Okay, I've got small, but nice woodburner. The real deal. Couple of vents, glass window in door, and lined with fire brick. Got it free, and Dad is going to build me a hearth, and brick up the inside wall so I don't to worry about heat'fire the stove. On the other hand, I have a 30 gallon drum that's been converted into a stove as well. Would one or the other be better for warming up garage, and why? I've considered takine one into my basement to use in suplelmenting our gas furnace next winter. I may end up just pitching one them...I ABSOLUTELY have to get rid of a lOT of stuff.

Keep the wood burning stove, ditch the whatever home made wake up dead converted thing <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />

Heat the garage? wtf? you need to cool the garage!!!

I live in a state with REAL weather dude. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> I've already got A/C for the garage. Just have to get a friend to help me mount it properly. I'll be able to hang meat in there if I want. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Is the barrel stove set up horizontally? If so, and it's been done reasonably, I'd go with the barrel myself for several reasons:

1. Larger surface area for more overall heat transfer, need to make sure it's shielded from accidental brushes or chemicals though.

2. Lighter steel material should make for faster heat output and faster cool down when your done - less possibility of an unattended contact burning your garage down.

3. Other stove would be nicer in the house, the barrel would just fit in with the decor you've already shown us. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />


The biggest thing is making sure it's a reasonable conversion though. If you have any doubts at all about using it as a firebox, ditch it and go with the intent-built piece.

I know of many a garage/shop I grew up around in NE that had a barrel stove for the winter. Worked great. The really fancy-dancys would have double barrels stacked vertically with stove pipe from bottom to top and then from top up to catch residual heat in the smoke.

James

See, what James said is what i was kind of thinking. And yeah, this is a NICE conversion. It looks like it was professionally built (meaning no one in my family did it).

Blasphemy, barrel stoves are bom-bom-diggidty:

Mine's like that, although without a second barrel on top

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

>>>*My Mom has one in her basement, it has 10" thick walls filled with sand. That design was from before the turn of the century, since that stove was installed in 1898. The pipe runs the length of the basement, just under 50', and has several drafts all hooked together with chains to control from upstairs. Those pipes also radiate heat off into the basement, by the time it gets to the chimney the pipe is cool enough to touch. All the stove pipes are suspended from the ceiling with wires.

It heats a 3 story 7 bedroom house easily, and has never creosoted up. Kinda lost technology, I think. That is kinda neat because even with a fire raging in the firebox, the outside walls of the stove are cold. The entire basement is heated by the stovepipes, not the stove itself.

Since there is a 4' round vent stack up into the living room, and the downdraft is alongside and goes back down, the entire house is the same temperature all the time. Nearly 5000 sq ft heated by one furnace, no fans needed. If the upstairs is cold, they just open the door.

The place uses just 5 cords of wood each year, pretty good considering my Mom thinks 90? is normal....*LOL**.

My brother built one similar except he set his in an alcove off the main floor of the house we are rebuilding. He surrounded it with cement blocks, filled all the openings with sand, too. It is also six feet X six feet, with a big steel freestanding stove in the middle of it. The blocks warm up, then radiate for hours.

When it is really cold, we can build a fire in the main stove, let it get to temp and even if the fire goes out it will heat about 4-6 hours.

In the living room there is a small 14" freestanding, a small little fire and that is enough most of the time. Plus in there we have 3 5' picture windows that frace the morning Sun, so we are installing those solar radiant blinds, they are kinda like Venetian blinds. When the Sun hits them they are like a furnace, once it warms up, just pull them up.

My Dad built a steel stove in his garage down at the ranch many years ago, I was a little kid but I remember that. Somewhere he got some heavy bricks that were black, and he built a three sided wall around it. That was wonderful and warm. But over time the black bricks began to break up and all of that is gone now. My oldest brother put in a new freestanding stove, it works but all it does is heat a 10' circle. I have no idea at all where to find some more of those black firebricks.

Those double barrel stoves work real nice for garages but I would set them in surrounded by cement blocks, that really works well.

Using electric, I can't turn the thermostat high enough to ever get my feet warm, give me wood every time!...*EB