How big is your stove.... really.

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Highbeam

Highbeam

Minister of Fire
Dec 28, 2006
20,909
Mt. Rainier Foothills, WA
I don't know how many of you have actually measured your fireboxes to compare to other stoves or to the specs but I did for the first time last night and was a bit surprised to see that my Hearthstone Heritage which is spec'd out to be 2.3 cubic feet only measures 21" wide, 10" deep, and 12" tall to the center of the sloped roof. That gives me a whopping 1.5 CF of firebox volume. Only 65% of what Hearthstone says it should be.

What brought this up for me was when Todd measured his new Keystone at somewhere around 1.4CF with a half rack of MGD easily slipped into it. I thought to myself that I couldn't get much more in mine so I checked.

Perhaps the tiny woodstocks aren't so tiny after all. Perhaps the mainstream brands have been using some trickery to make their stoves appear larger.
 
Done. That's pretty easy, there are no firebricks. The only missing volume would be the area above the baffle which of course is totally useless for loading wood but is where some combustion takes place.
 
I have measured my smoke dragon's firebox; 7 cubic feet.
 
Lopi Liberty - 3.1 cubic feet.

zap
 
Hmmm...my Tribute specs say 1.2 cubic foot firebox, yet I'm measuring 16.5" wide, 7.75"deep and 11.5" to the center of the slope, bottom of the air tubes. I measured the depth from the secondary air riser hardware in the back that sticks out an inch to the inside of the front stones. If I measure from the front of the doghouse it's 9.375", but I don't utilize that area for wood. So we're looking at somewhere between .851 or 1.029 cubic feet - disappointing. Do you think they are measuring without all the framing and EPA hardware?
 
I don't have a stove, but a woodfurnace. Its firebox size in the description is 3.5 Cu. Ft. I measured it from firebrick to firebrick and from the center of middle burn tube to the firebrick on the bottom and got 3.3 Cu. Ft. So if the wood is cut shorter than the firebox and isn't stuffed on a full burn then its much less than the firebox size. Is there any easy way to measure split firewood to get an idea on the size of load? I always assumed for me it was 3.5 cf of wood each load. I guess that explains why a cord of wood will last a month or more.
 
I suspect that there's a difference between the physical dimensions of what they choose to consider the firebox and just how much of that volume is actually useable for loading. Lopi says my Liberty's firebox is 3.1 ft³...well, I don't doubt that it is, the way they measure and advertise it...but when I measure just how much of it is useable to me for loading fuel, I come up with about 2.25 ft³. My little Century Hearth stove in the shop gives me less than 1 ft³ for useful load capacity. In any case, the numbers are useful for comparison shopping...bigger is, after all bigger. Both of my stoves perform quite well for me in their particular applications, so I've no complaints. Maybe the industry should advertise two numbers...total and useable. That might be useful to the discriminating informed consumer. I've never checked, but I'd imagine the same thing holds true for things like cargo capacity of vehicles...they may advertise one number, but you'd be hard pressed to ever fill it to that volume with anything other than expandable foam. :p Rick
 
Just for kicks I measured one of my favorite heat monsters in my showroom. The Enerzone 3.4. They advertise a 3.4 cubic foot firebox (obviously) 19.5 deep, x22 wide, x12" tell to the bottom of the lowest burn tube. + 2.98 cubic feet usable. Still not too shabby. About 12% less than advertised.
 
When I buy a 7.3 liter engine that is 444 cubic inches of displacement and I can find 8 pistons that each displace 55.5 cubic inches. It's a done deal. When I buy a stove with 2.3 cubic feet of firebox volume and I only measure 1.5 I am irritated. It's like buying a V8 and only getting a V5.

If, and this is a big if, all manufacturers make this fake measurement the same way then we can compare apples to apples. Since we don't know how they are coming up with this volume we have bad information that is subject to marketing whims.

So is there an industry standard method of measuring firebox volume? I would have thought it might be the volume of the firebox but have been proven wrong.

I have to assume they are considering no secondary air manifold jive and also counting the area above the baffle. So firebox volume actually means the total airspace of the inside of the stove. The cat stoves don't "lose" so much space above the baffle so their usable firebox volumes are actually closer to advertised?
 
Only 1.5 for the Heritage? I often wondered what the real size was, along with the Mansfield. I also remember my old Hearthstone Homestead was way short of the advertised 2cu ft fire box. Maybe some manufactures include space above the baffle as the fire box?

If I measured my stoves right up to the glass instead of the andirons they would be closer to Woodstocks specs, but you can't get wood around the andirons. I really don't see much difference in usable fire box between the Fireview and Keystone, 1.8 vs 1.4, the Fireview is only an inch longer LxWxH and if you figure on loading recomended 16" splits or even 18" splits they will fit similar sized loads. The max BTU's only a 10,000 difference and the overall weight is only a 40lb difference as well.
 
Mine is four cases big. But I only had three on hand that day. And less the next day.
 

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Our Regency I3100 is ~ 2.6 cuft if I include the space inside the firebrick and 3.4 cuft if I take out the brick. Seems OK to me...

22W X 17D X 12H with the brick in place, 24.5 X 18.25 X 13.25 with the brick removed.
 
KB007 said:
Our Regency I3100 is ~ 2.6 cuft if I include the space inside the firebrick and 3.4 cuft if I take out the brick. Seems OK to me...

22W X 17D X 12H with the brick in place, 24.5 X 18.25 X 13.25 with the brick removed.
Click to expand...

Was it supposed to be 3.1 CF?
 
Highbeam said:
KB007 said:
Our Regency I3100 is ~ 2.6 cuft if I include the space inside the firebrick and 3.4 cuft if I take out the brick. Seems OK to me...

22W X 17D X 12H with the brick in place, 24.5 X 18.25 X 13.25 with the brick removed.
Click to expand...

Was it supposed to be 3.1 CF?
Click to expand...

The Regency 3100 spec sheet says 2.9cu ft, My hampton stove is pretty close to the spec,


I can see a minor difference but Im not sure why the Heritage measures so much smaller. Tough to tell without looking in there, is there some odd configuration that may be getting missed in the measurement that they include in the cu/ft calculation???


It would certainly be a good idea to bring a tape measure if youre going stove shopping
 
I measured the 30-NC four years ago when I got it. It is advertised as 3.5CF and measuring the area inside the firebrick is 3.0 and the other .5 is the combustion area between there and the baffle. That is why I always say that it and the PE Summit are the same size firebox. 3.0CF of load area because neither one of them should be loaded higher than the bricks. Yeah, yeah I know most of you guys stuff'em right up against the baffle. It ain't buying you nothin. Been there, tested that. More heat and the same burn times when you give it that combustion space to let it do what it was designed to do.
 
Good point BB. Non cats need that air space above for proper secondary combustion. Nice to have a cat and load my stove right up snug against the baffle. Another thing to consider about fire box size is your going to have an inch or two of ash and coals in there while your burning so subtract a little more for that. I think it's a good idea for people to go measure or even bring in some splits and see how much room is really in there. Some of these little stoves can be a major pain building a fire unless your using 2" splits.
 
Retired Guy said:
BrotherBart said:
Mine is four cases big. But I only had three on hand that day. And less the next day.
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How about measuring it in real beer.
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We do that discussion every year. You drink what you wanna drink and I drink what I like. The only one I liked better was Amstel light. When I was in Holland.

I drink Natural Light, I burn in a steel "big box store" non-cat stove, I have a old Poulan commercial saw and I don't give a flying chit what other people do. :coolgrin:
 
My def of real world, I can take it off my wood pile and replicate it in the firebox without sanding dremeling, etc, 15h x 24w x 18d or 3.75 vs 4.3 advertised. I put 3.75 in every time.
 
Brother Bart, our Natty Light man!
 
BrotherBart said:
Retired Guy said:
BrotherBart said:
Mine is four cases big. But I only had three on hand that day. And less the next day.
Click to expand...

How about measuring it in real beer.
Click to expand...

We do that discussion every year. You drink what you wanna drink and I drink what I like. The only one I liked better was Amstel light. When I was in Holland.

I drink Natural Light, I burn in a steel "big box store" non-cat stove, I have a old Poulan commercial saw and I don't give a flying chit what other people do. :coolgrin:
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I need to send you some Leinenkugels.
 
BrotherBart said:
Mine is four cases big. But I only had three on hand that day. And less the next day.
Click to expand...

Natty Light! :D
 
BrowningBAR said:
BrotherBart said:
I drink Natural Light
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I'm sorry to hear that.
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If there is anything worse than a beer snob it is wood stove snob. I can afford any stove or beer on the planet. I burn in and drink what I like. And laugh at the others.

Carry on. Having a taste of Cutty Sark before retiring for the night.
 
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