which stove for northern canada in a cold mobile home?
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No one is asking you how seasoned your wood supply is. My brother used to be in northern Ont. (same conditions as northern Alberta) and typically, pine is cut, seasoned a few weeks (actually seasoned is a misnomer) , then burned. If that's your case, not only is your chimney an issue but you are wasting half the heat when the wood is in the stove trying to dry enough to burn well. When you post that you are burning at 300, then 500 with the ash door open, it sounds exactly like wood that is not dry enough. IMHO, pine needs to be cut and stacked in a windy, dry spot for a year before it's good to burn.
Your wood situation will also make a difference on what stove will suit you best. Some are more forgiving than others.
Your wood situation will also make a difference on what stove will suit you best. Some are more forgiving than others.
good point. our wood is typically cut about june thru august. cut, tarped, and ready for winter. i think its ready. also we burn a massive amount of lumber offcuts. i just purchased a log deck of 39 cord. 4 years old uncovered. i tarped it a month ago and am cutting it as i can find time. this years wood is cured but wet from rain etc. hopefully drying some as we speak.....
Ohh, that will start a whole new discussion here.
Unseasoned wood sounds more like your problem than chimney. Four to six months of drying pine is not enough to get great heat out of a marginal wood. It's the way it's always been but the new stoves are VERY fussy for good, dry wood.
If that wood is cut green it is far from ready to burn in a modern stove, even if pine. This is a perfect trifecta. Bad wood, short chimney and improper stove operation to compensate. All curable, but it depends on some changes made. Modern stoves don't burn poorly seasoned wood very well at all. It cools down the fire too much. Add a short chimney so that the stove can't draft well and it's a setup for poor heat and a dirty flue.
well thank you all for your ideas. hopefully this winter will be the last one for poor wood. i am building a shed right now to hold about 15 cord. I will get another section of chimney with a new stove.
Seanm
Minister of Fire
Lots of good advice so far. The 27 is a good stove but the odd time I've tried to burn some questionable wood in it I was disappointed. I'm located in south eastern BC very close to the Alberta border and although we aren't as cold as you we burn mostly softwoods here as well and get by fine. I'm amazed at how much I've learned from my fellow hearth members since I joined in 2012 even though I had been burning for over a decade before. I've completely changed my strategy since then. Buy yourself a cheap moisture meter and take a round, split it and measure the center of it. This will take the guess work out of things. I just came home today with a short bed truck load of lodgepole pine that was standing dead. I ran it through the splitter and measured a few splits and it came out at 18%- 20%. Ready for the stove. If you're going to tarp make sure the wood is cut, split and stacked off the ground and only top covered. Covering it entirely with a tarp will be counter productive. You still may get some benefit from splitting your firewood now especially if you split small and do as mentioned and stack in single rows in your windiest location. All the best!! Welcome to Hearth!
Sean
Sean
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
Before you think you need 16 foot chimney for all modern stoves, read the manual for any stove you come across. Some/most only require 12'. It's pretty ridiculous seeing a 16 foot chimney poking up out of a single wide mobile that is only 8 feet tall above the ground. Looks like some sort of alien probe. Usually you see about 18" of chimney right above the roofline and that's just not enough for modern stoves.
Winter is coming and adding length to your chimney is needed. Once you hit that 5 foot line above the roof you need those braces. Do that soon before the roofing gets really cold and harder to work with. It will help with any stove. If it's all vertical then I would only shoot for 12' total.
Double and triple wides can also be considered mobile homes and those often hit 2500 SF or more. I joke that my stickbuilt house is smaller than most double wide trailers.
Winter is coming and adding length to your chimney is needed. Once you hit that 5 foot line above the roof you need those braces. Do that soon before the roofing gets really cold and harder to work with. It will help with any stove. If it's all vertical then I would only shoot for 12' total.
Double and triple wides can also be considered mobile homes and those often hit 2500 SF or more. I joke that my stickbuilt house is smaller than most double wide trailers.
thank you. when we have the shed finished it will have slab sides with 2-3 inch gaps. and for now a tarp roof. should let a fair bit of air thru
ya i have the same idea. a tower above my shack... but id rather be warm than cool... the other kind of cool
Lots of good advice. Maybe start with the moisture meter (super cheap way to get some important information). See what your wood is really at. Having lived in pine-infested regions for several years, I can attest that sometimes cut/split/stacked standing dead pine will easily be dry enough. Sometimes not. Once you know, you can manage your expectations for any stove. Second, adding to the stack will help; as Begreen says you have a perfect combo for cold. The advice people often get is insulate and seal the house, but maybe in your case a better return on investment is a big stove. Your heat loss is probably enormous, and the effort to make a substantial difference (beyond bubble wrap on windows and thermal curtains) at -40 would be large. And, since the insurance issue pushes you to a new stove anyway you're really dealing with two problems not just poor stove performance. I would lean toward a 3 cubic foot stove for two reasons. First, the ability to have a sustained period of large heat due to rapid loss. Second, you mentioned frequent reloading... Bigger box = more wood. FWIW I had an Englander 30 in a 12 x 52 singlewide and it was great. I think the neighbors in the park appreciated the heat it gave them 
Good luck-
Good luck-
I bought mine two years ago for $1600. Granted, I do live just a 3 hr drive from the factory, but still, I sure hope you could get a better price than that.
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