Thanks for watching! Here's the link to the video with more info on our DIY log splitter: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qJuqjMepq9ydmX0.html

My great uncle used to stack wood on top of his stove and he called it cooking the wood for the next day. He was a world war II vet and tough as nails farmer. He lived to 91 and taught me a lot. I miss him

Creosote and tar gunking stoves and fireplaces are due to improper seasoning of the wood. Cut one year and burn it 2 years later for hard woods, one year for longleaf pines after it is split. The easy way to tell when it is seasoned enough is the bark comes off easily if not by itself. If the wood is not slit wait for the bark to be loose and for the ends to have clear large cracks radiating from the center then split it and let it season as long as possible from then. As far as beetle kill goes the only problem comes from wood recently felled. Dead stading of any kind is still wet. It will season quickly (3-4 months) if cut and split but before seasoning it is the same as dead in ground contact wet. This will make it burn poorly and crud your chimney. The other factor is beetle killed too long standing which punks. It will take very long to dry, never really seasons AND will smoke a lot or burn very fast with little heat output.

Agreed 👍, here in the UK 🇬🇧, we chop, split, stack, for 2years before using,, moisture levels below 20%, than it's good to go, 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥, thank you ☺

The best way to keep heat is definitely to first set an AIR INTAKE PIPE from outside of the house to the inside of the stove. The stove not only pulls its fire-draw sucking the hotest air around itself (the one it just went to heat) but also all the air refill comes from outside.. the cold one 🧐 Sorry for my poor English, greetings from Switzerland 🙂

Good video! I also live in Wyoming, was born here in 1960. I was raised by my G-parents. Wood heat is all we had when I was a youngster, and we didn't have a bathroom until I was about 11yo. Outhouse and a bed pot near each bed that was simply covered with a newspaper, for night time use, and they were emptied in the outhouse as needed. Cast iron tub that was filled with a garden hose from the water heater, and drain went through the wall and drained on the ground outside. Grew up with 5 adopted Indian children. I was 8 when G-pa passed away, so I and two of my Indian "brothers" supplied the wood to heat the house. We were on the river bottom so cottonwood was right out the back door. The last of my "brothers" left for college when I was 13. From then until I graduated from HS, I cut the firewood for my G-ma and I, with my G-pa's old heavy Homelite saw. Never had an accident but came close to it many times. I find it a coincidence that I also have a Blaze King Princess I bought about 15 years ago. Hands down the best stove I have ever been around. Another advantage to a catalyst stove is that the chimney does not soot as quickly. I can go longer between cleanings. I find that over time, powdery ash gets deposited behind the catalyst, but I just put a vacuum to the front of it and suck it back out. Thanks for the video!

We purchased a Canadian buit Haugh stove and it is our primary heat source with a propane fired boiler for the heating season. We live in Michigan on 45 acres of woodland in the Manitee National Forest. In the Spring I fell dead trees or blow downs and cut them into 16 to 18 inch sections, the following Spring I split and stack them in our woodshed so our wood seasons for a year and a half until we burn. Same procedure every year and for 31 years our chimney service guys say ours is the cleanest pipe of all their customers. When its single digit temps it feels great to have our 2400 sq. ft. home at 75+ degrees all day. Great vid and tips. Stay warm and dry.

I don't even own a wood stove but I still watched this. Intriguing.

I love seeing community help each other. It is the way forward. Love to you all

As a chimney sweep please season your wood at least six months before you burn it will create less creasote and heat your home better

Maybe I misunderstood,but I always cut and split firewood as soon as possible,split wood dries far faster than full length logs.

I've learned that if you live in a small town you can have a "wood splitting party". You can get about 10 cord cut, split, and stacked in a day for the cost of a keg of cheap domestic beer.

Another tip I would make: get a stove with a hotplate on the top so you can cook/heat a kettle. The gentle heat from a stove that is ticking over is great for slow cooking of soups and stews and keeping a kettle warm, and the stronger heat when the stove is burning hotter can be used to directly bake potatoes - cover the potato with an old cake tin or similar and you'll never eat a better baked potato - or heat a wok for stir fries, for example.

I'm mostly dependent on local forestry work for my wood supply. I take whatever is being cleared (at zero cost). I currently have Oak, Silver Birch, Hazel, Pine, and Black Birch. The Black Birch is a lovely wood to burn and my current favourite. It was good to see everyone come together to help your friend who needed help.

I'm in rural France so our house is built off stone. It's made a huge difference getting the external walls really well insulated, the floor and roof too. But the stone fireplace surround is fabulous as it gives a thermal mass, this gives off heat for 12hrs after a fire has gone out. We burn oak and chestnut.

There is nothing like the cozy feeling of a warm wood stove on a cold winter day. I can't wait to install our wood stove in our cabin! Thanks for the tips!

My parents got me a chainsaw for Christmas when I was 15. When my older brother left for the Navy the firewood responsibility fell on me to keep our house warm.

A business tip: start selling basic multipurpose stoves and instructions to Texans.

This fire pit is one of a few covered pits that is on the list kzfaq.infoUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM of approved products for Disney Fort Wilderness. The product served its purpose well and provided excellent fires throughout the evening. We were able to open the door and do s'mores, but I had to be careful because the handle was a bit hot on occasions. Additionally, I wish they had replaced some of the standard nuts with lock nuts in some places. We lost the door handle after just a couple of days of usage. Not a deal breaker, just a recommendation. I still give it 5 stars.

Get a flue brush and necessary length of rods for your chimney height ...AND use it as necessary. If your running a cat stove it will be infrequently...once every few years if your flue stays hot (less build up). If your at ALL unknowledgeable about flue/chimneys get an experienced person to insure it's double layer and is serviceable for wood burner use. Many older homes have a single layer of bricks, which are extremely dangerous....must have a second (not cracked) clay liner. You can also slip a stainless flue liner pipe down the old chimney to fix this. Our flexible stainless liner pipe cost as much as our top shelf stove 24 years ago .... floor demo unit Vermont Castings "cat" defiant ..$1700...liner $1700. We heat our home most years exclusively with it. ...2-3 cords of hardwoods from our farm.

Thank you, great video. Wyoming...former city slicker from Denver now living in the middle of farm land in Iowa. Once you do Wood stoves...never go back. High tomorrow is going be -3..but you know story. Thank you, stay safe and warm

When I first saw you loading all of that wood into the stove, my eyes bulged out because I’ve never heard of those types of stoves. I’ve only ever seen the more wood you add the hotter it gets based on the damper. I like the idea of that stove, minimal “baby sitting”. I’m going to look into it. Good video, Thanks for sharing!

Don’t list to the haters! It seems like you are doing everything fairly well. If your catalytic converter is staying clean and your chimney doesn’t get creosote you’re fine. I’m in the northeast and we must dry our wood for at least a year and 3 is optimal so we aren’t used to cutting and burning right away. Your wood looks dry enough. There’s nothing better than wood heat, it heats our house perfectly and is completely silent. God bless you.

I have a Blaze King Princess also. I also grew up in British Colombia where there is always lots of firewood available. A few tricks: 1) If you have wood that is not quite seasoned enough, keep a few days supply in the house (basement?) all the time. Air is dryer in winter and if you have a rack that you can put near the wood stove but far enough away that it isn't a fire hazard outside of the wood stove, it will dry quite nicely. 2) The catalyst has a warranty of seven years. I think it's worth replacing it after seven years. 3) I work for a lumber company in Canada. There is always "reject lumber" and logs that are too short to use. They put it in a huge pile. Due to environmental concerns, it is illegal for the company to burn it in the old bumble bee burners. Employees are allowed to take it for "firewood", i.e. you aren't supposed to be using damaged lumber for anything other than firewood. The logs are logs but the damaged lumber is kiln dried! Find a friend who works for a lumber company .... As an aside, with Covid 1984, I just don't trust the government anymore. I think NOT having a woodstove and depending only on gas or some other form of supplied heating is simply foolish. You might only need it once in your life, but it's there if you do. I live in rural Alberta now and once the power was out for 12 hours because the line broke somewhere. They were flying a helicopter around for hours before they found it and repaired it. That time, fortunately, it was summer but the power has been out in winter for shorter periods. The furnace won't run without electricity, even if it is a gas furnace.

The secret to firewood is having a pretty daughter.i learned this when she HAD to help me do hay,put her on the wagon,wasnt 20 minutes and young men where in a competition to impress her same goes for firewood.pretty girls have a way of attracting strong young men willing to work hard

As an Northeastern "Hardwood snob" I was schooled to only burn hardwoods. However the real answer is only burn very dry wood. The creosote comes from the moisture in the wood combining with the smoke and gumming up your stove. I now burn pine, but its been down and drying for three years in most cases. I do however burn a higher percentage of oak.

If your house is long-ish rather than boxy, put a big fan at the distant end of the house so as to push that cold air to the stove. Also get the use of a moisture meter to test your wood by splitting a few pieces to expose inside surfaces. Less than 20% moisture is good. Too much moisture % wastes energy and puts creosote in your chimney

Just retired and moved back to my small home town in northern New Brunswick (Canada) from the highly populated southern Ontario. Fewer amenities and health care is a challenge but urban living is a young persons game and kills the soul over time...imo. Lovin' your woodpile.🤣🤣

What I found is lots of fire brick in the stove. I took the one inch thick brick out and installed 3 inch thick brick with a higher heat rating. And ran it all the way to the top of the stove rather than just one layer on the bottom. This traps much more heat in the fire chamber giving a hotter and more complete burn and when the fire goes down the heat output doesn't fluctuate as much. Also I ran the air intake from the outside. By drawing cold outside air this creates a greater pressure difference which creates a much better draft and your not pulling the warm air from the house in the stove. After I did this I basically burn whatever I find on the forest floor. If it's wet nasty or green I'll just mix it in with dry. With my 900sq foot home I only use 10-12 pickup loads here in Michigan.

An old timer told me when stacking your wood, make sure the bark side is up this will keep your wood from getting saturated.

Live in Wisconsin. We live in a log home. Have a gas furnace we use for back up only. Built the home back in 1998 and bought a Soap Stone wood stove. We heated our entire home with this stove for many years. Has a nice viewing window to watch the fire. This stove heats well till it gets around -10. So we bought a outdoor wood boiler. I fill it once a day in zero or above weather. Below zero i fill it twice. Also it depends in the size of the blocks. I rarley split the wood for the boiler unless its so big i cant load them in the boiler. I burn red oak, white ,oak, elm, birch, poplar, walnut, box elder, cherry and hacklberry. In the boiler i like a mix of some green and some dry wood for best burn times. I try to only use dead or damaged trees from my farm. For my soap stone stove i only burn dry seasoned wood. I also use 2 Stirling engine fan on top of my soap stone stove to circulate the warm air. Nothing like a wood heat!!!

Yes, the old Fisher stove, made in Oregon! Still a popular stove here in OR, but mainly in the shop. Jotul in the house, Fisher in the shop is my formula for 😊. Such a good feeling looking at your woodpile and knowing that you have two years worth of "free heat". Take care!

Been heating with a Blaze King King model in MN now for over 20 years. One of the best investment I ever made. Twice the heat half the wood.

Have you tried the top down method of burning? With larger splits and a top down fire, your burn time increases a lot.

12 months/ minimum to season wood if green. I like to let my wood dry to the point it starts to check and crack on the ends. The longer you let pine sit the better it will burn. Always let the firebox heat up sufficiently before banking it up and dampening down for the night. I'm 64 now and have heated with wood all my life. Best heat.

Heating w/ my Fischer for 35 years ....great stove never gonna change

As a kid in Western PA, we had unlimited supplies of Red & While Oak and Cherry with a smattering of others. I had a Baker Woodstove with 4 ceramic pipes that ran though the firebox, a 2 speed motor was attached to the intake and it would blow super heated air out - awesome stove. Love the life you're living.

I love that you're using beetle kill. I am a Colorado native, and I know the wonderful impact you're choosing to make by helping to clear out that beetle kill. Also, thank you for the catalytic converter bit, I'd never heard of that! I grew up with wood heat, but that's a new concept to me.

Finally someone from out west explaining about the type of wood they burn! I'm from the north east and want to move out west but I want a wood stove. Didn't think it was an option until I watched your video. Thanks so much!!! So you can burn pine!!

Good vid! We’ve been burning for 17 years out here in the North East. If we replace our stove (Lopi Answer) a Blaze King will take its place. You burn what you have. Between EAB , drought and Gypsy Moth infestation We have tons of Ash and Oak die off out here. When we boil (make maple syrup ) I use pine it burns beautifully fast and hot with no creosote issues. Like you said. A seasoned wood is an absolute must!

So helpful! I've never had a wood stove before, but am planning to upgrade my smoky, inefficient fireplace with a wood stove insert. So, this advice is timely and appreciated!

I am an "efficient combustion" researcher for a proyect for the rest of my life .... I saw a video of an old time Russian earth stove with a pre combustion, very informative .... on another video I saw a long slightly horizontal mix earth/metal stove where they didn't have to chop wood at all and the long wood trunks were fed uncut with highly conbustion efficiency because of the pre burner where the secondary burner acted as a Catalitic converter .... I learned that even with green not fully dried wood the combustion for carbon wood must be 6 or 7 air to 1 of wood ratio .... I have researched learned about oil (used included) combustion for cooking and heating ... I have also understood that most wood stoves are used unknowingly to heat up the outside of commercial or residential premises ..... I have also learned about clay, stone and sand heat batteries that are more efficient than wood burning stoves for direct heating which wastes exponentially not only cash and time ..... I have also learned that foliage is wasted when this is most efficient in burning than solid wood for already being dusted when dry which ia the same method used for worldwide production of electricity with fosil charcoal which is grounded to a fine dust before feeding the furnace that feeds the water boiler that feeds double stage stram turbines that feed the electrical generators where the trick of efficiency is the dust ..... I have learned that iron dust burming is a great heat source with zero CO and CO2 producing only Iron Oxide which is recyclable .... and much more ...... Thanks X3 for sharing, your video helps lots of people like me because the world will be better with sharing individuals like you .... making a horizontal trunk feeder for any wood burning stove is rather cleverly simple which looks much like a rocket stove ... the trick is in where the air strikes the flame with multiple orifices .... I also saw a video of a house in Canada inside s glass shield where they farm even oranges, banana trees etc and all year round .... air is the best natural insulator and our atmosphere that keeps us all from freezing from the exteme cold of out of space. Well I hope we all do better things by sharing what is best... thanks again.

I have heated with wood most of my life although I did burn coal for a few years until the rising cost of coal made it not such a good deal. I use a Blaze King also and agree that they are great stoves. I got a great deal on mine used because the previous owner said it did not create enough heat. I believe their problem was not having seasoned firewood because it heats my home perfectly. I have never had any serious problems with my catalytic converter except when it gets plugged with fly ash which is easily corrected by blowing the converter out with canned air about once a year. It is important to never burn anything in the stove but wood, no trash or debris! Another thing with catalytic converters is the wood must be seasoned and dry. Wood that is wet from rain or covered in snow will kill the reaction of the converter until all the moisture is gone, delaying the heat from the stove. I use rubber roofing, cut into strips, to keep my wood dry. In moderate temps, 20-50 degrees I get 12 hour burns but in colder weather I get around an 8 hour burn to keep it toasty warm in my home. Another extremely important factor with a BlazeKing stove is making certain the door seal is sealing properly. This is easily tested by closing the door on a dollar bill and tugging on the bill in several places around the door. If the seal is working properly the bill will not slide out. The Blaze King does have a door adjustment at the door latch for easy tightening of the door seal. I just replaced my door seal this year and the replacement is straight forward and simple, just make certain you purchase the correct diameter sealing rope and use plenty of adhesive. Another important factor of Blaze King stoves is having the correct chimney configuration. When I first got my stove I tried to attach it to the masonry chimney I used with my coal stove and it did not work well. After reconfiguring the chimney to Blaze Kings specifications it has worked perfectly ever since. I don’t understand all the science behind it but it’s apparent Blaze King did their homework on chimneys!

Great vid. It's nice to see how other people do things in circumstances that are totally different to one's own. I'm from Dorset. It's small and crowded and trees everywhere. Rains a lot, especially in the winter and rarely gets significantly below freezing but will hover around freezing for weeks in the winter. That can be sodding miserable. I live in a semi bungalow on an ex-Council housing estate. Lots of neighbours really close. I heat entirely with wood I cut myself from an ancient woodland. I use hazel, a hardwood, 'cos it's what I have. I'm going to drop the following, hoping it'll help, starting from a fresh-felled living tree: 'Seasoning' just means leaving fresh-cut wood to lose its 'life water' - the water in the tissues that mediates all the life processes of the tree including respiration and photosynthesis. You can do this outside, uncovered in a typical UK summer. Conversely, if you shut fresh-felled wood in an unventilated place, you get mouldy wood. Seasoning may take a season or several seasons, a season being 1/4 of a year. Depends on how big your lumps of wood are and how wet the climate. Once life water is lost, the barriers to drying (bark and the healing of damaged cells) is broken down and the timber is free to dry out. Splitting speeds drying by breaching the barrier that the bark forms to drying - the split sections dry faster but un-split stuff will dry - only the time taken varies, longer for bigger/longer sections. A dead tree can be said to have seasoned while standing - no life water when you fell if the beetles have killed the tree. In a dry climate (or by summer's end here) standing dead wood can be pretty dry. Green hardwood is easiest split whilst green - especially noticeable if you are splitting with an axe. Splitting whilst green speeds seasoning and drying (of course). I don't bother splitting as my fuel is small diameter - it's derelict coppice, which is unusual. 'Green' means 'live' - scrape the bark back on thin-barked hardwoods and you will see chlorophyll - the cells in the underbark of a fresh-felled hardwood log will live and photosynthesize for some time, running on the life water remaining in the log until it is used up. Some hardwoods will put out shoots from spring-felled logs, or even roots when in contact with moist ground and willows can regenerate from a log or branch. Seasoning and drying both form different parts of preparation for burning - getting the wood as dry as possible so combustion is as efficient (and clean) as possible. You can prepare kindling size stuff for burning in a few weeks in a hot summer. Big butts for sawing may take years. If you have a nice dry barn with good ventilation, you can stack green logs and not worry about them 'til you need them months later. Once 'seasoned', preparation for drying can be slowed or reversed by re-wetting by rain or water in the soil - moisture content of the fuel can increase. Especially here where it rains frequently in winter and quite frequently in summer, too. Wet seasoning is a thing, but wet-seasoned wood is still wet until dried. Living here, pissing off the neighbours with a constantly-smoky wood burner would be a bad plan. Better to fly below the radar with properly prepared wood fuel so they don't notice when your burner is running. Was this any help at all?

Hi Jill😊 Thanks for the great video. Many useful tips we can use😊 here in Finland we build big stoves out of stones. It take a while worming up but when it's hot it'll keep the heat for days 🔥 cheers 🍻 🇫🇮🇺🇲

Wow! Crazy! Your husband was one of my teachers at LCCC back in 2010 and 2011. Cool to stumble across your video here. We also have a blaze king (larger model) and it works pretty darn good. I think most people ruin their catalytic converter by not realizing that it has to get hot enough before you close the bypass. Anyway tell Christian I said hello.

Just purchased a Buck Stove Model 81 today after much research. I had never heard of the catalytic converter option until I got into the middle of my research. I opted not to go with one since my heater is going to serve as my distance second source of heat. If I was looking for a primary source heavy use heater, I would probably go with a converter model. Thanks for the video!! Lots of excellent tips for a first timer like me.

The Princess from Blaze King is amazing!! Keep your wood dry, not just cured-dry. And then set back and enjoy. I loved mine. Left it when we sold our property, but will get another one. I burnt pine also. Had to clean chimney often, but never had a problem with the catalyst- ever. Only complaint I have is no ash box. I hate the dust during clean out.

There is a 30% federal tax credit on qualifying stoves up to $2K. Any wood or pellet stove with a Higher Heating Value of 75% or higher qualifies. Most require a cat to get that high. Actually, the smoke is burned 3x- main chamber, upper secondary combustion chamber then the cat. Clean the cat annually when sweeping or as needed. I use a rubber bulb syringe like those used on babies. Don't wash them or blast w/ compressed air. Get the equipment and sweep annuallly or more often as needed. Get a thermometer and learn where to place it and how to keep your stack temps up to minimize creosote formation. You need a second special thermometer to tell when the cat 'lit off''. Install per mfr. paying close attention to clearances to combustibles. Use UL listed insulated class A chimney and double walled connector inside aka "stovepipe". Get a moisture meter. Split your wood and test the heart wood. Min. 20% moisture content corrected for temperature. Woodstoves heat primarily by radiant heat, which is why fans are not usually needed. The best firewood requirements are : 20% mc and free. Can't burn pine was based upon moisture content of sap. Remove the water and you have sugar. Cellulose is just a complex carbohydrate. Softwoods burn faster so you blow through your woodpile faster. Secret: most woodstoves are designed and built in north country where they use softwoods. They test with softwoods first then use hardwoods for quality controls. The UL 1482 test is with softwood cribs. Good video. I recommend cutting your wood to length then seasoning. Wood dries lengthwise despite splitting so the shorter the faster it seasons. Check out NFPA 211 here for free to read about installing and inspecting woodstoves and fireplaces: www.nfpa.org/codes-and-standards/all-codes-and-standards/list-of-codes-and-standards/detail?code=211 Thx Jill!

I usually only have to relight my stove a few times a winter. How you light it is up to you, whatever works. Here in S.W. Ontario my woodlot provides me with ash, maple. cherry, beech and hickory. But it irks me if I'm bucking up a log that looks like it could be sawn into boards. Lifes hard desicions. Nice video!

When I was 14, we helped our neighbors and they helped us, no matter the need, if either of us was capable we helped. 38 years later, I love watching videos like this when people are still helping people and in return helping them back. Awesome video thank you for sharing with us!!!!!!!!! You help me I'll help you

High winds, low wind chills. Must be true love.

Jill😮HEAT RISES...and that is a beautiful ceiling height...the little switch above blades on unit switches to circulate air UP or down...from what I have read, in winter, have switch in position to push air down to bring back the heat, and in spring, switch the switch😊 so pulls hot air up...AND wanted to say i just discovered that fan you have on top of wood stove AND YOUR OPINION WAS FIRST ONE I HEARD...THANKS, have a good day and cozy nights!

I live in the Pacific NW where there's no shortage of firewood and I've had to heat a home strictly by the woodstove. I am always looking to get more out my fuel as well as polluting less.

Awesome. I have found the two biggest thanks are using seasoned wood as opposed to dry wood which is a big difference and the converter that is allSo based on the rocket stove concept is the difference between enjoying your woodstove or struggling with it. great post

We are using the same kind of beatle killed wood with a catalytic converter here in southwest Wyoming. We are toasty warm all the time! NEVER a problem with our CAT-CON! We love your videos! We use our wood splitting as our exercise routine. I can see that we might change that up in coming years... We are both 61. It's good to get the blood flowing...and we do it together! ❤❤❤

8:24 PNW native and current resident (SW WA) currently trying to help my parents figure out how to cost effectively heat both their home and detached garage/shop via wood stove. Single biggest issue outside of obtaining uncut log rounds is finding an appropriate place to store them in order to season the wood since it’s just so darn WET here! It blows my mind to see your firewood with snow on it…but it’s dry lol. As I’m sure you know, we don’t have dry snow here 😆

We have that fan and we LOVE it. It starts running at 80 degrees. We also have a corner doorway fan to bring the air into the back of the house.

Thank you for your video here. I've been heating our home for 30 years with a woodstove and its now time for a new stove. Your video here makes that decision easier. I burn any wood, doesn't matter to me!

AZ here! Dry pine is great for getting that stove going. Then I like to start throwing hard wood in there for a slow roll burn for sleeping. I am in love with my wood stove and intend to be buried with mine!!!

Oregon here. We use a heatalater. We're lucky all our wood is harvested on our land. Ceiling fans work best pushing the down. Love afternoons when we open windows to cool us down a little. Snow cold fresh air.

We have a Blazeking and its great, It's 15 years old & priceless

Great advice, thanks. Just saying, we had our ceiling fan on low all the time and we used far less fuel-so much heat up there! Cheers

Hi from northern, rural, snowy Japan. Agree with each of your points. Glad to hear you 'talk up' the catalytic converter. We have one on our DutchWest, and agree with you regarding efficiency. We are careful about NOT burning pine, and have not had to swap out the cat. since we installed the stove 7 years ago. "Breakdown" and detailed cleaning of the stove is done bi-annually... And she hums well all through winter! Thanks! (By the way, watch that elbow... Carrying logs that way for several years, and during the winter, day-in and day-out, has cost me major tendonitis pain, for which I've been undergoing therapy for 6 months. Best to carry fewer logs, and alternate arms and muscles, as well as doing stretching before and after... ; )

I live in VA and have tons of trees problem is some of them are pine ,thing is yours is older and blaze king has changed many things on their wood stoves . They still sell the princess but it is way different than yours . Now they have the air baffles on the top and also like you say catyltic converters , they have to be cleaned carefully or replaced . Here we get mostly white and red oak , There are pines but most won't use it except in outside wood stoves . My house is 2440 sq. ft but 2x6 stud walls with attic and basement insulation and that paid off when I had my modular house built back in 2004 . problem is here for some stupid reason we don't have wood stove stores we have only hardware stores that sell regular stoves and with no one working no products to buy . Delivery is crazy with a tractor trailer truck and my over 300 ft long up the hill drive way and we are seniors so makes it even harder . I love your real life info on your success with your stove

I've burned wood my whole life and I'm 68. I've used all kinds of wood stoves and fireplace inserts. Definitely prefer the stoves over the inserts. Those are some good tips 👍👍

As a qualified solid fuel heating engineer, best to split your wood ASAP. Ideal moisture content 17% or less, if burning just wood always leave a Ash bed in the wood burner. Light as you would any fire, gas torch is cheating. One match, newspaper ,kindling small logs to start, leave a finger width gap on the door for 5 minutes then close and control with the secondary control or as per manufacturers instructions 😀

Kudos to folks willing to live in a climate like that!

Putting in a woodstove in my new shop so thanks for the tips.

Love my stone clad Hearthstone wood stove. I’m in the NE, so we have plenty of hardwood. Thanks for your tips and ideas...one thing I noticed was the fire smudging on your glass. Using clean white ash (no burnt charcoal bits) and a rag or paper towel dipped water in to clean it works well.

The Fisher stove in your video is the exact model that I have used for the past 21 years, without any issues. As you mentioned sometimes you simply use what you have in your area. I live in Maine, so have ample choice of what type of wood I want to burn, and would never burn pine. So perhaps the balance here is that my older woodstove because I have lots of choices for different types of firewood. I also would always have my wood undercover because of snow or rain. You on the other hand may have a newer, more effiecent stove but not a lot of choice of wood. So in the end, I think we are fairly comparable. Great video, thanks for sharing!

Jill your videos are always, always worth the wait.. ♥♥♥

Sterling hot air engine powers the fan. White oak and red oak are great heat but white oak is tough splitting.

You might get by with leaving your wood in log lengths in WY with pine, but in the midwest, I can take fallen logs that have been sitting long enough to have no sapwood left (years) and still want to have them season after cutting and splitting for 4-5 mos prior to burning in my catalytic stove. Walnut, red elm and white oaks are the ones you can find in this state. All my wood short of standing dead elms is split and seasoned for at least 2 years prior to burning. I have to clean the catalyst much less and replace it less often if I can keep it fed with dry wood. Now I have a friend with a Quadrafire and he doesn't have the issues I do but his is non-catalytic.

I made my own wood stove of welded steel. Cost me about $25, probably super inefficient, but I love how it looks with the 3-ft by 18" door flung open and I built in a gravity heat exchanger, so I don't need a fan (it thermosiphons room air). It heats my 1,200 sq ft house on 3, split 8" logs a day. I burn seasoned (2 year) oak exclusively.

Thanks for the video! Beginning my stove shopping process. Just bought your book, so I'm glad to find your youtube channel. I grew up with an open fireplace and 50s/60s-era cast iron wood stove. I'm a big believer in ceiling fans for heating/cooling distribution. We run ours all the time on low, summer and winter in an older mobile home (epic inefficiency), with propane and electric heating/cooling, yet have the lowest bills of anyone we know. Air movement, by some means, is definitely worth the effort. I'm really impressed with the heat-driven fans like yours!

My father-in-law grew up on a farm in Minnesota where winters are bitter cold. He told me they grew their own poplar trees as a firewood crop in rows so they never ran out.

Good video. IMHO, wood dries many times faster AFTER it’s split and doesn’t really dry well un-split. You can see this on small unsplit rounds that spit sap in the firebox as compared to bigger split pieces. The catalytic converter probably helps with reducing creosote buildup as it burns those gases instead of them cooling and collecting in the exhaust pathway. A good hot fire also burns creosote off, or dries it and it flakes off, but burning it off can be dangerous if too much has built up as creosote burns very hot and having a hot fire in the chimney is unwanted. For me, I do hot fires often, and also let my split wood dry for over a year before burning.

I've had a Blaze King for 16 yrs...burnt nothing but fir as well as some pine...never replaced a thing in it...just sweep the chimney and stove once a year. This stove runs basically 5 months each winter with maybe one shutdown to clean the ashes out that's it...its the King model...👍

Many years ago i learnt that Pine has one the highest calorific values of any wood, (it may be the highest) kilo for kilo you get more from pine so long as you can close the stove down and secondary burn the smoke. Good advice, thank you.

I grew up in Colorado. Before my father passed away, he switched to wood heat and realized why we love it. We moved south for the Shuttle program and onto five acres. It provides all the wood we need and then some. Love it.

I see your husband started the fire with a load of wood then started the initial start at the bottom, try starting it from the top and see how that works, in Sweden they do that and it supposedly works great saving you wood as the fire burns more efficiently and doesn’t “burn out” too fast, I hope that made sense, lol.

I love your channel. We traveled thru Wyoming one winter-- it was so cold and the wind chill was unbelievable. Came from WA state. I know about the rain and wood issues in that state!!

I love that you can set that stove and forget it, we might have to look into upgrading into one of those. We also heat our house with wood (which I love because I grew up in a logging family in the PNW) but our stove definitely needs babysat. With our high winds around here we have to be careful not to fill it too full, and on cold nights we have to stoke it all night long. Thanks for the video!

well done and informative video. and dont beat yourself up on the beetle kill wood, its actually better to burn that and with it the potential for spread of the beetles than to harvest living trees and have to wait for a year or more for them to season properly for use in a reburn stove (either a cat or non cat stove) as for cats (Catalytic Combustors) the biggest danger to them is moisture, especially loading wet wood (even if its snow covered rather than just unseasoned) into a hot stove the water flashes to steam and causes what known as "thermal shock" (like melting the frost off your windshield with hot water, though not quite as dramatic) this can delaminate the cat's coating or actually cause microfracturing which will severely reduce the lifespan of a ceramic cat. NIce stove also, im a big fan of the BK line. really great job on the video folks! MIke Holton Senior Technician England's Stove Works inc.

Hey I got the same hat. My wife got the blue one and a picture with you at the 2019 homestead conference.

We had a woodstove in Idaho. We learned to only split logs to start the fire and the use unsplit logs for a long lasting fire. We had a fire in the morning, late afternoon, and night. It took 8 cords of wood per winter. It was in the basement, with vents coming up through the living room above it. We also used one box fan to push the warm air up the stairs. We had an insulated fruit room far from it on two outside walls that stayed cook. This was years ago. It heated the entire home.

You did a great job explaining all the things that matter. I'm a new wood stove user...we by grace have all hardwoods...lots of oak wilt and gypsy moths are killing the hardwood forests in mid northern Michigan... So, we have new die-off and standing burnable. I do have a moisture meter to avoid the green unseasoned wood until ready. You and your family are doing the best things and with friends to help!

Thanks! Grew up with a Blaze King, youngest brother has a Princess. AMAZING stoves

Turning the ECO fan towards the flue pipe will blow even more warm air from the stove.

Any stove is only as good as the person running it.

Catalytic converters emit other noxious gases! I learnt that from a professor who worked in the healthcare industry over 30 years ago. To reduce smoke emissions, try seasoning the wood (1-2 years minimum and store it in a dry store, then when you burn it, don’t pack the burner full of logs, and light the wood from the top first (not the bottom) that will help you burn the smoke and heat the house more efficiently.

Here in Minnesota we have a lot of birch. It slits best right after you cut it. As it dries it seems to glue itself together. I've been cutting and heating with wood for the better part of a hundred years.

We LOVE our Blaze King Princess insert, use it as our primary heat source here in Alaska, and have used it for close to 15 years now. The longest burn time has been close to 40 hours! It just depends on how full you fill the wood box and much you damper the stove down. We use soft wood too - mostly spruce and hemlock, though we do burn alder occasionally. These are great stoves!

Was surprised to see you putting cold wood straight from outside in the stove. That kills fires here in Norway. We try to get the wood inside the house minimum 24 hours beforehand to 'preheat' up to room temperature 🙂

You are right about getting a decent wood stove where you can control the air flow well. Even a little air can double your wood use.

A fuel efficient stove is important but no where near the most important factor, by far the most important factor is BUILD A WOODSHED AND KEEP YOUR FIREWOOD BONE DRY!!! Any of the Blaze company stove models are top notch, possibly the best steel box stove there is but I would put any cheap EPA stove burning pretty much any wood species up against a Blaze model stove burning a hardwood and the cheap stove burning junk wood will win if the wood is DRY and the Blaze stove's hardwood is even just 3/4 dry. Lots of people burn wood that is pretty dry, it's been dead for a couple years and it burns ok, not to bad, nothing to complain about but once you get a woodshed and start really drying your wood, you'll kick yourself for not getting one sooner. You'll use WAY less wood and get more heat. Plus, you can utilize junk wood that you discarded before because it wasn't worth the effort. With a wood shed, junk wood becomes very worthwhile.

If you have a lumber mill in the area, see if you can work a deal in getting them to deliver slab wood (scraps from the squaring off process that they cannot make 2x4's etc. out of. ). Nice thing about them is you don't have to split them.

I won a truckload of wood logs that look like a lot like your load once at work. Mostly lodgepole with larch and red fir mix. I took about 2 months and built a hydraulic bucksaw system. My kids are not home any more so I have to do my wood solo. I fill my woodshed before winter so I can enjoy the fruit of my labor. One more thing with wood heat. When we get a wind or ice storm we still have a way to cook.

We used a Blaze King for the first three years we burnt wood. ( 1981-1984. Then we got a Polar Therm in an auction that was 1499.00 and we paid 356.00 for it. The stove pipe cost use twice what the stove cost us. We have a two story farm house. We stopped burning wood for two years and sold the stove and the long splitter. In 2000 we put in a Volglezang Vermont stove. It worked pretty well but the inside of the stove's double steel warped and I stopped using it after 3 years. I bought a New Voglezang called a Ponderosa. I think I paid 1200.00 for it with the shipping.I love it It is a Non catalytic but it burns most of the gases and very little smoke come out of the stove pipe. I added a flapper to the double wall stainless steel interior 6 inch pipe that is double wall stainless steel with 2 inches of ceramic insulation in it. It's made by Spervent from Canada. I spent $750 on the pipe and the ceiling support. The stove is 5 years old and is rated at 81% efficient and is also rated at 151,000 BTU. I think it's off a little but it gets hot fast and stays hot for 8-9 hours. They say 14 hours but that is also off. Everyone likes what they own I guess. If I had to buy a new one I would get another one just like the one I have now. Thanks for the video. I am certain that a lot of folks need to see it.