Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => RidgeWood Stoves, defunct, support only => Topic started by: fsuftball on November 21, 2014, 07:03:49 AM

Title: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: fsuftball on November 21, 2014, 07:03:49 AM
Been burning since 9-24-14 and its finally got down into low teens last night 3 degrees when i got up at 5am. the stove was on 9 hours of burn time heating my 2500 sqft house 1500 main 1000 basemenet. still have some logs in it and my house was set to 71 last night and my DHW, these stoves are great. i have 14-15 cords stacked and i sure hope that is enough. my guess is around 1 cord a month(or at least i hope). i havent burned 1 cord yet maybe 3/4 cord but its been warmer.

r-19 in the walls ( we are doing new windows siding and spray foam in the spring)

Added 10 inches to my attic so i have around r-50-5-60 in attic(this helped a ton i only had r-20 last winter.


anyways i am burning the last of my poplar with a mix of a few cherry pieces, my wife loads it during the week when i am gone we couldnt be happier with this stove and the temp of our house.

total investmenet is around 5100-5500


thanks craig.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: automan77 on November 21, 2014, 07:21:53 AM
Best investment I have made in a long time.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: free heat on November 21, 2014, 02:04:39 PM
Same here, going on my second season. I figure around a face cord per week in Wisconsin. These stoves are great work horses couldn't be happier with mine. Most days with hickory or oak I can stretch 18 hours easy heating dhw and 2800 sq ft in Wisconsin.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: golffanman on November 22, 2014, 09:25:46 AM
I'm on my second year as well. I upgraded my chimney and now it is 8 ft. Made a big difference in draft. It got us through a horrible winter last year and this year is starting out bad as well. So far my stove is running fine.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: fsuftball on November 22, 2014, 09:52:17 AM
I have an 8 foot stack as well.

What was it doing without it? You have a better burn with it?
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: jamesbodeis on November 23, 2014, 07:12:27 AM
Curious about the stack also. Did it increase your wood consumption, how much faster were your recovery times.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: Roscoe on November 24, 2014, 05:54:22 PM
Yeah, tell us about the pros and cons of extending the stack.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: golffanman on November 25, 2014, 07:06:02 AM
So far I have found no cons with the longer stack. The stove is burning completely different from last year. When the damper door opens, the fire is more intense. I'm not filling the the stove completely right now, my fire is in the center of the stove. I also noticed a more complete burn of the wood. Hope that helps. Forgot to add.....last year my stack was 4ft and was just the cheap sheet metal pipe from Menards. Now it's 8ft and it is the heavy schedule 40 from Ridgewood.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: automan77 on November 25, 2014, 08:06:21 AM
Mine seems to burn fine with my 3 ft stack. No complaints.
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: fsuftball on December 05, 2014, 12:32:00 PM
Stove wasn't heating up as fast as usual so i finally removed some ash, had a wheel barrel full out the front half of the stove(hot coals i pushed back to clean it) Brought the hot ash and wood upfront and boom temps started to rise.


its been 8 weeks since i started it up mostly poplar since its hasn't been to cold besides that one week in the single digits.

Dont forget to clean out those boilers!

just bought a new fixars 36 inch ax and i have been splitting 23 inch round ash with ease, its faster and easier than my wood splitter. did 1 cord in an  hour with splitting it small for my wife
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: automan77 on December 06, 2014, 08:17:08 AM
I'll take out a  five gallon bucket of ash every couple weeks. 
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: Roscoe on December 06, 2014, 03:11:46 PM
I added a 3ft section of chimney on my 7500. Looks just like automan77's set up. It made a huge difference in my draft. Hotter fire......faster recovery time. Highly recommended.   
Title: Re: ridgewood 6000 review so far.
Post by: jamesbodeis on December 06, 2014, 03:14:41 PM
I've got 6 feet on mine now. Much better recovery times.