Am I the only one that uses the real small wood?

[Dennis_Peacock]

We burn every size in our stove. We even save the chips and splintered pieces in trashcans to use as fire starter. We do our best to not waste anything if we can help it. We even use the ashes to feed garden and flower beds when necessary.

 

[gink595]

I want a whole tree burning stove just drop it in and burn the
whole tree! Brush rakings stumps logs and all lol

How cool would that be. No more pissing around bucking just felling, which I think is the funniest part anyhoo! I don't take the smaller stuff as much any more I need it there to grab with the grapple bucket or I'm cleaning tops by hand again.

 

[czeigler]

I use everything, I cut up the twigs and fill a drum in the garage for starters. I once bought a cord of wood from the Amish where nothing was over 3" it burnt fast and hot, was only $85 a cord.

Heck, I sell oak, split and seasoned for a $100 per cord as long as they come pick it up.

 

[fletcher0780]

I too like using the smaller stuff, especially in my hearthstone that only has a front door. I split my wood for that stove very small so I can pack it full, nice and dense. It seems to burn longer stuffed full of small wood, than with only a couple big pieces.

 

[Wismer]

I want a whole tree burning stove just drop it in and burn the
whole tree! Brush rakings stumps logs and all lol

Rope, I have seen a stove this that before. It was in a newspaper i get called "Farmshow"... i think... its all things farmers have invented. One guy used what looked like a big seatainer or huge dumpster as his stove, he drove his skidsteer or dumptruck up a huge ramp up to the top of it and dumped a tri-axle load of any wood that would burn. So he could burn almost whole trees, stumps etc.

He heated four huge greenhouses + house and stuff off it... it was a great example of what you can do if you put your mind to it.

 

[lwalper]

fletcher,

How do you like like your Hearthstone stove? Mine seems to burn real well. I've got a Mansfield that seems to hold a fire about 8 hours - then it's still hot enough to just throw some small stuff in to resurrect the fire. Rarely have to go all the way back to paper. Probably light from scratch a dozen times a year -- spring and fall primarily when the weather is warm and fair for a few days between cold snaps.

To stay on topic -- I usually cut down to whatever I can easily haul off by hand -- about an inch or so. Everything gets split - even the small stuff. It dries better and can practically be lit with a match.

 

[fletcher0780]

lwalper,

I've got Hearthstones "hybrid" stove the Phoenix, it has a cast front and stone top and sides. It' provides excellent even heat and never went out from mid-November until the end of March. I also have an efel which is easier to load and holds more wood, but doesn't self regulate as well as the Hearthstone and burns more wood. I'm installing an OWB this year so the two indoor stoves probably won't see a lot of use in the future, but they are nice looking pieces of furniture

 

[lwalper]

I like the stove, but I really got burned by the dealer/manufacturer. Over the years I've used cast iron (Vermont Castings), box stoves (King, Ashley) and plate steel (Birmingham steel) stoves which are, what I now believe to be, realistically rated as far as their heat output goes.

The local (Cookeville, TN) Hearthstone dealer (Custom Fireplaces and More) convinced me, against my better judgment, that the Tribute stove would provide all the heat I'd need -- rated at 36,000 BTU/h. The last Vermont Castings stove I'd used, a Vigilant, was similarly rated and really put out the heat -- enough to warm nearly 1,600 sq. ft. here in middle Tennessee.

So, I installed the Tribute, burned about 6 or 8 fires and rapidly discovered that a 10k BTU kerosene burner made more heat than that Hearthstone Tribute stove. The advertising also states that it will take a 16" log -- well maybe, if it's only about 2" diameter, wedged in sideways. The stove's only got about a 12" door so getting more than a few 12" sticks in is practically impossible.

I naturally went back to the local Cookeville dealer with my concerns about the seriously overated heat output of the little Hearthstone Tribute. They were very nice about it and said I could bring the Tribute stove back (as a used stove) and they would give me $1000 credit toward a larger one, though they didn't advise the tradeup.

I then installed a Hearthstone Mansfield soapstone stove (which the dealer swore would cook me out of my house) and which now heats my home very comfortably. The Mansfield, conservatively rated, probably compares favorably to something rated more realistically in the 35-40,000 BTU range. The advertised 21" log length, like the advertised 16" log length of the Hearthstone Tribute stove, is also a pie-in-the-sky wish. Sure, you can get a couple of 21" sticks in there, but don't plan on stuffing the firebox full of 21" logs -- 18" is all she'll readily take.

That little "experiment" in wood stove heating cost me about $100 per fire. Needless to say, I was quite unhappy with the local Hearthstone soapstone dealer, though I do understand all they have to go by is the outrageously overrated literature from the manufacturer. I wrote to the manufacturer hoping for refund to the dealer (and hence to me) for the loss I had suffered—got no satisfaction. They stood by their 80,000 BTU rating for the Hearthstone Mansfield soapstone stove (and 36,000 BTU Hearthstone Tribute rating) and gave me no hope of recouping my $800. I guess that old saying "buyer beware" is really true.

As it is right now I really enjoy the Mansfield soapstone stove, but wish the manufacturer and dealer had been more honest in the deal.

Would I buy another Hearthstone soapstone stove? Probably. It's a great stove. The thermal mass provides nice, even heat. Just be aware of what you're buying the first time around—and cut the advertised rated BTU output in about half.

PS: Just did a little math -
80,000 BTU/h * 10 hr burn time = 800,000 BTU's
wood heat value = 7,000 BTU/lb (at 20% moisture content)
Required wood load = 114.28 lbs

Don't think I can get quite that much in My Mansfield.

 

[max2cam]

I cut up branches and even have a gas-saving method of doing it.

After I drop the tree I take my Fiskars branch lopper and snip all the smaller limbs into stove size lengths. Only takes a few minutes and leaves very little waste to clean up plus is GAS FREE!

 

[logbutcher]

Not to worry Marc, real wood burners who harvest their own wood and cut for $$$ burn most of the tree. It does depend on the tree:the rare oaks or ash I'll take down to 1/2" dia for the stoves; red/soft maple and paper birch down to about 2". The slash gets cut up and left to produce babies.
It's a long long spring here. Wouldn't have it any other way....like Florida