r/woodstoving

When the architect says just a slight curve and you take it personally.

Image @ Michelle Cameron

Hello,

My wife and I are looking to buy a wood stove for our house. We have a mid-century modern look in our home and found a used stove that we think really fits our aesthetic for $700.

We don’t know a lot about wood stoves yet and trying to determine whether or not to purchase. It generally appears in good condition to us but we don’t really know exactly what to look for.

Does this stove seem to be in good shape? Are there any concerns or questions that we should be sure to ask about? Does $700 seem like a reasonable value?

Thanks!

WNY and it just won't let up.

We had to have 8 trees taken down on our property, including 3 absolutely massive red oaks. Sad to see them go, but they were becoming a danger to the house. Biggest of the oaks was estimated to be just over 100 years old.

This is my job for the next couple of weeks. Won’t be ready until the 27/28 winter but the arborist estimated we’ll end up with 9-10 cords worth of wood by the end.

I always enjoyed days like this, early spring chill, blue skies and a cozy fire. Stovepipe hovering around 200-250 degrees F.

What are my woodstove bros doing this fine Sunday evening?

Salem the cat is very toasty :) I figured that we would have been done with the wood burner by now

I made a short post back in the Fall looking for advice on paint/powder coating for a Malm Firedrum 3 restoration. There were for sure some helpful people on here, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with any of the answers I could find online about how each brand of paint held up, and how well it would lay, and if it would cure right on the malm porcelain coating. I wanted to put this out here for anyone in a similar circumstance as me.

We could not powder coat the unit for economic reasons, which would have been ideal, but I did find a stove paint that worked extremely well, held up really nicely to daily use, even the occasional over-firing, and if I have to refinish it every few years, which is often the case with stove paint I am still very satisfied with the result.

I picked this unit up in New Orleans, and it had accumulated a good amount of rust, as well as damage to the original refractory.

For the prep I spent approximately 40 working hours tediously removing rust with a wide set of wire brushes, grinder brushes, rust removal pads, steel wool, extremely cautious and sparing amounts of acid (quickly neutralized), and kept all the pieces in a dry place so that rust wouldn’t reform. I did leave the original porcelain finish intact. After I was satisfied with how clean everything was, I did two carefully applied coats of Thurmalox stove paint, sanding the first one after drying, and following the application directions on the cans. I wanted the fireplace to stay matte, so I didn’t end up using their clear coat. The paint off-gassed for about four firings. The first two being just long enough to heat the whole unit up. YOU NEED TO OPEN DOORS AND WINDOWS DURING THIS PROCESS.

On the refractory, Malm does sell replacement refractory pieces. They are outrageously expensive, but if you have it in the budget it’s for sure the way to go. I did not, but I plan to save for them. In the meantime in order to replace the missing refractory panels I used firebrick and refractory mortar. I cut the brick to the shape of the dome/semicircle with an angle grinder using existing refractory as a sort-of template. I assembled the refractory I did have, and then filled the gaps with layered firebrick and refractory mortar. Once the mortar cured, I cleaned it up with an angle grinder, and fit the metal body of the unit onto the finished refractory dome.

For the chimney I had to reduce the pipe down from the original 10”, to 8” to fit the Class A chimney I had available locally, but I have had no problems with draft. I get perfect draft from the time I light the match.

As I said before the paint has held up perfectly. We regularly kept the fire going for days on end, and I haven’t had any discoloration, or inconsistencies in the finish. I was warned that these units are largely decorative, and don’t heat efficiently. In our case that is wrong. This thing CRANKS heat out, and looks cute af while doing it. The amount of thermal mass it has is ridiculous, and it stays hot for hours after the fire has gone out.

And yes, I understand these units are not up to code by and large. If it ever becomes a concern I can swap it with a modern stove.

This group was very helpful during this process— I hope my experience can be useful to someone.

Dogspeed to you all

First, I know the window is very dirty. Is this a cause for concern, or just needing replacement? It looks like an animal got into it and shredded the seal, but the door was closed. The stove was serviced in January and nothing was raised as a concern.

When we took possession of our house in 2023, this detached shop was just completely packed full of junk. Lots of good junk though too. Over the last few years I've been stripping it down and renovating it wall by wall, updating the electrical and whatnot.

This 1989 Regency R6 stove I picked up off of a renovation that I was doing in a cabin where the people didn't want it anymore. They never used it. The whole cabin has been modernized so they were just going to get rid of it. I scooped it up for $500 value in labor trade off. That's including everything from the stove right to the Chimney Cap.

So I replaced the old original airtight stove that they had out here with that Regency r6, but then when I started to stand back and look at that area I decided that I wanted to get the stove moved farther back towards the wall. So I decided to get a couple of 45s in a length of pipe and do this little project. Finishes off my office and creates a nice hearth, it's the stove move farther back.

Everything else you see in the pictures that has to do with my flooring is all recycled material as well. The fence boards that I used as purlins on the cement floor were leftovers from a fence job I did. Plywood was just left over from another job. I had two boxes of hardwood flooring given to me from an apartment job. Hardwood flooring that's meant to be on top of a gypcrete. Sidewalk blocks are salvaged from a shed demo.

You have to love when all the crap we salvage and take home and store for years ends up getting put to use LOL.

PS for any inspectors out there, I am aware that the stove doesn't technically pass for being out in a garage. It should be elevated 18 inches off the floor, right now it is 16 in. And it's supposed to have some sort of sidewalk block or post in front of it so that no one can drive into it. But this is not used as a vehicle garage, this is my shop and my office. All woodworking and hockey LOL. No cars.

I bought an old house recently and it has no heating. Previous owner used a wood stove as well as all other previous owners since the house was built in 1952. Previous owner died and his son took out the old stove before he sold the house. The flue measures 6 inches inside diameter. I have stuck a snake camera down the top and up all ports (basement, 1st level, and it has like a half level finished room with a port. The flue is spotless. I so zero creosote buildup. The neighbors said the previous owner had recently had it cleaned. I saw no holes or damage to the clay or terra cotta lining, whatever it is. It looks in excellent shape. The neighbors say the previous owner burned the stove daily in the winter with no problems.

This would be for the basement and would be the only heat source while I remodel the house, which may take me a year or 2. The house does have a steel grate in the floor on the first level near the chimney, so I could get some hot air rising into the main level, or even rig up a fan.

House is in VA.

I am considering a Tempwood stove as I can get one fairly cheap. I have read nothing but great things about the Tempwood II. I understand it is top loading and down draft. The only complaint I have heard is it can be harder to load really large logs due to the top loading door size. And maybe it is harder to clean out. The good things I have heard are: long lasting burns, easy to use, safe, simple, quick to get up to temp.

I have attached pics of the space it would go in. I would move the weights. It is 850 square foot unfinished basement. Main level is about same size. Level 1.5 is like 200 square feet but I don't plan on using it for now. I will eventually do mini splits when I do the remodel, but for the next winter or 2 would rely on the wood stove. I do have space heaters for the main level where needed.

Let me know what you think. I am extremely budget limited so I can't afford anything more than about $800 and preferably more like $400. There are dozens of old wood stoves for sale near me and most are around $400. Thanks!

Hello! Picking this up for free from someone but wondering if anybody knows anything about it? Can’t find anything on the interwebs about the potential brand marking of “Genie”. Torrington Metal Inc. seems to only be a metal manufacturer, not a stove manufacturer. I don’t have any pictures of the inside. I had planned to clean it up and put it in our living room. Thank you in advance!

Online descriptions of new, EPA certified, inserts certainly paint a pretty picture. Do the new inserts really live up to the hype? I can burn about 3 cords every year with my current insert. It is approaching 40yrs old.... It is reliable, noisy, and 100% manual (except for the thermocouple that will turn on the blowers if the box gets too hot). If I pack it full and close the vents just right it will blow hot air for about 8hrs. When the PA winters dip in to the double digit negatives I can only get 4-6 hours while keeping the room at 60°F or so.

20hr burn time and 80,000btu sounds really nice.... Do they deliver?

I bought a house back in October with a woodstove. We had the woodstove inspected by a professional, and it looked like the homeowner did a very good job maintaining the stove, as the specialist that I hired said that there was hardly any creosote in the flue espcially since the stove was installed in 2014.

After the last few burns of the season, I started getting soot buildup on the glass, and that is when I realized why there was woodstove glass cleaner in the basement. I had also found black spray paint that is made specifically for woodstoves, and this is where I come to the crux of this post.

What are some end of season maintenance tips and tricks, if any, do some of you do for your woodstoves? I know I should look at replacing the firebrick in the back that is cracked and maybe even use the paint to touch up places on the inside where the paint has chipped, and maybe also on the outside of the stove.

I have just moved into a new home with a stove and we haven't used it yet but the previous owners did. However the room with stove and stairway connected via hall has constant soot smell.

I paid for a service and they said its all ok and they cleaned it out. The smell is a bit better but still very noticeable.

I bought a chimney sheep to plug it to see if it helps which I've done and will see how this goes. Whilst I was placing this I tried the front lever that I believe is the damper to check if it was left or right for close but I feel nothing moving at all.

Some pictures attached for reference. There is also a catalytic converter device that the service guy said was odd to see in such a stove?

Can anyone with expertise provide any help on what's going on with the smell? Is this due to missing/broken damper. Shouldn't this have been picked up by service?

Thanks!

We have rain leaking into our Jotul wood stove. Nothing around the ceiling, but we have water in our stove and pooling on the tile underneath. We’re starting a fire (despite it being in the 60s) to get it dried out. Any other suggestions on how to keep dry? We’d have to have our lovely stove rust out!