Consider This When Buying a Wood Stove

My Little Jotul

After living through the ice storm of 2008 without any alternate heating source and freezing for eight days, my main goal when I moved into my new home was having a wood stove. In 2008 I was renting a duplex and the people next to me had a wood stove which kept us somewhat warm, but in my own place I knew it would be up to me to make sure we didn’t freeze if and when a storm takes away our power.

The living room has a fireplace, but the room itself is the smallest one in my house. After the winter of 2008 I had purchased an old, large stove to use in the basement of my rental and that one was far too large to use in the living room of my new place. We would have roasted.
I sold that one and I bought a small wood stove. It fits into the fireplace well, and it won’t cook us when we are sitting in the room. But….

I did not take into consideration the fact that the wood I buy may not fit in it! And that is the trouble I am having.

The little Jotul is a great stove, but much of the wood I had purchased last year is too big. Places generally deliver 16 inch logs – and some of those measure longer. It’s a front loading stove, and the opening is quite small. The pieces of wood I burn need to be narrow enough to easily fit into the opening when the stove is going. Who wants to have to try to jam a piece of wood over an already burning log in hopes that it will fit?
I did not take this into consideration and now I wish I had thought about it and maybe bought another type of stove.

I’ve had to hire someone to come and split the wood for me – I wish I could do it myself. I have some dead trees on my property that I plan to use (and have already used) which means the pieces can be made nice and short using the chainsaw, which is very helpful.
Just something to consider if you are planning to buy a stove for a small space.