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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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!
@@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.
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”.
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
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.
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!
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!
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.
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
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
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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... ; )
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 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!
@@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.
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.
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
You are 100% correct. Dry firewood will not produce tar or creosote. The only difference between wood is ash build up and heat output per kilogram burnt. Any dry firewood is good fuel, just some is better than others.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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 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?
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!
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!
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.
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.
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
@@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 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.
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!
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
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 🥧
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Jill😮HEAT RISES...and that is a beautiful ceiling height...the little switch above blades on unit switches to circulate air UP or down...from what I have read, in winter, have switch in position to push air down to bring back the heat, and in spring, switch the switch😊 so pulls hot air up...AND wanted to say i just discovered that fan you have on top of wood stove AND YOUR OPINION WAS FIRST ONE I HEARD...THANKS, have a good day and cozy nights!
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.
Good vid! We’ve been burning for 17 years out here in the North East. If we replace our stove (Lopi Answer) a Blaze King will take its place. You burn what you have. Between EAB , drought and Gypsy Moth infestation We have tons of Ash and Oak die off out here. When we boil (make maple syrup ) I use pine it burns beautifully fast and hot with no creosote issues. Like you said. A seasoned wood is an absolute must!
FYI a Blaze King Princess ceramic catalyst cost about 300 bucks here in Fairbanks Alaska. I can't imagine it being twice as much in the L48. Usually it's the other way around.
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.
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.
@@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.
Get a flue brush and necessary length of rods for your chimney height ...AND use it as necessary. If your running a cat stove it will be infrequently...once every few years if your flue stays hot (less build up). If your at ALL unknowledgeable about flue/chimneys get an experienced person to insure it's double layer and is serviceable for wood burner use. Many older homes have a single layer of bricks, which are extremely dangerous....must have a second (not cracked) clay liner. You can also slip a stainless flue liner pipe down the old chimney to fix this. Our flexible stainless liner pipe cost as much as our top shelf stove 24 years ago .... floor demo unit Vermont Castings "cat" defiant ..$1700...liner $1700. We heat our home most years exclusively with it. ...2-3 cords of hardwoods from our farm.
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!
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.
The Princess from Blaze King is amazing!! Keep your wood dry, not just cured-dry. And then set back and enjoy. I loved mine. Left it when we sold our property, but will get another one. I burnt pine also. Had to clean chimney often, but never had a problem with the catalyst- ever. Only complaint I have is no ash box. I hate the dust during clean out.
I went a slightly different route: I over-insulated my house with double pane wood windows, foam in the walls, wool (shredded recycled wool carpet) in the ceiling, barrier under the house, dark steel roof, and then put in an HRV system to take all the heat from the attic (when the sun shines it heats nicely) and heat around the fireplace (if it detects any heat there) and distribute that around the house. For most of the year I don't need to run the fireplace. I also left the PNW, but went to NZ instead of WY.
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.
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.
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”.
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...
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!
Thanks, informative video. After the power shut down in Texas this last winter, I decided to put an old wood stove from an old mobile home in for emergencies, but, now you have sold me on a good one. Does this stove have an ash collector drawer? How often do you have to empty the ashes? Do you have a link to your stove?
Actually I don’t like to cool the smoke in the chimney to much. I actually use a damper to keep the heat in the stove where it burns the wood more efficiently. We also have a fresh air intake at both our places.
@@Chris_at_Home no way that fan cools the flue on a properly fired stove, we keep ours like that. Shine a flashlight on the fan and flue heatwaves in a dark room, you will see that fan hardly does anything more than look neat!
@@martinbeckmann9376 I tell people,that all the time. I tell them all the smoke going up the chimney has to be replaced from somewhere and if it isn’t a fresh air intake it is every crack in the house. I have a couple places and they are so tight that it is a requirement to make the stove work.
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.
Great to hear your experience. You have a grear community where you live. There's no beating country life. I'm curious as to why you cant grow firewood on your land. Thanks for your video. I enjoying watching and learning from your experiences.
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 👍👍
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.
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...👍
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.
Large parts of prairie Wyoming like?Montana where I live have cottonwood which is a hard wood but difficult to split except with power. Tons of "junk" wood is discarded. I would recommend making contact with local tree services or just stop where trees are being trimmed and ask if you can have the wood if you cleanup the debris. Pine can be a major chimney problem because of high
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.
Live in Wisconsin. We live in a log home. Have a gas furnace we use for back up only. Built the home back in 1998 and bought a Soap Stone wood stove. We heated our entire home with this stove for many years. Has a nice viewing window to watch the fire. This stove heats well till it gets around -10. So we bought a outdoor wood boiler. I fill it once a day in zero or above weather. Below zero i fill it twice. Also it depends in the size of the blocks. I rarley split the wood for the boiler unless its so big i cant load them in the boiler. I burn red oak, white ,oak, elm, birch, poplar, walnut, box elder, cherry and hacklberry. In the boiler i like a mix of some green and some dry wood for best burn times. I try to only use dead or damaged trees from my farm. For my soap stone stove i only burn dry seasoned wood. I also use 2 Stirling engine fan on top of my soap stone stove to circulate the warm air. Nothing like a wood heat!!!
I know that pine is all you have but it makes me feel so bad I wish I could bring you a trailer full of dry oak just so you can see what woodstove heaven feels like. Great video and good luck!
I live in Austria we mostly use beech and ash. Those are great burning hardwoods. But as you said if pine or spruce or other conifers is all you have it'll do
Udavidism, Pine is different everywhere. We burned it exclusively in Colorado for 20 years where its dry as a bone. Back East it never dries out so its not used for heat.
I burn my Blazeking Princess from Oct. to April pretty much nonstop on about three cords of pine. Average 12 hours or so on a load. That's pretty blissful!
@@shatoyancy9102 I live on the East coast and on my land I also have pine that is killed by beetles. There are indeed many varieties of pine but to say some of them never dry out is ludicrous. The pine dries out just fine and will burn very hot for a while but just not last as long or put out as many BTUs as oak or many hardwoods.
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
I won a truckload of wood logs that look like a lot like your load once at work. Mostly lodgepole with larch and red fir mix. I took about 2 months and built a hydraulic bucksaw system. My kids are not home any more so I have to do my wood solo. I fill my woodshed before winter so I can enjoy the fruit of my labor. One more thing with wood heat. When we get a wind or ice storm we still have a way to cook.
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.
you should grow elm tree's. they grow fast, good shade tree's and they spread their seeds and grow more. AND it is a hard wood. down fall, it kinda smells when burned but they do burn slow a good wood to bank with. you can also make the elm tree's grow as a hedge instead of a tree, but you will need to keep them trimmed. AND the ELM bark can be used as an herb for coughs and colds and other medicinal properties as well to keep in your home medicine cabinet
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!!
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.
We also have a Blaze King Princess! Our only source of heat for 4 winters now, we really like the Blaze King. Manitoba Canada winter temps are often below 0°f occasionally-35°f. -10°c to -35-40°c
Great video. My stove is in our family room . The pipe is vertical out of stove to a horizontal into the wall/chimney. Try and stay away from horizontal piping if you can. The only build up I get is in that small horizontal pipe. No matter how hot I have the stove, when the pipes and chimney gets cleaned in the Spring it’s there . Again, great video .
To much horizontal pipe also makes it hard to get the smoke moving in the right direction when starting a fire. Even just the slightest angle on horizontal pipes makes a huge difference in draw.
Just an FYI I learned that wood like oak and maple splits best when you split it green... within an hour of cutting. After it sits in the sun half a day then you are pounding rocks. Once you split it the wood seasons faster. If you have acres and acres then you can let wood lay around for a year but if you dont have the room, then you have to be more efficient with the space you have.
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.
I love seeing community help each other. It is the way forward. Love to you all
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.
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
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 ☺
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!
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
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
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. 😊🙏🌳
❤
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!
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 don't even own a wood stove but I still watched this. Intriguing.
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
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
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
😂
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
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 :)
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.
A business tip: start selling basic multipurpose stoves and instructions to Texans.
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.
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.
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... ; )
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.
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?
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?
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
You are 100% correct. Dry firewood will not produce tar or creosote. The only difference between wood is ash build up and heat output per kilogram burnt. Any dry firewood is good fuel, just some is better than others.
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.
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 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 😊
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!
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!
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
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 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
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!
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 🥧
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.
Have you tried the top down method of burning? With larger splits and a top down fire, your burn time increases a lot.
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.
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…”
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!
Jill your videos are always, always worth the wait.. ♥♥♥
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.
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.
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.
We have a Blazeking and its great, It's 15 years old & priceless
Jill😮HEAT RISES...and that is a beautiful ceiling height...the little switch above blades on unit switches to circulate air UP or down...from what I have read, in winter, have switch in position to push air down to bring back the heat, and in spring, switch the switch😊 so pulls hot air up...AND wanted to say i just discovered that fan you have on top of wood stove AND YOUR OPINION WAS FIRST ONE I HEARD...THANKS, have a good day and cozy nights!
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.
Good vid! We’ve been burning for 17 years out here in the North East. If we replace our stove (Lopi Answer) a Blaze King will take its place. You burn what you have. Between EAB , drought and Gypsy Moth infestation We have tons of Ash and Oak die off out here. When we boil (make maple syrup ) I use pine it burns beautifully fast and hot with no creosote issues. Like you said. A seasoned wood is an absolute must!
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
FYI a Blaze King Princess ceramic catalyst cost about 300 bucks here in Fairbanks Alaska. I can't imagine it being twice as much in the L48. Usually it's the other way around.
Any stove is only as good as the person running it.
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.
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.
Get a flue brush and necessary length of rods for your chimney height ...AND use it as necessary. If your running a cat stove it will be infrequently...once every few years if your flue stays hot (less build up). If your at ALL unknowledgeable about flue/chimneys get an experienced person to insure it's double layer and is serviceable for wood burner use. Many older homes have a single layer of bricks, which are extremely dangerous....must have a second (not cracked) clay liner. You can also slip a stainless flue liner pipe down the old chimney to fix this. Our flexible stainless liner pipe cost as much as our top shelf stove 24 years ago .... floor demo unit Vermont Castings "cat" defiant ..$1700...liner $1700. We heat our home most years exclusively with it. ...2-3 cords of hardwoods from our farm.
Must- well, should. My 90 yr old, exclusiveky wood heated house had a brick only chimney that lasted for 87 yrs. It did finally crack.
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!
Why do you split it so small? We have a woodburner in my parents' garage and basically we only split wood if it's too big for the door.
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.
The Princess from Blaze King is amazing!! Keep your wood dry, not just cured-dry. And then set back and enjoy. I loved mine. Left it when we sold our property, but will get another one. I burnt pine also. Had to clean chimney often, but never had a problem with the catalyst- ever.
Only complaint I have is no ash box. I hate the dust during clean out.
I went a slightly different route: I over-insulated my house with double pane wood windows, foam in the walls, wool (shredded recycled wool carpet) in the ceiling, barrier under the house, dark steel roof, and then put in an HRV system to take all the heat from the attic (when the sun shines it heats nicely) and heat around the fireplace (if it detects any heat there) and distribute that around the house. For most of the year I don't need to run the fireplace.
I also left the PNW, but went to NZ instead of WY.
Sounds like a great way to accelerate a fire.
No such thing as over-insulation
as long as you didn't go LG or BT QXYZ
@@keemez - too many TLA?
WTFDTDAM???
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.
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!
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!
Thanks, informative video. After the power shut down in Texas this last winter, I decided to put an old wood stove from an old mobile home in for emergencies, but, now you have sold me on a good one. Does this stove have an ash collector drawer? How often do you have to empty the ashes? Do you have a link to your stove?
Turning the ECO fan towards the flue pipe will blow even more warm air from the stove.
Actually I don’t like to cool the smoke in the chimney to much. I actually use a damper to keep the heat in the stove where it burns the wood more efficiently. We also have a fresh air intake at both our places.
@@Chris_at_Home no way that fan cools the flue on a properly fired stove, we keep ours like that.
Shine a flashlight on the fan and flue heatwaves in a dark room, you will see that fan hardly does anything more than look neat!
@@Chris_at_Home every wood stove needs an out side air intake, otherwise it defeats the purpose. Burning indoor air is as dumb as using a fire place.😂
@@martinbeckmann9376 I tell people,that all the time. I tell them all the smoke going up the chimney has to be replaced from somewhere and if it isn’t a fresh air intake it is every crack in the house. I have a couple places and they are so tight that it is a requirement to make the stove 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.
An old timer told me when stacking your wood, make sure the bark side is up this will keep your wood from getting saturated.
Great to hear your experience. You have a grear community where you live. There's no beating country life. I'm curious as to why you cant grow firewood on your land.
Thanks for your video. I enjoying watching and learning from your experiences.
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 👍👍
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.
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...👍
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.
Ever do "top-down" fire starting?
Be careful with that idea,
Large parts of prairie Wyoming like?Montana where I live have cottonwood which is a hard wood but difficult to split except with power. Tons of "junk" wood is discarded. I would recommend making contact with local tree services or just stop where trees are being trimmed and ask if you can have the wood if you cleanup the debris. Pine can be a major chimney problem because of high
Pine
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.
Live in Wisconsin. We live in a log home. Have a gas furnace we use for back up only. Built the home back in 1998 and bought a Soap Stone wood stove. We heated our entire home with this stove for many years. Has a nice viewing window to watch the fire. This stove heats well till it gets around -10. So we bought a outdoor wood boiler. I fill it once a day in zero or above weather. Below zero i fill it twice. Also it depends in the size of the blocks. I rarley split the wood for the boiler unless its so big i cant load them in the boiler. I burn red oak, white ,oak, elm, birch, poplar, walnut, box elder, cherry and hacklberry. In the boiler i like a mix of some green and some dry wood for best burn times. I try to only use dead or damaged trees from my farm. For my soap stone stove i only burn dry seasoned wood. I also use 2 Stirling engine fan on top of my soap stone stove to circulate the warm air. Nothing like a wood heat!!!
I know that pine is all you have but it makes me feel so bad I wish I could bring you a trailer full of dry oak just so you can see what woodstove heaven feels like. Great video and good luck!
I live in Austria we mostly use beech and ash. Those are great burning hardwoods. But as you said if pine or spruce or other conifers is all you have it'll do
Udavidism, Pine is different everywhere. We burned it exclusively in Colorado for 20 years where its dry as a bone. Back East it never dries out so its not used for heat.
I burn my Blazeking Princess from Oct. to April pretty much nonstop on about three cords of pine. Average 12 hours or so on a load. That's pretty blissful!
@@shatoyancy9102 I live on the East coast and on my land I also have pine that is killed by beetles. There are indeed many varieties of pine but to say some of them never dry out is ludicrous. The pine dries out just fine and will burn very hot for a while but just not last as long or put out as many BTUs as oak or many hardwoods.
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
I won a truckload of wood logs that look like a lot like your load once at work. Mostly lodgepole with larch and red fir mix. I took about 2 months and built a hydraulic bucksaw system. My kids are not home any more so I have to do my wood solo. I fill my woodshed before winter so I can enjoy the fruit of my labor. One more thing with wood heat. When we get a wind or ice storm we still have a way to cook.
Why cook on it when it’s storming? My propane stove still works when it’s below 0°F outside.
@@davegarber7964 No electricity for electric stove. Ice and wind storms here have taken our power for long periods of time.
I am cringing with the snow sitting on those logs...and in the trailer...
Check out wranglerstar on the top down fire method.
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.
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.
you should grow elm tree's. they grow fast, good shade tree's and they spread their seeds and grow more. AND it is a hard wood. down fall, it kinda smells when burned but they do burn slow a good wood to bank with. you can also make the elm tree's grow as a hedge instead of a tree, but you will need to keep them trimmed. AND the ELM bark can be used as an herb for coughs and colds and other medicinal properties as well to keep in your home medicine cabinet
Thanks! Grew up with a Blaze King, youngest brother has a Princess. AMAZING stoves
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!!
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.
"When's the best time to plant a woodlot? 20 years ago.
When's the second best time to plant a woodlot? TODAY!"
Many a day you hear a chainsaw, not often do you see a person planting a tree.
@@oneupmanship ^ Wise words!
Amazingly, trees grow on their own without human intervention..
@@reubenmcloughlin423 True, but it would be best to have hardwood trees, yes?
We also have a Blaze King Princess!
Our only source of heat for 4 winters now, we really like the Blaze King.
Manitoba Canada winter temps are often below 0°f occasionally-35°f.
-10°c to -35-40°c
Hey I got the same hat. My wife got the blue one and a picture with you at the 2019 homestead conference.
Great video. My stove is in our family room . The pipe is vertical out of stove to a horizontal into the wall/chimney.
Try and stay away from horizontal piping if you can. The only build up I get is in that small horizontal pipe. No matter how hot I have the stove, when the pipes and chimney gets cleaned in the Spring it’s there .
Again, great video .
To much horizontal pipe also makes it hard to get the smoke moving in the right direction when starting a fire.
Even just the slightest angle on horizontal pipes makes a huge difference in draw.
Just an FYI I learned that wood like oak and maple splits best when you split it green... within an hour of cutting. After it sits in the sun half a day then you are pounding rocks. Once you split it the wood seasons faster. If you have acres and acres then you can let wood lay around for a year but if you dont have the room, then you have to be more efficient with the space you have.
Good point. Air dried oak seasons/ dries out , one inch( depth) per year. Also each year, the log doubles its heat output , up to 4 years.