# cook stoves



## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I told hubby he can rebuild our new place any way he wants but I'm getting a cook stove. There is lots of water damage from frozen/busted pipes so we're gutting the house. I've been looking online and I've seen lots of really pretty stoves but I want one that really works. I want something that I can cook with that will also heat the house. Any suggestions?


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

are you looking for 1 or 2 pots or skillets that you can cook on but mostly heat or a full kitchen range 4-5 places to put a pot or pan with warmer and oven?

if your not looking for a full kitchen range then I would recommend the quadrafire we have had our quadrafire for several years I think since 2007 it does a great job heating and we have cooked soups, stews , beans, rice , heated water , and used it as a warmer besides heating with it , it burns very clean , I had the mail man ask me about burning wood , he said I see the chimney and the big pile of wood but it's snowing and you don't have any smoke coming out your chimney , I had him look closer you can see the heat waves bending the light but there is no smoke once the fire is going it burns that clean


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I'd like something with an oven. We have a wood stove now that I can cook on and I love it but want an oven as well. Getting propane at our new place is expensive since we are so far out and they add a delivery charge. I'd like to use as little propane as possible and don't like cooking on electric.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Similar to GCP, we have a wood heating stove that you can cook on. It's a Lopi Endeavor that has a two level top. The lower level is for boiling, frying, and any thing else that requires a high temp. The upper level is for simmering, slow cooking, and keeping things warm. I beleive the Lopi Endeavor is rated to heat 1800 sf.

If you want to bake, just let the fire burn down to coals and bake inside a Dutch oven placed inside the firebox. The photo below is a pecan pie we baked inside the firebox of a different woodstove that we have.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I've baked in the one we have at this house but you have to let the fire burn down which let's the house cool down. I don't like being cold.... pie looks really good. Bet it was delicious.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Our house has very good insulation. You can let the fire die back to coals and the house doesn't immediately start getting cold.

As far as finding a wood cookstove that doubles as a wood heat stove, is going to be tough. This same question has been asked on HT many times and I don't remember anyone having a good solution. 

Wood cook stoves use small fires for cooking and baking, which is a good thing. The person doing the cooking does not want to stand in front of a furnance that is also heating the house. If you build a small fire to cook with, you're going to have the same problem you mentioned in the previous post....you're house is going to cool off while you cook.

What generally happens when one looks for a "jack of all trades" they usually find out their purchase is a "master of none."


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I've has my eye on a Margin Gem for many years. It has a large enough fire box to heat a house. The grate in the firebox has 2 levels, one level for just cooking,called a summer grate. Then for winter you can drop it down and put a full load of wood in. I like this stove because it looks like a old stove. I collect antiques so that look appeals to me.
Now that I have been fixing up our log cabin up north and it used to have a cook stove in the kitchen and a parlor stove in the ft. room. I am thinking of getting another stove I've discovered. The cook stove I use now is in perfect shape so I have not been in a big rush to change.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

terri9630 said:


> ... I've been looking online and I've seen lots of really pretty stoves but I want one that really works. I want something that I can cook with that will also heat the house. Any suggestions?


You sound like my wife. 

New ones online, look great, seem to work good, yet they are pricey.

My wife found an old one local, all cast-iron for $200. We hauled it home and started to fix it up. It has a dozen big cracks in it, and is going to become a huge project to fix. I am not entirely sold on the idea that she will truly be cooking on this thing.

Any sheet-metal tinkerer, can make you a steel box, with a thermometer in the door. Set the steel box on top of any woodstove with a flat top, and poof you have an oven. It can be made small or large.

When you are not using it, the oven can be set somewhere else out of the way.

I think that is the cheapest and easiest method to get you a functional wood-stove oven.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

7thswan said:


> I've has my eye on a Margin Gem for many years. It has a large enough fire box to heat a house. The grate in the firebox has 2 levels, one level for just cooking,called a summer grate. Then for winter you can drop it down and put a full load of wood in. I like this stove because it looks like a old stove. I collect antiques so that look appeals to me.
> Now that I have been fixing up our log cabin up north and it used to have a cook stove in the kitchen and a parlor stove in the ft. room. I am thinking of getting another stove I've discovered. The cook stove I use now is in perfect shape so I have not been in a big rush to change.


I like the look of the top picture but I think the second picture would work better.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

ET1 SS said:


> You sound like my wife.
> 
> New ones online, look great, seem to work good, yet they are pricey.
> 
> ...


You sound like my husband when I bought my sun oven and camp Dutch ovens. He didn't think I'd really use them. He just bought me another sun oven and keeps asking if I need any more cast iron. I don't cook inside during the summer unless I absolutely have to. I hate heating and cooling the house at the same time. I have a coleman camp stove oven I use now but it takes the whole stove top. I use my wood stove to cook on in the winter but would like to cook dinner and make bread/biscuits/cornbread at the same time.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

This is going to go into the house we just bought. We are gutting it and setting it to be as "off grid" as possible. I have an old Fatso pot belly stove that we are taking up there and building an outdoor kitchen around it for summer cooking.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

7thswan. What brand/model is that second stove?


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## Astrid (Nov 13, 2010)

We have a Kitchen Queen which is awesome. It heats 2000 square feet and it heats 26 gallons of water with the water tanks in the back. I love it. 

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLEgFatE620[/ame]


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

terri9630 said:


> 7thswan. What brand/model is that second stove?


There are a number of them in diffrent sizes and colors on amz and ebay,here is a link with info so you can look up others.http://www.amazon.com/Wood-Burning-...34869&sr=1-4&keywords=wood+burning+cook+stove


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

7thswan said:


> There are a number of them in diffrent sizes and colors on amz and ebay,here is a link with info so you can look up others.http://www.amazon.com/Wood-Burning-...34869&sr=1-4&keywords=wood+burning+cook+stove


Thank you.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Astrid said:


> We have a Kitchen Queen which is awesome. It heats 2000 square feet and it heats 26 gallons of water with the water tanks in the back. I love it.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLEgFatE620


I was looking at those last night. I like the P. Queen, P. Maid and the P. Princess. The new place is only 1100sq ft so I don't need something huge.


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## Astrid (Nov 13, 2010)

terri9630 said:


> I was looking at those last night. I like the P. Queen, P. Maid and the P. Princess. The new place is only 1100sq ft so I don't need something huge.


There is a smaller kitchen queen. We are in a temperate rainforest here in AK and it never gets that cold, so I know what you mean. But, I really wanted the water reservoirs and the big oven and warmer. So, we bought this one. We had had an antique wood stove in the past but it just wasn't right. There were constant repairs that needed to be done which weren't immediately evident when we bought it. That being said, I know of others who had no problems. I guess it boils down to what you want.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

I think that's what I'm going to go with when it's time. We have to get the house finished first.


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## PlowGirl (Nov 16, 2005)

Unless I'm mistaken, the Prairie queen , et al is not the same stove as the kitchen queen. I have the larger K Q 480 and it will truly heat over 2000 ft/2.


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## swinters (Apr 17, 2009)

I really like the Chambers stoves. They are built on the Fireless Cooker principle so are very heavily insulated with rock wool insulation so that you can heat up what you want to cook and then shut off the gas and it will continue to cook on retained heat. They're easy to set up on propane, require no electricity (except models with a light, but only for the light) and come with a insulated cooking well that, like the oven, cooks on retained heat, three burners, a griddle, a broiler (the griddle tilts back to access the broiler) and a storage/utility cabinet to the right of the oven. One of the best models for off grid is the Standard Heater, which has an incinerator built on the left end of it that allows you to heat and cook with wood. No oven when cooking with wood but I haven't found anything yet that I can't cook in my Dutch oven or Wagner roaster on top of mine. Here are a couple of pictures of the front of a Chambers Standard Heater (just an A series with a built in incinerator). First from the craigslist ad when I bought mine, second is a downloaded picture.


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

Wow, that Chambers is very nice too!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I just purchased this stove for the cabin to replace the "new" elec stove in the kitchen. A true find, we paid 300. for it. Prepare to fall over if you look up the price of one new. Not even 1 chip on it. 3 of the burners do not work, but DH took the top apart and 1 wire to each of the 3 burners is fryed thru. I did not want a elec. stove but it sure will look nice in the cabin. So ,check the for sales as often as you can and look for the deals!

The last thing I need is another stove, I'm getting to be a collector.:shocked:


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

wait, 7th, what do you have there?

Is it a combo of elec and other energy? Need more description of what you have there. please


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

partndn said:


> wait, 7th, what do you have there?
> 
> Is it a combo of elec and other energy? Need more description of what you have there. please


This is an Elmira. It is electric put into an actual wood cook stove like body. The nickle plated doors and trim on the left are sealed with the ropeing used in wood stoves and it has the round draft "knobs" on the side where the firebox would have been. It weighs 450 lbs. On the cooking surface is a giddle to the left. The bread warmer on top has a vent/filter and a pipe to vent outside just like a stove hood would be done with a pipe. One does not have to use a pipe as the vent also has the filter for ventless use. IIRC this version of stove was sold to Heartland stove co. I can still get the burners if burnt out. I'm not a fan of elec. but for now we use elec at the cabin until I put in propane.( I will have a wood cook stove and a gas stove like I have here at home)


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

uh huh. Interesting. Well it sure is purdy. 
I never saw one sorta converted like that. Reminds me of treadle sewing machines with a motor put on. 

You sure have some nice ones. I bet after you're set up for propane/wood, you will use that body and convert it back or something. It looks too good to let go for sure.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

partndn said:


> uh huh. Interesting. Well it sure is purdy.
> I never saw one sorta converted like that. Reminds me of treadle sewing machines with a motor put on.
> 
> You sure have some nice ones. I bet after you're set up for propane/wood, you will use that body and convert it back or something. It looks too good to let go for sure.


Well I actualy asked the co rep if they could convert it to gas. They said no. But I have a Home Comfort that has 2 burners converted to gas by the prior owner. I'd say that is the ticket-old gas stove parts are pretty simple. I do have a 'few' stoves to sell, need to size down and move on, keep what makes my heart sing..........my grammys treadle converted by gramps is one of them...


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

7thswan said:


> I just purchased this stove for the cabin to replace the "new" elec stove in the kitchen. A true find, we paid 300. for it. Prepare to fall over if you look up the price of one new. Not even 1 chip on it. 3 of the burners do not work, but DH took the top apart and 1 wire to each of the 3 burners is fryed thru. I did not want a elec. stove but it sure will look nice in the cabin. So ,check the for sales as often as you can and look for the deals!
> 
> The last thing I need is another stove, I'm getting to be a collector.:shocked:


That is nice. We're trying to simplify and pulled out all the propane lines. One less thing to buy/run out of.


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