I'm going to install my 1st insert this weekend. Do a lot of you boil water on the stove top? Is moisture a problem? Or some way for the fairer sex add perfume to us and our dogs?
Steam Pot
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Many of us put a pot on the stove for humidity, but IME it doesn't do much. I think a dedicated humidifier will do more.
I have made a pot bubble, but never a rolling boil.
You're on your own with the perfume.
Matt
I have made a pot bubble, but never a rolling boil.
You're on your own with the perfume.
Matt
Air is dry in winter. Outside, it's dry because it's cold, and that forces the moisture out of it. Inside, it's even dryer because it's warmer, and that means the RH goes down unless there's an infusion of moisture. Some folks seem to want to attribute dry indoor air to heating with wood, but it really doesn't matter what your heat source is. Indoor air in winter is dry. A kettle of water on a wood stove...even if you can bring it to a rolling boil...isn't going have much effect on your indoor RH, unless it's big and you keep it that way (really boiling) all the time...which means constantly refilling it. A pot on the woodstove might be a pleasant potpourri scenter, though. If you're concerned about relative humidity in your home during the winter, then a dedicated humidifier is what you want to look for. If it's just a matter of what you and your dogs smell like to somebody else in the house, well, I'm stayin' outta that one. %-P Rick
With my old stove I used a large stainless roasting pan. It just about covered the entire stove top. It held about 2 gallons of water and I would fill it twice a day most days. The shallow depth and large surface area promoted rapid evaporation. After a few weeks the RH in the room would start to rise to comfortable levels. The new stove is a top-fill design, so there goes my humidification technique.
I can't use a dehumidifier here because I have extremely hard water, but since the stove is in the basement, I try to mop a couple buckets of hot water onto the cement floor every day. It's a major PITA, but it really makes a difference.
Worst situation I ever had was with a huge gravity flow wood furnace. I had a huge wide belt dehumidifier in that house, held over 5 gallons. The air got so dry there that I could pump that tank dry twice a day and the air still seemed thirsty. House was leaky as a sieve, so that didn't help at all. Plus, the furnace got the place so hot that I actually had to open the doors a few times a day to cool it off, which let in even more dry winter air.
Pulling dry winter air in from outside is the reason why inside RH gets so low with wood stoves. My new stove uses a lot of air, so I'm thinking of adding an OAK just for that reason.
I can't use a dehumidifier here because I have extremely hard water, but since the stove is in the basement, I try to mop a couple buckets of hot water onto the cement floor every day. It's a major PITA, but it really makes a difference.
Worst situation I ever had was with a huge gravity flow wood furnace. I had a huge wide belt dehumidifier in that house, held over 5 gallons. The air got so dry there that I could pump that tank dry twice a day and the air still seemed thirsty. House was leaky as a sieve, so that didn't help at all. Plus, the furnace got the place so hot that I actually had to open the doors a few times a day to cool it off, which let in even more dry winter air.
Pulling dry winter air in from outside is the reason why inside RH gets so low with wood stoves. My new stove uses a lot of air, so I'm thinking of adding an OAK just for that reason.
CarbonNeutral
Minister of Fire
Ditto to above. For looks mostly, plus a little bit of humidification, I just bought a soapstone steamer for wife's birthday. Body shop sells scented natural oils that were on sale for $2 instead of $7.50 - they are the ones you would use with those stick infusers. They seem to smell a bit..
EatenByLimestone said:
I use a stove top boiler - one of those cast iron teapots - fill it twice a day. Near my stove, on the mantle, I have a digital gadget that reads temp, pressure, and relative humidity, along with a grossly inaccurate weather forecast for the next 24 hours. Before I added the teapot, I averaged 20% RH. With the teapot I now run anywhere from 20 to 29% RH. I also have a humidifier on our "main" living level, the stove is in a finished basement, but that's been running all along, so I feel I do get a measurable difference in RH.
-Al
Hearth Mounted Kent Sherwood
Mr. Kelly
Feeling the Heat
agartner said:
Do you guys put the pot directly on the stove, or on a tivet? My fear is that a pot right on steel or iron will pull the pain off or cause rust. Any truth there?
Mr. Kelly said:
Iron pot and steel stove. I can see some marks on the stove where the pot rests, but no rust as of yet. I imagine eventually there will be rust - bound to happen wherever dissimilar metals meet, but then that's when I haul the stove outside, sand, and re-paint.
On the roasting pan I used on my old stove, the rivets that held the handles on eventually corroded from the hard water. If I filled it past the handle height, water started to leak onto the top. Drip... p-ssst..... drip... p-ssst..... drip... p-ssst..... and I let it continue because the stove was so beat anyway. No rust, but some very interesting looking mineral deposits after a while. These things aren't that important when you have a metal box full of fire down in your basement, but I'm sure those with pretty stoves in their living rooms would find my stove to be not a fitting accouterment for their decor.
fossil said:
LOL!
I think there are some spots of charred skin around the loading door opening. IIRC, I may have invoked the name of the Lord our Savior during some of those times, making the stove even more of an important religious artifact.
logger
Minister of Fire
Our cast steamer sits on a trivet. Without one, you risk the steamer getting too hot and the water boiling over. Then you face rust or white water marks that are nearly impossible to rid.
nojo said:
Much easier to sell on Ebay should interesting mineral deposits be made on it too.
Matt
iceman
Minister of Fire
i have 2 kettles sitting on my stove directly..... plus a humidifer in the same room fill the kettles everytime i open the stove door... 2-3xs a day makes a huge difference the kettles mainly do the room and the fan blowing cold air into the room catches the humidifier on the way outta the room for the rest of the house.... makes a huge diff
Mr. Kelly
Feeling the Heat
Any ill effects if you leave a pot on the stove after all the water has vaporized? If you leave a teapot on a kitchen hot burner after the water is gone you usually end up with a blackened charbroiled piece of junk metal. Does this happen on stoves too? I suspect so!
JeffRey30747
Member
I have noticed no damage to my cast iron kettle from boiling it dry, just a bunch of white, rusty crud that discolors the water as some of it goes back into suspension upon refilling. It is a good idea to wear gloves when putting water into a hot cast kettle. It can flash off enough steam/water vapor to make things downright uncomfortable for a few seconds to whoever might be holding the handle.Mr. Kelly said:
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