how long have you burned wood

Burned from 1973 til 1985 with Franklin stove wood hog! last year finally got to fire up again with Jotul F3 and I am happy again...

I could answer less than 5 or more than 25.

Going into the 4th season with an EPA stove in my own home. But Ive been around wood heating since my Dad bought our first VC during the 2nd oil crisis. I was probably 3 or 4 at the time.

Eight seasons so far... which isn't an option ...

Started using a wood stove while back at my parents home in the fall of 1978 as my Dad went up by Greenwood Indiana to a place called Vanslykes. They had a stove called an Aurora. Everyone was buying wood stoves that year. Electric bills were like $400 per month for baseboard electric heat. That was alot of money back then and still is. I was 14 years old. Vanslykes was so busy that year ,you could hardly walk thru the place it was elbow to elbow. That stove was the latest greatest , the stove had 3 square tubes running diagonal up thru the back of the firebox. The salesman said now this is high tech , the blowers blow air thru those tubes and does a much better job of capturing the heat and blowing it out into the room.

Grew up burning wood and spent plenty of time splitting, stacking and moving wood around with my dad as a kid. Burned wood pellets over the past 13 years and now converted and going into my first season burning wood.

This will be my third year burning, second full season. Learned alot on this site many thanks to Hearth.com

We've been burning wood for almost 13 years in my workshop, but only 5 years in our house. I used to get my wood during the winter and spring BEFORE the season I'd burn. Since finding this site and learning how getting several years ahead would make the wood that much better, I've gotten way better and more efficient at burning it!

grew up with wood heat,and another 24 years heating after that.

Blue Vomit said:

Grew up burning wood, taught by Dad. Had a brief hiatus while I went to college to drink beer. Started back up after I bought my own place. Man it feels good to start back up again.

Click to expand...

Ditto for me too.

Blue2ndaries said:

Yeah I've been "burning" wood for about 11 years, but been heating for about 6yrs after finding this site.

Click to expand...

Milton Findley said:

More that ten years, however, I didn't know anything until I came here and started reading everything in sight. I have done it right since 2010. Before that I was lucky not to burn a house down.

Click to expand...

Oh, this is bringing back some bad memories. I've been burning up wood for 26 years. Not much heating was done; I mostly burned dead standing Red Oak that had been split for four or five months, tops. It was a battle just getting some of that stuff to burn. I knew at the time that I should have been splitting my wood earlier, but always ended up putting it off. Once in a while I would get some White Ash and would say to myself, "Wow, this stuff sure is easy to light...what's up with that?" I never did figure it out. My wife's grandma bought her the Englander before I moved down here. The guy (not a certified sweep!) that installed it just put plate steel over the fireplace opening and ran the pipe into the fireplace. Unburned smoke and gas built up in the fireplace and smoke chamber and when she opened the stove door, the extra oxygen ignited it and blew the door wide open, knocking her on her butt. Her cousin, who had worked for a sweep for a time, told her "You need to run pipe all the way up the masonry chimney." First I put regular stove pipe in there, and it would rust the pipe through every few years, due to all the condensation from the wet wood. The creo would run out of the snap seams on the pipe and stink the place up. I knew it was time to clean the flue when the draft would start dropping and smoke would roll out when I opened the door. The adjustable elbow would be more than half blocked off with creosote. I would get a five-gallon bucket or more out of the pipe. We had a few chimney fires but I usually got them snuffed within a minute or so. Then I went to stainless snap-together pipe, which solved the problem of rust-through.
The hell of it was, I had stumbled onto this website probably ten years ago, but was new to the internet and never made it past the cryptic home page...which is pretty much still there. A few years ago I finally got a high-speed connection, got a little more 'net-savvy, and found the forums. Of course, I got dry-wood religion from Brother Backwoods Savage, Brother Brother Bart and others, and never looked back. Now I've got two-summers dried Ash, BL, Cherry and Black Oak to burn this year, and several more years stacked. I'm looking forward to this season, and those to come. I'd like to again thank Craig for this place, the mods for riding herd, and the knowledgeable and helpful members who freely pass on their experience to help others. I've learned a lot already but feel like I've just scratched the surface. I love this place!

5 years. Bought wood the first 2 years and have been scrounging since. The PE vista cannot fully heat my house so I need to use the furnace too. Switched the oil furnace for gas in summer of 2008 and now I burn recreationally rather than to help supplement the heating bill. It dropped from $3k to $1.2k with gas.

Woody Stover said:

... I got dry-wood religion from Brother Backwoods Savage, Brother Brother Bart and others, and never looked back.

Click to expand...

AMEN to that!

Blue2ndaries said:

AMEN to that!

Click to expand...

Here, HERE!

Been "Stove burning" for 9 yrs, so I polled 10+ years. Tho I could say 25+ with all the years burning in 55 gal drums and campfires! So lot's of of years c/s/s

First year, I was lucky enough to come across the forums this spring, now I know everything there is to know...

5 years this winter. Feels like I picked up the Oslo last week, time does go by fast and alot has been learned in that time. I'm sure I will be a woodburner as long as the body will let me.

30 Years - 1st year with an EPA Stove

This is year number 2 but I grew up around it.
This site convinced me to get back into it last year and BAM! Hooked again.

We have been burning wood for just under 15 yrs. Never as the primary heat source, more supplemental. At first we had an old farm house with a original fireplace, that did not work out so well.
We then installed a Bellfires refractory open fireplace into the original fireplace - new ss lined/insulated chimney. I must admit, the Bellfires was a noticeable improvement over the original. Down sized a few year ago and installed a wood burner in our insulated basement for supplemental heating. love it

Dad had a fireplace in the LR and a little wood stove in the basement when I was a kid.
I always enjoyed splitting and stacking wood and keeping a rip roaring fire going.
Still enjoy the rip roaring fire part.

Gres up with wood burning stove all over. Dad house, grand pa, dad shop, dad hunting cabin, dad cottage.... And the same for all my friends and family, around here everybody have a wood stove. It was one of the thing i missed the most in the winter when I was in a apartement , a wood stove. Now going on my 4th season with a stove in my house. The wood stove was the first operational appliance in the house.

Six years burning with a stove. Still remember my parents during the winters of '78 and '79 talking about getting a wood stove for their fireplace that was seldom used.
Not until last year that I installed a stove insert which drastically cut down their oil bill - with my parents near 80....I wish I had found this forum or this info a long long time ago for their sake.

been burning eight years now. almost burnt the house down when a pair of mitts that were two close went up in flames, luckily i came home when i did. heard the smokw alarm going off as i was walkin up the front step. when i opened the door i could hardly see anything . lesson learned. keep combustables away from ur woodstove . however iv pretty much mastered woodburnin now. constantly thinking bout wood lol. friends call me woodfreak