Military Family Stove

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Michael J

New Member
Feb 9, 2010
12
Alaska
This is of course my first post. I studied in great detail this wonderful forum....lot's of information, ideas, and thoughts! I am stationed in Fairbanks Alaska and I deploy quite a bit. I own a 2500 sf home and have been considering putting in a stove for a few years now. My initial thoughts, for ease of use, while I was away was a pellet stove for my wife and of course my older kids could help. After a long process I actually decided to go with a Blazeking Ultra over the pellet stove. I got a good deal in town and the facts for me are that wood by the cord is cheaper than pellets and for us in the Interior; It's available!

I was hoping to get some feedback from the folks that have been living with wood heat for years now. I need to know some thoughts and if the selection of stove I made will take care of my family while I am away!

Thank You, Michael
 
You'll find a lot of company here with satisfied BK owners...esp in Alaska. Welcome and thank you for your service to the Republic.
 
savageactor7 said:
You'll find a lot of company here with satisfied BK owners...esp in Alaska. Welcome and thank you for your service to the Republic.
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a BIG +1

to the OP make sure your clan has access to this forum so if they run into a question or concern while you are away we can take care of them for ya! its the least we can do in return for your service to us. stay safe!
 
Welcome Michael and Thank You for doing what you do!!
 
You bought a great stove. Enjoy the stove and keep us posted as to how it works for you. Thank you so much for your service.
 
I'm with you in choosing the wood over pellet. While pellets are convenient they aren't throwing heat when the power is out.

Plus, that blazeking is a beast.

Congrats and I look forward to seeing what you think of that big old girl once you get her fired up.

pen
 
I decided on a wood stove instead of a pellet stove for one big reason... it doesn't require electricity. It is certainly more work, but to me, it was the right decision.

Most recently, we lost power a couple weeks ago (not sure why, it wasn't weather related) for about 8-10 hours. We weren't home when the power went out, so I'm not sure exactly how long it was out.

We stayed nice and warm all night, and didn't need to worry about the power being out. I fired up my little Coleman propane lantern for a little bit so we could see while I reloaded the stove and took care of the pets and got ready for bed.

If your family knows how to run the stove, they'll stay plenty warm, and even better, it won't matter one bit if there is electricity or not.

-SF
 
Welcome to the forum Michael and thank you for serving our country.


My only concern would be to make sure you have plenty of dry firewood on hand. You should have a couple years of wood split, stacked and drying to be ready for next winter and perhaps the winter beyond. If you have good dry firewood then the stove will operate as intended with few problems. You might also be sure someone could clean the chimney if it needs it while you are gone.

Good luck.
 
I just finished the Hearth today with the heat shield trim and caulk and so I thought this may finally be worthy of posting on the forum. 99% of the ideas and inspiration came from you folks. THANKS!

My Wife and kids will surely be nice and warm next winter.

I captured pictures during the entire build, from re-plumbing the baseboard heater, the installation of the mutiple layers of wood to tile, and then the trimwork. Is there a place on here to post that stuff for other folks who made need an idea or two. Seeing pictures of previous installations was worth it's weight in gold for me. Anyways...

Thanks again, Mike
 

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Looks great. Dry wood does make a big difference in both the heat output and ease of operation. You chose one of the easiest to operate stoves out there. Enjoy it.
 
That install looks great Michael.

You will find there are many forums here on hearth.com

The forum you are on now is the Hearth Room. An easy way to find the other forums is to look at the upper left of the screen where you see Search. Just below that you will see the following:

Forum Home > Forums > The Hearth Room > Thread

Click your mouse on Forums. This will bring up a complete list with The Hearth Room at the top. You will find The Perfect Picture listed also and my favorite, The Wood Shed. Perhaps the one you want is the DIY Non-Hearth forum. Check them all out or just the ones that interest you. You will also find several posts by Bogy Dave in the Wood Shed. He is from Anchorage.
 
Michael J said:
I just finished the Hearth today with the heat shield trim and caulk and so I thought this may finally be worthy of posting on the forum. 99% of the ideas and inspiration came from you folks. THANKS!

My Wife and kids will surely be nice and warm next winter.

I captured pictures during the entire build, from re-plumbing the baseboard heater, the installation of the mutiple layers of wood to tile, and then the trimwork. Is there a place on here to post that stuff for other folks who made need an idea or two. Seeing pictures of previous installations was worth it's weight in gold for me. Anyways...

Thanks again, Mike
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If you have lots of pictures, we like photobucket, has a nice bulk uploader. Would like to see what you did for your install.
 
Yeah, upload the pictures to the "perfect picture" section, or create a photobucket account. I, for one, would love to see your install photos.
 
Here are the first "Best" 8 pictures of the install.
 

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Here are the final "Best" 6 pictures of the install. I apologize for the picture upload. I am sure that there is a better way to do this. This project ws very theraputic an I have a very deep, profound respect for those of you who choose to heat with wood and who have been doing this for some time now. There is a feeling that is almost undescribable in the sense of satisfaction and pride when you warm your home and family from your own hard labor.

Thanks, Mike
 

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Great install photos and excellent work. Thanks for posting this.
 
Great looking install. What branch of the service are you in?
 
With that stove, which your wife can easily learn to use and probably already has, you never need to worry about them being without heat when you're away. Good luck. Nice install.
 
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