (NYS) and when we had a Vermont Casting wood stove. I really liked it. We would cut our wood to short logs (sized to fit into the stove) I LOVED to split maple on cold days. That wood would just pop apart! I will be re-doing the inside of my house next year and plan on putting in a wood stove so thanks for the info on your stove.
Hi Jill, enjoyed your video. I have the blaze king one size larger, 15 years as well. Absolutely no issues, never touched the converter, mostly burn pine and spruce. On occasion if I have birch I can load it up and it will burn for days, untouched. I guess my only problem was flashover... Startling to say the least when it happens. Small wood does not work once up to temp, it off gasses too quickly. Keeps 1200 square feet and basement warm unless it is more than -40 and windy. Has a built in blower that is a good idea.
An old timer told me when stacking your wood, make sure the bark side is up this will keep your wood from getting saturated.
You might get by with leaving your wood in log lengths in WY with pine, but in the midwest, I can take fallen logs that have been sitting long enough to have no sapwood left (years) and still want to have them season after cutting and splitting for 4-5 mos prior to burning in my catalytic stove. Walnut, red elm and white oaks are the ones you can find in this state. All my wood short of standing dead elms is split and seasoned for at least 2 years prior to burning. I have to clean the catalyst much less and replace it less often if I can keep it fed with dry wood. Now I have a friend with a Quadrafire and he doesn't have the issues I do but his is non-catalytic.
Enjoyed your video. We had wood stove inside for 10 years. And now have an outside wood boiler , best heat ever . Heats our bath water as well as house. Put wood in it every 12 hours. We also burn pine and any thing else we come across.
We are using the same kind of beatle killed wood with a catalytic converter here in southwest Wyoming. We are toasty warm all the time! NEVER a problem with our CAT-CON!
We love your videos! We use our wood splitting as our exercise routine. I can see that we might change that up in coming years... We are both 61. It's good to get the blood flowing...and we do it together! ❤❤❤
Do you have the pleasure we have of beetles hatching from your indoor wood stash and filling your window sills? On the plus side we have loads of Flickers and other Wood peckers to go with all the beetles in our trees!
Have you tried the top down method of burning? With larger splits and a top down fire, your burn time increases a lot.
Been heating with a Blaze King King model in MN now for over 20 years. One of the best investment I ever made. Twice the heat half the wood.
Me too!! Would recommend Blazeking to anyone who wants serious heat without having to burn down the forest. Mine often goes from late Oct. to early April, pretty much nonstop, on about three cords of pine.
I've learned that if you live in a small town you can have a "wood splitting party". You can get about 10 cord cut, split, and stacked in a day for the cost of a keg of cheap domestic beer.
We have an older 1980s Blaze King. I forget the model, but it looks just like yours but it has a full metal door without a window. The door has old style porcelain tiles set in it. I absolutely love it!! Four pieces of wood the size of my calf will last about 3 - 5 hrs. We burn all day, Nov - March, and only use about 3-4 cords/winter here in Ohio
Hey I got the same hat. My wife got the blue one and a picture with you at the 2019 homestead conference.
Good video. IMHO, wood dries many times faster AFTER it’s split and doesn’t really dry well un-split. You can see this on small unsplit rounds that spit sap in the firebox as compared to bigger split pieces.
The catalytic converter probably helps with reducing creosote buildup as it burns those gases instead of them cooling and collecting in the exhaust pathway. A good hot fire also burns creosote off, or dries it and it flakes off, but burning it off can be dangerous if too much has built up as creosote burns very hot and having a hot fire in the chimney is unwanted. For me, I do hot fires often, and also let my split wood dry for over a year before burning.
She's using dead trees, so quite well dried. An alternative some people use, is to 'ring' a tree, and again, let it season in place in advance of felling and splitting.
Your channel came into my feed. And I've just watched a few of your videos and just became a new subscriber. I look forward to watching your back catalog of videos. I look forward to the new ones too. Keep up the good work.
Great video.
I burn beetle kill pine and have had zero problem in 7 years. But I do need a more efficient stove so this video helped. Thanks again!
Beetle killed pine is great if you don't have pine trees in your yard, I got some once and it infected my entire yard. Took 3 years and a lot of chemicals and pruning to get rid of the bugs, even now I check the trees for the beetles. A lot of the places selling pine firewood in my area now kiln dry it to specifically kill the beetles. I just bought a wood lot last year with healthy forest so now Im lucky enough to just use my own.
If you have a lumber mill in the area, see if you can work a deal in getting them to deliver slab wood (scraps from the squaring off process that they cannot make 2x4's etc. out of. ). Nice thing about them is you don't have to split them.
Your Blaze King seems to work quite well. I just upgraded to a Harman TL300 this year. So far it looks like it's going to be a great unit with no shortage of heating ability when we get down into the -40°F's this winter and it seems to use less wood by a fair bit than my old one.
"Lopi"
@@bayside6207 I agree with Lopi. I've had mine for 15 years, has no catalytic converter, just te trhee secondary burn pipes, and it's efficient, and kicks out so much heat. I don't know what I'd do if they don't make these Lopi Liberty stoves. Mine is the largest one they make, and it was a wise choice for us. I just have one regret. Not installing the Outside Air Kit to bring in fresh cold air. My salesman never even suggested or offered the kit, and I nver knew about the option or the importance. Shame on him. Now they don't offer them anymore. They're sold out.
Putting in a woodstove in my new shop so thanks for the tips.
You are right about getting a decent wood stove where you can control the air flow well. Even a little air can double your wood use.
I made my own wood stove of welded steel. Cost me about $25, probably super inefficient, but I love how it looks with the 3-ft by 18" door flung open and I built in a gravity heat exchanger, so I don't need a fan (it thermosiphons room air). It heats my 1,200 sq ft house on 3, split 8" logs a day. I burn seasoned (2 year) oak exclusively.
$25? No way.
@@cyanidechrist
Way
Good video -- I love a wood fire. A couple of things: my electric bill (with heat pump) tripled this year and I fixed it by turning on my ceiling fan up high like yours. I had not realized just how hot my upper space was to get my main floor comfy, which it was. So with your fan off, you may be burning more wood than needed. And for lighting the fire, I have found that a wadded up paper towel soaked with veggie oil burns like an oil candle for a while. If that's on the bottom of your wood stack inside the stove, it may save you time getting it going.
All wood stove manufacturers caution against using any petroleum-like propellants like oil, wax, gasoline, kerosene, etc., hence the term “WOODstove”.
Just use wood wool, natural fire lighters... no need for gas torches, oil rags or paper etc.
I went to college at Northwest Community College (a wonderful school!) In Powell, Wyoming & lived there for 10 years. We only heated our house with a woodstove. I don't remember the brand, but it worked pretty good. We got our wood, with a permit, from the mountains, mostly beetle damaged pine. And, yeah, we didn't need to cover our wood pile.
I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan right on Lake Superior. It was the ole family farm. It was a big house, we have 9 in our family. Every fall, as a family, we would go 'make wood.' Sounds funny, how do you make wood? But that is the lingo there. We would get 10 cord from the forest, pile it, cut it all by hand & into the basement it would get stacked. Back then, we only heated with wood.
Now I live in Oregon, & yup, lots of moisture here. We just bought property in the mtns & a Swedish woodstove heats the entire 2 story home. We have access to pine & oak on our property & yup, we'll need to shelter it.
Great tips on woodstove heating. I don't think this woodstove has a catylic converter. Great idea! We move in March 1st.
Love your homesteading channel! :):) Thanks!! ;)
Had a Blaze King for about 12 years before I had to replace the catalytic converter, and it cost approx $300 in Canada. Not a bad deal for 12 years and you can see the combs start to crumble when taking it out to clean it so you know when it's due. I have since gone for a non-catalytic Pacific Energy but Blaze King served me well when I had it and has since moved on to a new home.
Your content is always so timely and useful. I know I'm constantly complimenting you, but I can't help it. Girl, I'm a little obsessed. I love what you provide. Immensely helpful. I get your email. I follow your fb, youtube, instagram, and podcasts. Thank you.
I see your husband started the fire with a load of wood then started the initial start at the bottom, try starting it from the top and see how that works, in Sweden they do that and it supposedly works great saving you wood as the fire burns more efficiently and doesn’t “burn out” too fast, I hope that made sense, lol.
I do that in my garage. Works great and with fire at top helps heat the chimney faster.
@@Joe_Dirt82 Also works great for charcoal BBQ's. No chemicals and glowing coals in 20 minutes
How that we are talking about our neighbours, the swedes, let me throw in my observations.
1) Agree with the light from the top: The catalytic reaction requires quite a lot of heat. On the other hand heat releases the carbon gases. If the heat from below releases the carbon gases on the wood above, but the heat does not get to top the fireplace where the secondary burning is supposed to happen, you just emit a lot of particles to the air.
2) Have regular maintenance. Here in Finland you have to have a professional sweeper clean your fireplace / chimney every year. Very few fires start from fire places :)
3) The style of heating with wood seems to be very different. Having a nice fire for a long time seems to be a virtue in US. But as you remember, burning requires oxygen, so replacement air needs to come from somewhere. And in Finland that air is very cold during the winter. So our approach is to have a massive stone fireplace (with all these fancy catalytics etc.efficiency gadgets) which stores the heat. You burn 2-3 loads of wood, which heats the stone. Then you close the chimney. And the stone starts to radiate the temperature to the room, doing so for day or two. This approach of course calls for very well insulated houses with controlled airflows from / to the rooms. We have triple glazing, newly build houses have 2-3 feet of insulation etc.
4) We take in the dry firewood a day earlier just to let the moisture on the splits to dry. The dryer the better. And we burn just softwood, never have an issue.
@@smallflower7285 Btu’s are Btu’s, regardless of whether you store it in a mass or not. The same amount of outside air replaces the chimney air in either scenario, US vs Finnish.
“....... that air is very cold during the winter.” That’s why it’s not called “summer”.
Wranglerstar does the top down method and it works really well
Thanks for the video! Been heating with wood for a long time now, usually split my own, but I'm getting older! LOL
I love my ecofan! Stay well!! ETA: I also have a leather log tote that works SO much better than trying to bring in an armload...
I used one of those giant trash cans on wheels. One trip!
I’ve been subscribed to your podcast for a while now, but I didn’t know you had a UA-cam channel until now. I recognized your voice. Great content, thanks.
Any stove is only as good as the person running it.
I cheat, I buy the compressed "logs" from Lowe's by the case once a year, set about 4 outside on a summer day on the concrete, and in the afternoon I split them up with a shovel and toss the crumbles into a medium-size Black Ash Can and start my primary fire with some newspaper (getting hard to find, I now subscribe to The Epoch Times for the honest reporting) and about 2 golf ball-sized nuggets followed with small size kindling loaded front-back orientation and one piece of large wood, let it burn down for about 20 minutes and then come back and load the box with my big wood loaded left-right over the hot coals. Thanks for the video, beautiful country, on my "bucket list", doubt you saw any Biden stickers out there. Just got my Buffalo Pressure Canner 35L and been stuffing meat in jars (venison, chicken). We shall overcome.
well done and informative video. and dont beat yourself up on the beetle kill wood, its actually better to burn that and with it the potential for spread of the beetles than to harvest living trees and have to wait for a year or more for them to season properly for use in a reburn stove (either a cat or non cat stove) as for cats (Catalytic Combustors) the biggest danger to them is moisture, especially loading wet wood (even if its snow covered rather than just unseasoned) into a hot stove the water flashes to steam and causes what known as "thermal shock" (like melting the frost off your windshield with hot water, though not quite as dramatic) this can delaminate the cat's coating or actually cause microfracturing which will severely reduce the lifespan of a ceramic cat. NIce stove also, im a big fan of the BK line. really great job on the video folks!
MIke Holton
Senior Technician
England's Stove Works inc.
This has been a great help! Thank you for doing this video. We bought a stove 11 years ago and have had nothing but problems and constant baby sitting. We've been considering getting a new stove so this was helpful. We had no idea it could go so long without adding wood. We will be looking at blaze king! Thanks!
I will second the Blaze King. I’ve been running an Ashford 25 Blaze King fireplace insert in upstate New York for 4 years. Compared to our old Vermont Castings the longevity and control is amazing. Dry wood is critical.
There’s always coals. Even when I want to clean it out I’m surprised how long I have to wait. Only use about 10 matches all season.
All wood burns equally per pound for the most part so denser woods will burn longer while still putting out the same amount of heat. For long burns use heavy dry wood with an efficient stove. Even with soft woods a Blaze King used properly and properly sized will burn easily overnight. If you buy too small a stove it will have to be opened up more and use more wood from a smaller firebox. Too big and you will load and then shut it down for the rest of the burn and still might have to open a window in warmer cold weather.
Most wood stove problems come from unseasoned wood.
We had a woodstove in Idaho. We learned to only split logs to start the fire and the use unsplit logs for a long lasting fire. We had a fire in the morning, late afternoon, and night. It took 8 cords of wood per winter. It was in the basement, with vents coming up through the living room above it. We also used one box fan to push the warm air up the stairs. We had an insulated fruit room far from it on two outside walls that stayed cook. This was years ago. It heated the entire home.
Glad you said that. We burn about the same amount although, being this is Scotland and not the US where all your houses are like mansions, we are undoubtedly less efficient.
I am curious that you use 8 cords. I live in Canada, we use 3 cords a year to heat our 1800 sqft home.
@@rebeccaanne3083 I'm guessing your home is well insulated, draught-free and with efficient stove(s). In our case we're dealing with 60cm (2') thick walls that someone cut holes in to 'let the air in'. So when it's -12C it's a losing battle.
If you have any secrets, please share!
@@ateleskier7066 oh that makes a lot of sense! We also keep our house on the cooler side (60-65deg F) and wear layers in doors. Yes our stove is efficient and our home is very well insulated, and we circulate the air. It also helps that our home is sheltered built into the hillside with south facing windows. We are able to do a lot of passive heating and cooling in the summer.
My brothers house had a small concrete block box built around the stove in the basement. He put ductwork to the bedroom and living room and used a fan as well. The box had a metal top that the ducts connected to. Worked fairly well.
I've burned wood my whole life and I'm 68. I've used all kinds of wood stoves and fireplace inserts. Definitely prefer the stoves over the inserts. Those are some good tips 👍👍
8:24 PNW native and current resident (SW WA) currently trying to help my parents figure out how to cost effectively heat both their home and detached garage/shop via wood stove. Single biggest issue outside of obtaining uncut log rounds is finding an appropriate place to store them in order to season the wood since it’s just so darn WET here! It blows my mind to see your firewood with snow on it…but it’s dry lol. As I’m sure you know, we don’t have dry snow here 😆
Nice video. I'm in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) and they hate on pine out here. We get a good selection of several different hardwoods. I get pine for free sometimes. Big stumps that I cut myself. It burns so hot and bright! It also burns away clean too after such a hot fire. I have a woodstove that only has a blower. It is one of those that require constant attention, you have to tinker with it or add wood to it at least every 2 hours to maintain constant flow of heat.
Nice vid. Always best to have anecdotal info. Personally, I always split wood as soon as I can, best when it's frozen, it will then split very easily. It will also 'season' more readily since more internal grain is exposed.
Ditto (western CT, Montecito BIS with outside air intake, heated air ducts to back of house)
agreed I also split my rounds as soon as I cut them and let them season split. They dry way faster and since I use a hydraulic splitter its not any more effort on my part
Her take on splitting wood after it has seasoned is definitely the wrong piece of advice - anyway for the types of wood I know.
@@klauskarpfen9039 I agree. Especially with the hardwoods here in Appalachia. Green hickory, white oak, red oak, and many others split much easier than seasoned rounds.
I've had a Blaze King for 16 yrs...burnt nothing but fir as well as some pine...never replaced a thing in it...just sweep the chimney and stove once a year. This stove runs basically 5 months each winter with maybe one shutdown to clean the ashes out that's it...its the King model...👍
Add another vote for Blaze King. I've had the Princess insert for 3 years now and can heat most of my 2600 sqft house with it even though it's in a bad location. I can get 10+ hour burns on hard wood with ease, only need to load it up 2 times a day, maybe an odd log now and then depending on how hot i run it. Also a good tip if you are going to heat your whole house with wood, it is easier to push warm air with cold air than to pull it into an area with cold air. If you can bring a fan powered duct from the far side of the house to right next to the wood stove it will spread the heat a lot better across the house (I use two registers, some flex duct, and a small greenhouse fan w/ remote).
Great vid. It's nice to see how other people do things in circumstances that are totally different to one's own. I'm from Dorset. It's small and crowded and trees everywhere. Rains a lot, especially in the winter and rarely gets significantly below freezing but will hover around freezing for weeks in the winter. That can be sodding miserable. I live in a semi bungalow on an ex-Council housing estate. Lots of neighbours really close. I heat entirely with wood I cut myself from an ancient woodland. I use hazel, a hardwood, 'cos it's what I have.
I'm going to drop the following, hoping it'll help, starting from a fresh-felled living tree:
'Seasoning' just means leaving fresh-cut wood to lose its 'life water' - the water in the tissues that mediates all the life processes of the tree including respiration and photosynthesis. You can do this outside, uncovered in a typical UK summer. Conversely, if you shut fresh-felled wood in an unventilated place, you get mouldy wood. Seasoning may take a season or several seasons, a season being 1/4 of a year. Depends on how big your lumps of wood are and how wet the climate. Once life water is lost, the barriers to drying (bark and the healing of damaged cells) is broken down and the timber is free to dry out. Splitting speeds drying by breaching the barrier that the bark forms to drying - the split sections dry faster but un-split stuff will dry - only the time taken varies, longer for bigger/longer sections. A dead tree can be said to have seasoned while standing - no life water when you fell if the beetles have killed the tree. In a dry climate (or by summer's end here) standing dead wood can be pretty dry.
Green hardwood is easiest split whilst green - especially noticeable if you are splitting with an axe. Splitting whilst green speeds seasoning and drying (of course). I don't bother splitting as my fuel is small diameter - it's derelict coppice, which is unusual. 'Green' means 'live' - scrape the bark back on thin-barked hardwoods and you will see chlorophyll - the cells in the underbark of a fresh-felled hardwood log will live and photosynthesize for some time, running on the life water remaining in the log until it is used up. Some hardwoods will put out shoots from spring-felled logs, or even roots when in contact with moist ground and willows can regenerate from a log or branch.
Seasoning and drying both form different parts of preparation for burning - getting the wood as dry as possible so combustion is as efficient (and clean) as possible. You can prepare kindling size stuff for burning in a few weeks in a hot summer. Big butts for sawing may take years. If you have a nice dry barn with good ventilation, you can stack green logs and not worry about them 'til you need them months later.
Once 'seasoned', preparation for drying can be slowed or reversed by re-wetting by rain or water in the soil - moisture content of the fuel can increase. Especially here where it rains frequently in winter and quite frequently in summer, too.
Wet seasoning is a thing, but wet-seasoned wood is still wet until dried.
Living here, pissing off the neighbours with a constantly-smoky wood burner would be a bad plan. Better to fly below the radar with properly prepared wood fuel so they don't notice when your burner is running.
Was this any help at all?
Very helpful from pembrokeshire with a week's old stove 😊
Was surprised to see you putting cold wood straight from outside in the stove. That kills fires here in Norway. We try to get the wood inside the house minimum 24 hours beforehand to 'preheat' up to room temperature 🙂
Even in southern Australia where it's not that cold, we have a 3 or 4 day supply in the house to warm up and dry out a little more.
Thanks for the tip, on my second year of using a wood stove in New England and am trying to find ways to burn efficiently since I fear I might have not chopped enough. Grateful I got lots of hardwoods around though 😁
@@jakejake7162 I don't think that 'fear' ever goes away. My racks are all full and yet I got a call this week from a mate saying, some trees comin' down at ours, want the wood?
So I'm a buckin' tomorrow in the snow lol!
Yeah, getting the wood warm makes a huge difference. Learned that from the cabin guys up here. As they leave the cabin they always throw 2 or 3 bags of firewood through the door before locking up.
Why I asked? Well the floor is heated a little so the wood will be nice and toasty for nest weekend :-)
Here in NZ, dry wood is the thing. Dry, it rains a lot. So a wood shed that has airflow is a must. Well seasoned wood, we always have 2 years supply. End of winter we replace what we burned, and the next winter start on other side. We have a fire storage bin outside, and inside, but it’s not that big a deal to pre warm. One thing we do, the air that vents into the fire comes from the roof space next to chimney, & not the room. So it’s pre warmed and dry air. This is ducted into back of firebox, and you can regulate it. This is extra efficient. If you think about your warm air going into firebox from the room, what replaces that air, cold air from outside.
Great point
We LOVE our Blaze King Princess insert, use it as our primary heat source here in Alaska, and have used it for close to 15 years now. The longest burn time has been close to 40 hours! It just depends on how full you fill the wood box and much you damper the stove down. We use soft wood too - mostly spruce and hemlock, though we do burn alder occasionally. These are great stoves!
i like how your husband described how a catalytic stove works. it was simple and to the point unlike some that i have listened too. also, i like how he started the wood on fire with a propane torch. my wife and i just purchased a hybrid wood stove, which they are installing as i speak. keep warm