Wonderwood Stove?

Hi all,

First I want to say that I am NOT new to heating with wood. I understand air flow and dampers and the importance of decent wood and a clean chimney and all that stuff.

I was gifted a Wonderwood stove that had been sitting out in the back of someone's property for years. IOW the electric thermostat mechanism is trashed and I don't have sufficient power to run it here in any case. I've researched the stove online but haven't found any answers to my problem.

The fire is not getting enough air. I can get a hot fire going, but unless I leave the door cracked open (obviously not an ideal situation) it fizzles down to glowing coals and not much heat before long. Yes, my chimney is clean. Yes, I am burning aged dry hardwood.

Ideas from those who have experience with this stove are appreciated.

I had a wonderwood. inside the side door was a cast iron door with an adjustable vent at the bottom of it. it was very old, probably from the 40's, it consumed three times the wood that my new England's scratch and dent stove.
the wonder wood developed a large crack in the front of it and in the middle of the night it would go out and fill the house with smoke. they still make the same stove I saw one at farmers coop last year
it has a knob on the front that is supposed to operate some sort of vent in it, mine never worked it probably broke many years before I moved into this house.
it does have a large firebox and  if operating properly might last through the night if stoked properly, I guess
what I experienced with it is it would go out and fill the place with smoke from smoldering wood

I think just about everyone that has burned wood has had a Wonderwood, and there is a reason why so many have, and now do not. My experience was just like Bruce's, it consumed a lot of wood, and produced a lot of creosote.

My thoughts on this are pretty simple. If the stove does not operate properly, and there is a broken part on it, then I would assume it was that part that makes it work as it is supposed to. If you do not have the means to repair that part, nor operate that part due to constraints of your home, then you might consider getting another stove?

I fully understand the value of a woodstove that a person has been given, goodness knows I have been given many myself. But they have to match the home they are going into. It does not seem like the Wonderwood is a very good fit. I mean that literally. Leaving the stove door slightly open is incredibly dangerous because in a backdraft situation like a gust of wind, or a damp day, COULD cause carbon monoxide to build up into your home.

I Agree;  Time for a new stove.  Leaving the door cracked, as Travis said. A gust of wind backdrafting and your coals could end upon the living room floor.
Find another stove... OR build a RMH!

I live on a big hill, and from start to bottom there are 6 houses.

5 of those house have at fires from woodstoves

3 of the 5 have burned completely to the ground (including my parents)

My tiny house across the street, had a major chimney fire, but did not burn. My neighbors did not burn down, but did catch fire and came really close.

My home is the only one out of the 6 on the hill, that has not had a fire from a woodstove.

Don't people regularly maintain their chimneys there?  Or was the reason something else?

In Maine burning season can be 10 months long some years.

thomas rubino wrote:In Maine burning season can be 10 months long some years.

You are not too far off. We have a spot in Maine that does have ice all year, and in history, every month of the year has had frost some years.

I am a little further south, but I was in the hospital with a guy who was from up North, and I asked him why he moved down to the southern part of the state. He looked at me and shook his head, "Because I got tired of seeing snow in June", he said. It was an honest answer, he was sick of seeing snow in June.

It does not bother me; I take my long johns off on July 3rd and put them back on July 5th and call it good. (LOL)

Thanks, guys. Guess I'm going shopping.