# New to wood stoves.  Just built a Barrel Stove with the Kit. Need a bit of help



## towir022 (Sep 22, 2014)

Hi all,

I am new to wood stoves and am in need of a bit of help.  I will start this thread by getting to the point and asking my questions so that those who do not want to read forever can quickly answer.  After I ask my question I will give a little background on my previous methods of heating my garage/workshop and what has led me to wanting to try the barrel stove.

So far I have built the barrel stove and put it on my patio in the backyard as you are supposed to burn them a couple times out doors in order to burn out any old smells or chemicals.  So I have now burned two fires in it out doors and I have noticed a couple problems.

1. When I open the door of the burning stove smoke billows out the front.  It is not a big deal since I am outside but if this were in my garage it would be a problem with all that smoke coming in.

2. I can get the fire going pretty good but when I shut the door and have the vent in the front all the way open and also have the damper in the flu open the fire really struggles to continue burning.  The holes in the front vent are not very large but I figure it should not need much since I hear of people using air tight stoves.

Bottom line I am confident that I am getting little to no draft like it is supposed to have.  there appears to be no suction coming in from the vent/door and going out the top pipe.  there is only one length of stove pipe on it so far and it is brand new so I can see straight down it and know it is not clogged or anything.  I have attached a picture to help you all see the stove.



Now a little history on my previous years of attempts to heat this garage.  This will be my 3rd year heating the garage.  I don't need it heated everyday or all the time.  usually just 3 nights a week so I can tinker back there.  I live in MN so in the winter it gets very cold.  Last winter we were -20 F on multiple occasions and were below Zero about a million days in a row it felt like.  My garage is concrete floor but is insulated and sheet rocked.  two years ago as winter was approaching I started really thinking that I wanted to get a heat source out there so I could comfortably hang out in the garage whenever I wanted all winter long.  I did a bunch of research and given my budget and desire to have something easy I went with one of those 23000 BTU kerosene convection heaters.

I was pretty happy with this at first as it was able to keep my garage at 70 degrees no problem even on the coldest nights.  The two major flaws were the smell/fumes and the amount of time it took to go from cold to comfortable.  if I was planning to be in the garage on any given evening I would literally have to start the thing up and let it run for a solid 4 hours before i planned to be in the garage.  It took that long to get it to room temp.  Also the smell of Kerosene was very prevalent and I did not like the idea that I was breathing it in.  I did a bunch of research and tried everything but could not get it to be odorless despite what some people said.

The next fall as winter approached I decided that I wanted something different from the kerosene heater.  I purchased a 5000 Watt 240Volt electric heater from Fleet Farm on black Friday for only 75$ which was half off the regular price.  I spent way more than that on wire and ran a 10/3 wire from my breaker box in the basement up through 2 stories in between the walls and into the attic.  Then I swam through the insulation in the attic and got the wire all the way across the house where I was able to pop it through the ceiling into the garage and into the 240 volt heater.

This electric heater actually is pretty great.  It is rated at just over 17K btu's and since it is electric it does not have the smell issues of kerosene.  The electric heater did me well last year but again it has some draw backs.  First it takes again like 4 hours or more to get the garage from freezing to room temp.  This is not surprising and was not that big of a deal as all I had to do was switch it on well in advance of my garage time and then all was well.  The biggest problem is the expense of running it on my electricity bill every month.  Last winter my electricity bill was probably 200 more than usual per month and this was only running it 2 to 3 times a week.

So alas we arrive at present day.  I have wanted to try one of these barrel stoves for a while as they are supposedly able to put out much higher Btu's than the electric or kerosene heater and therefore would heat the garage much faster.  Also my father in law does tree removal so I can obtain tons of firewood for free.  Also I just like the idea of building it myself and functionally using it.  I also like the idea that if Armageddon happens and there is no electricity or kerosene that I can still get endless amounts of wood from tons of woods around here. I am not a doomsday prepper or anything so if Armageddon happened I would still starve in the winter but at least I would be warm while starving.

Anyway and advice tips thoughts or discussion is much welcome.  Thanks for getting this far and reading my whole post.  Hope to hear from you all soon.


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## DAKSY (Sep 23, 2014)

You need more pipe to get that baby to burn right. Most wood stoves require a minimum of 14 - 15 feet.


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## Owen1508 (Sep 23, 2014)

I built one as well (double barrel)  I turned it into a smoker. Before that though i burned it like you.  Daksy is correct you need more pipe.  14' might not be possible but I found 8 foot was good for me, also keep in mind the colder it gets the stronger the draft will get.


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## towir022 (Sep 23, 2014)

OK thanks for the info.  So if I properly install stove pipe and chimney in my garage and have it go straight up through the ceiling and roof you think it should then draft properly?  Also is the lack of draft what is causing it to not be able to have the door shut without going out?


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## Owen1508 (Sep 24, 2014)

The air that comes through the slots in the door (intake) will be equal to the amount of air (flow) of the chimney.  The barrel holds X amount of air, as the chimney draws the flue gases etc. out, the air will be replenished through the air intake in the door.  That's how it suppose to work.  Also another thing I found useful is I laid some sand in the bottom of the barrel, enough so it was about 9" wide at the bottom.  Then I laid 6 standard firebrick(4.5" x 9") long ways on top of the sand (could of gotten 7 if I worked at it)  That helped with the burn and made it easier to clean out the ash.


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