Wood Cookstove Options for Small Cabin

[zeb404]

I'm currently in the process of trying to figure out which wood cookstove will work best for my home. I'm looking for a cookstove as my home has limited power options and having an electric or gas stove is not possible. My home is 2 stories tall with the main level being storage and the actual living space on the 2nd floor. So essentially like a single room cabin with a basement, but the basement is actually on the main floor. The room the stove will be in is one large open space and about 330 sq ft with vaulted ceiling that go from 9 to 14 feet on the 2nd floor. I'm located in Mid/Northern Michigan.

I will use this stove in winter part time for supplemental heat to assist my electric heater, but I also would love to have the cooking utility of the oven and cooktop since I don't have those right now. I've got an ample supply of wood and I process it myself, so a woodstove matches my fuel supply I have on the property. One of the main reasons I want the stove is backup heating supply since the power goes out frequently in winter and I lose my electric heat.

My plan is to install the wood cookstove centrally in the room and add a fresh air intake kit to pull air from outside since I've already had issues with having too tight of a room where I get CO2 buildup issues unless I have a window open, so I know a stove would not have adequate air supply from within the room alone. I can run a straight double wall pipe up vertically through my roof near the peak and I'll have somewhere around 16 feet of chimney so I think I'll have decent draft since most of that pipe will be indoors and it will be a straight shot up with no bends.

In terms of stove options I've somewhat narrowed it down to 2 options (but am open to other options)

Dwarf 5k Cookstove (https://www.tinywoodstove.com/product/dwarf-cookstove/)
Pros
BTU matches space size fairly well
Small footprint - easier locating and shielding
Lightweight (relatively) which makes my floor reinforcement simpler
All in one kit option from manufacturer simplifies building piping

Cons
Smaller firebox will require me to cut wood special to fit
Smaller firebox will limit burn times and require frequent reloading
Smaller oven limits cooking in oven

Drolet Bistro (https://www.drolet.ca/us/en/cookstoves/db04815/)
Pros
Larger firebox will allow full size wood
Larger firebox will allow longer burn times with less loading

Cons
On the large size BTU wise for my space, might be hard to manage output
Heavier - will require more floor reinforcement
Larger footprint - will require more spacing and shielding work

I had also looked at a Vermont Bun Burner but I think that stove is too large and it's also out of my price range. I'm open to any other wood cookstove ideas anyone has that might fit this space and requirements. The Drolet is a bit more expensive than the Dwarf 5K, but I've been leaning toward the Drolet just because it seems like it would be easier to maintain fires with the larger firebox, even if I do smaller loads of wood and smaller fires to manage the heat output. But I'm interested in any feedback or suggestions anyone might have. Thanks

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Why can’t you do an apartment sized stove/oven? They are 20” wide. I have a propane version in my 12x16’ ft front room of my cabin. I run it off a 100lb propane tank. I know of some who run them off 20lb tanks.

Then a small woodstove would do a better job of keeping electricity usage at a minimum and give you additional security.

 

[zeb404]

Why can’t you do an apartment sized stove/oven? They are 20” wide. I have a propane version in my 12x16’ ft front room of my cabin. I run it off a 100lb propane tank. I know of some who run them off 20lb tanks.

Then a small woodstove would do a better job of keeping electricity usage at a minimum and give you additional security.

I'd prefer not to use propane as I don't want to have to buy fuel or be subject to price volatility. I have many years of wood already on hand and will continue to harvest fallen stuff and process it, so I'd like to use wood. I've got multiple other stoves on the property in other buildings so using wood as heating fuel works well since my entire workflow is built around turning trees into firewood.

 

[begreen]

The Kuma Applewood is an interesting design for a compact cookstove. Check out their video on their Applewood webpage.

Applewood wood cookstove from Kuma Stoves

The Applewood cookstove is a small size wood cookstove.

www.kumastoves.com

 

[begreen]

The Kuma Applewood is an interesting design for a compact cookstove. Check out their video on their Applewood webpage.

 

[Giaman]

Cutting firewood to a special size would drive me nuts. The other stove would turn your cabin into a sauna. What about Jotul 602? Best selling stove in the world, proven design, and can use normal size wood. Has a stove top, no oven obviously but you can just use a Dutch oven or something.

 

[zeb404]

The Kuma Applewood is an interesting design for a compact cookstove. Check out their video on their Applewood webpage.

Thanks, that's a really nice stove and might be my top choice, but it's just a bit outside of my price range I think, but maybe I could swing it somehow.

 

[zeb404]

Cutting firewood to a special size would drive me nuts. The other stove would turn your cabin into a sauna. What about Jotul 602? Best selling stove in the world, proven design, and can use normal size wood. Has a stove top, no oven obviously but you can just use a Dutch oven or something.

Yeah, I've thought about that as well with the small size wood, but since I'm already processing wood all the time I might not care that much in practice. I really would love to have one with a built in oven, but I'll look at options for maybe some kind of retrofit oven option for a stove like the Jotul.

For the Drolet Bistro do you think it would be possible to just limit how much I fuel it to run it as low output as possible and that would let me get around the BTU vs. size of my space?

 

[begreen]

For the Drolet Bistro do you think it would be possible to just limit how much I fuel it to run it as low output as possible and that would let me get around the BTU vs. size of my space?

Yes, within reason. For lower heat, a smaller 3-4 split fire may suffice.

 

[John Lehet]

It might be worth talking to the manufacturers, if they have a sales/support line. There are a lot of design parameters converging in a modern stove, and getting the top hot enough to actually cook throws another variable into the mix. Running a big stove low *might* make it hard to burn clean, but that might be designed in, for example the way Blaze Kings and some other stove have a low end burn in the design. Smaller wood might be a pain in some ways, but it will give you flexibility. A catalytic stove will be more likely to burn low, but you’ve got to get the heat from the cat to the cooktop, if you want to cook when there is a low fire.

I have spent a little bit of time as a guest in a traditional village house in rural nepal, where all the cooking is with wood. It is very impressive, the way the women have such precise control of the fire. Much of that control is with fuel: they use a range of split/stick sizes among other techniques. I didn’t ask for a lesson, so much of it is a mystery to me. There is a lot to it what they were doing, I could tell. Like watching a master craftsman at work, that fire control.

For my part, I have a Woodstock Progress Hybrid (which would not be a good fit for your cabin!). It has a cook top as a feature, but it’s not really designed as a serious cook stove, I don’t think. It has burner spots with different amount of buffer for high medium or low. The thing is, even with my moderately high heat demand, I can only really cook on it in the coldest weather, in when I’ve got it cranking, and to really get something to boil I have to use the “high heat” burner. Which is to say that in your small space, if you really want to cook, you’ve got to find a design that really gets whatever heat you make right to the burners. Some people might be able to cook with my stove, but they would need to have a very high heat demand and run the stove hotter than I usually do.

I lived in a rather poorly insulated cabin in Vermont in the late 70s for one winter, with an antique cook stove. And that was a very cold winter. I don’t remember very much about the stove (I could maybe recognize a photo of the same model, but I wouldn’t count on that!). I remember very well that old stove was very hard to control. I did most of my cooking on the gas burner, the real range that was in there.

 

[Giaman]

Yes, within reason. For lower heat, a smaller 3-4 split fire may suffice.

Yea agreed. Also you may find you have to let the fire die throughout the day, and spend more time restarting fires once your place cools down enough. Like when I burn in the early fall or late spring, it’s too hot in my house to keep it going 24/7 so I gotta keep letting it die and then restarting. Kind of annoying