Cooking stoves

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My husband and I are just starting our journey towards a more 'self-reliant' life. We already, for years, have implemented changes in our life towards this, but are looking towards taking bigger steps now.

My question is concerning getting away from being so dependent on electric. We currently heat with fuel oil and have electric water heater and stove, etc. We are looking to (this summer) buying a wood stove to heat our house. Thinking that maybe we can 'kill to birds with one stone' here, we were wondering about the possibility of just buying a wood cooking stove (possibly a Pioneer Maid) to heat the house AND be able to cook/bake on as well. There are pros and cons to that thought though (aren't there always!)

First, our kitchen is at one end of the house, and the staircase to the upstairs is at the opposite end. The upstairs, at this point and time, does not have vents from the furnace heat. Obviously, we want to heat the whole house. Also, I'm not really thrilled about the thoughts of roasting in the kitchen this summer while cooking with a woodstove.:-) If we go with just a heating (wood) stove, we could put it in another room (other than the kitchen), and it would heat the whole house. Then, for cooking, we could just convert to a gas (propane) stove.

Last night, we were doing some 'surfing' and came across some stoves (older) than you can use gas AND/OR wood (from the 1920's-30's). Of course, they are expensive. We want to be good stewards of our funds.

Also, another thought is that we could buy the wood cook stove, put it in our basement, cut a hole directly above it (which would be the living room upstairs) and then another in the ceiling of the living room to heat the upstairs. Would a cook stove put out enough heat to do that?

Years ago, we had a wood heating stove in another house, and really enjoyed that heat so much more than others. However, that house was much smaller than where we live now, so we're not sure of the heating ability.

Any and ALL help to these new subscribers would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Tracey

-- Tracey Sullinger (foralltimes@hotmail.com), December 21, 2000

Answers

On the cooking end of the house we really like the AGA. I think homesteader should really place a lot of thought into these. After all they perform 10 essential functions all at once. Even have nine classic colors available.

For whole house heating I would seriously consider hydro-radiant heating, if building from scratch. Other than that check into a hybird oil/wood heat or gas/wood heat.

My son has forced air wood furnace and a force air gas furnace. wishing now he had put in the radiant heat hydro systems.

The AGA has a web site and a 1 800 633 9200 number.

-- Dan (triquest@about.com), December 21, 2000.


I have a lot of neighbors that use the Pioneer Maid, and it heats their whole house MOST of the time. They tend to place them in a central room and just turn that into their winter kitchen.(a temp. table next to it is all you really need) They bake etc. just like with a regular stove. They have also got another stove, kerosene or wood out on a summer porch for a summer kitchen and do the same thing. diane in michigan

-- Diane Green (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 21, 2000.

I currently have a wood cook stove. My first bit of advice would be to make sure which ever cook stove you get make sure it has the adjustment so that you have air circulating around the oven. Mine doesn't so I have to turn stuff towards the warm side of the oven a lot while cooking. As far as heating the whole house why not get a wood cook stove and put in the kitchen and a smaller heating wood stove for the other end of the house. That is what we intend to do.

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), December 21, 2000.

Dear tracey....We have exactly the same set up as you the kitchen is in a 75 year old addition to our150 year old farmhouse.We heated with propane at 800 amonth for a yeart and then put in the stoves,a consolidated dutchwest stove in the living room,and a pioneer maid in the kitchen.I can't say enough about the maid .She is the heart of our home.The fire we start in october (unless we are out for more than 18 hrs.) is the same fire that goes out in march.The heat is consistent and anyone can run it simply.Three of our neighbors have bought one after seeing ours.My oven fits 8 loaves of bread.It does take some getting used too,..I mean adjusting to wood cooking.I put my turkey in at 600 degrees once.The advertisements say you can just open the damper in the morning and have instant heat for boiling water etc.And I have found that to be true.We did buy the reservoir and unless you were going to use it constantly i wouldn't bother it must be kept full at all timesI have a three burner stove that I use for canning etc on a table for summer and we barbQI have no answers for the summer thing,I have amish friends who use it even to pressure can...I can't imagine!!!!happy holy days...teri

-- teri (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), December 22, 2000.

With our stove it is hard to do 2 things at once - heat the house and cook dinner. I usually ccook on the gas stove and then leave it on the wood stove to simmer. I also put my pot of water for the pasta on the woodstove so it just takes a few seconds to boil on the gas stove. Our stove is cool!! It is attached to 7 radiaters to heat the various rooms in the house and is also attached to a 70 liter water boiler.

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), December 23, 2000.


Good info above. I would just like to add that you can do a lot of cooking in winter on a heating stove if you have one with a flat top and no shell over the top (two layers). With a little practice you can even cook things that you would normally put in the oven - bread, cakes, etc. For example, here's the technique for cornbread or cake: Use a cast iron skillet with any kind of lid. Pour in batter and put on lid. Check occasionally until you see that the batter does not look wet on top. (Also use your nose to tell if it's scorching.) Turn with a spatula, tilting the pan to make it easier. It should be well- browned on the first side & mostly done throughout. Leave the lid off & cook for a few minutes more. If the stove is really HOT, you may need to use some kind of trivet.

-- Sam in W.Va. (turnip55a@yahoo.com), December 24, 2000.

I have a 1925 Sears wood stove that we bought for my birthday at a flea market from a junk man! That stove is wonderful, but will not heat our entire house, so connected to it by way of an L shaped flue is out central heating unit (a plain box type wood heater). In the winter, the wood heater runs all the time and I cook on the wood stove when I have the time. When you buy a wood cooking stove make sure that all the parts work. If it is a used stove, take a flashlight and check the interior as well as the exterior as some we saw looked great on the outside but were rusted out around the firebox on the inside. Also try to make sure all the eyes on the top of the stove fit well. One of mine doesn't fit as well as the others and sometimes it gets a little smokey in the kitchen if I don't control the damper. I love my cook stove, but in the south, in the summer I use an electric stove to eliminate the heat factor. One of these days I will have an outside porch that I can move a wood stove to for summer cooking. Good luck!

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), December 24, 2000.

Good ideas on stoves there> We bought a Kitchen Queen from the Amish up North of us. It was used and had been in a house fire. Then they let it sit outside for a year or two. When we bought it, it needed new enemal on the outside. And new insulation on the dors. There are four doors on this stove, One for the large fire box, one for the oven, one for the ash door on the front and one ash door on the back. Our stove only has the warming shelf, and if we wanted we could buy a water tank for the back. THis stove usually heats our 24 by 36 story and a half log home, fine. But days like we've had this week we needed to have a stove running in the cellar. This one is home made from two truck rims welded together. I love to cook on my stove but can tell you it gets real hot at times. An Amish man we talked to said he was thinking of getting a Pioneer Maid as the fire box is smaller and would not give off so much extra heat, that way they could have hot breakfasts in the summer. I have seen some of the women using their stoves to cann with as well as colman camping stoves. We have two camping stoves and sometimes use them in the summer if we get low on gas for the kitchen stove we have. Got these at yard sales for pennies. Oh yeah one more thing about the Kitchen Queen, they weigh about 600 pounds, and you can get them with warming ovens too. THe company is Amish and located in Marion, Michigan. Good luck with your stove search

-- michelle (tsjheath@ainop.com), December 26, 2000.

Don't want to get to far off the subject, but how do I identify an old cooking stove as far as value and manufacture? Can send digital pictures...It is a two station, stands about three feet tall, and the front comes open for cleaning....Please respond with advice...Ken

-- Ken Mathley (kmat10007@cs.com), June 12, 2001.

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