Tulikivi cookstoves?

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I have been looking for a good wood fired bakeoven/cookstove. I will also have a gas cook stove but I want a stove that I can use to help heat in the winter. Do any of you have a Tulikvi cookstove? Does the price say how good they really are? The one I am looking at is around $7,000. Does this seem TOO high of a price for a good stove? What is your opinion of them? Any other brands out there that you have experince with? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks Debbie

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), November 09, 2000

Answers

Deb! Check out Knox Stove Works in Knoxville, Tn. They make a real nice woodfired cooking range and the price is a WHOLE lot less than $7000! They advertise in the Countryside Magazine. Probably have a website too. Matt. 24:44

-- hootgibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), November 09, 2000.

I don't recognize the name, but unless you have an extra '0' in that price tag it either comes with the cook included or is a masonry heater/stove. Unless you live in an area where it gets very cold and stays that way for long periods of time (think Finn land or Siberia where the stoves originated) then you may not want a masonry stove. They take forever to heat up and forever to cook down. Thus the fire you build to take the chill of some fall mornig has you roasted out of the house at lunchtime.

If you want a good, usable wood cookstove I recomend hunting for a used one. I paid $100 for mine at an auction, but a week later two went for about $50 each that were in better shape. I've seen them go at auctions for as high as $400 for a fancy one, but that's still a lot cheaper than new.

Lehmans (www.lehmans.com) has functional ones for $850 and very fancy ones for $3400.

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), November 10, 2000.


I have had many different cookstove, old and new. the best one I have owned was a Waterford/Stanley which I bought from Lehman's 7 years ago. When I left the north east I had an auction, at the time I had 16 wood heaters and cookstove, 3 of the ranges sold for $10/$25 & $45. ea. but that was 6 years ago, still the old ones are out there.

Wood cookstoves are not made for heating, but for cooking, they require constant attention and stoking, few will hold a fire over night unlsee you use coal and then they take more fooling around then a wood or coal heater.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.netr), November 10, 2000.


I researched Tulikivi, and if money were not important, I'd certainly get one. Their stoves are custom-designed. The only thing is, unless you are in the mountains where it gets at least a little cold, these stoves would probably produce too much heat.

Knox Stove Works makes a good product, but it will not produce enough heat to warm a house, as they are designed to use a very small amount of fuel to heat the stove efficiently. Most people here use them from the first cool days of fall until it warms up in spring. These stoves are also inexpensive compared to other new stoves.

-- Teresa in TN (otgonz@bellsouth.net), November 10, 2000.


Hendo is right about most wood cookstoves, as their fireboxes are tiny and old stoves aren't usually airtight. Though I would think that the mass (mine weighs probably three hundred pounds) would hold heat for a little while after the fire went out. However, the Pioneer Maid, which Lehman's sells, has a larger firebox, and is supposed to double as a heating stove. There used to be another wood cook stove that was a good heater, I can't remember the name of it and don't know if it is still made, but it was a rather odd-looking thing -- like two boxes joined together at the corner (hope you can viualize that!!). Either one of those would be a LOT less expensive than a tulikivi stove. Also, you can get plans for masonry heaters with a cooktop and oven, and have a local mason build it, perhaps with you helping, for quite a bit less than the tulikive, but they are expensive even if you build them yourselves, and need a good foundation. Have you looked on the internet for masonry stoves? There is a lot of good information, and some books you can buy, or try to get via interlibrary loan. I want a masonry stove eventually, with a cooktop, oven, and rumford fireplace with cooking cranes built in -- so we can use all our three-legged cast iron cookware! (Without having to fight off the mosquitos and black flies outside!!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 10, 2000.


We just sold our mealmaster woodcook stove. It warmed our small house, but since it wasn't airtight two hours was as long as it would burn without adding more wood. We bought a baker's choice stove from Lehman's. It was $850.00 plus shipping. Since it is airtight, it will have hot coals left when we get up in the morning. The firebox is bigger than most woodcook stoves. It heats our house exceptionally well. Keep in mind our house is small. I haven't baked a lot in it, but what I have baked seemed to do well. The heat was more even than the mealmaster. When you get used to one stove it takes a few days to get the hang of another one. We are pleased with the baker's choice. I hope this helps you.

-- Lena(NC) (breezex4@go.com), November 10, 2000.

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