Print

[intensedrive]

I remember back in the 80's in my neighborhood we all burned wood inside, just what the parents did.  It was normal, wood smoke was dense at times, yes our cloths smelled of burning wood going to school.    During this time indoor wood stoves were not near as efficient as today.  I have so many fond memories of sledding and cross country skiing and returning home as a younger child with frozen hands and feet nestling close to the wood stove.  Average weekend involved having Friends and cousins over, we all stayed close to the fire all evening enjoying food and watching VHS tapes.  Yes this might seem odd for the new generation we were required to keep the fire going and split and stack wood if we were to stay up late.  In realty after looking back, we all had our fare share of wood smoke from stoking the fire, or just being outside enjoying the winter activities.  Going forward we are all healthy with no issues.  We burned wood for so many decades to keep warm, now its bad?  Generations before used wood and seem to have no problems from wood smoke.

[slimjim]

Good thoughts, yes I as well grew up with an indoor wood stove, my neighbors had a 14 room home, the oldest in town, I think it was about 200 years old, you could see the curtains blow in the wind.
We burned a lot of wood in the 3-4 indoor stoves that they had and it was the elder children's job to keep them fed. The place burned down almost 40 years ago, not from a wood stove but a lightning strike.

[Roger2561]

Thanks for taking me down memory lane.  I remember growing up we had 2 wood burning stoves in our house; one in the kitchen and the other in the living/dining room area.  The one in the kitchen was an old Glennwood parlor stove, top load unit.  It was amazing that no smoke filled the house when put wood in it and man would that thing turn out the heat.  It had a cook top on it and once in awhile mom would cook pancakes on it.  That was a treat!  The one in the living/dining room area was a Vermont Castings, Defiant stove.  It was an end loaded unit.  Between the 2 stoves we went through 8 cord per year.  Like intensedrive, the valley always had a hue of smoke in the air.  It was a way of life.  If you burned fossil fuels you were considered elite because everyone burned wood.  Today, well that's another story.  Roger

[atvalaska]

http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=7209.msg59974#msg59974    Read my rs poem... I got lots of campfire story's...we have to tell them over a beer...they come out like Patrick McManus story's ...u have been warned !

[stratton]

Rodger, that defiant was the best stove ever made. I dont think there is a stove on the market that can match it.
Luke

[martyinmi]

We had an Ashley wood stove in the dining room.
It was the only source of heat we had.
Our kitchen was always cold, the upstairs was always freezing, the living room was just right, and the dining room was probably 90 plus degrees!
What a great childhood. Dad taught me how to run the Mac 10-10 when I was about 11 or 12. Most times he would cut and myself and my brothers would split and stack to fill our old John Deere manure spreader. We  had an endless supply of dead Elm back then. We didn't have a splitter, just mauls and wedges. Swinging an 8lb maul splitting Elm was not fun, but we all learned the value of hard work and teamwork.

[MattyNH]

I grew up with wood stoves in my parents house..In fact they have 3 of them..One of the stoves is a old kitchen stove which my 3rd great grandparents used...Wood stove heat is the best hands down..Far as wood smoke issues for the body..Never been a issue..Smoking butts is the real issue on the body

[kommandokenny]

I grew up with wood stoves in my parents house..In fact they have 3 of them..One of the stoves is a old kitchen stove which my 3rd great grandparents used...Wood stove heat is the best hands down..Far as wood smoke issues for the body..Never been a issue..Smoking butts is the real issue on the body

Smokin the hooch is a black lung in the making also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[patvetzal]

Cannot understand people who would not have wood heat because of smoke in the house. Our stoves, fireplaces, furnaces over the years have always had good drafts so any smoke, ash etc gets sucked right up the chimney.
 At night we can lay in bed and the light from the fireplace in the living room shines on our bedroom wall, about 60 feet away.

[mlappin]

Grew up with a Little John side kick in the basement and a Monarch stove in the office. Sunday afternoons Dad, Mom, myself and the little brother would cut a heaping pick up load of wood, stick your tops in the side of the bed to extend the sides up and fill it as high as the cab. If me and the little brother hurried on unloading it we could just get inside in time to watch The Wonderful World of Disney.

Little John went by the wayside years ago and still have the wood furnace in the basement that replaced it, I’ve given it away twice but nobodies been able to get it out yet. I’m gonna get ahold of a safe guy and see if his powered tracked safe mover can handle it up the stairs. I put it in the basement myself but had the pickup parked at the back door and the furnace on the gnarliest furniture cart I could lay my hands on and used a block and tackle to ease it down the basement stairs.

Don’t miss any of em being inside since going with the OWB, the wife also doesn’t miss the dry air or having to dust practically every day.

[Roger2561]

We had an Ashley wood stove in the dining room.
It was the only source of heat we had.
Our kitchen was always cold, the upstairs was always freezing, the living room was just right, and the dining room was probably 90 plus degrees!
What a great childhood. Dad taught me how to run the Mac 10-10 when I was about 11 or 12. Most times he would cut and myself and my brothers would split and stack to fill our old John Deere manure spreader. We  had an endless supply of dead Elm back then. We didn't have a splitter, just mauls and wedges. Swinging an 8lb maul splitting Elm was not fun, but we all learned the value of hard work and teamwork.

Growing up (err, getting older) between my 6 brothers and our dad, we chopped 15 cord of wood every year.  Half of it went to my uncle who told my dad that he could have all the firewood he wanted from his land as long as we chopped his winter's supply also.  All seven of us had chainsaws, mauls and wedges.  Dad would take a week off from work while us kids were out for school vacation and spend Monday through Saturday in the woods.  We didn't have a wood splitter back then, WE were the wood splitters with mauls and wedges.  We'd have 2 of us working as team; one perpendicular to other, alternating swings.  I believe elm is one of the worse trees to split whether it be with a maul and wedges or a hydraulic unit, one would have to work hard to get it split.  When my schoolmates would argue with their parents to stay up late, it was not an issue in our house, you were so dang tired you wanted to go bed.  When 6:00am arrived, you were out of bed to start another day outdoors.  Roger       

[dukethebeagle]

just being honest,but since installing my boiler the air quaity in the has been lot better.
the moisture level in the house with my indoor furnace were like 25 percent
now they stay 45-55 and we don`t wake up coughing in the morning.
woodsmoke and ash surely get into everything including ur lungs

[patvetzal]

Gotta admit, keeping the humidity up is a lot easier without all that air going out the chimney...

[schoppy]

I miss the smell of the wood burner in the house every now and then but I sure don't miss the mess. Since the Mrs. had surgery awhile back she couldn't tolerate the smell or smoke any more and the OWB has been the difference there.

I still get the smell twice a day or so but no mess in the house and still can have it as warm as I want. Nowadays the less wood I burn the better and the gasser sure helps with that. Probably shutting it down after next weekend when it is supposed to get back down in the 30's daytime and upper teens at night.

All good things come to an end.

[mlappin]

I miss the smell of the wood burner in the house every now and then but I sure don't miss the mess. Since the Mrs. had surgery awhile back she couldn't tolerate the smell or smoke any more and the OWB has been the difference there.

I still get the smell twice a day or so but no mess in the house and still can have it as warm as I want. Nowadays the less wood I burn the better and the gasser sure helps with that. Probably shutting it down after next weekend when it is supposed to get back down in the 30's daytime and upper teens at night.

All good things come to an end.

just being honest,but since installing my boiler the air quaity in the has been lot better.
the moisture level in the house with my indoor furnace were like 25 percent
now they stay 45-55 and we don`t wake up coughing in the morning.
woodsmoke and ash surely get into everything including ur lungs

Keep the house nice and moist easily now, before with the wood furnace in the basement we’d have a pot of water on every register and was still too dry. Installed a bypass humidifier in the ductwork and it helped some but was still too dry, did away with the wood furnace in the basement and that helped immensely, wife no longer woke with nose bleeds. Once it replaced the bypass with the Autoflo steam model we could keep the air whatever percentage we wanted. Did a lot of remodeling and wasn’t about to have all the new red oak trim crack or the new oak bed frame we bought ourselves.

The wife was born with congenital heart defects and from some weird plumbing she’s ended up with COPD but has never smoked a day in her life. Being able to keep the humidity at just the right level greatly helps in her breathing.