Wood Stoves

[FireBuilder]

Does anyone here use a wood stove to heat their home?

As a lover of campfires I thought wood stoves would be a piece of cake. It took me the longest time to figure out that wood stove fires are not at all like campfires.

 

[dinosaur]

I've been using wood burners for thirty-four years in four different homes. The first three were an assist. The one I have is in my cabin and is the primary heat source.

 

[CozInCowtown]

I don't but was raised on wood heat.
"A wood fire will warm you up twice" was the motto of my father growing up,"once when you cut it, second time when you burn it".
I am a city boy now with central heat & air.
DC

 

[John13np]

I used to have a wood stove in my last house. I loved it. Of course in the mornings when its 0 degrees out it's never fun getting up at 5 am to start a fire

 

[dinosaur]

I don't but was raised on wood heat.
"A wood fire will warm you up twice" was the motto of my father growing up,"once when you cut it, second time when you burn it".
I am a city boy now with central heat & air.
DC

My Daddy said the same thing. Sorry to hear you are a city boy now, Cowtown. Don't get soft. You may need all your skills someday.

And, John, how long do you sleep? My stove will keep burning for nine hours properly banked and damped.

 

[John13np]

I didn’t have that great of a wood stove. Definitely keep us warm, but it would not last for more than 4 or 5 hours

 

[Erwin]

Growing up we had a wood stove and we sure did a lot of cutting! Ours stayed warm for about 7 hours then it would start to cool off.

 

[Rookie]

My stove will keep burning for nine hours properly banked and damped.

Ours will not keep burning all night, but there are plenty of hot coals left to restart it quickly the next morning. If I'm heading out early and don't get to it until after lunch, I need to start again from scratch.

Dinosaur - any tips on "properly" banking and damping? I just stop adding wood when I go to bed, then get up in the morning and shoosh it around.

 

[JDSport]

I have the same issues Rookie and would be real interested in knowing tips as I have been doing this for years and have not gotten proficient at it for nine hours!

 

[Seven]

I enjoy my wood stove but I also have not had luck on the over night. Their are always coals to restart but it is not warm by any means in my house in the wee hours of the morning.

 

[le Metis]

We heat this old farm house with two wood burners...the first one we bought had a fire box too small for the amount of area needed to heat. But, lucked out, and bought another one that has a fire box over 3 times bigger........

 

[campclose]

We heat our home with a wood stove and you are right, they are nothing like campfires. The key is to get them going and keep them going. Once you let it go out you have to deal with starting it all again.

Be sure to also clean the chimney out often!

 

[Betty]

We have two of them. We have an open floor plan. Usually we only need to keep the larger one lit downstairs. When the temperature gets down to about 10 degrees, we light the small one upstairs in the morning. We love them!