I heat my 1800 sq. foot home with a barrel stove

by Dwayne
(drums,pa. U.S.A.)

No story... lol it works better than a cast iron stove I had. I clean the chimney and pipe every 3 weeks.

It does eat wood too;we get about a 10 hour burn from about 6 30'' logs@10'' round, oak or wild cherry, average temperature is around 30 degs.

Hi Dwayne, that looks like a very neat set up with the double drum arrangement - they can work well for getting extra heat out of the flue gases.

I'm concerned that you need to clean the flue every 3 weeks - that sounds like you have major creosote build up problems, so something in the way you are operating your setup isn't working well. It also sounds like you are burning in 10 hours what we burn in 48 or so!

• How much soot do you find when you clean your system out?


• Is your firewood properly seasoned - "green" wood burns at a much cooler temperature and the moisture causes partial combustion and encourages condensation on the pipes as it cools. For reference, we intend to leave our oak for 2 years cut, split and stacked, before trying to burn it.


• Are your flue gases clean - if you look at the chimney do you see a white cloud of steam or a dark cloud of soot and unburnt gases? - if it is the latter you might need more secondary air in your upper barrel and/or drier wood