Wood Cookstoves: Pros & Cons

     Have you ever considered using a wooden cook stove in your house? It heats, cooks, and makes hot water for only the price of the wood you fill it with! We love ours. With a family of this size, it sure saves on energy bills.



       Wood might be an expense for some. But for us, it only costs gas and maintenance for our chainsaw and some muscle. We visit neighboring farms for tree tops left by loggers or trees downed by storms. If you live closer to the city you might offer to clear trees for neighbors after storms. Other people visit the local sawmills for the odds and ends left over from milling, to fill their stoves.
      Wood cutting day is an exciting day  for our family. Our boys just love seeing how much wood they can pile in the truck in just a short amount of time! Stacking wood is also good for those days where they seem to have endless energy!

       Cooking is pretty straight forward as long as your cooking or baking temperatures are not too precise. Since it is running all day long,  I can leave my yogurt on the warming rack, rather than incubating it in a cooler or crockpot. It is very economical for canning too! We have also used it to dry jerky, and apples. You can even make your own apple leather on it!
        Hot water is always available since it is circulating through the stove. We use it for dishes and laundry. We even bath the little ones in a tub by the stove with it!
       But before you jump up and buy a wood cookstove, here are a few words of caution. Cook stoves, new, run between $1,500 and $4,000 on average. But the flewing can run you even more! If your stove pipe runs through a second floor or attic be prepared to pay a lot of money for triple wall stove pipe. This will keep your house from burning down if something flammable lands on the pipe. The alternatives are piping your stove right out an exterior wall or building a chimney.
     If you are a perfectionist or don't want to babysit your oven, stick with a conventional stove. The temperature in your oven depends on the temperature in your firebox. The only way to regulate your oven temperature is by cracking the oven door open when it is too hot or adding more wood to the firebox when it is not hot enough. Also the food often needs to be turned as the firebox side of the oven will be hotter and things will burn!
     Also, simple wood stoves with a water jacket on the back do not regulate water temperature. This means children should never be allowed to open the tap as the water can be scalding hot.
     Last word of caution, it can be a bummer to come home to a cold house. If we have been away for a few days and no one kept the home fires burning the house will be cold and won't improve until the fire has been going for awhile. This can be frustrating when you are tired and hungry. So plan accordingly!
      All in all, the cook stove has been a great blessing for our family and we highly recommend it!