If You Could Change One Thing...

[Mark N MO]

Very interesting mantel supports you have there...never seen it done that way. Did you do it so you don't have to deface the front facing masonry? Very nice stone work.

Also the Buck 91 has a GIGANTIC firebox. Isn't it like 4 cu ft? You must be able to push 24 hours with that if you wanted depending your BTU load.

House was built in 76, builder was the first owner, we are the 3rd. He crafted the supports. They are pinned into the stone. I believe the size of the 91 firebox is about that. Our usual burn times are typically 12-14 hours of usable heat. Mostly burning red/white oak and hickory. It often takes 24-36 hours for the fan to cycle off if not reloaded. Our home is 1800 sqft, with a full basement, the Buck does most of the heat work.

 

[jfowler10]

Well I will go ahead violate the rules of the thread title here as there are a few things I would change or do differently and this is from the perspective of building one last house to retire/die in:

• Centrally located chimney and hearth.
• Very large masonry mass for the hearth to act as a thermal flywheel
• A poured somewhat polished concrete hearth surface for easy cleaning.
• Textured concrete mantel with corbels
• Wood storage areas integrated into the hearth wall on the left and right side of the stove
• A good quality wood stove that is free standing and not tucked into the fireplace
• No fireplace
• An airlock room to transfer wood inside the house from outside
• Permanent wood racks with clear roofs and doors on hinges rather than plastic sheeting

Things I would do again:

• Insulated stainless steel flue liner
• Insulated outside air intake
• Preheating the intake air

Sorry for violating the rules of the thread.

Do you have a photo you could share for your ideal hearth set up?

 

[jfowler10]

I grew up with old stoves that put out tremendous heat and used tremendous wood, and did not have tremendous burn times.

Now I have a stove that will go 24 hours on a load.

If you heat only with wood and have a job that takes you out of the house for 10 hours minimum per day, this actually enables a really nice lifestyle change. No more starting fires and babysitting, no more getting up in the night to keep the fire going. You break the cycle of having the super hot load to warm up the house, followed by the creosote making low load to try to keep it warm while you're gone or asleep...

I mean, both ways heat the house, and that's the goal. But I find the BK way gives me a lot of time back, and a lot of flexibility. (I reload it fully whenever I want... on the way out, I load the stove without caring or worrying where it is in the burn cycle. I put the wood in and walk, and the thermostat sorts out the rest. I would have melted through a few stoves trying that with some of my old ones!)

It has also saved me so much aggravation in the years when I didn't have dry wood ready to go. Those of you who have ever burned a season with wood taken straight out of the woods to the stove.... imagine you have a dead standing oak that's sorta wet on the outside. Now imagine using that wood for a cold start... and then imagine throwing it into a red hot pit of coals.... you would be at that stove for hours a day lighting fires if you had to start it up from low coals 2+ times per day. Not that I am endorsing using wet wood in any stove, but I've been there!

There's also probably nothing particularly revolutionary about it for a supplemental heater in the winter. Any stove with secondary combustion (and no insulation plated on) will get the BTUs into the house. I may be kind of an edge case being a wood-only heater with nobody home to load the stove!

Which BK did you buy?

 

[SpaceBus]

I wish instead of buying a liner for my masonry chimney I had bought a second class A chimney and moved the stove entirely.

 

[webby3650]

I wish I had started burning coal years ago! Costs a little money, takes very little time, saves my back and burns for 24hrs consistently.

 

[SpaceBus]

I wish I had started burning coal years ago! Costs a little money, takes very little time, saves my back and burns for 24hrs consistently.

I wish coal fires didn't emit heavy metal and sulfuric acid, otherwise I would probably burn it as well.

 

[Das Jugghead]

Do you have a photo you could share for your ideal hearth set up?

I do not but I have the image in my mind. I will try to draw my idea and upload that.

DISCLAIMER: I flunked art class in grade school because I could not draw stick man

 

[webby3650]

I wish coal fires didn't emit heavy metal and sulfuric acid, otherwise I would probably burn it as well.

It’s anthracite, so its not as bad as bit coal. No smoke, soot, and almost never any smell. It’s still coal though..

 

[Caw]

My grandparents had a coal stove growing up and holy smokes did it make a mess. Storing and moving it plus all the unusable ash afterwards. The heat was great but far too messy for my taste. I think I enjoy the renewable aspect of wood too.

 

[webby3650]

My grandparents had a coal stove growing up and holy smokes did it make a mess. Storing and moving it plus all the unusable ash afterwards. The heat was great but far too messy for my taste. I think I enjoy the renewable aspect of wood too.

It comes in 40lb bags now. My stove has a hopper that gets filled right from the bag. Very little mess. Much less than firewood.

 

[velvetfoot]

I would've gone with a Froling wood boiler and a couple of smallish vertical storage tanks instead of a pellet boiler, which I haven't used that much. My concern at the time was getting a 1000 gallon tank through the door and situated.

 

[Caw]

It comes in 40lb bags now. My stove has a hopper that gets filled right from the bag. Very little mess. Much less than firewood.

Ah that's interesting. Yeah they didn't have that back in the day. They had a gigantic hopper in the garage that would get filled by the delivery company and we'd lug it in in buckets. Nothing like carrying open buckets of coal through the house!

They actually still have the stove in the garage. I was looking at it recently, old tall pot belly. Nice craftsmanship, it's a good looking stove, just not something I'd ever burn in good consciousness in 2021. I'd get a newer stove.

 

[jetsam]

Which BK did you buy?

I have a Princess Insert, because we wanted something we could just pull out again when it's time to sell the house.

Around here, open fireplaces raise the resale value of houses??? People have issues.

 

[Caw]

Oh yeah, here too. Open fireplaces as centerpieces in great or living rooms are huge selling points. It's gotta be a visual style thing more than anything else. Almost every house has them.

The utility company would sure love you to use it all the time though with all that extra heat you're sucking out of the house!