torn on getting green enamel or blue/black for my Oslo 500. Any opinions?

[cptoneleg]

I haven't read through, but here's my opinion for what it's worth

I haven't seen the colors in person, but always went with black for our stoves (two gas models in our old house, now a wood burner in the new one). Green is my fav color and I LOVE the green stoves, BUT what if you want to change colors in your decor? You don't want to send up with a green stove and maroon walls for instance (Christmas) or orange walls with a green stove (halloween)....you know what I mean? Or, even if you didn't and you wanted to sell the house, the new owners might... Also, I'd imagine ivory would be harder to keep clean...but that's a pure guess.

We can tell you haven't read they bought a Brown one, colour doesn't matter too much now with wet wood. :zip:

 

[cptoneleg]

Sorry it took so long to reply. Long days at work and Christmas shopping. Anyway, re wood supply. Not great. They told me it was seasoned, cut and split 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years. I can't believe that to be true as evidenced by how it is burning in the stove. Some splits are ok but most hiss and some even had water coming out the ends. Sooooo frustrating. I ended getting a hold of some eco logs to get the stove heated up and then throw some splits in. It works ok. Gets mostly to 300 degrees and a few times to 400 degrees. Even the eco logs and bio bricks are insanely difficult to get a hold of. A friend of mine picked up a pallet of them in CT for me. I'm having a hard time getting my stove hot. Lately temps have been in the 40's daytime, 20-30's at night. any suggestions. I am kind of scared to use too much of the wood we have because of the moisture and am seriously considering using biobricks and adding splits as it gets hot. What do you all think?

Folks that sell wood do not know or care, you can burn a combination of your wood if its not too wet with the bricks. And or try and find something else ( some find old pallets cut them up) to mix with your wood. Anyway if you don't start getting ahead on your wood you are going to have the same problem every year.

If you can the best thing you could do is buy about 3 cords now are maybe early spring and strt drying your own wood,

The Oslo is a Great Heater with Good Wood

 

[eclecticcottage]

I haven't read through, but here's my opinion for what it's worth

I haven't seen the colors in person, but always went with black for our stoves (two gas models in our old house, now a wood burner in the new one). Green is my fav color and I LOVE the green stoves, BUT what if you want to change colors in your decor? You don't want to send up with a green stove and maroon walls for instance (Christmas) or orange walls with a green stove (halloween)....you know what I mean? Or, even if you didn't and you wanted to sell the house, the new owners might... Also, I'd imagine ivory would be harder to keep clean...but that's a pure guess.

We can tell you haven't read they bought a Brown one, colour doesn't matter too much now with wet wood. :zip:

LOL

Well..anyway then

Our wood isn't particularly well seasoned either, but it hasn't really kept us from keeping it over 70 in the place with only the stove for heat (and we've been pretty much in the 30's). We usually get that lovely hissing when a new split is popped in and of course, the wet spots on the ends.

We get it started with some fatwood or pine we've split down small (well, we did before we were burning 24/7, now we just get it started off of hot coals), then stack on some small kindling, then once that's hot, add smaller splits and get a good coal bed-then add bigger ones on that.

We use ecobricks during the day so that when we get home (we're usually gone about 10-11 hours, and the dog prefers it cozy lol) it's still warm (65-70) and there's enough of a bed to restart. Two splits n/s on the sides and 3-4 eco bricks e/w between, on colder days (25 and below) we pop a few little splits on top of that stack too (small enough to fit below the air tubes). I usually reload the stove overnight at about 1 or so when I wake up, and we only use splits when we're home since Tractor Supply has been out of stock on Ecobricks for a while and they aren't expecting anymore in this season (we only had about 100 packs to start with). Can't wait to see what they get in as a sub and try that out, our local TS said they expect them in this week. We found that once we started burning 24/7 and not letting the stove get cold, the heat inside the stove dried our wood pretty quick-we also keep it in a sunporch so it doesn't get wet, and bring in a day's worth at a time to dry a bit more before it's loaded. Haven't been able to find biobricks locally, sent an email to Agway and was told they are on b/o until after the first of the year at least.

 

[cptoneleg]

Sounds like you are doing all the right thinks

 

[ddddddden]

At $325/cord, I dunno if kiln-dried wood would be cheaper than bricks. The brick mfrs claim that 1 ton of bricks ~ 1 cord of wood, presumably due to lower moisture content. I'm not saying that this is true, just that it's worth examining. I think it comes down to what the species/weight of the cord wood is.

 

[eclecticcottage]

I think at that price you're about even. When TS *HAS* the ecobricks, they are $3.99 per 24lb pack (8 bricks).

 

[Wade A.]

Here's my vote....

 

[cptoneleg]

Pretty stove and hearth -- What are we voting on????

 

[fraxinus]

At $325/cord, I dunno if kiln-dried wood would be cheaper than bricks. The brick mfrs claim that 1 ton of bricks ~ 1 cord of wood, presumably due to lower moisture content. I'm not saying that this is true, just that it's worth examining. I think it comes down to what the species/weight of the cord wood is.

At 20% moisture content a cord of mixed hardwood would weigh between 1.5 and 2 tons. Local prices for brick type products range from $317 to $330 per ton and most dealers charge extra for delivery.