We just cleaned out our Kitchen Queen 480 after a full year of use. We didn't use it a lot this summer, but it did get used. It was lit all winter. We do empty the ash about once a week. This is the first cleaning we have done to remove any ash and creosote from around the oven. We did leave the oven door open a lot during the winter last year to recover more heat and save some wood....it worked. There was some creosote around the oven, but not a lot. What was there was very dry, flaky, and powdery. We removed a total of about two gallons from the entire stove. Keep in mind this was not broken up or mashed down, just dumped in a bucket. The cool thing is the chimney was still clean even after burning through 4+ cord of mixed wood (half wet, half dry).
Our overall thoughts on the stove are only good. We love it. It puts out a ton of heat for the wood it uses and it cooks very well. We make uncounted pizzas, cookies, ham, rolls, and who knows what else in the oven. The stove top makes a fantastic steak. Using cast iron on this stove is a match made in heaven. Perfectly even temps all over the pan. This stove cooks FAST. The oven cuts cooking times by at least a third, sometimes half. Bacon cooks in no time and a steak is done in minutes. Water boils like magic. I cooked a pan of whole trout to a nice brown crust with just a handful of wood on the summer grate. That was the best fried trout ever. There is something about cooking with wood that makes everything taste amazing. Any time we had guests over for supper, they would comment on how cool it was that we were cooking with the wood stove. Once they tasted the food it was all over, they said it was the best food ever! We have to agree, the food from that stove is the best ever.
My wife likes the house warm, very warm. If it is less than 88 in here she is adding wood to the fire. We live in a drafty old farm house built in 1860 and the propane furnace that we removed when we moved in was barely able to keep the house at 60 and I don't think it ever got to 65. The EPA stove that was replaced by the cook stove worked hard to hit 75. This stove can easily get the house to 110 or more when it is -40 outside. It is wonderful to be able to lounge in your undies when it is -40 or even -60 and 90 in the house. The only down side is when people come over with no notice and you have to get dressed real quick.
We are looking forward to another good year with the queen keeping us warm and toasty.
Our overall thoughts on the stove are only good. We love it. It puts out a ton of heat for the wood it uses and it cooks very well. We make uncounted pizzas, cookies, ham, rolls, and who knows what else in the oven. The stove top makes a fantastic steak. Using cast iron on this stove is a match made in heaven. Perfectly even temps all over the pan. This stove cooks FAST. The oven cuts cooking times by at least a third, sometimes half. Bacon cooks in no time and a steak is done in minutes. Water boils like magic. I cooked a pan of whole trout to a nice brown crust with just a handful of wood on the summer grate. That was the best fried trout ever. There is something about cooking with wood that makes everything taste amazing. Any time we had guests over for supper, they would comment on how cool it was that we were cooking with the wood stove. Once they tasted the food it was all over, they said it was the best food ever! We have to agree, the food from that stove is the best ever.
My wife likes the house warm, very warm. If it is less than 88 in here she is adding wood to the fire. We live in a drafty old farm house built in 1860 and the propane furnace that we removed when we moved in was barely able to keep the house at 60 and I don't think it ever got to 65. The EPA stove that was replaced by the cook stove worked hard to hit 75. This stove can easily get the house to 110 or more when it is -40 outside. It is wonderful to be able to lounge in your undies when it is -40 or even -60 and 90 in the house. The only down side is when people come over with no notice and you have to get dressed real quick.
We are looking forward to another good year with the queen keeping us warm and toasty.
