RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,754
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
Got a QuadraFire 4300 steptop installed last spring, and started using it in October to heat the house. First wood stove ever for me, and so far it's really working out well. The back and sides have shields and I can touch them even when the fire is roaring, but I can't comfortably keep my hand there. The stove has a blower on a thermostat, and will heat the 40'x40' great room it sits in to well over 80F if I don't take care to throttle it back once the blower kicks in. The winter here has been pretty mild so far, not even getting into the 20s yet, and a fire first thing in the morning has been enough to keep the place warm all day. Once in a while I'll stoke it again in the evening, but I need to be careful about using too much wood because it'll drive me right out of the room. :laughing: A big ceiling fan there and small floor fans in the office and master bedroom door frames help move the heat into the rest of the house. I haven't used any propane for heating at all so far, and am just at the end of the first cord of oak.
All the wood was stacked on pallets as it was split last summer, and the fork attachment on the tractor has been working well to move it into the garage. No sign of mice in the house yet, probably due to the DeCon baits I've been keeping in the stacks and garage. The only hitch hikers I've seen so far have been little brown crickets, and they've been easy to catch and put back outside. It's been very convenient to have a pallet under roof and close by, and the wood dolly makes moving wood inside the house pretty painless. So far the Harbor Freight camo tarp on the outside stack has been holding up, though leaks have formed in the low spots for drainage. An old Knaack box has kept the kindling chips perfectly dry, and a log chain wrapped around the wheels has prevented it from moving during windy storms.
The "top down" method has been used for starting pretty much from the beginning. It's neat to watch how a quick flick with the lighter spreads quickly from a single point through the newspaper knots to the splitter chips I saved for kindling, then down into the splits and limb wood. Maybe ten minutes to fully engulf the whole load, and good heat pouring out the vents even before that.
I picked up a set of fireplace tools from a Craig's List ad, and they've been all that's needed to tend the fire. Haven't had much need for the poker as the stove seems to burn down to ash without any help, but the pusher has been useful for moving ash to the back and dragging hot coals to the front when there are enough of them to kindle the next load of wood. I seem to knock a fair amount of bark and dust off the wood when loading the stove, so the little shovel and broom have come in handy for cleaning up the mess, letting me keep running the vacuum cleaner down to a weekly chore.
Cleaning out the ashes has been pretty easy as well. I haven't bothered with the built in ash trap and box. Instead I snagged an ash box off Amazon and usually all it takes is one filling to pick up all the ashes:thumbsup:. The lid keeps the dust inside the stove and keeps the ash in the box on the way out to the campfire pit where they get dumped. That's just a few steps outside the patio door, and in the rain I don't get wet enough to bother with a coat or umbrella when making the trip.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004X9NTS4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
When the safety interlocks knocked out the propane stove during a power outage, I used the stove top to soft boil some eggs and heat water for tea at breakfast time.:licking: I was surprised how quickly the water got hot; not much longer than on the range. The electricity was back on before dinner, but there wouldn't have been any problems whipping something up on the wood stove and it would have been a whole lot more convenient than digging out the old Coleman. All I need is an old cast iron Dutch oven and I'd be all set for Armageddon.
I've been warmer this winter than any previous,:cool2: and that doesn't even count any of the cutting, bucking, splitting, and stacking
My only regret is that I waited so long to start heating with wood!:thumbsup::2cents:
All the wood was stacked on pallets as it was split last summer, and the fork attachment on the tractor has been working well to move it into the garage. No sign of mice in the house yet, probably due to the DeCon baits I've been keeping in the stacks and garage. The only hitch hikers I've seen so far have been little brown crickets, and they've been easy to catch and put back outside. It's been very convenient to have a pallet under roof and close by, and the wood dolly makes moving wood inside the house pretty painless. So far the Harbor Freight camo tarp on the outside stack has been holding up, though leaks have formed in the low spots for drainage. An old Knaack box has kept the kindling chips perfectly dry, and a log chain wrapped around the wheels has prevented it from moving during windy storms.
The "top down" method has been used for starting pretty much from the beginning. It's neat to watch how a quick flick with the lighter spreads quickly from a single point through the newspaper knots to the splitter chips I saved for kindling, then down into the splits and limb wood. Maybe ten minutes to fully engulf the whole load, and good heat pouring out the vents even before that.
I picked up a set of fireplace tools from a Craig's List ad, and they've been all that's needed to tend the fire. Haven't had much need for the poker as the stove seems to burn down to ash without any help, but the pusher has been useful for moving ash to the back and dragging hot coals to the front when there are enough of them to kindle the next load of wood. I seem to knock a fair amount of bark and dust off the wood when loading the stove, so the little shovel and broom have come in handy for cleaning up the mess, letting me keep running the vacuum cleaner down to a weekly chore.
Cleaning out the ashes has been pretty easy as well. I haven't bothered with the built in ash trap and box. Instead I snagged an ash box off Amazon and usually all it takes is one filling to pick up all the ashes:thumbsup:. The lid keeps the dust inside the stove and keeps the ash in the box on the way out to the campfire pit where they get dumped. That's just a few steps outside the patio door, and in the rain I don't get wet enough to bother with a coat or umbrella when making the trip.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004X9NTS4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
When the safety interlocks knocked out the propane stove during a power outage, I used the stove top to soft boil some eggs and heat water for tea at breakfast time.:licking: I was surprised how quickly the water got hot; not much longer than on the range. The electricity was back on before dinner, but there wouldn't have been any problems whipping something up on the wood stove and it would have been a whole lot more convenient than digging out the old Coleman. All I need is an old cast iron Dutch oven and I'd be all set for Armageddon.
I've been warmer this winter than any previous,:cool2: and that doesn't even count any of the cutting, bucking, splitting, and stacking
My only regret is that I waited so long to start heating with wood!:thumbsup::2cents: