I like wood heat. I like the dry heat from it. The way it soaks into you. I like the sound of wood crackling. I love to watch the flames dance. I want a wood burning stove in my tiny house. This is proving a difficult search though. If money was no option I know what I would buy. I live in the real world though and I have a budget. A small one.
Even here in the south heat is important. I don’t want to go cheap and freeze. I don’t want to a shoddy stove that burns me down either. My tiny house is 12×20 so a normal sized stove is too much heat. Although easy to find on craigslist they are too big. I don’t have the space for something to eat up that much room. I’ve done some research that I will share with you.
Commercial Wood Stoves
There are a few good option for tiny wood stoves. One market building tiny wood stoves is for boats. Space is a big concern on boats. There are a lot of marine options for tiny house appliances. Shipmate Stove Co. makes some beautiful little stoves for boats. I love the classic design on it. The marine stoves usually have rails on the top to keep pots from tipping off.
The Mini 12 CT Survival Stove wood stove is built in the US. I like to try to go with American made when I can. In this case it is one of the lower priced options. The mini 12 is welded steel. It uses a firebrick lining for thermal mass. A flat top for cooking. It has a huge window to view the fire. The mini 12 comes just under a grand in price.
Now let’s look at the top of the line. From all my research on wood stoves the Kimberly Wood Stove is the best. It installs easy. It requires only 6 inches of clearances on the sides and back of the flue. This is vital for us tiny space people. Other wood stoves I looked at required up to 36 inches. It has a modern simple look to it. You will pay for the best too. It comes in just shy of 4k.
DIY Options
Man has heated with wood for thousands of years. Wood stoves can be cobbled together from just about anything. My own younger brother built one for a shed with my moms old water heater. It was not pretty but it sure worked.
I’ve seen the barrel kits to make wood stoves. If I cut and welded a barrel to be tiny house sized this would be an option. The kits run about $50. With barrel and pipes it would be much cheaper than the commercial options.
Rocket mass heaters are another option I’m looking at. The plus with them is the tiny amount of wood you use. They dump their heat into heavy cob masses that radiate heat for days. The draw back is weight. They are heavy. Much too heavy for mobile tiny houses. Maybe to heavy for mine too. They do take up more space with the mass but it is functional.
I would love to just buy a Kimberly wood stove. It’s just not in the cards. I’m leaning more towards a DIY option. I have kerosene heat for now while I decide. Have any suggestion?
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While I like your options you presented. If you have the skill or know someone who does, here is a very good option.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWdDEcyk9LolHjJDhMPLgTw
Hey James. Good luck with your wood stove project. Keep us posted. Regarding your kerosene heater, just curious where you get your kerosene. I recently purchased a Sengoku CV-23K as a backup heater and I must say, I’m really pleased with it. But I’m a little dismayed at the lack of supply of kerosene. I’m in the south too (Loganville, GA) so I guess that plays into it, but like you say, still gets plenty cold here! I went with crazy expensive K1 from Home Depot for the first 5 gallons to break it in. I have since found a relatively close gas station selling it for $5.99 a gallon, but still more than I want to pay. I like the heater so much, if kerosene were cheaper, I’d consider using it to compliment my natural gas/electric system rather than have it strictly for backup. Regards, Rick
Have you requested of any stove companies to do an extensive review on their product and/or offered them free advertising on Survival Punk in return? Might that work?
Check out DIY wood stoves out of old ammo cans for a cheap project. Personally I’ve been looking for a small single burner cast iron pot belly wood stove, but I have yet to find a new one cheap or a used one at all. I just saw a cast iron wood stove at harbor freight for $170 but it’s too big for what I need and too heavy for me carry around comfortably. It breaks one of my personal rules of “don’t own anything you can’t move yourself”. Maybe I should get a hand cart.
For such a small space don’t entirely disregard the little brother to the Rocket Mass Heater, the Pocket Rocket. I have seen folks build these and attach small mass around them. I made one with a 55 gallon steel barrel for outdoor use. The main point of trouble with these for indoor use is the extremely hot temperatures that the barrel accrues and the exhaust temperature is very high much like a wood stove and unlike the Rocket Mass Heater which has very reasonable exhaust temperature in the 100 to 140 degree range. Thus why some have built brick/clay mass around the base of the barrel which is where the hottest points are. Just the other day I started an experiment with my 55 gallon system where I stacked red (presumably high clay content) bricks in a 3/4 circle around the inside of my barrel all the way to the top. This creates mass that will hold the heat longer. I had to do it in a 3/4 circle because my wood feed was too close to the edge of the barrel and did not allow space for a brick or much of anything for that matter. Anyway just some thoughts from a big fan of sustainability and therefore RMH and rocket stoves. Here is a link to the pocket rocket I built, my only regret is not building a smaller one like a 25 or 35 gallon barrel. Pocket Rocket
Thanks Sean. I had looked up the Pocket Rocket but your video shows it much better.
Great post shread… thanx