Cookstove Basics

When you picture a cookstove, what do you see? An old, dusty piece of equipment from a time gone by? An oddly shaped woodstove? Or maybe just an ordinary old stove? Like most people new to cookstoves, chances are you have a few misconceptions about what’s out there and what will work best for your living situation. In the following, we’ve compiled a short list of cookstoves that demonstrate the variety in design and quality that cookstoves have to offer today.

Using a wood burning stove is a staple of country life that, for many people, goes back generations. For good reason, too: It’s hard to beat the ease of use and reliability of a woodstove. Cut the wood, put it in the firebox, start the fire, and before too long you’ve got flames licking the edges of the window and heating your home. It may take more effort to start a fire than to turn a knob and wait for the heat to come on, but the beauty of a stove is in the control it allows. You provide your own fuel, decide when and how to burn it, and in the end you get the satisfaction of self-sufficiency. The amount of money you save by using wood heat over gas or electric is nothing to scoff at either.

However, there’s another kind of stove you don’t hear much about: The cookstove.

Using wood heat is not without complications: Smoke, even from burning wood, is an emission regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In the following article, we will explain what the EPA’s regulations mean to those of us who use or manufacture wood burning appliances such wood stoves and cookstoves.

magine this scenario: It’s the dead of winter. The ground is covered in snow, the temperature is below freezing during the daylight and worse after the sun goes down. Your power goes out. You’ve got water and a decent amount of food in storage, but your heat source went with the power and the temperature…

The golden age of wood- and coal-burning stoves gave rise to not only colorful expressions, but a novel feature that changed the way people cooked and kitchens looked. In the late 19th century, concern for better health led to research in domestic science, which in turn made sweeping improvements in America’s kitchens. Experts advised that…

Published in 1980 by the non-profit organization Volunteers in Technical Assistance, this lengthy guide “promotes stoves and cooking methods that are inexpensive, culturally acceptable, and environmentally sound.” If you’re just starting out in the cookstove world, this is the place to start: It has everything from the basics of how stoves work, how to run…

Everyone thinks of no electric bill when you heat with wood, but that is not the only benefit. People think of chimney or house fires when they think of woodstoves, but watch out there are other hazards.

If you have been thinking about buying a woodstove and wondering, “Is a woodstove right for me?” or “Which stove should I get?” you have come to the right place. We will give you some things to think about before you make a purchase, and you should walk away with a list of questions to ask yourself.