Wood Heat This Year

Well, we've put in a change this year.

We went from this last year:

To this:

(yeah, I know - two different cats too. That's not the point of this post, though.
Both cats are still alive and well)

There are pros and cons to the switch. I think the pros outweigh, though.

We loved our Franklin stove last year -- wow, the amount of wood it could hold at once, how grand it looked, how well it heated our home.

But the newer, smaller stove has many pluses. For one, it is much more airtight. We had trouble venting the Franklin stove last year because we were trying to manipulate its 10-inch diameter flue to work with our 4-inch diameter chimney. That was just too big of a reduction to allow air flow properly, and we often ended up getting smoke in the house.

Also, on the Franklin, I always had to open the doors to see if more wood was needed yet. I love the window in the newer stove. It is like watching a fireplace :) Plus it lets me know how far down everything is burning, without having to open the door. It does have a smaller chamber (takes smaller pieces of wood, and less wood at a time); but seems to burn somewhat slower as well, and radiates the heat very well.

Just like last year's stove, we got a great deal on this unit by purchasing it used from an individual off a Craig's List posting. We've found some great deals that way. It was pretty dirty and beat up when we got it, but Steven put lots of elbow grease into cleaning it up, replacing the inside firebrick, fixing all the parts, and polishing it to look almost like new. (The firebrick, too, are a big plus -- although it takes quite a bit of burning to get them all heated up and going, they stay hot/warm for a very long time, allowing us more leeway in getting the stove reloaded).

So far, so good. I'm very happy with it. We haven't had a true trial, though, until we get to the really bitter cold days, and see if it can keep up with our drafty old house.