Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wood Stove Recommendation

A cousin put one of those kits on a used 275 oil barrel.

Lined the bottom in heavy firebirck, the sides with the flat ones
standing up. He would build a small fire in the front, pile in long logs
He could barely lift and cut the air way back.
It would burn a long time, enough thermal mass that it would radiate
heat for hours after the fire went out.




PS. He didn't fill it.

Put me in the used Fischer crowd. Didn't even know what I got when I picked up my Grandma Bear for $150. Works great for out 24x32 cabin.

I paid $70 for mine at a thrift shop, it will run me out of my 300 sq ft workshop. I keep a thermometer on the wall and its gets it up to around 82 degrees about 2 hours in

Photo of my sons Tempwood Downdrafter---- Hard to find but a great great heater---- Top loader --- Smoke and ash free

BEAUTIFUL DEN!!!

+100

Facebook Marketplace "Lopi Wood Stove"

I ran one in my log cabin in the Adirondacks, the cabin was built in 1880 leaked like an SOB :-) that stove kept our asses warm no matter what the outside temp was. Fantastic store! Not cheap though. I run a 400 Casteen in my spare room over my garage which is attached to my bedroom. I have the F 500 in the basement and I have a 550 insert in the main house. JOTUL, make fantastic stoves.

Go to Ebay and search for a Fisher Mama Bear. I just found one for $1100. A great classic wood stove, the steel is 3/8 inch thick, not much can go wrong with a Fisher Mama Bear, truly an oldie but a goodie. Or look for a Fisher Papa Bear. Hopefully you can find one nearby.

I gotta call BS on this one. Since THAT is MY barrel stove in MY shop,and also the round door sotz tent stove I built, there is no way it could be 'yours'......

^^^ LOL Busted

Vermont Castings.

Amazing. Lol.

I vote englander based on previous ownership. Decent steel stoves that won’t break the bank and are fairly efficient. Lowes around here sell them and frequently discount them.

I would highly recommend that you look around on the various marketplace sites and look for an older Fisher or a copy thereof. Some of the best stoves ever made and will really throw some heat and can be bought reasonable. One of the best copies of that design were built by Atlanta Stove Works and called Huntsman. Excellent stoves and will hold a lot of wood.

I have a Vestal brand stove that looks a lot like those Fishers, we used it for eight years to heat our 1300 sf house. Burnt all night and would be 1/3 to 1/2 full of coals in the morning.

We use a Drolet now, heats 1100 sf no problem. But that 1100 is well insulated. Before I added foam board to the exterior, it was barely enough when temps dropped below zero and the wind was up. Now it has us opening a window or two quite often. My only gripe with the Drolet is the air supply. I want to be able to shut it down more. Damn thing will get to cooking and shutting it all the way down will not close it up enough to kill the flames and let it smolder.

Just put a Napoleon stove in the greenhouse, we will see how good it is. Got it cheap, so if needed, I will sell it and replace with a drolet or similar.

huntsman22 you got to be kidding me. I have a pic of both of your Sotz stoves. Unreal.

In fact I did have a Sotz, 55 gallon double drum stove back in 1978 and burned it for several years. I ran it for one year with the single barrel and then for 2 years ran it with 2 barrels. 250,000 BTU. For comparison my current Jotul has 55,000 BTU. I also had the smaller stove with the round door, exactly like yours, and ran it in a little house in central Georgia, 1982 through 1985. Even had the little wire rack on top.

Anyway we didn't have digital cameras then so I don't have pics of my Sotz stoves. I must have gotten your pics years ago off this forum, I don't remember. Did you ever post those pics on The Hearth Room forum, the wood stove gearhead forum?

As I said I am now burning a $2500 Jotul stove but I have fond memories of the Sotz, the fire box was huge, and you didn't need super dry wood like the Jotul needs.

Yeah, my pics even come up when you do a search on Sotz. I've put those pics up before, even on the stove threads here over the years. Cracked me up to see them again.....

Just received the Englander NC-32. Had the delivery driver put it in the bed of the pickup. Ready for the drive to deer camp. Thanks for all the input.


May need another for the home as energy prices soar this winter.

$1700 at Home Depot. Big firebox, big glass in front, that looks like a good stove. If it weren't good, Home Depot wouldn't sell it. Make sure to do a good install, otherwise you gonna have a real big fire.

Great! Hope the Englander works well for you. They may have “fixed” it on the 32, but my 30, when starting a new fire in a cold stove, is a little hard to get going unless I leave the door cracked open about 1/4”-1/2” for the first 20-30 minutes (to get more air in). After that, I can close it up, and it burns fine. Lots of guys over on Hearth.com mention the same thing. Some even do a simple mod or two, to allow increasing the airflow, just a tad. Since I only use mine a few weeks of the year, I’ve left it alone. Good luck!