Wood stove heat

[davidwyby]

Bellows FTW

 

[Kaveman]

I've always kept about 2 and a half feet of half inch or smaller copper pipe near the stove. One end is flared for a compression fitting, the other is flattened off, nearly closed. Makes a nice fan shaped pattern that helps wake the coals quite quickly.

A hand bellows is much better, but the copper pipe was always free, and gives the kiddos something to do to help.

 

[cory]

B, your bellows story reminds me of when my wife got me a 4 wheel wheelbarrow for Xmas. I was like r u feeling ok, I have 2 (regular) wheelbarrows already. Well sure enough it is awesome and I haven’t used a regular one in a few years. Great for firewood tasks.
Geez, women!

 

[Marc-Antoine]

What I dislike with the hand bellows is the air flow in surges and nothing in-between. The generated heat is blown away and inconsistent. I prefer a slow but steady flow by the lungs. It's still interrupted but that gives more time for the small flame or embers to thaw a given area.

 

[davidwyby]

I’ve used a cheap leaf blower

 

[Cobleskill]

Works good. Probably not great for indoors.

I heard about a guy sucking ashes out of his pellet stove with a shop vac. Tried to do it before waiting long enough. It was shooting sparks out of the exhaust. Whoopsie.

 

[Dave Shepard]

A high end event space/restaurant had a fire in several of their guest room in December. One of the guests was worried about leaving the ashes in the fireplace before going to dinner, so she shoveled them into the wicker wastebasket.

 

[SeanKroll]

Alcohol and fire are a dangerous combo.

Poor judgment and fire are a disaster waiting to happen.

I rented a room in my house one winter. She did Not use the wood stove.

 

[Cobleskill]

My neighbor dodged a big bullet doing something similar. The daughter cleaned out the Ben Franklin ashes into a paper sack. She set the paper sack out on the recessed front porch. In the morning the hot embers had a 1 foot diameter hole charred in the floor right where a bunch of floor joists came together in a configuration just like a fire starting tepee. Their was lattice on the underneath for good air circulation. Golden horse shoe was all I could say.

 

[Burnham]

How do some people survive to adulthood, I wonder?

 

[flushcut]

Just like licks to the center of a Tootsie pop, the world may never know.

 

[Nutball]

The straight in log method must require a stove that is quite deep. With my Hearthstone, it is fine with 18 inch wood sideways, but it would have to be no longer than 12 inches or even less to go in straight on.

No way am I going to be cutting firewood at 10-12 inches. That's just silly .

Try it first, then reconsider your opinion.

 

[Cobleskill]

13 inches on my stove. It is a two-fer for me. When it isn't too cold out sideways makes a fire without overheating the house. When you need a hot fire straight in delivers that. My main heat source is big old stove with bi metallic draft control that takes 23 inch lunkers. Probably not highly efficient, but works great and it was free. Actually pretty much wore out a stove just like it. Grates warped, sides warped in. Lasted over 20 years of some mighty cold winters.

 

[flushcut]

Line it with fire brick.
The Fisher takes a 22”straight in and six to ten splits at once.

 

[Burnham]

Try it first, then reconsider your opinion.

Well, perhaps if I was not being able to more than adequately heat our house doing it the way I have been, I might.

But cutting twice as many times per cord, stacking twice as many pieces per cord lacks appeal when I'm pretty satisfied with my current methods .