Small to medium stoves & overnight burns ?

The only way to get a long overnight burn with a small fire Box is with a cat stove. Sounds like a soapstone stove would work well for you.

www.woodstove.com

I can load up the Endeavor (2.2 cubic foot firebox) around 9PM and have plenty of coals for a 5-6AM restart using good hardwoods.

My Castine is great. My house is too big, meaning, my house is 2500sqf. If I had a house like yours I'm sure the Castine would be big enough to go 24/7 and not push you otta there with too much heat.

Mainely Saws said:

Yes , I sent away for Woodstock's literature & also called them . I also went over to a friends house that has had the Fireview for a 3 years now . I like the stove a lot & of course with the tax break it's very enticing . I'm still a bit on the fence with combuster though .

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I know what you mean, I was a little leery about the cat as well, but it turns out it's very simple to use and you get a more controllable long even burn. It will be very hard to convince me to go back to a non cat.

Pagey said:

I can load up the Endeavor (2.2 cubic foot firebox) around 9PM and have plenty of coals for a 5-6AM restart using good hardwoods.

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x2, I'd load up around 10 or 11 when it was single digit cold and would have plenty of coals for a relight with regular sized splits around 7 or 8 in the morning. When I was burning full loads of hickory a time or two I had too much of a coal bed come morning to get a good fill before I left for work.

Mainely Saws said:

Here's my delemma , heating just 1000 sq.ft . of fairly well insulated space doesn't call for a large stove , even up here in Maine . I can easily heat my space with a 1.7 cubic ft. firebox but only get about 4 hours of heat . I'd like to get longer burn times but a larger stove that would burn longer would roast me out of the place . Any such thing as a small to medium stove with long burns times ?

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don't be afraid to go bigger. where you are now you can't do anything to fix, but if you had a bigger stove and it is getting warm out then you build a smaller fire. when it comes time for bed stick in a split or two more than you usually put in your stove now and you'll be ok. it will also work out when it's 2 below outside.

Mainely Saws said:

Yes , I sent away for Woodstock's literature & also called them . I also went over to a friends house that has had the Fireview for a 3 years now . I like the stove a lot & of course with the tax break it's very enticing . I'm still a bit on the fence with combuster though .

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Welcome to the club. That is exactly what we went through. Long story short, we bought the Woodstock Fireview....and love it. Yes, we were afraid of the cat stoves and then found out how easy it is to operate and how much heat we get and such a clean burning stove, what more can be said? Well, how about using only half the amount of wood we used to burn and staying much warmer in the house. So do not let fear of the cat turn you off like I almost did.

btw there is a little maintenance to do with the cat. It has to be cleaned every so often. I think Woodstock recommends clean after a cord of wood has been burned. We found it does not need it that often but I suppose it also depends on your wood. Cleaning the cat takes only 2-3 minutes or less than 5 minutes for sure and is so easy a child can do it. All it takes is an old paint brush. Lift the cat out, take it outdoors and just brush away the white fly ash and put it back in. Not difficult at all.

I live in a 820 sq.' house that's well insulated but has a lot of large drafty windows and fairly drafty walls. If you have a fairly tight 1000' you're probably needing as much or less btu's than I do.

My opinion regarding the "larger is better" debate is, having gone from a jotul nordic, which heated my place fine during moderately cold temps but couldn't cut it when it was deep cold, to the castine which is more stove than I need, I gained the ability to easily keep the place warm during the sub-zero periods, but also learned that the amount of wood needed for an overnight burn will also overheat a space that the stove is over sized in (I was warned of that here) I can open windows but then there goes the heat that I worked hard to cut, split and stack (and move again into the house.) Some positives and negatives, though overall I can stay warm without the struggle with a small stove (constant re-loads) and that's worth it. I just have to forgo overnight burns unless it's at least 10 - 15 below.

If I were to do it again, and I had the extra money I'd definitely go for a soapstone stove more accurately sized for the space. I can see how that would work well in here.

I know it's said many times on this site, but using properly seasoned wood just as important (or more) as stove choice in these situations. I've found no shortcut to long burns without wood that's been cut/stacked for at least a full year. Larger pieces are good for long burns, but take a really long time to dry.
BTW, I'm heating 1000 sq. ft with a 2.3 cu box stove & I'm starting to reach the end of my stove season. When temps are above freezing it's easy to get the room too warm, so I'll just use the furnace (natural gas). I too was on the fence about stove sizing and went with the larger stove for the overnight/at-work reasons. It's not hard to keep a small fire in a medium size stove, you just have to tend it more often.

i get 8 to 9 hr no problem with f3 cb

i don't know how much larger a stove you all are running to the rating of the stove but i have a 1280 sq ft house and the stove is rated at 2500 sq ft at the largest. if i throw in 1/2 to 3/4 full it doesn't over heat my house, and when we get up in the morning it's like 70 to 72 with the low temp outside of upper 30's. the draw back is having to start a fresh fire daily.

not trying to start a war here just don't know why a larger stove would be a bad idea. i think it would be worse trying to keep the house warm when it's 15 degrees out and you have to get up at three in the morning to load, or freeze by 7am.

As has been said before a Cat stove would be a perfect fit, it gives you the ability to control your temps and keep burning clean, even on low. I switched from a Cat stove to a non-cat stove and will be going back to a Cat stove if I can find a good deal on one. In order to burn clean on a non-cat stove you have to get your temps up to about 450 degrees in order to kick off the secondary air, this will in turn roast you out of your house, and then when your down to only coals you will be too cool in your house, its an up and down cycle.

My 2 story house is 1200 sq ft, but the stove is in the living room where we spend a lot of time, downstairs is around 600 sq ft so it easily will roast us out if we run it on high, hence why slow and low works great for us.

trick is get stove hot like 500 load it up get it burning then damper all the way down. i burn mostly oak, maple, ash, some cherry. it also helps to have a good heavy ash bed it seems to insulate the coals for the next morning. there are people on here also doing this and with pine which is really impressive.

For the past week I've been running the Fireview with the damper fully closed (after getting the combustor up to temp). Result - average wood usage of just over 1 cu ft per day (that isn't much at all); loading it twice a day, clean glass, no worries. Its a little much during the 40+ degree days, but is just right for 20-30 degrees nights. Real easy.

argus66 said:

trick is get stove hot like 500 load it up get it burning then damper all the way down. i burn mostly oak, maple, ash, some cherry. it also helps to have a good heavy ash bed it seems to insulate the coals for the next morning. there are people on here also doing this and with pine which is really impressive.

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I would be one of those. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a full solid bed of coals, but on occasion I've had enough to get the morning fire going without a match. Also remember, I don't load up with the intention of getting an overnight . . .it just happens on occasion.