New to woodstoves and i need advice

[bassmaster17327]

I installed a woodstove at me cabin in WV (will be permant home soon), I bought it at tractor supply so I don't think it is a very high quality stove. I have a lot of questions and this is my first post her so I don't know if I post for each one or put them all together.

1) the wood stove I have will only burn for three hours and does not have any way to control the airflow besides a damper in the pipe, is that normal?

2) The stove has a seal around the door and I don't see and smoke coming in but the whole house still smells like wood smoke, Is that normal or is it just becasue of a low quality wood stove

3)I have a limited amount of wood available without paying for it, If I need a better stove should I consider a pellet stove instead? I can get wood for about 125.00 a cord or wood pellets for 225.00 ton, would one be cheaper than the other?

4)my house is a SMALL two story, 1100 sq feet total, How can I get th heat upstairs?

Thank you

 

[dougand3]

Welcome, bassmaster. Do you have brand/model of stove? Maybe take a pic and post it?
1. Sounds like an "EPA exempt" stove. They tend to be wood hogs and not efficient.
2. Could be poor draft. Tell us about chimney - How tall? Diameter? Multiple elbows? Composition?
3. An EPA stove with 75%+ efficiency will greatly reduce wood consumption. Wood should be cheaper there.
4. Tough - lotsa threads here to search on solutions. Could stove be placed near bottom of open stairwell?

 

[bassmaster17327]

I looked it up and it is a US Stove Company APS1100B with blower (the blower has stopped working)

the stove pipe from the woodstove is six inch, comes up from the stove about 24 inch, maks 90 degree turn towards wall and into the original house chimney which is 8 inch square. chimney from ground to top is only about 18 feet tall.

Are there any woodstoves that will burn all night? when I was at that house over thanksgiving I was putting wood in it right befor bed, 2-3 times during the night and then again as soon as I woke up. In one night I was using a stack of wood 16 inch deep, four feet long and two feet high. It seems like I would go through an unimaginable amount of wood if I lived there all winter, right now I am burning ash wood

 

[dougand3]

According to pics, they is an intake air lever on top right....you don't have this? Ad says EPA certified but some funny numbers eg: stove = 22.5" wide with 25" firebox...hmmm. And 25 x 18 x 18 inch firebox would be over 4 cu ft - that ain't right. Could be draft problem...2 90 deg elbows and going from 28 sq inches in pipe to 64 sg inches in chimney.

 

[bassmaster17327]

Mine does not have the handle for the air control, it has a row of slots across the front but no metal plate covering with a handle, those slots are the one place that I see smoke come in when I first start the stove.

Could I run a six inch pipe down the chimney and connect it into the woodstove?

I saw baskets online to burn wood pellets in a wood stove, I thought about making one. Do they actually work?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

bass,

somthing is not right with that stove , the slots in the door, can you post a pic or two? there should be some kind of draft regulator in that door not just open slots.


EDIT: looked at the stove online here

http://www.tractorsupply.com/home-i...s1100b-stove-with-blower-5126762#BVRRWidgetID

it sounds like the draft control cover and slider is missing contact them here to get the rest of your stove


US Stove Co.
227 Industrial Park
S. Pittsburg, TN
1-800-750-2723
im sure the warranty department will ship you the parts needed to get the stove working (were it me i would if it was one of my stoves) this is why you are blowing through wood like you are , the stove is running wide open because the draft control set is missing i bet. give them a call , i'd be amazed if they didnt take good care of you , they are a reputable company

 

[bassmaster17327]

maybe it is missing from when I bought it, I was wondering why I could not figure out how to control how fast it burned. I can not take a picture because I am home in PA and the woodstove is ay my future home in southern WV. I will go to tractor supply this weekend and look at the stoves to see if they have anything over the slots

 

[dougand3]

Hmmm, this a puzzler. You bought new at TSC? Maybe US Stove makes an EPA Exempt model on the APS 1100 platform? Take close up pics of these slots that ought to be an air intake lever and post here. You could run a rigid or flex SS chimney liner in the masonry chimney. I'd bet draft would improve significantly. Pics of chimney and thimble would help, too. BUT BEFORE a liner is inserted - chimney should be inspected by a qualified person - looking at structure and creosote in chimney. The gases in the liner will be hotter than the open chimney and the added heat could ignite creosote = chimney fire.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

maybe it is missing from when I bought it, I was wondering why I could not figure out how to control how fast it burned. I can not take a picture because I am home in PA and the woodstove is ay my future home in southern WV. I will go to tractor supply this weekend and look at the stoves to see if they have anything over the slots

just go to the link i postede and look above the door , does it look the same? im thinking no as i do not see any "slots" save you a trip. remember TSC doesnt have any parts and would possibly not have a clue what you are looking at , call the company and ask them , im sure that they have a guy just like me who would listen and realize this isnt what they want you to have and will help you. i know a couple of their rep so if they dont help you PM me and i will see if i can get one of them in touch , but call the company first and give them a chance to help you. i fully expect that they will

 

[bassmaster17327]

I was wrong about the stove model, it is a US Stove company 2007B. This is a link to it, http://www.usstove.com/proddetail.php?prod=2007. The one in the picture does not look to have an air control either

 

[SKIN052]

If you want to heat your house/cottage all winter, you should have gotten a better stove, something EPA approved. Sorry.

 

[katwillny]

Bass, I own an US stove 1100B and i get about 5 to 6 hours burn time depending on the wood I use. I just installed it about a month ago and I love it. Great little stove, puts out a lot of constant heat. Mine has the air control, I also installed a flue damper to control air flow.

 

[bassmaster17327]

That is what I needed to know, I guess its time to get a new stove. Does anyone have any recomendations? two story with each floor being 700 square feet, I can put a vent above toe stove to let heat upstairs. Also do all wood stoves make the house and everything in it smell like smoke

 

[katwillny]

Hey Bass, Any idea what your budget is? Ballpark? The options are so vast with stoves that it is hard to begin to suggest.

 

[bassmaster17327]

1200 would be nice for just the stove but I would spend more if thats what i need to do to get a stove that will be more efficient with a longer burn time. I would not really want to spend more than 2500

Thanks again for all the help

 

[katwillny]

Look into the big box stores for the Englander NC-30, great stove for under $1200 and heats up to 2200SF. http://www.englandsstoveworks.com/30-nc.html
also, look into the Napoleon 1100P. http://www.napoleonfireplaces.com/Stoves/stoves_wood/1100.html. A buddy of mine has this stove and he heats his 1600 SF home with it. just two of many stoves under $1500

 

[RedGuy]

I just installed a Pleasant Hearth wood stove in my home last week, http://www.ghpgroupinc.com/fireplace/products/wood-stove-medium-legs/detail.asp . I can't speak to efficency yet as I'm also new to wood stoves and between using less than ideal wood and learning to use it I've yet to have a good idea of how much I should be burning, but I'm going through a combination of probably 10 splits and 2-3 pallets a day. This is burning from about 7am till I load it up before bed at around 11pm or so, I genearlly wake up with a good bed of coals still and the stove fairly warm. It's been keeping my 1,800sqft split level at about 72 degrees by it self with the temps in the 20's-low 30's that we've had this week. They claim it's 82% efficent on properly seasoned wood and it is an EPA stove. I bought it at Lowes for $629 and installed an insulated flex liner with it that ran another $632.

 

[bassmaster17327]

I saw the pleasant hearth on Lowes website, sounds good at 82 percent effecient. I was just worried about the price, it looked like one of the least expensive and I don't want another bad stove. If it works godd it seems to be a good deal

 

[VCBurner]

The US Stove you purchased just wasn't the one you needed. Is it your only source of heat? If so you would be better off with a stove that can have overnight burns and be burned 24/7 for long periods of time. An EPA stove that is safe to burn as well as economical. Some stoves have an ash pan that can be emptied while the stove is burning, a big plus for a main heating stove.

That Pleasant Hearth looks good! The Englanders are highly reguarded around here.

There are many stoves in that price range. If I were you, I'd research as much as possible on this site. Go to a stove store and ask questions so you can have an idea of what you're looking for. Learn what's out there. Then you can decide what's best for your situation.

Sorry you bought a stove that didn't suit your needs. But you're in the right place to get some good advice. Hang in there, you can turn this into an experience and get yourself a killer stove that will last you a long time.

 

[bassmaster17327]

I am putting in electric oulette heaters (like baseboard but mount near ceiling), I have the ones for the first floor in. I really just wanted to use them as a back up and heat mainly with wood, when I was at the house I set the thermostat at 60 so my girlfriend would not freeze if I did not wake up every 2.5 hours to ad wood. I think I am going to get the pleasant hearth, they seem to be the same design as englander which everyone seems to like. I am just taking the old stove as a learning experience, I did the same thing with my chainsaw, I bought a craftsman and that just was not made for cutting firewood. My jonsered chainsaw comes wendsday.

Someone locally has a quadra fire 3100 for sale for 900.00, he was not sure of the age. He said it was there when he bought the house last year. I will have to do some research to see how that compares to the Pleasant Hearth