# woodstoves with long burn time



## TexasArtist (May 4, 2003)

what wood stove out there have the longest burn time?? I'm thinking of replacing the one I have it just wasn't made for heating a house a long time. BRRRRRRR


----------



## mtc (Dec 23, 2005)

I'm not sure I follow your question. Any woodstove IF it's rated to the size of the area you're trying to heat and IF you're feeding it properly, and IF you're not dealing with an uninsulated house whose walls tend to open to the outside when it gets windy (don't ask me how I know that), should keep you warm. 

However, having said that, Vermont Castings makes nice stoves with catalytic converters that are a little more efficient in how they burn their wood. (you burn the partially combusted gases too.) 

We have a parlor stove and it more than heats our two story house to a comfortable temp on most days. (Every so often we'll turn the circulating fan on to help the air flow, but that's about it.)

Maybe if you provided some more details it'd help with the advice people can give you?


----------



## TexasArtist (May 4, 2003)

I've got one of those little cheap chinese vogelzang things from tractor supply. The box is so small it's hard to keep the right amount of wood in it.


----------



## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

The longest burn time will be from a true "air-tight" stove with the largest firebox. In other words, filling the firebox full of a large air-tight stove and turning the air controller to allow almost no air into the stove will give you a very, very long burn time while the firewood smoulders away. Of course, this "long burn time" will provide little heat and also create a ton of creosote in the chimney.


----------



## -TWO- (Mar 25, 2008)

We bought a Quadra-fire 4300 this year & I like it alot. Its a super efficient, clean burning stove. It will easily hold a fire for 10 hours with the draft shut down. Running it wide open I fill it up every 4 to 5 hours. Its rated to heat up to 2800 [email protected] 70,000 BTU's. It has an efficiency rating of, up to 76.9% (which is excellent).


----------



## Auric (Jul 18, 2005)

Check out Blaze King. They advertise a 40 hour burn time, but that's with a full firebox of about 90 pounds of oak. I wanted to get one of these this year, but they were back ordered and wouldn't have one until January. I settled for a Morso 3160, and am actually pretty happy with it. I can get the burn to last about 7 hours. If I fill the stove at about 11pm, I still have enough embers by 6am to get the fire going again; all without closing down the air intake!


----------



## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

We bought a Char-Master "Chalet" a couple of years ago after doing lots of research on furnaces. We replaced an older woodburning furnace with it. We put wood in it 3 times a day in below zero weather, to keep the house at 68 to 70 degrees. I usually don't fill it as full as possible, unless we are going to be gone for more than 10 or 12 hours. We have an old 2 story farm house with a bit less than 2000sf total on both floors. It will still have a good bed of coals putting out lots of heat after 14 hours if I use good dry wood, even when it is 25 below, and I don't really know how long it would hold a fire if I worked at getting the maximum amount of wood in it.

edit to add link: http://www.charmaster.com/wood.html


----------



## Watcher48 (Aug 30, 2007)

My woodstove for the house is basically a peice of pipe (23") welded into a big box with a door at the end. The blower blows around the pipe and into the duct work. Will burn as long a 12 hours on a load. Generally I reload about every six.

The stove for the shop is made out of a 250 gal propane tank. It will go 4-6 hours on a load.
Both depend on the ind of wood your burning. I even burn sawdust in the shop stove and it will go for 3 hours. I just put a pipe in the middle and pack sawdust around it. Take the pipe out and light it off. Works great.


----------



## caberjim (Feb 19, 2004)

The species and size of the wood your burning has a lot to do with the burn time.


----------



## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

I have the mid size of the Vermont Castings stove described in the link below. With good wood (seasoned oak/hickory/maple), I have ample coals to quickly get a good fire going after eight hours. With less than optimal wood (poplar/gum), I can go six hours between loads. The larger stove in the link below is supposed to go 12 hours between loads. I usually leave the air supply open all the way to insure a complete burn and minimize the creosote accumulation. Plus, it provides incentive to get up in the morning to rekindle the fire...rather than lying around in the bed too long. Best wishes on finding a stove that works for you.

http://www.vermontcastings.com/content/products/productdetails.cfm?id=311


----------



## RVcook (Mar 29, 2008)

A friend of mine heats his entire 2100 sq. ft. 2-story home with an new Osborne after replacing a 20 year old buck stove. He absolutely loves it!

http://www.osburn-mfg.com/products.aspx?CategoId=1

RVcook


----------



## Pouncer (Oct 28, 2006)

I have a Blaze King Ultra, just installed this past summer. I love it, it burns well and holds great-easily over 12 hours. And that's with fairly green birch with a little spruce. It has a large firebox, and we got the circulating fans and I am glad we did. We have around 1800 sq. ft to heat on one level and at temps below zero we can do this easily with just using fans to draw colder air out of the rooms. 

We check the pipe every three to four weeks and typically have only a cup or two soot that comes loose. And we only need to remove ashes maybe every ten days to two weeks, depending on how much spruce we use.  

I am gone every day for nearly 12 hours, and I usually have a either a big bed of coals left, or even some log parts when I get home. I just move them flat into a bed, reload, and let 'er rip for a half hour-brings up the temperature quickly in my house.


----------



## ericjeeper (Feb 25, 2006)

To heat a house..Many different things come into play. It is called "heat loss" A structure is going to lose a certain amount of heat due to windows,doors and lack of insulation.So to heat a house you have to provide heat plus enough extra to account for the heat lost.
Many old homes require 100,000 btus per hour to heat.Ok in a pound of firewood there is roughly 6500 btus. It will take around 16 pounds of wood consumed to heat the house.Now to take in consideration inefficient woodstove. Maybe as low as 60-80% Meaning 40-20% of the heat went straight out the chimney.
So it is like Cabin fever says.. Long burn times are not what every home needs.
Someone mention 90 pounds of Oak lasting for 40 hours. well it produced 585,000 btus.. Not even considering what went up the flue. So in 40 hours it basically produced enough heat to heat most old farmhouses for about 6-8 hours. So at that 40 hour burn time.. Homeowner was likely cold.And the flue likely got a pretty good coating of creosote to boot..Seasoned wood will make creosote when smoldered over a long period of time.

I would recommend looking for an airtight stove,Still in production today,With as large of firebox as possible.
Oh and on cold nights. set your alarm clock for midway through the night.Wake up and go feed the Magic box, As it has magically made all the wood you put in it earlier disappear.


----------



## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

There are so many variables that two people with the same stove can get much different burn times. Any air tight burner should give good results. 

My new Heartwood is wonderful. The site says it has a 5 hour burn time, but I can put a few logs in at bedtime, and the house will still be comfy warm in the morning with a good bed of coals to toss in a couple more logs and have a roaring blaze in minutes. I get the longer burn time because I have a damper installed in the exhaust pipe.

About once a week I toss a handful of rock salt in when I have a thick bed of coals. The salt keeps the creosote burnt out so I don't have chimney fires.


----------



## Cartman (Nov 3, 2008)

We have a Buck stove that is rated to heat 3200 sq ft.
It has a catalist and I get it hot enough to close the damper or ingage the catalist and shut it down about half way. holds a fire for 12 hours. With the blower on it heats our 2055 sq ft 1 level nicely. 22 degrees and windy today and had to open the window for a while. I agree with the others the wood you are burning makes a big difference on how long the fire lasts.


----------



## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

ericjeeper said:


> To heat a house..Many different things come into play. It is called "heat loss" A structure is going to lose a certain amount of heat due to windows,doors and lack of insulation.So to heat a house you have to provide heat plus enough extra to account for the heat lost.
> Many old homes require 100,000 btus per hour to heat.Ok in a pound of firewood there is roughly 6500 btus. It will take around 16 pounds of wood consumed to heat the house.Now to take in consideration inefficient woodstove. Maybe as low as 60-80% Meaning 40-20% of the heat went straight out the chimney.
> So it is like Cabin fever says.. Long burn times are not what every home needs.
> Someone mention 90 pounds of Oak lasting for 40 hours. well it produced 585,000 btus.. Not even considering what went up the flue. So in 40 hours it basically produced enough heat to heat most old farmhouses for about 6-8 hours. So at that 40 hour burn time.. Homeowner was likely cold.And the flue likely got a pretty good coating of creosote to boot..Seasoned wood will make creosote when smoldered over a long period of time.
> ...


I love your numbers..... 

But you are double discounting the efficiency. 

Wood has 8000 BTU's per pound. 100,000 thousand btu's per hour is absolutely mind blowing heat.  



To the original poster...

We have a England stove works stove. They are sold by lowes and Home Depot. They are made in the USA, meet UL and EPA ratings. They are rather well built for the money.

Mine will heat for 9 hours with a full load burning bright (NO CREOSOTE).
keep coals for 14 hours or so total.
It's rated at 70,000 BTU's 
The stove is the 30NCL rated AT 78%


If you wish to hear about stoves (more than one could possibly need) Go to www.hearth.com and check out the message board.


----------



## ericjeeper (Feb 25, 2006)

stanb999 said:


> I love your numbers.....
> 
> But you are double discounting the efficiency.
> 
> ...


----------



## neolady (Dec 30, 2005)

Blaze King


----------



## arbutus (Jun 8, 2006)

www.Hearth.com as mentioned above. I *think* they had a comparison page with several different manufacturers, stove models, prices, and btu output there, but it may be somewhere else.

Based in part on the feedback from hearth.com I purchased the largest Pacific Energy stove. I wanted a large plate steel stove and it was 800 dollars cheaper than the comparable sized Quadrafire and had the 3/8 inch thick top that was none of the competitors had.

I have a thermometer right on top of the stove just in front of the pipe. I can load it with oak or apple at 10 pm and still have coals and a 300 degree temp at 6 am when I get up for work.

I have to throttle the stove back most of the way during the day or it overheats.

My furnace doesn't kick on when the stove is going - even on COLD nights, and the house stays warm.

Supposedly the Englander stoves sold at the big box stores are a good value, good performing, and long lasting too.

Probably the largest contributor to long burn time is firebox size. There is no substitute for being able to put three extra 8 inch oak logs in for an all night fire.

The modern EPA approved stoves aren't truly airtight either - the airtight refers to the door, and the fact that the air entering the stove is routed so that it is preheated and burns with maximum efficiency. You can throttle them way back, but about 25% of the air opening will remain open on ALL modern EPA rated stoves. Some stove brands make it more convenient to modify the air inlet shutter than others. However, without draft, creosote formation becomes a REAL problem if you haven't burned all the volatiles out of the wood. This isn't something I have tried or recommend, just an interesting tidbit.

As I was doing research on stoves last year (when I bought mine) I came across several claims of fantastic burn times. I told you about my 8 hour burn time above - that leaves the stove hot enough to heat the house and be useful. I think most stoves are in this range - 8 or 10 hours, and claims of much longer burn times (24 or 36 hours) are based on the last glowing ember. I can rake way back in the ash after 24 hours and come up with a couple of glowing embers too, but at that point the outside of the stove was cool to the touch several hours ago and had ceased to be a useful heat source. The one possible exception to this is the Blaze King brand ... they make a stove with a much larger firebox than the 3 to 3.5 cubic foot max size that the other manufactures top out at.


----------



## wvstuck (Sep 19, 2008)

Englander here, replaced an old Fisher with a new air tight stove from Lowe's $799 retail but the floor model was negotiated for $700 even.
http://summersheat.com/13-nc.html

I added a pipe (cast iron) damper, I can let air in and keep heat in at the same time. Plus a good brush down the pipe every 30 days or so takes care of any creosote.

I am heating 1800 sq feet with no problem. I use Oak, Hickory, Ash and Sycamore as my wood mix. I'm in my prep room and very comfortable in the coldest part of the house, looking at my wife in the living room sitting cozy on the couch knitting herself a new scarf and hat.


----------



## RedneckPete (Aug 23, 2004)

I heat a 2750 sq ft house with a Pacific Energy stove.

Not including fall and spring burns, I light it in late November and let it burn out in early April. I think that's a long burn.

Pete


----------



## Watcher48 (Aug 30, 2007)

Check out these guys. I had one years ago and it was "da bomb" . has a thermostat and blower. Its made by an Amish company.

http://www.hitzer.com/furnaceunit.html


----------



## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

wvstuck said:


> Englander here, replaced an old Fisher with a new air tight stove from Lowe's $799 retail but the floor model was negotiated for $700 even.
> http://summersheat.com/13-nc.html[/COLOR]
> 
> I added a pipe (cast iron) damper, I can let air in and keep heat in at the same time. Plus a good brush down the pipe every 30 days or so takes care of any creosote.
> ...






I had one of these in the old house. They literally scream... I loved it. But we moved farther north and higher up so I went with the bigger one. 

One word of caution tho, By putting on a damper you void the UL rating. That will be an issue if you have a fire. But you do say you clean it every month.


----------



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

i run a quadrafire 3100 step top my house is about 1300 sq feet 2 story and is not baddly insulated as far as 100 year old houses go , 

maybe first we should say what do you consider and all night burn is it you wake up after 7 hours of sleep to find a nice bed of coals that after raking around a bit you toss in 2 split peices and a few peices of kindling and you are back in buissnes for the day or does it mean for you that you wake up it is still burning well and you just toss more cord wood in 

the 3100 for my house will warm it well down to 0 degrees F then it needs to be kept going all the time 

but at 20 i can fill it up leave the air controll wode open to get a good burn and go to sleep wake up 7 hours later rake he coals and toss in a little kindling and 2 peices of cord wood andi am back in bussniss and in an hour have it back up to 70+ in the house 

at 0 i do all the same things but i have the furnace set to 65 so that it takes over in the middle of the night actualy it is always set there but only needs to run much when 0 or below 

the stove obviosly isn't at peak heating for the last few hours of the early morning but about 5 hours is where i could just get up and add more cord wood 4 hours is about were i would have to add wood to keep it heating well some times if i am up i do that but other times i just enjoy my 7 hours of sleep

the more you insulate the more you can heat up quick and let cool down slow at 40 i can have a fire about every 8 hours to keep the house warm or basicaly one in the morning and one in early evening 

i am looking at adding a blower to my stove to get more heat off it when down at zero and below i also plan to add more insulation 

wood , cuts and sizes make a big difference also i will cut the knots in elm into chuncks so they fit in the stove i i put one of them in before i go to bed i will wake up with a basball sized emerb in the morning 

the way that you split and or cut will aid in getting fires going and will help in how hot your fire gets or how long your fire lasts


----------



## amelia (May 3, 2003)

I have lived with a wood stove as my primary source of heat for about 25 years now. It is a smaller Vermont Castings--a high quality stove.

During the first few years, I experimented with various methods of increasing burn time, and ultimately came around to the conclusion that it simply cannot be done without sacrificing safety. The No. 1 rule in my book is to keep the fire burning good and hot so that there is little, if any, smoke, and so that there is a minimum of cresote build-up in the chimney. You need to control heat output by the amount and type of fuel in the firebox, not the amount of air getting to it. 

The trade-off is that the wood in the firebox burns fast. A small stove, like mine, can't make it through the night (I have to set the alarm clock for at least one refill), whereas a larger one might hold enough wood to make it through. But any attempt to increase burn time by regulating the flow of air is going to give you a smoulder--something that is virtually guaranteed to deposit lots of gunk in the stove and chimney. I don't know any way around that.

I was surprised to learn that it doesn't take much build-up to start a chimney fire. I experienced a very small one a couple of years ago, and it happened despite regular chimney cleanings and proper burning technique. It's a pretty scary experience when it happens.

Hope that helps!


----------



## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Arbutus and amelia have posted very good information, IMHO. Thanks!


----------



## Saffy (May 18, 2007)

I'm not sure of the model but it is the large Hearthstone, it takes a 24" log. We had it now for 20 odd years and love it. The wood stove is are only heat source, we do have a small home only 1000 sq feet but it heats the whole house. The most we ever have to fill and load is twice a day and that is when its below zero! It is mostyly soapstone & cast iron


----------



## Alex (Mar 20, 2003)

We love our Blaze King.

The long burn time claim of 40 hrs is ONLY usually possible during, shoulder-times, or times when the outside air temperature is higher than the lowest winter temperature. And most of the year our stoves burn when the outdoor temperature is higher than the lowest of the year, so long-burn-time is nice.

The burn time depends also on size of wood box, efficiency of burning chamber, and the building heat loss, as well as the outdoor temperature.

Still the reason Blaze King can burn both efficiently (82%) and without much creosote is because it is a catalytic type (much maligned here, often -- all of which in my opinion is NOT true -- ours works great -- no problems -- though we follow the instructions.)

Good luck,
We all love what we bought, don't we?

Alex


----------



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

You can increase burn time with the stove you have by not splitting the wood. Splitting just increases the surface area and the rate wood burns. It does little (10%) to help dry the wood.


----------



## fantasymaker (Aug 28, 2005)

If its the longest HEATING time and not the longest burning time you are after a "Russian" stove would be the way to go.
Its a stove of heavy masonry designed to suck up the heat from a free burning fire and then slowly release it.
Because the fire burns freely you get the most heat and the least creasote out of your wood. The bricks hold the heat for hours evenly heating the house.
I have thought about taking this to a extreame by building a woodstove in the ground under the house thus making the basement area a HUGE thermal flywheel.


----------



## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

fantasymaker said:


> If its the longest HEATING time and not the longest burning time you are after a "Russian" stove would be the way to go.
> Its a stove of heavy masonry designed to suck up the heat from a free burning fire and then slowly release it.
> Because the fire burns freely you get the most heat and the least creasote out of your wood. The bricks hold the heat for hours evenly heating the house.


A friend of mine built a system that sounds something like what you describe. He owns his own construction business and used his own equipment and men so his cost to build was pretty low.

He dug a huge hole near the back of his house. They lined the hole with rock, then put a huge firebox in the center and finished filling with rock around the firebox. He put in double walled pipes to move heated air into the house with exhaust ducts in each room for central heat. I'm explaining it rather simple, but the system is kind of complicated with double walled burn box, double walled pipe, thermostat, blower, etc. I'm not sure how it all goes together. 

He fills the firebox every few days. It keeps hot coals for days after the last fill. Even if they are gone out of town for a few days, there is still coals in the firebox when they get home. 

I wish I had a pic of his firewood. He doesn't split any wood, just cuts the trees into logs about 4' long and uses a little loader to fill the burn box. It takes him a day or two to get a fire started in the fall, but it burns solid until spring. 

One of the best things about the system is that it keeps the mess outside. No ashes or wood chips in the house is a big plus, and only having to go out and fill it once or twice a week is a major plus. 

His next project will be to put in a central A/C system using the pipes in the ground and a set of solar fans. I hope to be there to see how that system goes in.


----------



## stanb999 (Jan 30, 2005)

ericjeeper said:


> The numbers are just an example of how I see it working.. Maybe I am wrong.Wait, I can't be wrong, no one is wrong on the internet. LOL
> 
> Actually wood btus per hour run from 6500- 8000, all depending on whose numbers you believe,
> You say 100k heat is mind blowing. Many homes have forced air gas/fuel oil furnaces that go way above 100k.
> ...


Sure most oil furnaces are rated at 100 thousand or better, But they don't run all the time they cycle on and off. No such luck with a wood stove.


----------



## timfromohio (Jun 19, 2007)

Spinner - the stove that fantasymaker is describing is a masonry stove. As far as longest heat output is concerned, cannot be beat. The stove consists of a small firebox surrounded by a large thermal mass (usually ceramic). The exhaust gases are reburned (same as a normal EPA stove utilizing secondary burn) and then routed such that they heat up the ceramic mass. Once heated up, the ceramic mass radiates the heat slowly throughout the day. The idea is to burn a couple of small, but very hot, fires per day. 

Check out this website - there are some awesome pictures of stove setups:

http://mha-net.org/

The downsides to this type of stove are (1) initial cost is quite high - easily 2x to 3x over normal stove and (2) hard to retrofit into a normal house - you have a few thousand pounds and a big stove footprint to deal with rather than a few hundred pounds and relatively small hearth footprint as is the case for a normal wood stove.

Still, if you have an unlimited budget and are building new, having one smack in the middle of a home with an open floor plan ... you'd be set.


----------



## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

YES!! I was beginning to wonder if anyone else even knew about masonry stoves! They are very expensive if you pay someone to build it. but you can build your own, using cement blocks for the outer case, for a lot less money. They not only heat your house longer and produce a lot less creosote if properly managed (hot fires once or twice a day), they also burn a LOT less wood! 

There are free masonry stove plans available on-line -- I think through the University of Missouri?

I know, or knew, two families who had/have home-built cement-block masonry stoves, both in New Hampshire in older homes. Both stoves developed cracks, which had to be repaired, but otherwise the owners have been very pleased with them. There are building techniques which should prevent the cracking problem -- do a little research and see what you come up with.

Kathleen



fantasymaker said:


> If its the longest HEATING time and not the longest burning time you are after a "Russian" stove would be the way to go.
> Its a stove of heavy masonry designed to suck up the heat from a free burning fire and then slowly release it.
> Because the fire burns freely you get the most heat and the least creasote out of your wood. The bricks hold the heat for hours evenly heating the house.
> I have thought about taking this to a extreame by building a woodstove in the ground under the house thus making the basement area a HUGE thermal flywheel.


----------



## timfromohio (Jun 19, 2007)

I think that you can buy a firebox kit from Tulkivi (Scandanavian company) and then try to build whatever style ceramic mass around it that you want. You still have to do a lot of reinforcement underneath the stove, but those stoves are awesome. If you look through the webpage I referenced there are many pictures of beautiful stoves - some with built in pizza ovens.


----------

