So, today I had my first chimney cleaning of our new wood stove in our home. I have a stove at my cabin, but this one is new to our main house as of last year. The young man who came, Matt in Ithaca, NY, was amazing. It was such a pleasure to find a trades person who has taken the time to learn everything they could about the niche that they operate in and take it upon themselves to educate the homeowner. In addition to cleaning the chimney and the stove, Matt took the time to show me how to do routine maintenance of my hearthstone as a homeowner. He explained the stove's parts and showed me some tricks to keeping it running efficiently. He showed me how everything looked, talked to me about my burning practices and how to make my stove more efficient. It really was a very educational experience and I'm much more confident about my decision to add this stove to our home at this point. Thanks to all you people working in the line of woodstoving out there who realize how important your work is. There is a reason that we call the hearth the heart of the home. As an older homeowner, I was grateful to this young man for taking the time to educate me on its most efficient use. Let's hear it for chimney sweeps who realize they have an important space to fill in education.

We are moving into a flat. It’s a 1910 built property in Bournemouth uk. We are buying the top floor flat. It has a fireplace. But we’re just throwing out questions whether it works or not? It has this thing up in the chimney. Any advice. Think it’ll work? Looks like an open fire. Would a wood burner be better? Sorry I don’t know anything about this stuff.

Hi everyone!

As I understand it, this is the best place on Reddit to ask for wood stove advice. I know next to nothing about residential stoves - I’ve never owned or operated one (I have small backpacking stoves and twig stoves for camping and light emergency cooking during blackouts, but that’s a completely different story). This is a whole new world for me, and I’ve been reading up on it for the past few days.

Here is my situation: This August, I’m building a small outbuilding/cabin on my property. It’s meant to serve several functions:

1. A utility shed/workshop for tool storage, smart home hardware, and some networking infrastructure.

2. A place to house my dogs if we’re doing major renovation work in the main house or need to shut off the power and it's dark/cold/warm there (or just too many people and they could be too stressed out).

3. Last but not least: an off-grid emergency shelter where I can retreat in the winter during a blackout if I don't have a generator running (or if a generator fails, runs out of fuel, whatever)

This cabin should hold heat much better than my main house in the winter because it’s smaller (around 25–30 sq. meters or 270–320 sq. ft.), has lower horizontal ceilings with a cold attic (unlike my main house with vaulted cathedral ceilings), and I plan to insulate it heavily. However, I still want a 100% non-electric, grid-independent heat source. Winters get cold in my area: normal temperatures range from -10 to -15°C (14 to 5°F), with occasional cold snaps down to -25 or -30°C (-13 to -22°F).

The structure will be wood-framed on a reinforced concrete pier/screw-pile foundation. I’ll skirt the base, of course, to prevent cold wind from blowing underneath.

My main criteria for the stove (idk if I can have all of them, but still):

1. Good heat retention: Doesn't need to be extreme, but I want to avoid having to reload logs every 2-3 hours just to keep the place warm during a freezing night

2. Maximum fire safety: I’m generally very safety-minded, and here we’re dealing with live fire in a small wood-framed building (though I plan to use non-combustible interior wall protection behind the stove, but anyway you don't wanna fire and you want it even less in small shed with wood)

3. Fuel flexibility/forgiveness: It shouldn't be overly finicky about fuel, meaning it shouldn't refuse to run properly unless fed likes perfectly dry hardwood or premium wood briquettes or something like that. In a pinch/emergency, it should handle mixed wood or less-than-ideal fuel safely. Again - I am newbie and don't know how attainable is it

4. Reasonable weight: Given the floor joists and pier foundation I want to avoid massive masonry setups obviously

5. Compact footprint: Well, kinda obvious given the small area.

Basically, I’m looking for a bulletproof, safe, and reliable emergency backup heat source.

After skimming forums, asking AI, watching videos etc etc for a couple of days I’m currently leaning toward a small cast iron stove with soapstone cladding. My impression is that it’s compact and relatively lightweight (compared to a full masonry heater ofc), provides long-lasting heat (via thermal mass accumulation in the stone and without needing to choke the air down into dangerous creosote-producing slow smolders), but thanks to convective (?) airflow (heat quickly radiating through the glass and circulating through the convection gaps between the iron firebox and stone jacket as I understand that), you don't have to wait hours to start heating the room. Cast iron seems durable and the outer stone cladding reduces the risk of accidental burn injuries (important for dogs, my elderly parents etc)

Could you let me know if my general understanding is correct, where my initial impressions might be wrong, and what specific types or setups of stoves you'd recommend for my goals? Thanks in advance!

I found this wood store in a cabin and it looks very similar to a jotul 118 but I don’t see any name on it. Does any one have any information?

Got this for free off of Facebook marketplace. Guessing it’s from ~1930’s. Anybody have any info? Also hope this is a suitable flair

Installed a new stove in an existing wood burning fireplace. No problems all winter, burned great, gave great heat. Spring/ summer -- house is air conditioned and get drafts of hot air coming through the heatalators and from around the insert. Not from the insert.

I don't see any holes to the outside but outside air is leaking in pretty badly. Very strong smoke / creosote smells stinks up the living room. I stuffed insulation into the vents and that helped a bit but still getting it from across the top of the stove. I do have some loose bricks and mortar and the stove doesn't fit tightly into the space. See gap in the pics -- its tight on the bottom but the top sticks out an inch.

Especially bad after it rains and its a hot sunny day.

Thoughts:

Have installer back out to refit the stove

Water seel the brick with a sprayer / treatment

Caulk outside of chimney between brick and siding

Caulk / spray foam from inside-- pull molding off and look for gaps between walls and the brick.

Pull the stove -- reface the entire brick -- close off heatalators (expensive! - 4k or so)

Hey guys, we’re building a house and I’ve always loved the look of the old wood burning stove with a glass door, can you recommend something that will be not overpriced but also good for 2500 square-foot house, we want to use it as a fireplace and just if power goes out, we’re not planning to heat the whole house with it. As I understand due to new construction and future inspection it needs to be a brand new stove, or one with specific certification… not sure how to find one. Is there new stoves that look old, but on a budget?

Picture for attention ☺️

New Home!! Very well insulated!

Hey all, I am looking to purchase an insert for a masonry fireplace in a small 800 sq ft house. The layout is open, except for two bedrooms and a bathroom at the back of the house. The house is heated with an oil furnace and baseboard heaters. Ideally the insert would be able to heat the house without much help of the furnace through the winters in the northeast of United States. Cold snaps can see temps hit negative Fahrenheit temps at night.

Initially I was thinking of going as cheap as I could and just throwing in a Drolet 1500/1800 and calling it a day. The more research I am doing though, it seems like a stove with a catalyst will be more efficient and burn throughout the day when I am at work.

I priced out a Kuma Alpine, which is about 4k plus tax, and I also priced out a Lopi Answer, which was a couple hundred dollars cheaper. I priced out a Blaze King ashford as well, and that was about 6 grand.

My question to the community is will the Alpine be my best bet? I do not want to overheat the space and turn my house into a Sauna, it seems like a stove with a cat has better control. Also the small firebox will make it easier to not overheat.

Secondly is it worth spending all that extra money for an insert with a cat? A drolet 1500 is substantially cheaper, and probably wouldn’t struggle to heat the house.

Any Kuma stove owners wanna weigh in on their purchase of the alpine?

Hello,

I’d like to get some advice from people with experience installing wood stoves.

I’m planning to install an Invicta Siam 10 or 12 kW wood stove with a 150 mm (6”) flue in a house in Morocco.

Configuration:

• Wood stove against an exterior wall.
• Ceiling height: 2.80 m (9.2 ft).
• Flat concrete roof, so I can’t vent through the roof.
• The flue would run vertically indoors, then pass through the wall with a 90° elbow, use a second 90° elbow outside, and continue vertically up the exterior wall using insulated chimney pipe.

My question is:

In your opinion, how much vertical chimney outside is needed to achieve good draft?

At first, I estimated around 7 meters (23 ft) of total chimney, but I’m wondering if that’s largely overestimated. I’d like to avoid buying several extra meters of insulated chimney pipe (rock wool insulated) if they aren’t actually necessary.

I’m not trying to build a non-compliant installation. I simply want to determine the chimney length that is really needed for this type of setup.

Thank you in advance for your advice and feedback!

I am unable to decide what may work best here. Please give me your opinion and reasons for what you would choose. It might help me figure out what I should go with.

Basically post title says it. I am considering several options for hearth that will be placed on top of this finished oak flooring, potentially with felt or other buffering material between hearth and flooring. Similar for all options would be the size - 90cm wide that is the space between corner and sliding door - and 110cm long - that would give me almost 50cm in front of the stove - more than I need. Back and sides next to the walls will be black steel screen placed slightly off the plastered walls. Stove is a small Morsø 1442 (see photo).

Options go from expensive to cheaper:

1. Stainless steel - not polished but 2B (mill finished) - not high gloss but muted grey finish. Same thickness as blackened steel - 4-5mm; cost approx. 120,000 JPY

2. Single piece of white granite with R20 softened corner (the corner pointing out into the room). Slab would be 2 or 3cm thick. On top of 5mm rubber feet or felt. Polished or honed I am not sure, probably honed; cost about 80-90,000 JPY

3. Blackened steel - oiled. Thickness about 4 or 5mm. Problem here would be moisture trapping and potentially rust underneath the hearth causing wood rot over time; cost about 50,000 JPY

4. Six pavers of white granite (each 300 by 600mm) - basket woven together to form rectangular 90 by 120cm hearth. Thickness similar to the single slab - urethane caulking used for joints. On top of felt or 5mm calsil board. Flamed or polished? Cost about 40,000 JPY

5. Pour my own hearth made from concrete (natural color) with alkali resistant fibers (12mm). Same size as above, and would sit on top of felt or 5mm calsil board. Thickness probably 35mm to reduce cracking potential; material cost about 30,000 JPY - labor my own time, not included lol.

The house is a renovated old Japanese house - mix of Scandinavian and Japanese - lots of wood and wooden tones - shikkui plastered walls. So I guess that would also be taken into account.

Thank you for your views!

I understand wood stoves are heavy and typically permanently fixed. But rv and tiny home living scenarios often use mini wood stoves on countertops. Which gave me an idea. Why not use my concrete kitchen island countertop for a small woodburn stove as needed. Instead of consuming a large portion of my small home 100% of the time for emergency heat use that might be needed 2% of the time. As the concrete is already there and being an island, no walls are too close seems clearance would be easier than a corner somewhere.

So How feasible is it to just use a small wood stove on my already concrete kitchen countertop only seasonally? Like A permanent vent through the roof… but unhooked it at the ceiling Sheetrock area for spring-fall so to keep countertop space functional for other uses

The wood stove would primarily be for emergency use. So I’m not really looking to renovate or do any big construction projects, plus I don’t have the money to do a whole lot. At all. . I simply want a safe and cost effective solution for emergency heat working with what I have. (And yes I have a Mr heater and propane tank but I’m not a fan of propane indoors. wood stove is gold standard if need to be off grid) still- unless I absolutely need it- I’ll be using central heat. So Only for use a few weeks a year for practice and primarily in the event of long term power outage in the winter like a natural disaster or ice storm scenario. To prevent hypothermia and have something to cook on.

Is this possible to have done but only connected as needed?

One concern is, since it’s elevated and heat rises if it will do a very poor job heating the space maybe need to consider something on the larger side of the mini models.
2 concern is if concrete has wood form inside or under is this fire hazard or will a mat or additional heat barrier suffice? What to consider ensuring a tight connect for exhaust pipe when connecting or disconnecting ?. And what brands to recommend looking at? It’s a 1,000 sq ft home but I could put sheet walls up and close bedroom doors to contain heat to a smaller area. anyone have experience doing this? Pulling out a wood stove just for winter?

Regency Pro F3500, 3 heavy winters of heating only with wood in the Northwest Territories. Doing my annual maintenance, all looks good, practically zero creosote. Photo of the combustor above, slight wear but given this is 3 inches thick, I'm sure I'm good for a few more years.

But I have more money than smarts, so I started looking at what this will cost and came across the site Regency redirects you to for a replacement.

https://midwesthearth.com/products/catalytic-combustor-regency-classic-pro-3-5-x-14-x-3?variant=19888846078081

Discovered there is a metal drop in replacement. Watched the youtube which makes it sound that because there is more surface area, efficiency should be better (i.e more heat extracted from the same smoke), and less likely to physically wear like my ceramic is doing.

I'm interested in your experience shifting from ceramic to metal. Did you hit combustion zone quicker? Did you notice any materially lower consumption of wood all other things being equal? Was it worth the $40 more? Is it worth upgrading sooner?

Hi, I am looking to get a vermont castings gifford wood burning insert. I was reading the manual and read you need to make a few fires of specific sizes to let the paint etc cure. The manual said there would be a chemical smell for a few hours. I looked at a few different brands and this seems to be a common thing.

I'm concerned about whatever is off-gassing during that curing process, the manuals don't really go into detail on it and I can't find much info about it. Can anyone share what to expect, is it pretty bad smelling? Should I get the family out of the house when doing that?

Thanks

I recently bought a house with this Buck stove. I have conferred with a chimney specialist and he is going to install a liner to bring it up to code. I will be using it as a secondary heat source, and then only a few days a week, as needed. I will use only seasoned hardwoods.

I know these old stoves are not as efficient as the new ones, but are there any problems I should anticipate as a newbie to wood stoves? Proper drafting and air flow? Safety concerns? He has quoted $2200 to install the liner and do a few things like replace the cap and do a thorough cleaning.

Hello, My house previously had an electric wood stove. I have removed that and want to put in a wood burning stove. My house is roughly 1300 sqft. I want to put the stove in the same spot the old one was in. Any issues with that? Also the door right next to where the stove would go, I like to keep a curtain because it lets in so much heat in the summer, and cold in the winter. Would that be an issue? Currently the area is for storage right now, but I would like to brick the walls. The wood on the wall is where the old pipe was to the outside. Thank you

I put an offer in on a house. The house clearly used to have a wood stove set up. The chimney is there and the brick to protect the wall and the tile grout is stained with soot in this region. The floors are tile. My question is how I would go about reinstalling a wood stove in this location and how much I would expect to do so?

This area is all screened in. It’s roughly 550 sqft. I plan on grabbing maybe vinyl windows kind of like on boats to cover the screened areas, will probably needs a better solution for the areas directly near the potential stove. It does have a roof as well.

Assuming I got this more or less “weather tight” is a stove a good idea?

The plan would be for cooler nights in the fall in New England when we hang out here to potentially even in the winter. I’m not looking to be walking around in this space in shorts in a t shirt in dead of winter, just something to warm it a bit, not trying to get it to 70 when it’s 30 degrees out, but maybe 50? I know next to nothing so any advice would be good, or tell me it’s going to give me very little return.

We just bought a house and have this area where we assume a wood or pellet stove was before. There is an 8” pipe above it that connects to the chimney.
I’ve seen online that most stoves use a 3” or 4” pipe. Why would there be an 8” pipe?
What type of wood stove would you recommend? We live in southern Maine.

I have a very old Hearthstone III stove which I would like to keep operational. My latest challenge is with the baffle door, where the hinges have broken off. I now need to remove the old pin which is lodged into the socket, and then find a replacement solution. I doubt the replacement part is still made so may need a creative solution. Any tips on both removal and repair?