# Best wood stove for cooking , water heating and heating ?



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

I have a lot of Amish neighbors who do all of their fall - early spring cooking/ hot water heating and whole house heating with a wood stove . They use several brands but I think the Pioneer Maid stove is the one I like the best.

https://www.lehmans.com/product/pioneer-maid-wood-cookstove/

Bakers choice is also a good option. https://www.lehmans.com/product/bakers-choice-wood-cookstoves/

These stoves are nearly indestructible and I see 70 year old stoves in use without much more than cleaning or replacing some fire brick . I think of them as an investment .

If you are building a place I think the wood cook stove is a much better option for heating , hot water and cooking - frying, boiling, baking than a fire place would ever be. Easier to vent/ install and if you move you and 6 buddies can move it to your new place.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

I really like these but they cost too much just to have sitting around for a crisis, as my wife would never use one. But perfect for those that would use it daily.

So I compromise and plan on cooking on multiple rocket stoves plus would very quickly build an earth oven, as we have lots of sand & clay on my property. Staying warm is a lesser concern in Mississippi.


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Main drawback I see is, if you need it to cook or heat hot water in the summer when your house is already too hot. Better have some backup like propane or solar.


----------



## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

thoughts on wood stove cooking and heating.

A wood cook stove is a wonderful thing to cook on during the winter but takes a lot of room. A wood cook stove's firebox is really too small to burn large wood in so not so great for heating all night long. Still they are pretty and if I had a larger kitchen/living room I'd consider adding one.

A larger (or smaller) wood heat stove sucks to cook on since the temperature control isn't very precise and takes longer than a cook stove to adjust. Lots of practice (I've been known to put bricks or soapstone on top to moderate the temp). I have 2 wood stoves at opposite ends of the house and they are my primary heat in a solar powered home.

Cooking on either type of stove during the summer isn't realistic so I use a wood fired dome oven out back for everything from smoked butts, bread, or casseroles. In a pinch I can use wood in the charcoal grill for cooking anything in a pan or skillet although I've boiled potatoes and corn in the dome oven.

Don't know about now days but 30 years ago some wood stoves had piping to allow water to be heated as it passed through the stove (I worked for a wood stove company). The problem was that after a few years the piping would crack from the continuous heating and cooling. 

just my 2 cents.


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

They still do the piping thru the stove for hot water . I agree for cooking in summer would rather use something other than the wood stove. My neighbors use Coleman Green suitcase stoves converted to propane in summer.


----------



## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Why not just look for a good wood heat stove? On the house we are building, we chose to go with a HearthStone, but there are plenty of other options available.

https://www.lehmans.com/product/hearthstone-heritage-wood-heat-stove/

Then just spend the insane money that you would have spent on a cook stove and get a much bigger propane tank and continue to have modern conveniences even after SHTF?


----------



## RJAMES (Dec 23, 2016)

My opinion is a cook stove / baking is better to have than just a wood stove that is not easy to cook with and won't work for baking. The bakers choice is about what a heat stove would be looks like about $100. 

Either way in northern areas you got to have a backup heating plan and you might as ell use the heating as a cooking/baking / hot water ..


----------



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

I've got a Cast Iron Stove made by Birmingham Stove and Range Co (formerly Atlanta Stove Works) made in the 1940's that I rehab-ed a few years ago. The model that I own is the "Big Boy Stove"

We put it on the covered back porch so that we could use it in the summer and not heat the house. It was a fun project.

Finding a welder that was qualified to work with Cast Iron was a difficult task, for sure!


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Mine is homemade, takes 36 inch logs, it is for both heating and cooking.

There is a fire ring, removable for dutch oven insertion. 

There is an elevating insert to use smaller pieces of wood for summer cooking if needed.

I have outside a modified beehive oven for baking bread if needed, summer and fall only.

Have a cap for top of wood stove for baking if needed, has bimetallic spring mech for heat control.


----------



## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

I have my eye on a big lehman's. Worth every dime . It is a work of art. Have a place for it to go already.


----------



## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

I still have one of my grandmothers glenwoods. It's stored but still functional. It has 1/2 wood and oven, and also two propane top burners.

My plan is to use this in the future with the propane burners updated to pizeo instaed of pilots.


----------

