This is my first wood stove, so I really didn't know what to expect. I've been around a few so I wasn't a complete noob and knew if you wanted to burn wood for heat this was the way to go, but without any real experience I just didn't know how it would all work out.

I've already had a few fires for testing, fun and I guess more for ambiance than anything else, well last night was the first real trial of our little wood stove. Would it keep the cabin warm as our only heat source? And I must say it seems to be working. We went to bed last night at 2100. By that time I already had a good bed of coals in there, so I crammed as much wood as would fit in the stove, closed the door and damped it down as far as it would go.

This morning I got up at 0400, went down to make coffee and it was 32 degrees outside and 68 degrees inside. The fire was still going with a very nice bed of coals and almost a whole split still going. I opened up the damper threw on some more logs and now it's 70 degrees in here. Pretty happy with the way it has turned out.

We still have a couple of the oil filled radiators for when it gets really cold for auxiliary heat in other parts of the cabin. We will leave one of those on low (Like we did all last winter) when we aren't here to keep the place from getting too cold, but for now the wood stove is working out pretty damn good.

This was nice last night with Mrs. Irish making a homemade soup and me sitting by the fire with a glass of scotch watching the bushman's television set.

I gotta share this pic too... I got up here yesterday afternoon at about 1700 and it was already 39 outside. I got my stuff out of the Jeep and set about getting the fire started. I went around the back of the cabin to grab an arm full of splits and looked up and the good Lord blessed me with this. I just put down the firewood and enjoyed it for a minute...

I wish my phone camera had a wider angle lens so I could have fit both ends in the picture. It was beautiful.

A little bit of heaven right there

Beautiful!

Living the Life!!!!! That's awesome.

Wood stoves are great aren't they! One thing to note is if you burn a lot of pine and or use full damper a lot you'll get a build up of creosote on the glass. It's not a big deal, just get a razor blade scraper (about $1 from harbor freight) and scrape it off. It takes a little elbow grease but should be good as new after. Also if it's the type you can access the chimney from inside by removing the fire bricks you probably want to invest in a chimney brush.

That’s a big arse hill!!!

Yeah, I noticed the build up on the glass when I got up this morning and i was a bit concerned, but after I opened the damper back up and got the fire going hotter it burned it all off. Now it's fine. The stove was advertised as "Self cleaning glass" so maybe it's something that actually works as advertised for a change.

Regarding the creosote in the flue, my buddy up here that has had a wood stove for a long time told me about these cleaning "logs" that you throw in there when you have a nice hot fire and they use some sort of chemical reaction to clean out the chimney flue. Like these...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pine-Mou...educes-Fireplace-Fire-Risk-1-Ct/32468472

Anyone ever used these?

Not heard of the self cleaning glass before so yeah that might be it. If it does end up not burning off though you know what to do

I've heard the logs are better than nothing but brushing it out is better. The stove I have now you can't access the chimney so I'll be using one of those.

Thanks I'll keep a razor blade scraper handy.

I have no clue if such a product exists but you might see if there is a specialty high heat ceramic coating you could put on the glass.

I honestly don't know that it is going to need something like that. I think it's going to be fine. I think it's going to do just like last night and soot up when I bank it down overnight, but it will clear back up when I open up the damper and get it going hot in the morning.

Best “cleaning” logs are just plain ol good wood. Burn 1+year seasoned hard wood and things will be fine. Most creosote is due to wet or unseasoned (wet) wood or soft wood like pine. Also burning the fire too low will cause creosote. Need to open it up 1-2 times a day to burn hot. Hard to do sometimes with the warmer winter days. We just open the window

Nice stove. I like the way it’s a bit higher off the ground. Easier on the ol back

very nice; does it have a fan on it? my Ashley insert has a blower & i can get my house up to temp very quickly ...

Good to know. Thanks.

We didn't have many options, because this is such a small footprint cabin that every square inch is pretty much spoken for. So we needed a stove with a small foot print. Fortunately this one, so far, has turned out to be a good one.

I still have to get down on one knee to feed it. Plus I need to get a long leather glove, because I almost burn myself every damn time. It's a tight fit for the logs and it takes a little extra finagling to get them in there

It does have an electric fan, but I haven't installed it or hooked it up. We may need it when it gets colder.

FYI the 'glass" is actually ceramic, so it can take the heat easily with no coating needed. It's 'self cleaning" part is built into the stove, the air intake has a jet of air that washes the glass. Yes it will still soot up, yes it can be scraped clean or just run hot and it will clean itself. Mine is a Catalytic stove and burns at much lower rates than most, it soots the glass up pretty bad but it always comes back with a hot fire. Wet wood will cause more problems than any other single thing.

Jason

I'm taking steps tomorrow to help on the wet wood issue. I have some tarps and I am making a curtain wall on the mountain side of my wood stack. The rain kind of blows horizontal up here so im having to make some adjustments to my construction techniques to compensate for that. For instance I never knew doors on a back deck could leak like that.

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I run this Buck 91 cat stove. Wood with a moisture content less than 20% is your friend, the outside dampness doesn’t affect it like
the internal numbers. You can get a cheap moisture meter at Harbor Freight for about $15. This comes in handy if your buying wood
being advertised as dry wood. Oaks and hickory require a minimum 2 yrs. to get to these percentages. I cut all my wood unless I can get
cords at a really good price.
hearth.com is a great forum with all the info you need for anything wood heating related.
Feels good this morning with temperature being 28 outside and 74 inside😁

That's a nice wood stove.