what brand of stove did start with and how long ago

[BrotherBart]

Got a brand new Ashley tin can stove in the very early 70's. No cabinet, just a thin layer of metal between you and the hot fire. It was definitely "load and glow". When you could read by light from the side of the stove, it was usually getting pretty warm.

I had one of those blued tin cans for a few years downstairs. Get it rockin and you had to put a brick on the loading flap on top or the flap would jump up and down and rattle. Running hot the whole stove would vibrate. :lol:

Safe clearance to combustibles: 200 yards

Never a drop of creosote in the chimney.

 

[snowtime]

I also had an Ashley in 70. It scares me to think of the days when it was -40 out and we kept that stove pumping red all day. It would heat well but BB assessment of a 200 yard clearance sounds right. We also had an old cookstove that kept the kitchen warm.

 

[crazy_dan]

1978 with a franklin wood coal stove, when it wore out moved up to a barrel stove, then to an earth stove, and finally a PE summit.

 

[jbrown56]

In the early 70's when I lived at home, we had a small pot belly exhausting into a non lined brick chimney. How dangerous was that! Got married in "80" and got a single door Timberline which we had for 26 years. Last fall we got a Jotul Oslo. What an upgrade!

Jim

 

[begreen]

Mine was in a 200 sq ft cabin! The place leaked air so badly that in the bedroom it was cold unless the stove was glowing brightly. Scared the poop out of me, but so did freezing to death.

 

[RidgeHiker]

We had an Ashley wood heater. We had little money for luxuries like a chain saw so I gathered manzanita burls from tree farms. They were hard to start but burned great. My first saw was a used McCullogh fallers saw.

 

[billb3]

First real woodstove of my own Jotul #4.
Pumped out some heat, but that thing was awful to try to reload without getting smoke in the house.

 

[Ken45]

My first was a Timberline, back around 1976.

My parents had a Fisher.

Ken

 

[Hanko]

Mine was in a 200 sq ft cabin! The place leaked air so badly that in the bedroom it was cold unless the stove was glowing brightly. Scared the poop out of me, but so did freezing to death.

boy all us old farts are sure showing are age, notice I said we, or us

 

[northwinds]

My first was a Hearthstone soapstone stove that was already in a house that I bought in 1993. The house was a solar
envelope home with electric baseboard and the wood stove for heat.

 

[EddyKilowatt]

Had a comely little Morso airtight, with a squirrel motif cast into the sides, from about 1982 onwards. Bought it used from a classified ad in the paper (remember those?) for a few hundred bucks. Just poked a few sections of stovepipe up the chimney to vent it. The stove was the scandanavian cigarette-burning style (end loader) and I ran 2-4 cords per winter through it with good output; it heated my small Cape in sub-freezing weather pretty well. No firebrick, secondary air, or other mod-cons... just a well designed baffle... so creosote was an issue anytime I turned it down for an overnight burn. I would trigger a controlled flue-pipe fire every week or so... probably lucky not to have melted the pipe and dropped the whole flaming mass on the (unshielded) living room floor. Oh well, just one of about twenty ways I'm lucky to have survived my youth...

Eddy

 

[uptrapper]

I bought my first stove in April of 2008, lol. I enjoy coming to this site and learning from you old pros. Thanks for posting.

Mike

 

[Hanko]

I bought my first stove in April of 2008, lol. I enjoy coming to this site and learning from you old pros. Thanks for posting.

Mike

whats the temp up there now mike? bet your burning

 

[ControlFreak]

My first stove was a Napoleon 1401 purchased about 12 years ago. Today it's still going strong. Over the years I have had to replace the door gasket once, the glass 3 times (I was using ammonia-based cleaners at first), and a few of the firebricks. I've also installed more powerful blowers. Though it may not be the prettiest stove around, I think the combustion is the best.

 

[Wood Pirate]

Hearthstone II in about +-1982. I loaded it every winter night as a child.

Still have it but I retired it to the hunting cabin in upstate NY.

 

[gangsplatt]

Bought my current house with a Fisher burned it from April(2008) thru the end of May. Knew I had to get rid of the Fisher after burning it for 2 months. Bought an Englander 30-NC in September and have been burning it for just over a week now. Totally a virgin, but have gotten tons of info from all of you old pro's. Thanks for being willing to share all of your knowledge and experience with a youngin' like myself. I look forward to passing on the torch.

 

[uptrapper]

I bought my first stove in April of 2008, lol. I enjoy coming to this site and learning from you old pros. Thanks for posting.

Mike

whats the temp up there now mike? bet your burning

Gets into the 30's and 40's most every night now, heck the highs have been in the 40's lately, we have been burning every night for about a week or so now, a few days also. Only have had a few nights below freezing though. I love watching the fire burn, supposed to warm up starting tomorrow I'm all bummed out. I know I don't have to worry though it will get cold and stay cold very soon. Just noticed that I didn't put what stove I bought in my post its a Harman TL-300.

Mike

 

[Hanko]

Bought my current house with a Fisher burned it from April(2008) thru the end of May. Knew I had to get rid of the Fisher after burning it for 2 months. Bought an Englander 30-NC in September and have been burning it for just over a week now. Totally a virgin, but have gotten tons of info from all of you old pro's. Thanks for being willing to share all of your knowledge and experience with a youngin' like myself. I look forward to passing on the torch.

do you notice a big difference in the old versus new?

 

[BJ64]

Hmm..I grew up with fireplaces. My first stove was an Ashley with a cat in the top of it. That did not work very well and I about froze my rear off.

That cause me to build the "Oger". I have no idea why my buddies named it that, but it would take several 3 foot logs up to 10 inches in diameter no problem. The blower for it came out of a trailer house heat and air system. It was 24 degrees in the house when I got it fired up. 2 hours later it was 85. It had a few issues with belching gobbs smoke when it was time to reload. When I moved, I sold it to a guy that still heats his shop with it and calls it Oger. He has to clean the stack once a week.

 

[myzamboni]

Grew up with a black version of this

Have had my current stove for one heating season so far. Totally hooked.

 

[woodenroad]

My parents bought a Blaze King when I was around 8 (don't know the make or model but must have been around an 85-87, no window, wooden handles, ah I remember it well.), that is a big reason why I've wanted a wood stove for so long, the heat, the different feel of wood warmth. Following in my parents footsteps I will be getting my very first wood stove installed this thursday, Regency 2400, can't wait.

 

[BJ64]

Grew up with a black version of this

.

That thing looks like it came from space.

 

[bdog]

Started off with a "generic", no name cast iron stove bought at a small farm supply store back in 1973. This was our sole source of heat in the western NY house where I grew up with my mother and brothers/sister. I was 11 at the time and saved up my money from leaf raking and snow shovelling jobs to buy it. Total cost, including a single wall pipe and chimney, and a used sheet metal and asbestos layered mat to put under the stove was less than $75. I got tired of the old gas space heater that never really seemed to work (and set the wall on fire more than once). Whenever wood was added it leaked smoke and ash through the bolted together seams, burned anything (scrounged wood, storm blowdown trees, lumber scraps, old christmas trees, and my favorite - trimmings from baseball bat blanks from a local mill). Air control was a sliding piece of cast iron at the bottom feed door, so it was either roar or smolder, no in between.

I learned to hate that stove, but now I miss it. It could not hold a fire overnight, so it was my job to get up and feed it, or wake up cold.

Although I've had a fireplace for many years now, I am finally returning to the real wood-burning life with a new Jotul Rockland. The need for expensive chimney repair was just the excuse I needed to convince my wife we should stop sending heat up the chimney. why spend money on a chimney just to lose heat, when for not a lot more we can be warm, and cut our heating bills in the process.

Also, I have found the psychology of cutting firewood to be very different than when I was younger. Back then it was a matter of absolute necessity (almost a matter of survival). Now, it is like therapy, and great exercise to boot. I love to work in the woods, and seeing the stacks of future warmth is a real sense or accomplishment.

The Rockland is going in on Friday - I cannot wait!!

 

[precaud]

My first stove was a "King", one of those leaky, uncontrollable box stoves. This was 1973, in Madrid, New Mexico, an abandoned coal mining town, in a two-room house standing right in front of the tipple. Completely uninsulated, frame construction. The King was right next to my bed. Single wall pipe going up through the roof. Amazing it didn't burn down. The house didn't hold any heat and I always woke up in the middle of the night freezing my behind and had to reload. Brrrr. I vividly remember the old local guy that delivered perfectly seasoned cords of pinon in his sagging Chevy pickup for $40.

 

[jghall]

My family has been burning with wood my entire life... Both my grandparents in the Appilachian Mountains of western North Carolina heated with wood exclusively for their entire lives... This led my father to choose wood heat as well... I first remeber us having and upright cylyndrical type stove with a sheet metal body and a cast iron top and base that loade from the top front... Then we moved into another house and my dad bought a Franklin insert in the middle seventies which is when I was getting old enough to tend the fire carry and split wood myself... Then dad bought a ranch style house in 1978 that had a wood miser in it, dad removed it as it was in bad shape and installed a big Squire free standing stove in the living room that we heated with till we sold the house in 1991... I joined the military, got married and stayed away from wood heat for several years... My first house had a prefab fireplace in it that put out respectable heat, but as we all know was a wood hog big time... I wanted a wood stove bad, but being a young struggling couple just starting out we just could not justify it... Then we moved into a larger house (it had a pre fab fireplace too) and the winter heating bills with the extra square footage were just astronomical... So 2 years ago I took some of my bonus and bough and installed a Buck model 74 insert into my firplace and have not looked back... I never realized how much I missed heating with wood... It brings back so many childhood memories, getting wood, splitting, stacking etc... I am itching to start my first fire as I type, but its just too warm in Georgia still... Oh well, old man winter will be here soon enough...