Dueling Jotuls

[Clodhopper]

I am starting to think I have set myself up for a big pain in the neck. As I have mentioned before I am in the process of building an addition onto my house which is attached to the far end of my kitchen, which is attached to the main part of my old farmhouse. When we started the addition the first thing I had to do was tear down the old block chimney that we used to run our wood stove into, and put up a metal chimney in the main part of the house. The new set up is great. We always had a hard time getting the heat out of the kitchen before, and now the rest of the house is warmer than it has ever been.

But the kitchen is cold and we will need a heat source for the great room we are building, so the only solution I could come up with that didn't involve electric heat, etc was to have a second stove out there to take care of the addition and the kitchen. I bought a second Oslo yesterday (got a good price as it was very slightly used) which is admittedly going to be a little bit of an overkill for the size of the the space I want to heat with it. I am hoping it will supplement the Oslo in the main house as that may be slightly undersized for the space it is in. Also, I only wanted to have to cut one length wood.

The thing I am starting to wonder about is whether running two stoves is going to start feeling like a chore. I am not bothered by feeding one, but that is only one.

How do those of you with more than one stove feel about it? Do you manage it like rounds, where you service all the stoves at the same time? Just wondering whether I thought this through well enough.

 

[dznam]

Clod,

We've got a setup that's similar to the one you describe and we're feeding an Oslo and a Firelight. I've done the "dueling stove" thing for two years now and have the following observations (apologies in advance for the rambling):

1. Two stoves IS a lot more work, no getting around that..

2. While we knew that we'd be consuming about twice the wood, we underestimated just how much more work (and storage challenge) that extra 3-4 cords was going to be on top of the 3-4 we were already burning. There's some economy in the cutting, bucking and splitting because I only set up once to do each stage.

3. Importantly, wheras before I'd cut/burn red maple, paper birch, etc, I will now only process very high BTU wood. It cuts down on storage space, handling and the number of time you have to tend your stoves. My woodpile for next year consists only of oak, apple, ash, sugarmaple, beech and hornbeam. With high BTU wood, you cut your firetending chores significantly.

4. We've become more efficient in our 2nd season with two stoves - I built a second large woodbox for the 2nd stove so that I only have to load it (both of them) every 4 days or so. I load both woodboxes at the same time so it feels like the same "chore", not an additional one. In addition the woodboxes keep everything a lot cleaner. You may be able to make your "staging" more efficient - I keep 3 48" wood storage hoops on the porch for easy access when I refill my indoor woodboxes. I refill those hoops once every weekend (turned out that 3 hoops = 7 days burning for me during the coldest months). I also relocated my long term wood storage to be closer to those hoops on the porch. I also put permanent roofs on my long term woodracks - no fussing with tarps, snow, ice, etc - again reducing the overall workload and increasing convenience.

5. I tend to load the stoves at the same time (every 5-8 hours), although they tend to burn at different rates because they're damped differently and the Firelight is a cat stove so I findthat even though it's larger it actually burns less wood, everything else being equal.

6. This isn't relevant to you, but I discovered that the Firelight gives me a lot longer burntime and much more even temperatures over a burncycle and the top loading is a godsend (clean and easy), so I'm currently looking for a CAT Firelight to replace the Oslo so that I can further cut down on the extra work involved.

7. With time, you'll probably adjust to the rhythm of maintaining the two stoves - it's a new routine and it's disruptive at first. My first year I didn't think I'd be able to sustain the two stove setup, but I've gotten used to it and with the few changes I described above, I thoroughly enjoy running two stoves.

Hope this helps.

 

[Fsappo]

It's hard to oversize with that Oslo from my experience, they are very easy to control. Once you get yourself into a scheduled routine two stoves will just bcome part of your day.

 

[JonOfSunderland]

Not to hijack the thread, but dznam, how're you liking your Elm? You wouldn't happen to run a camp would you? I visited Steve last year to take a look at what he was doing with the Elms and he showed me the 36" "Nickel locomotive" he was sending to a camp in Maine. I really like the Elms and was planning to buy one until I stumbled across a Mansfield at a price I couldn't refuse.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I am starting to think I have set myself up for a big pain in the neck. As I have mentioned before I am in the process of building an addition onto my house which is attached to the far end of my kitchen, which is attached to the main part of my old farmhouse. When we started the addition the first thing I had to do was tear down the old block chimney that we used to run our wood stove into, and put up a metal chimney in the main part of the house. The new set up is great. We always had a hard time getting the heat out of the kitchen before, and now the rest of the house is warmer than it has ever been.

But the kitchen is cold and we will need a heat source for the great room we are building, so the only solution I could come up with that didn't involve electric heat, etc was to have a second stove out there to take care of the addition and the kitchen. I bought a second Oslo yesterday (got a good price as it was very slightly used) which is admittedly going to be a little bit of an overkill for the size of the the space I want to heat with it. I am hoping it will supplement the Oslo in the main house as that may be slightly undersized for the space it is in. Also, I only wanted to have to cut one length wood.

The thing I am starting to wonder about is whether running two stoves is going to start feeling like a chore. I am not bothered by feeding one, but that is only one.

How do those of you with more than one stove feel about it? Do you manage it like rounds, where you service all the stoves at the same time? Just wondering whether I thought this through well enough.

Is it more work? Yes.
Do I hate it? No.

The start up is the issue. Getting two or three going from a cold start is a pain in the ass. Getting two or three stoves going in the morning isn't fun either as I am sleepy and want to be warm.

Apart from the initial start up, I don't mind it at all.

Next winter I will have three stoves running. The Heritage will be going 24/7, but will hopefully be burning at lower temps for the most part during the day and cranked up higher in the evening (which will involve less upkeep). The Vigilant will be going throughout the day at a high temp as the stove is located near my office area. The Intrepid will be used in the evenings, weekends and burned more on the coldest days.

You will have it easier as you are burning two stoves of the exact same model. This makes a big difference as you can reload at the same time and keep it on a schedule. Adding a second stove of the same model is a benefit as you are already familiar with how it functions. When I added the Intrepid this winter I had a learning curve that was frustrating.

If the Hearthstone works out well for me I will probably end up with three Hearthstones in the house. If it isn't three Hearthstones, it will be three stoves of the same manufacturer (like Jotul) as it makes things easier maintaining three stoves that function the same.

 

[dznam]

Jon,

Small world, isn't it? That was my stove you saw at Steve's shop. Steve was great to work with as we built the stove - it was definitely one of those "have it your way" deals. I always gets comments on "The Nickel Locomotive" from our visitors up at camp - it's as much a showpiece as a stove (for woodstove fanatics, anyway).

Overall, the stove works well for the part-time application at camp. I like the looks the best and I also I like the huge firebox and the tall legs enable easy loading. On the downside, like my dad's old Papa Bear, it chews through wood at an impressive rate. Unlike that Papa Bear, I can't throttle it down enough to create a truly slow burning fire because the front damper won't allow you to completely (or near-completely) shut off the supply of air. It does have secondaries that Steve added, but I found that they supplied too much air to the firebox, so I plugged them. Now I'll admit that I'm using some unusually seasoned wood - sugar maple that had been stored in the barn for 10-20 years - and it's bone dry, almost petrified! This may contribute to the air control challenge I have as it gives up its volatiles very quickly, but I think it's more the huge firebox which is at issue - kind of like the challenge that many people seem to have with their Equinox' and this is an even larger firebox.

Because it only sees intermittent use and it works reasonably well in its current application, I haven't fussed with it to try to improve burn times. I'll add an in-line damper this summer and also use some less seasoned wood once my current supply runs out.

Having said that, I think you probably made a better choice with the Mansfield (I owned one a while back). It's just hard to beat the efficiency and environmental friendliness of the newer generation of stoves.

Now back to our regularly scheduled show...

 

[Clodhopper]

Thanks for all the input. I guess even if it is going to be a drag I have committed myself to it. Just another mouth to feed.
My schedule will be like this- Feed the jotuls, feed the kids, feed the cows, pigs, chickens, goats, feed the jotuls, cut wood, feed the cows, pigs, chickens, goats, feed the jotuls, feed the dogs, feed the kids, feed the jotuls, go to bed. Sounds like a full day.

Hey Browning, I grew up in Doylestown, and my folks still live there, although they are getting ready to move up here to NE Pa to get away from all the snow. We only have about 6 inches on the ground.