heating with a wood cook stove??
- Thread starter paddler
- Start date
-
- Tags
- wood cook stove
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Great thread. I'm really enjoying learning about new cook stoves. You are a lucky man joyboy. Now I know why you are joyful. Can you post some pics of this beauty.
It has been fun! Lol. One of the interesting things about the cookstove is the three ovens. When it is at cruising temp, each oven is at a different temperature.
Attachments
The cleaning hatch inside of the main oven. Hatch is 3/8” thick. Makes me think the rest of the oven is that thick but can’t verify. I do know it weighs 992 pounds.
I have an old Home Comfort cookstove that my wife’s grandmother had before she was born. It has seen a lot of use and only weighs half as much as the Esse. Very thin sheet metal oven walls. Makes me wonder how long the Esse, Queen or etc might last if taken care of. Won’t be my problem anyways.
I have an old Home Comfort cookstove that my wife’s grandmother had before she was born. It has seen a lot of use and only weighs half as much as the Esse. Very thin sheet metal oven walls. Makes me wonder how long the Esse, Queen or etc might last if taken care of. Won’t be my problem anyways.
Attachments
That's a beauty. Based on the chart it looks a bit challenging for the normal baking temp of 350º.
You would think so looking at the chart. It’s a different type of heat. I’ve heard others say it’s because the oven isn’t vented so it keeps in more moisture. I don’t know if that’s the case but it is pretty forgiving. I’ve cooked pizzas, bread, cookies and apple crisp at the same temps. No problems but the times on most recipes aren’t always accurate. It tends to take a few minutes more than normal.
edyit
Minister of Fire
there's something that brings back some fond memories, my grandparents had an old wood cookstove, nothing better than a still warm piece with some peanut butter on it.
Mainely Saws
Feeling the Heat
They were interesting. I like the backwoods logic guys way of presenting things. Pretty informative for someone thinking about getting a queen.
I had seen the homewood video before. It’s more of a really well done marketing video that hooks you on the lifestyle without showing you the ins and outs of the stove. Before getting my stove I had searched the internet for videos and reviews pretty heavily. This video made me look pretty hard at the comfort.
VirginiaIron
Minister of Fire
I have watched many videos of coal/wood cook stoves and i like the Amish built units the best. For the quality are probaby the most affordable. The smaller stoves posted here have the rings too close to the vent, if on top. What I know about the rings is that they are sacrificial to the top, as a cold pot affects the hot metalergy negatively. This is why cooking is not recommended on a regular stove.
VirginiaIron
Minister of Fire
The last I knew, the old cook stoves diverted gases downward for the oven and there was one manufacturer that was able to get certification due to their design.
I purchased a small antique model for hobby purposes, and after taking it apart, a thorough cleaning and inspection, there were more than 10 cracks that I needed to repair, so buy new. Now the old stoves typically had thinner iron. Some of the Amish units start around $3k US.
I purchased a small antique model for hobby purposes, and after taking it apart, a thorough cleaning and inspection, there were more than 10 cracks that I needed to repair, so buy new. Now the old stoves typically had thinner iron. Some of the Amish units start around $3k US.
VirginiaIron
Minister of Fire
We work on atleast 10 old stoves that have been in use for many many years. The new ones can be great to but you can still find old ones that have lots of years left in them.
Merry Christmas everyone. This is a picture I took this morning of what was left of my overnight burn in the esse. Put the round of Russian olive in at 9 pm. Shut it down to for overnight at 9:30pm and this is what was left at 7 am.
Main burner was 306 degrees. Oven was 247.
Main burner was 306 degrees. Oven was 247.
Attachments
Waterford used to import a wood heat cook stove to the US until about 12 years ago or so. Think they still may be available in Canada but not sure. We're beautiful looking stoves from what I recall but don't know how well they heated. Kevin
They are still available. Really nice heavy duty stoves. I think they heated pretty well.
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
Coaly has me daydreaming about a wood cook stove. I saw an Elmira stove that had close clearances and would work in our home, but the Kitchen Queen sounds better in every regard. It might not be as pretty, but it seems to be better at the job of cooking. It would also be nice to have some extra heat on the coldest winter nights instead of the electric baseboard heat supplementing the stove. I think I'll pitch this to the wife as adding efficiency and reducing electric usage since the house we just bought has a dreadful electric range. I didn't see the price on the Kitchen queen, but one of the other Amish stoves listed at $2500 is within the ballpark of a nice modern gas range. I don't need a fireview, my wood heating stove has a window. We do have a small countertop convection oven for the times she doesn't want to use the wood. Are there any wood stoves with gas burners aside from Elmira? I feel like this is something I could reasonably do in a few years with the right clearances.
Connecticut Yankee
Burning Hunk
My mother's mother never had a summer kitchen. In summer, Grandma used to make a small fire directly under the cookplate(s) she intended to use, and bank the coals as soon as cooking was done. This kept the kitchen from becoming unbearably hot at that time of year. I don't see any way to do that in a fireplace, since even a small fire in a fireplace would still be larger and hotter than a small fire in a cookstove.
The stove certainly kept the kitchen warm in the winter, but they had a fireplace to heat the living room. (The bedrooms got cold enough for the wash-water in the bedroom pitchers to freeze solid.) It was my mother's job to bank the coals in the stove and fireplace before going to bed, and then to rekindle the fires in the morning before school. They gradually modernized after Grandpa and the neighbors were able to force the power company to run a main down their road. To the end of her life, Mom had an abiding love of hot water heaters, showers, and central heating.
My father's aunt cooked on fire until she entered a nursing home a decade or so ago (she had a wood stove for most of her life, and modernized to coal about thirty years ago). Even in the summer, she kept the stove fire going. Her kitchen was never too hot. Of course this was in a part of Maine where the saying was, "Summer's half over by the Fourth of July," and the water in the pond never really got warm enough for this sissy city boy to enjoy swimming in it.
Actually fireplace cooking puts much less heat into the house than a cookstove. Fires in cooking fireplaces were typically very small
Ashful
Minister of Fire
One thing that’s interesting is that each of my cooking fireplaces have big doors you can close. I’m told they were used for smoking, but I also wonder if they were closed on banked coals, to keep heat out of the room and up the chimney, in warm weather.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Cooking fireplaces often had pothangers, allowing the fires to be very small, just big enough for one pot. Running a tiny fire in a big fireplace can actually cool the house because of all the air being pulled through the chimney (though that assumes it was warmer inside than outside to start with).
Similar threads
