Need advice on wood cookstove

[LisaInOregon]

I'm a new member; not experienced with wood. Our house is 4yrs old, has a kiva-type fireplace in the
middle. This fireplace has an external air source, but it draws in room air and there's no way to stop that
since it's got a curved, arched shape. It has a very small, non-square fire area. It was billed as "poor
man's masonry stove", but it doesn't really work for us at all. Pretty, though.

Our house is smallish and well insulated and the climate is fairly mild (often freezing but rarely below 20),
we have radiant floor heat via electric boiler, and electric stove. So I'd like to rip out the fireplace, and
put in a wood cookstove - not so much for everyday cooking, but on cold days, doing some canning or
making stew or chili would be double duty.

I want something small, in particular not too deep since the fireplace is in the center of the house and
traffic has to route around it. I'd also like something safe and easy to use and as non-polluting as
possible. I've been looking at the Waterford Stanley; it's expensive, is it worth it? Other
recommendations?

The fireplace has a no-clearance insulated stovepipe, I'm hoping we could just hook into that. What's
required to get the stove as close to the drywall as possible - is a layer of bricks, or plaster, going to
help? The floor is concrete slab - will it be fine with the stove on it? Or can the stove heat the concrete
enough to damage the radiant floor pipes (plastic)?

Sorry this is so long, seem like some very knowledgeable people here, I can really use some advice.
We're having a cold spell here, and the house is at 63, (we keep the bathroom at 67, as long as we have
warm bathrooms life is okay) but heating is on my mind...

Lisa in Oregon

 

[kevinmoelk]

Hi Lisa. I'm a newbie here myself, so my information won't be as concise as other members with much greater experience. However, some issues come to my mind.

First of all, do you have a picture? Some dimensions of the space, the pipe, hearth, etc. would be nice too. Are you willing and/or able to do some demolition on the old kiva? A kiva? Do you perhaps live in a strawbale, cob, earthship or other alternative home structure?

Are you really looking for a cookstove? Cookstoves are large and made specifically for cooking. Or are you looking for a woodstove that you can heat food on occasionally?

Is this a one story home or two? What does the chimney look like coming out of the roof?

If you're worried about heating up the floor that can be easily overcome by buying or building a hearth pad. I hope maybe I've given you a few things to think about. Look around this site too, it's filled with great information. I'm sure others will be chiming in soon.

-Kevin

 

[Corie]

If you're set on a cook stove, you want an Esse.


(broken link removed)

 

[LisaInOregon]

We know we'll have to demolish the kiva and part of the plaster covering of the pipe, and it will be tricky.
Yes, it's a straw bale house; one story, but the main room ceiling goes up to the roof so the chimney's
on the peak; the roof is metal and this metal thing with a cap comes out. I think I've figured out how to
attach pictures...

Yes, I'm thinking a cookstove that heats rather than a heating stove that cooks; we don't need serious
heat, the house holds warmth, has passive solar and the climate is mild and our heating is pretty energy
efficient, for electric. Electric stoves on the other hand aren't very efficient, and we cook things that take
a while to cook. OTOH, while I'd like to be able to bake, it's not urgent; so if the top of a woodstove was
high enough for a cooking surface, and the stove was wide rather than deep, and big enough and strong
enough for say a canning pot, it might do the job.

The Esse does look nice <sigh> same price range as the Stanley. Can you really store wood underneath
it (safely)?

Lisa

 

[kevinmoelk]

Hello again Lisa. Wow great house. I love strawbale homes. Did you build the home yourself?

I'm somewhat well versed in strawbale construction. I've read about a dozen books and worked as a volunteer on a few houses. I'd personally tear out the whole Kiva set up, hearth and all. I think it would be easier, and look better in the end. Besides unless you indeed built the home yourself, you don't really know what is behind the plaster, or how well it was installed. With a wood stove being so much more demanding on a chimney than a fireplace, I'd personally want to make sure I knew what I was dealing with.

I would also want to know exactly how the roof was built. Sometimes alternative builders can use non-standard materials in roof construction. If you're going through an SIP or standard frame constructed roof you'd have no problem. If you have some straw matting or vermiculite or something of that nature, you'd have to do a little more research. Be safe.

-Kevin

 

[Burn-1]

Lisa,

We looked at many cookstoves when were thinking about building but we bought an existing house. We looked mainly at the options shown in the Lehman's non-electric catalog. (broken link removed to http://www.lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=809&i1Cat=671&i2Cat=809&i3Cat=0&i4Cat=0) My wife really liked the solid fuel Artisan cooker from Heartland which looks like the Aga/Rayburn cookers from Europe with a commensurate price tag.

At the higher end of the price range are the cookers by Tulikivi Tulikivi oven. Jerry Frisch who is a masonry heater builder in Washington State in your part of the country has these examples on his web site. Cooktop examples

Our choice was going to be a Tirolia, an Austrian made stove which was imported in the late 1970's and early 80's. Some of these have a backboiler option for both DHW and space heating. Sometimes these can be found second hand. You might take a look.

 

[stovepipe?]

we've got a sweet heart in our cabin-- see the lehman's catalogue. it's a great stove-- quick to heat, easy to fine-tune temp for baking, heats the hot water, keeps the place nice and toasty etc.

 

[LisaInOregon]

I know it's been a loooong time, but we finally did it, thanks to lots of help over the years from the forums here, and we've been using it to heat the house for about a month, so I figured I'd post the results. We ended up getting a larger, vertical type morso. So far we haven't burned big enough fires to get the top hot enough to actually cook (it makes nice warm water, though) - not sure if this will happen, unless we have a serious cold snap. But it really warms up the house and turned out to be even more beautiful than the the beautiful kiva. It has quite a small firebox, but the house holds the temps so it's not an issue, and I am amazed at the size of the window and the viewing quality. There's an external air supply, and sometimes getting the draft started is tricky if the wood has been outside and is cold or damp on the outside, and there's some smoke. Otherwise, almost no smoke smell in the house or outside. We also put in a ceiling fan to move the warm air downwards, we do have a problem that the back rooms stay pretty cold, but I'm not sure the stove top gets hot enough to power an automatic fan. But overall, we are extremely happy with the results!

Lisa

 

[begreen]

Congratulations Lisa. Which Morso?

You know we just have to see some pictures.