Thread: what is the longest burning wood stove out there ???

I was told that blaze king will do 40 hours on low.
I would be happy with 12 hours .
heating about 2000 sq ft with birch slabs and logs .
jotul is a good looking unit but I am all about burn time and a big fire box.

Originally Posted by bassman

I was told that blaze king will do 40 hours on low.
I would be happy with 12 hours .
heating about 2000 sq ft with birch slabs and logs .
jotul is a good looking unit but I am all about burn time and a big fire box.

40 hrs? I doubt it. is that a mfg claim or something you were told? The only way i could see any stove going 40 hrs is one that you could pack a whole face cord in. I could see my jotul weighing 2000 lbs and being the size of a car. 8 to 10 hrs seem to be the norm, more like 6 when its 0 outside.

Seems like the longest burning would be the fire box that hold the most wood + very well sealed to maintain the most constant burn. A cheap stove will likely have air leaks giving you less control of the burn.

I can say emphatically that it is not the Jotul Oslo. An excellent stove, but has to be crammed full and dampered down to get through a cold night with a strong draw up the chimney and still have enough coals to fire up in the morning.

One of the problems with any EPA certified stove is that the stoves are, by design, not fully airtight to prevent the smoldering that was common on the "long burn" stoves before the EPA got involved.

Originally Posted by bassman

I was told that blaze king will do 40 hours on low.
I would be happy with 12 hours .
heating about 2000 sq ft with birch slabs and logs .

My old Fisher does 12 hours, but it won't make the EPA happy. 40 hours? I flat don't believe it.

One thing that helps a lot is wood size. BIgger chunks have less surface area, so take longer to burn. If your slabs are thin, they'll go up the chimney faster. If you can stack them tightly that will help.

Wood type is the other important variable. I can't imagine birch being a long lasting wood. When I say 12 hours on mine that's with oak or locust. I do burn poplar during the day, and it sure won't go all day.

Yep agree with the the Poet,

Actually some of the pellet stoves can burn all day long due to auto feed.

Wood stoves though, all I really want/need is 6-8 too get through a night. My cook stove doesn't (small firebox), my small Jotul nope, but I do have an old King box heater that would go all night. I had to unhook it though because it shared a flue with the oil furnace. If I can get a liner in that chimney, I'll hook it back up. The problem with smoldering is cresote. The lower and slower you burn, the more of it your producing.

I don't know about 40 hrs. but it seems that the slower (and longer) the burn the cooler the house. Our Regency stove burns a good long time if there is a hot bed of coals but that leaves less room for wood.

My experience:
Poplar - 8 hr. max and then you have almost lost the coal bed. We wake up to let the dog out and by the time you mess with the fire and get it going again you may as well put the coffee on.

Birch / Black Ash - 10 hr. max and there is still a cheery bed of glowing coals. Go to bed warm and wake up warm. Unless it is -25C or colder the furnace never gets to cycle.

Spruce / Pine / Fir - Hardly worth mentioning in the same thread. Short and hot burn. Go to bed warm and wake up cold to the sound of the furnace working hard.

Unfortunately we don't have quality firewood like some of you gentlemen have access to here in North Western Ontario. Poplar and Birch (and some Black Ash) are all we can get.

An old logger told me that if you place your firewood flat side down on the coals it will last longer. I tried it and it seems to make a difference but not a real big one.

Originally Posted by Zodiac45

Yep agree with the the Poet,

Actually some of the pellet stoves can burn all day long due to auto feed.

Wood stoves though, all I really want/need is 6-8 too get through a night. My cook stove doesn't (small firebox), my small Jotul nope, but I do have an old King box heater that would go all night. I had to unhook it though because it shared a flue with the oil furnace. If I can get a liner in that chimney, I'll hook it back up. The problem with smoldering is cresote. The lower and slower you burn, the more of it your producing.

My old man's catalytic VC Encore can be throttled way back indefinitely without producing any creosote, however he burns very dry (3+ years seasoned) wood.

Of course, I don't know how that compares to a non cat stove, but every time I help him sweep the chimney (4x/year) there's never even one ounce of creosote in the liner or the stovepipe...

Originally Posted by Marc

he burns very dry (3+ years seasoned) wood.

Around here 3+ years gets you punky wood liberally decorated with mushrooms. Too humid!

Originally Posted by Gordie

Unfortunately we don't have quality firewood like some of you gentlemen have access to here in North Western Ontario. Poplar and Birch (and some Black Ash) are all we can get.

Yeah, you gotta make do with what you've got. We're pretty spoiled around here. Most people won't even take poplar for free. There's too much oak and hickory around. I picked up a good cord of nice red oak just from stuff left by the highway crews after a storm last winter. Standard procedure in these parts. There are a couple of hickory logs on my way home that I've been eyeing, but I don't know that they're worth the trouble. Maybe 15 feet long or so, 18-24" diameter. But I can get all I want loaded for free, so...

I don't say that to be snide! Coming from out west where pine is the most readily available wood, I'm still in awe, and very grateful for what we have here.

I found that if I split the wood so that the pieces are square or rectangular instead of the traditional triangular shape, then I can stack it much tighter in the stove and get a solid 8 hours out of a load with my relatively small stove.

I think the only stove that'll run for >24 hours is a pellet stove with a big hopper and auto-feed. However, if you lose power during a storm, you also lose your heat source!

A Napolean high country can burn over 14hrs..however it has a hufe 4.8cu ft wood box..and can take 22"+ logs


I have one..its great..it really pumps out the heat

Not a stove but a boiler...I have gotten 40 hours plus from my OWB...10 degree weather...dropped the house temp to 68, packed it full on friday evening and still had 170 degrees on Sunday afternoon.
Weather above 30 degrees I easily can get 40 hours packing it tight. Seasoned ash/oak/cherry.

Wood density and species have as much to do with how long a stove will burn as just about anything. The denser the wood, the longer it will burn--up to an extent. Even that depends upon species. White oak, hickory, and locust all have about the same desity, but locust usually does not burn quite as long in the stove. It's a fast growing hardwood tree with widely-spaced annular rings. Still, locust, when dry, is excellent firewood.

Then there's moisture content. The drier the wood, the faster it will usually burn. Moist wood, however, will choke the heat output, so that's a Mexican stalemate. The wood should always be dry as a bone to prevent as much creosote formation as possible.

Then there's the amount that the stove can hold. The more wood it can hold, coupled with greater density, the longer it will burn.

There are at least five major variables that determine length of burn, and one of them is when is the fire really dead out? Cast iron and soapstone will retain heat longer than steel, so they keep on radiating warmth even when practically no coals are burning.

Finally, we look at airtightness, secondary combustion, and stove wall thickness. All of these variables make the whole issue even more complex.

I have an OWB but it is a bit to small to heat all of my house (3000sq ft) when it is minus 35c .
It will do it but I have to fill it every 6 hours.
I have a real good 8 inch insulated stack that goes straight up about 16ft and an ok stove under it but we have been talking about pellet or grain stoves and they are good if you like paying 10 bucks a day for pellets ...
coal is also good but no good coal around here .
wood is mostly black and white popalar and dead so its also crap but I can get birch and if I get 15 cords for the OWB I would cut a cord or 2 for inside and also get those slabs .