Wood Stove - Avalon Olympic



This is an Avalon Olympic wood stove. They say it can take up to 24" firewood but I'm using 18" wood. The 18" pieces are easier to get into the stove and easier to handle when stacking, when bringing them inside the house, and when loading the stove. I may get some 20" wood if I find I need to get a longer burn at night. (Larger pieces tend to burn longer than smaller pieces, depending somewhat upon the dryness of the wood.)

The footprint of my house is 24' by 24', with 1 1/2 stories and a saltbox roof. The wood stove is in the basement and it heats the whole house.

I haven't tried it in the coldest weather yet, so I'm not sure how warm the upstairs will be during the very cold spells. I think it will be ok since the metalbestos chimney runs inside the house and the chimney does give off a little heat into the rooms it passes through. I think, however, it's recommended that you close in the chimney with 2x4's and sheetrock - with a 2" inch clearance to combustibles. Even in this case, I think it will still give off a little heat.

I've gotten to the point where sometimes I can load up the stove up before bed and have the house still be quite comfortable in the morning. However, it takes practice and I haven't been able to get this to work every night yet.

As you can see, this stove has a glass door, which helps a lot in determining when to add wood and knowing how hot the stove is burning. The step-down part of the top of the stove is a cooktop, which does get hot enough to boil water (I've tried it) and they say you can also use it for frying and other stove-top cooking.

Outside Air Kit
Since my house is so airtight, I added an outside air kit which brings fresh air directly from outside the house into the stove through a flexible metal duct. You can see this metal duct behind and to the right of the black stovepipe. In very tight houses like mine, an outside air kit is sometimes recommended in order to make it easier to get a fire started in the stove and to lessen the chance of backdrafting.

This does cause the stove to burn a little hotter I think, so I had a damper put in the stovepipe just above the stove. I use this damper as well as the ones on the stove itself. This helps me keep the temperature of the stove and the chimney within a safe range.

I've only had the stove going a couple of times since I got the new damper and it looks like that will make it easier to keep a good slow burn going at night. For most people, it takes quite a bit of time to get used a new wood stove - to learn how much wood to put in, how often to load it, and how to set the dampers.

Here's a photo showing how the outside air duct passes through wall to the outside of the house.




See also:
Firewood for Woodstove
Firewood Cart
Firewood Racks
Wood Stove Accessories - part 1
Wood Stove Accessories - part 2
Wood Stove Accessories - part 3

Posted by Beth on Thursday, June 1, 2006