I bought the Kitchen Queen 550 Grand Comfort 1 1/2 years ago, with the idea of heating my home in the winter. About 8 months ago, I gutted the kitchen and rebuilt it mostly by myself, so this is now my first winter using it. I absolutely love it. Because of an idea for the wood stove placement, I started cutting wood 2 years ago. 😁. I just turned 66 and have been by myself for about 9-10 yrs now. Don’t have to be a spring chicken to try new ideas or make new goals. The stove is solid and meets my needs for heat and cooking very well. Cheers!

All the years as a young lad burning wood, i have never used or have seen anyone use a propane torch to get the draft started without smoking out the house. That my friends is worth the cost of admission,

82 Years old and now right in the middle of my first full year of heating with wood. It’s going very well. I am very warm in Central Maine. a state no one has ever heard of or been to. I use the fat stick, but I would never ever oh my goodness use a blow torch. Wow. But there’s nothing more friendlyfriendly than a friendly fire. I have a full tank of oil as a back up that I haven’t had to use at all as the winter has been rather mild so far. This is early January 2023. I also have gas for my stove, but I could cook on the stove if I were out of electricity. I have solar, which would not help if I were out of electricity, but it certainly helps with a very low bill The installation cost was not mine. I practiced with wood last year and stocked up ahead of time this year. Oak is superb- I have ash so I use more than you. My stove is set into the (old) fireplace chimney which means that I do not have to worry about a hot pipe. Nice presentation here!

I honestly didn't realize that there is such an "art" to using a wood burning stove. This was truly fascinating! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Wonderful cook and heat stove, just beautiful.

I always like reading the comments from all the experts telling you what you done wrong. LOL You just do you. Everyone has their way of doing things that works for them. Love the stove. I've been wanting a wood cook stove like yours for a long time. I will eventually get myself one. Thanks for sharing my new friend's.

Thank you for this information. Happy New Year. Take care, Mike

Very informative! I like the way you explain things.

lovely!!

Great vid

Very nice and well explained, Thanks

Thanks for informing video ,enjoy watching it.

That is a very beautiful cookstove looks like my grandmother's and that's all she had to cook on when I was a kid got very hot in the house in the summer time back then hardly anyone had air conditioning I live back in the middle of the woods been heating with wood only for 30 years it's a buck model 91 best woodstove I ever had or used you might have a little bit of a draft problem if you have problems with smoke but if you are happy with it that's all that matters love it keep on using it wood heat is good for my old bones

Im green with envy. I really like that stove set up!

Lovely house.

Great video. 👍

Thank you for the tip with the propane torch. I just started using a wood burning stove in my basement shop. I'm a bachelor so i turn the heat way down when I leave for work in the morning (and I like to sleep cool so the temperature is pretty low when i get home) I live in Ohio and our winters can be pretty harsh some years. Now I come home and light a fire which quickly heats the house up before I turn the gas furnace to normal heating. It's a small stove so i let it burn out before bed. I'm switching to a heat pump system (I have solar and an EV) so I'm almost done with paying for energy at this point. The little fire doesn't even use up the wood I cut just trimming the trees in my yard. I bought an old farm house inside a city of 2 million so thankfully my taxes are low as I'm still a 'farm'. I have a good sized garden, nearly an acre and plenty of free (wood mostly oak, maple and hickory) even a few Paw paw trees which I hear can grow in the UK!

That's a beautiful stove . I had trouble with smoke backing up when the chimney was cold , so I used to crack a window open . It made all the difference . I would move the kindling to the back also . Nice demo ,I like it .

Excellent instructional video for the kitchen queen. The paperwork that comes with this unit does not include clear instructions on the function of each lever. You explain it all clearly. Beautiful home. Thank you.

The fan is 100% electrical. the strips you mentioned are called thermocouples and when combined together they are called a thermopile. The more "strips" you have, the more electrical power you can create, If you had a really BIG thermopile, you could run you washing machine...truly.

Hello from our farm in New Hampshire. Kitchen Queen is an excellent stove. Not keen on your chimney. I'm a newspaper and kindling kind of girl with the occasional pine cone. I restored our great uncle's 1930 Home Comfort. She works like la charm. All the best ~ Diane

Thank you for sharing such a great and educational video! I suscribe to your channel 🤓

I love the floor! I would love to have a wooden floor like that

Thanks for this I researched KQ's years ago - the company changed and the design changed but this new model seems nice. A lot of armchair experts giving you criticism and/or advice and you're so kind in your responses kudos to you! One thing I think is worth note - I feel safer with an exterior chimney as opposed to one that runs through the inside of the house - however there is a trade off. An inside chimney stays much warmer because 90% of it resides within the house, stays relatively warm, and will always draft much easier. An exterior chimney is the same temperature as it is outside and requires a pre-warm, in my opinion, to get the draft started. Every chimney, and every stove, requires trial and error methods for lighting and burning. I have no criticism for your pre-warm, or your top -down fire, or modern use of available methods such as propane torch - and its true Grandma didn't use one, but realistically if she had the technology back then - perhaps she would have used one. Also - draft is affected not only by a warm chimney or a cold chimney, and bends in the pipe, but also your landscape - whether you live on a windy hill, or down in a calm valley. Humidity, temperature, and wind conditions also affect it greatly. You must experiment to see what works for you in your location. I think you've done great for your particular circumstance. There exists no one size fits all solution with burning wood.

I'm researching what it would be like to cook with a wood cook stove and your perspective was helpful!

Watched this video and learned a few things. Then looked at your ( About ) page. Ha who would have guessed you all are in West Ky where I grew up, now in Indiana because of my job but hoping to move back home soon.

Hello! I'm from southern Ohio, just came across your website. I hit the subscribe button!!!

Oi Mate great video! I need to get a stove like this for the new place.

Thanks for posting this. Been strongly considering the KQ. This helps me and it's not a sales pitch.

Nice video .. If you can pipe-in outside air to the firebox you would be able to use less wood and not use the heated air for combustion.

My grandparents had an old wood cook stove. When I was young I hated it. But now I wish I had that old stove. Didn’t know what a jem that thing was but want one now bad.

Pretty sure neither grandmas used a torch to start their stoves! :) Anyway, thanks for the video, very interesting to watch a fire in what at one time was a standard item in every house! Looking forward to some cooking videos, could be almost unlimited video material! :)

Eccelent setup Govnah sorry stupid American Joke lol I love the way you did your "clean-out" forward thinking! I Loved the video I'm now a subscriber!

We just got a kitchen queen and had our 1st fire in it$

NICE

The height of the chimney outside determines draft. You may need to add a length of pipe to get it to draft properly. You should never have to preheat the chimney. Good luck.

I always wanted one of these and when I move to the pacific northwest I will def be getting one for sure, nice job on the chimney too. Smart to incorporate a clean out for easy cleaning

I worked wood heaters for 60 years, never had one that smoked out like yours, curious about the condition of the chimney flu if it is not drawing properly. I always used the smaller bits and fat lighter wood on bottom and larger on top, that worked best for me.

if I hadn't watched this video of yours, I wouldn't know how to light a stove, although I've been lighting my fireplace for 30 years...ha ha ha

I want to install one of these in my house.

I have used a wood cook stove 30 years. It seems to me that you're draft is being slowed down by all the bends and angles. You are probably aware of that it, it looks and works good. Way to go!

How do you handle and smoke starts pouring into the house? Weather through the top burner plates or through the seals in the door?

I want one

Hi , been researching numerous wood cook stoves , and keep coming back to look at the kitchen Queen . Only two holes in the cook surface i see , i wonder if cleaning the ash build-up on top of the oven has to be done blindly & if one can get a vacuum hose in there to do it . Been cleaning them for years , where the tops lift off , the ash clean-up is easy , and Good , with a scrapper and vacuum . Other than that , i've heard its well built , and i think i like it . If your doing another vid. show us the back if you can & about the water res. Thanks C.

If it's colder outside open a window or a door before lighting, same effect but you save your propane

take a look at the top down fire method, its designed in mind to warm the flue and has been used in scandanavia etc for centuries.

Appreciate the insight...I have a wood stove at home and you really need to get the basics down or you will start to panic if you don't know what to do.

Also - can you give me information about the hearth pad it is on - is it similar to the steel you use for the heat shield?

Thank you for the video. I thought we had to keep the damper open a tad bit, but no??

Excellent stuff bro, have you considered video of preparing coffee Ect

Where do you find a piece of steel that nice for the heat shield you attached to the wall?

What a performance. Something wrong with your chimney design if it doesn't draw properly. Or a really crappy stove

Is that creosote coming from the bottom of the clean-out door on the chimney?

What a beautiful and masterfully designed/fabricated stove. The US EPA will surely try to eliminate this "freedom machine."

That's awesome stove sir. If you don't minded me asking how much wood do you burn during a normal day of cooking and such?

That's a lot of work to prep a stove. Love the idea of cooking on a wood stove though

If You've got the torch isn't the "fat" wood rather redundant. Just aim the torch at the bottom of the pile and let her eat. That's what I do.

these types of stove fans generate electricity via thermocouples using the seebeck effect. space probes like the nasa voyager and cassini use a chunk of radioactive plutonium as a heat source to generate electricity in the same way.

LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE GOOD STOVE A FAR CRY FROM THE FIRST COOK STOVES THE OLD TIMERS IN FARMING COUNTRY WOULD USE CORN COBS ANS SOMETIMES A LITTLE COAL OIL AND MY AUNT HAD HOME COMFORT AND SHE WQOULD FIRE IT UP AT LEAST 3 TIMES A DAY IVAN FROM ILLINOIS.

Where did you get the fan, and what brand is it? Did you get it from the manufacturer that made the stove?

They should pay you to be the kitchen queen king

you could use your chimney heat for warming water...

How often do you replace that propane bottle?

If your using a blowtorch do you really need kindeling and fatwood?

Here in the United States 🇺🇸 if you have an older wood/cooking stoves included and don’t have a “Underwriters Laboratory” seal on it and your house or garage burns down your insurance company might not insure it won’t get reimbursed. Older stoves need to be taken apart and new gaskets and sealed well. I have done a few older wood stoves and I formed customers of this insurance problem. Thanks for the video.

my biggest mistake when we built was putting in a fireplace instead of the plain woodstove - love the old style cookstyle woodstoves

Did I understand correctly that you closed the flue once you established the fire? If so, where does the smoke go if it cannot leave thru the chimney?

I like the idea of the propane torch to warm the flu. I'm going to try that. I use the 'small fire first' method but you do get smoke some times. One thing I do that works for me - is once the flu is warm and I light the main fire, (the point where you light your fat stick) I close the door but leave it open an inch. That creates a sort of super draw effect and I find I don't get any smoke coming in to the room and the fire catches quickly. Just thought I'd share that. I'll do a video on it some time this year. Wranglestar did a good video on this and 8m in is where he talks about the door. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ec17dqWf3dOXmZs.html&ab_channel=Wranglerstar

Put your kindling toward the back near the opening and smoke won't come back on you.

... never knew Bruce Willis had a wood stove...

Can't believe you made a documentary out of lighting a fire.

How was that floor done? I love it

have you tried cracking a window before and during starting the fire to see if that helps the draw?..And make sure no bathroom vents, dryers or range exhausts fans are running

Somedays it’s hard to get a good draft

Looks like your chimney is mostly outside, which I think is your main problem of getting a draft started.

Me and my husband are building a 726 square foot home would a wood cook stove be too big to put in?

Stufa bellissima, ma serve tutto questo per fare un bel fuoco 🔥? Ora vedo solo un fuocherello.

Is your Kitchen Queen the 550 or the 870? ~Thanks, Diane

I HAVE TWO WOOD STOVES CHIMNEY GOES STAIGHT UP NO DRAFT PROBLEM NO PREHEATING WONT USE BENDS

I'm sure you realize you'd get a better draft without the angle pipe. having it go straight up for at least 6 feet before any bends would be recommended.

How much is it? Pl

At first I thought this homestead were in Britain. Nice british english is always a delight these days. Well done!

How many times dose he say flue ?

at 5:02, you can hear his stomach churning loudly.

you forgot to mention smoke 😊😊

Around 16 minutes you close the flue?! Where is the smoke going?

Lots of paper to get the pipe hot fast is what is needed not a gas torch

my grandma could have had breakfast cooked by the time you got done screwing around

If you close the door, not all the way, you will create a natural draft until the fire starts...

The fat stick you used , we call it fat lighter in Georgia USA.

Are you an Ozzie living in the US?

The angle of the flue is the problem.

Crack a window open to get a draft going when you first start the stove

I never heard of anyone doing bacon in the oven???

I would close the stove door after fat wood is lit & not having full house of smoke.

Why did you angel your pipe. That would drive me crazy.

radius vs circumference is haard.

You sir have a lot of smoke coming from there into your house

Yes there is a technique to lighting a wood cook stove unfortunately this video did not show it. If you knew anything about fire you would not put your kindling above the logs. That silliness with preheating is just that. Kindling and paper if you want to use paper goes on the bottom and the wood gets larger as you go up. If your stove smokes when you first light it you have the draft set wrong or possibly too short a chimney or too small a diameter pipe.

There's nothing wrong with the stove. He simply needed to close the door sooner. If I was using that stove I would not find that amount of smoke in the house acceptable at all. He needs to stop trying to heat the flu with the torch, just lite the wood and close the door 95%. It will draw air through the door and very quickly establish a draft up the chimney. You can buy helper fans that push air through a chimney as an aftermarket add-on. But looking at his chimney arrangement, tells me he shouldn't have any problems. Also the amount of smoke that was released from the firebox is completely avoidable. Lite the fatwood, close the door 95%. Just leave the main door open a very small crack. I have allergies and asthma, but I burn wood in my house continuously through the winter. I cannot have smoke escaping into the room, as it will make me sick. But, I understanding the way a draft works, and never keeping the main door open any longer than it has to be... You can basically eliminate any smoke in the house. Another great way to do it is to put a piece of balledup newspaper in the back close to the chimney hole. Once you lite the fat wood, you lite the newspaper and close the door quickly. The entire fire will light immediately and you won't get any smoke in the house. Another excellent option for starting a fire is to use fire logs. Yes I mean the weird logs that they sell in hardware stores made out of wood chips and paraffin. The secret is, to take a sharp knife and cut the log into slices in your basement. When you need to start a fire you place one of those slices underneath all the rest of the wood and light it with the torch. It will burn for about 30 minutes and it will completely light the rest of the fire with a very strong continuous flame. This is a great trick and it allows you to start a fire without the expensive fat wood, that costs an arm and a leg.