Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Wood Burning Stoves

Figured I'd post this here, rather than up in the hunters campfire.

I'm wanting to put a wood burning stove in the house I'm buying, after it's all finalized. The house has an existing chimney.. Fireplace is small though. Are inserts worth anything, or would I be better off not using the existing chimney?

Trying to get away from heating oil.

Any stoves to recommend or stay away from?

The chimney is likely too large in dia and you'll need to use an insert to get the wood burning stove to draft properly, but you should be able to run the insert in the old chimney.

As to brands it depends what's available in your local. Shipping is a killer on heavy stuff so I'd look at what's carried locally and a good stove shop should be able to help you out sizing a stove for your house and getting a proper and safe flue installed.

Something like a Buckstove will work fine, if you don't want to spend a bunch. The nicest stoves are the Vermont Castings stoves, great designs and the cast iron will be with you always. I caution you not to buy a stove that is too large, most do. You don't live in Fairbanks. Burning a stove at half throttle makes a LOT more creosote in a flue. The Buck stove inserts work great, if you have a fireplace in good condition, that's a good option as well. You've gotta brush that flue clean every year without fail though, so plan to be able to get on the roof without breaking your neck. Also, don't listen to people who tell you not to burn softwood in a stove. The old wive's tale is it causes creosote to form faster, not true, burning green wood is what causes that. A serious wood-burner needs a woodshed.

Calvin, Jotul is your huckleberry for a stove. Don't know about inserts.

Will you be cutting your own wood? Big job... if not, it's expensive (at least around here).

Thanks. I'll be cutting my own. We have plenty of it up here.

Those are really popular in New England but since they are Scandanavian probably hard to find due to shipping costs in AK.

Our cabin/house came with two small Jotuls. One had been been badly abused or perhaps was very old. The internal castings were cracking. We replaced it with a medium-sized unit with a window in the door. That was 6-7 years ago, maybe more... anyway it basically burns from October to April nonstop. Very high-quality stoves. They really get the drafting right.

I need to start getting next winter's wood in here soon...

I installed a blaze king this last fall. Had a heatilator/Dover zero clearance fireplace prior to that.

The fireplace put out a bunch of heat, but went through wood. It was designed to meet emission standards so it burned hot all the time.

With the Blaze King I am getting 12 hour burns with spruce and can adjust the desired temperature. The wood use has gone almost in half. (2400 sqft house) The BK heats the whole house. Fan noise at first bugs ya, but fades into the background. With the catalytic converter stoves they take more attention during start up and refueling, but are great for a warm even heat output during the day. ( North Kenai)

Dan,

You have a 2 story house? Did you run the chimney through the house, or use your existing chimney?

Yes I have a two story house. The chimney is ran out the wall far enough to secure to the roof edge. Did not want to run a hole through the roof. Metal bestos through the wall and all the way up.
I will need to go with two 45's inside the house insted of a 90 to get a better draft when the door is opened to load.

Also an outside combustion air source keeps the stove from pulling air in around doors and windows.

The Dover I added an alcove for and ran the chimney outside the wall to not have to go through the roof.

hearth.com is a good place to get some great tips.

Cutting your own wood might sound like a cheap way to go, till you start doing it. Might want to look into that, though I appreciate that oil in Alaska is a lot dearer, than here. I have a friend here, who's going through 5-6 cords of wood a year, with his set up (outside one, with hot water cirulating into the house). Have another friend here, who burns the pellets and I think he spends as much on the pellets as I do on oil. It depends on the quality of the pellets, how much they cost, but can get pricey.

ghost is correct about the wood part. If you do not or cannot work your butt off it is a real pain.
On the other hand it can be threaputic and real fun... use it for a recreation and exercise program.

Splitting a couple of rounds while the coffee is brewing on a -10 moring is a great start to the day for me!

If J�tul is on your list of possibles (as good a name in basic iron stoves as you're likely to find), check out the store on Tudor (in ANC) just west of Lake Otis. (I don't remember their name, but nice people.) We opted for a Napolean, a well made recirc-type welded, lined, minimum clearance type stove from "the warm guys" (Central Plumbing and Heating) on Int Airport. We went with rather basic options and paid $1500 plus air freight.

I agree, Blaze Kings are great wood stoves.
Been running a free standing BK for years trouble free.

The newer stoves are considerbably more efficient than those of the past. I have a newer catalytic converter Blaze King. It runs 24/7 and I cut my wood consumption by about 20% compared to the prior stove that we ran for about 14 hrs/day.

The downside to the converty units is that it takes about 20 minutes to get it fired up and operating. I believe there are other units that feed additional air into the upper level. Friends with those also seem quite happy.

To my way of thinking bigger is better,,we used to have (15 yrs ago) a stove jotul like that we feed it split wood around the clock. now we have a huge Earth Stove that will take wood almost the size of a 5 gal bucket! In way-0 weather we feed it 3 times a day but most of the time only twice if that. Big logs I split in 1/2. Above all,,when the 1st time you get a puff out the stove door get on the roof and run a chimney brush through the pipes!!

Calvin-
What type of chimney is in it now? If it's a brick chimney like traditionally used in a fireplace, I'd look into sealing it and installing a stainless, insulated type (eg. Metalbestos).

I also think avoiding creosote buildup is overrated. Run an appropriately sized brush through it at the start of heating season, and you'll be fine. Fire departments sometimes have brushes that they loan free of charge as a proactive fire prevention measure. Our FD does.

You will want a wood stove large enough that it will hold a fire at least overnight or all day when you are gone. Starting with newspaper and kindling every time you need a little heat is a PITA, when you could open the draft and just add some wood.

You think creasote build-up is overrated huh??

In terms of selecting stove size. Not to diminish it as a bonafide problem.

My point (as I said above) was to get get a stove that is big enough to heat adequately for the time span desired.

If creosote builds up, and it will, just clean the stack. I'm against getting a too-small stove to address creosote.

Does that make better sense?

Seasoning your wood correctly is the best way to minimize the creosote problem. Running a brush on a regular basis is just good maintenance. Mine is due, but youngest ran over the extension ladder learning to back up.