"Oak" Stoves Vs Modern "Box" Stoves

So we know that the "Oak" stoves aren't as efficient as a base burner... But how would one stack up against a modern box stove, such as a DS, Hitzer, etc? I wouldn't mind an antique stove for the garage, and was thinking that the flexibility of an oak stove to burn wood, bitty, and anthracite may be a nice option...

Opinions?

For an open lay out, base burner would be unique & functional--in my particular house lay out--280 yr old, all broke up farm house, I wouldn't swap my 50-93

Dang FF, 280 y.o. house!!!

Yep MG, we're having a race to figure which is settlin quicker---me or the house. Me thinks the house has a good lead on me

I'd guess,then in all likeliness, earlier occupants seen many an indian from window or door.
Any other homes/buildings of that era still around in the area?

I have to get the energy up to answer this one.

freetown fred wrote:Yep MG, we're having a race to figure which is settlin quicker---me or the house. Me thinks the house has a good lead on me

Looks nice fred. Was the batten board section to the right an add-on?

Kevin

freetown fred wrote:Yep MG, we're having a race to figure which is settlin quicker---me or the house. Me thinks the house has a good lead on me

Am I seeing correctly Fred? Is that rust I see on your roof..........( just below the chimney)? The reason I ask is; That's what the metal roof on my shop looked like. Acid from Fly-ash ate holes clean through the roof. Oliver

OP, that is from the wood stoves way back--I scrubbed that with something or other & a scrub brush but the stain remained, she's good & solid:)-- The wood beast is still hooked into that chimney but only gets used a couple days during the holidays when the kids/grandkids show up. The back of the house is closed up other then that. Actually, the right/rear section is the newest addition early 1900's--mine is one of 2 original old stick farm houses left on the road--most of mine is post & beam & insulated the best I could get it due to that. Many people said I should of taken it down & buried it---I DON'T THINK SO

Sunny Boy wrote:Having an Oak stove, I'm not sure I'd want to clean creosote out of it, . . much less all the many hard to get to passageways of a base burner.

Paul

In the decades I spend burning wood in both Oak stoves and my baseburner, I never had creosote in the stove or stove passages to clean out. The precipitation of creosote happens with the flue gas temperatures drop below some threshold value. Not that I know what that value is, but is is not reached within the stove, at least not in my experience.

dj

Sunny Boy wrote: Thanks dj,

Don't know how the previous owner used it, but when I got my kitchen range, it was obvious it had seen a lot of wood "abuse". Similar to the base burners, it has indirect flues to extract the most heat out. At the farther end from the fire box, the top plates, oven top, plus all the flues around the oven and the water tank were thick with creosote. Took me hours of wire brushing and scraping to clean it. I haven't had any build up since anytime I've used it with just wood, but then, I only used wood the first few months while I was getting set to run coal. Since then I'm spoiled by how well the old girl does with coal. It only gets wood burned to start a coal fire.

I don't have my Glenwood Oak 118 set up yet. Still trying to find better grates for it. It's good to know I can burn wood in it without having it get messed up like the Sunny was.

Paul

Cook stoves are not the same. They definitely will drop the flue temperatures within the stove enough to deposit creosote with in their passages - as you obviously point out. I've spent a number of years using them also - the best method I found to avoid creosote in cook stoves was to use well seasoned wood always. Of course, coal would be preferred but back when I relied on those kinds of things in life, I couldn't afford coal to heat my house. So wood was the answer as it was "free"... Of course it's never really "free", you have to own the equipment to cut and carry the wood, whatever method chosen. The other problem with a cook stove is its really hard to get it going hot enough through all the passages to burn out any creosote that may have accumulated like you can in an upright oak or baseburner. Better to simply be vigilant with the wood being burned. By the way, if you are using a cook stove for actually cooking year 'round, then here's a little tid-bit for summer time when you don't want the heat, only the cooking - burn seasoned poplar - it will give you what you want for cooking, and doesn't throw heat...

dj