Buying, Installing and Maintaining a Woodstove

Before you buy a woodstove or haul that old stove out of grandpa's barn to hook up in your living room, inform yourself!

Heating your living space safely and efficiently with wood requires thinking through the many aspects of matching your living space and chimney to a stove, installing it properly, and understanding what's involved in maintaining your stove, stovepipe and chimney.

Ask questions
Talk to friends, neighbors, and heating experts who've had long-term wood-heating experience. Ask which features of the stoves they use they like or don't like. Ask about a stove's efficiency, ease of operation and maintenance requirements.

Some stove vendors offer one-stop shoppng for wood heat households, even coming to check out your home so they can recommend the right stove and location to meet your needs. Before you buy, ask your vendor about a stove's routine maintenance requirements. which may include cleaning the stovepipe and thimble and replacing gaskets, firebricks, baffles, catalysts and other stove components.

Chimney professionals can assess the condition and suitability of your chimney, clean and repair chimneys, and teach you how to check and clean your stovepipe and thimble.

The following (offsite) links offer information to get you started

Burn Wise U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site offers a wealth of information on burning the right wood, the right way, in the right wood-burning appliance to protect your home, health, and the air we all breathe. A good starting point for new or prospective wood-burners, with plenty of new information for homeowners who've burned wood for years.

Ten characteristics of successful stove and fireplace systems This fact sheet by a Canadian nonprofit promoting safe, efficient domestic wood heating defines "perfection" in a good wood heating system (including the need for an informed operator) to help homeowners judge their own.

What size woodstove? A useful fact sheet for understanding the hows and whys of stove sizing and location. (Please note: The fact that we've linked to a commercial Web site's fact sheet implies no endorsement of the company or its products.)

An installation checklist Another excellent fact sheet from the folks at woodheat.org.

Maintenance of modern stoves, fireplaces, inserts, furnaces and boilers An excellent primer on replacing gaskets, baffles, firebricks, refractories, air tubes and catalysts; adjusting doors; touching up paints and enamels and more.

All about chimneys Demystifies the role and operation of chimneys.

Consumer Guide to Wood and Pellet Heating Good basic information about types of wood heating appliances, sizing and locating a stove, chimney placement and sizing, stove maintenance, and sourcing fuel supplies.

Proper installation and maintenance of a wood stove Basic information from the federal Centers for disease Prevention and Control (CDC)

Modern woodstove efficiency: technical information An introduction to the design features of cleaner-burning modern woodstoves.

More Efficient, Cleaner Burning Fireplaces If you want to use a fireplace for heat, begin here.

Photo credits: Peg Boyles