The right wood stove?

[johnnyj36]

Hello from Alaska.
I need to find the right wood stove for my new cabin in the Alaska range. The cabin is 480sf,with a half loft. It is located in a 120 mph wind zone at about 3600 feet. Fire wood has to be brought in, in the summer or trailered by snowmobile in the winter. I will have other heat sources, those are still undecided? I was told to buy a blaze king/princess, however I want a stove that has a little more class. Possibly one that serves a second or third purpose, like an oven? The stove will be located in the middle of the cabin with the stack going through the peak of the roof.
This cabin is very well insulated,R40 roof, R28 walls, but the wind can blow so hard it can scare you. I want to triple the size stove recommended for the square footage but still be able to damper it down. Thanks for the help, JJ

 

[Vic99]

Welcome!

Good starting info. A few more questions folks will want to know:

1) How will you burn? 24/7, after work & weekends, do you plan to do overnight burns?

2) Would you like an insert or a stove that vents out of that chimney?

3) Is the reason you want to triple the size because of the wind or do you have another idea?


I burn 24/7 and am a big fan of soapstone stoves. Soapstone takes more time to get up to speed from a cold start, but works very well for the 24/7 burner because it stores heat and continues to give it off after the fire has died down. The polished look of soapstone looks nice as well. My hearth stone homestead vents out of an internal chimney. I love it. If you are considering soapstone, a lot of folks here are very happy with the hearthstone mansfield. Many iron and steel options as well. Others will chime in about their preferences.

 

[MishMouse]

As for multiple purpose stoves.
A good option would be a Harman.
You can cook on there stovetops, they also have a drop in grill option so you can grill over the wood, and the TL-300 even has an option for a Rotisserie.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

jj, welcome to the forum.

We know your heating season is not over with yet because ours is still going too. However, you deal with much lower temperatures than we do here. That wind also sounds terrible. I also understand why you want a larger stove than what most mfg. recommend. We also went that route and are very pleased with the result.

Last year we felt the need to replace our old Ashley stove and did a lot (a really lot) of searching and talking to dealers etc. Originally we had decided to stay away from any stove that had a cat. We simply did not think much of the idea. However, in our search for a new stove we also wanted to look (we had looked at these many years ago) at the Woodstock line of stoves. When we got the updated literature, we saw they used a cat. in their stoves. Bummer.

However, after much more looking and even talking with some Woodstock owners we became convinced that we would try the Woodstock soapstone stove. The Fireview is also one of the best, if not the best looking stove on the market. To shorten the story, after taking to a Woodstock owner we became convinced that we'd get the Woodstock. After all, they give a money back guarantee....and mean it. No problems there.

So we bought the stove and it set in a crate until we installed it last summer. Once we started burning we realized the stove was much different than what we were accustomed to. However, the transition was short and we became happy campers.

In the winter 2006-2007 we burned approximately 6 to 6 1/2 cords of wood. With the new Fireview we buned 2.9 or 2.95 cords. So we used half the wood...and stayed much, much warmer. So if you could use about 1/2 the wood, that means much fewer trips to haul your wood in. Big savings on gas costs there! Labor too.

In addition to that, we used to clean our chimney about 4 times during a winter. We have yet to clean the chimney after installing the Fireview. It is as clean now as when we started. Also, this is our only source of heat, so that is amazing to us.

For dampering down the stove: Our stove's draft setting is from 1 to 4. After getting the wood started (on reload wait about 10 minutes before engaging the cat.) and engaging the cat. we have to set the draft to about .5, or 1/2. The 1 setting is just too high!

I've said it many times on this forum that it amazes me when sometimes I get up during the night (nature does call) and check the stove, it appears the fire has went out. Sometimes I can see a few red coals at the bottom and sometimes not. But looking at the temperature gauge (came with the stove) I find it right up to temperature. We usually run it about 450 degrees in the winter but sometimes just a tad higher. We've had it just a little over 600 degrees a couple times but that roasts us out. The reason we can use such a low draft and still get heat is the same reason our chimney is clean. That is because of the cat. The very thing we were afraid of at first. The cat simply gives you much more heat and burns everything so that you don't have the gunk in the chimney.

What else can we use the stove for? Well, since Spring has arrived and several days as of late we've not had a fire during the daytime, my wife is complaining that she really misses the stove for some of her cooking! Yes, we cook or heat a lot of things on our stove. Just don't spill things or it can get messy.

Another thing we found is that we ordered some of the soapstone blocks. They come in two sizes and are called boot warmers. They do work great for boot warmers too. Actually, for drying the inside of boots is how they are used. We also found that when working outdoors in mid winter that if we take the small ones and put one in each glove. That is, take an extra pair of gloves to the woods with you, then when your gloves get wet or your hands get cold, just get out the pair with the warmers in and your hands will appreciate the warm and dry gloves! Then put the warmers in the cold wet pair. Works like a charm.