Vermont Bun Baker Cook Stove

In these uncertain times, we decided it was probably time to get a wood cook stove if all else fails so we can use it for cooking and heating the house during the winter. While we have oil heat, a propane cook stove, a propane heating stove, and a whole house generator, if the SHTF and we can't get oil/propane and the electricity fails, we'd be up the creek in the winter. After looking at a lot of models, we ordered a Vermont Bun Baker XL which has a generous cooking surface, an oven and puts out enough BTUs to heat our whole house. (http://www.vermontwoodstove.com/sample-page/soapstone-wood-stoves/#!/Vermont-Bun-Baker-XL/p/54023116/category=8289041) Delivery won't be made until early December, and hopefully it will be installed soon afterwards.

We are looking forward to this new addition, one of the last that will put our minds at ease should the worst happen.

Anyone else out there have a VBB?

Sweet looking stove you have coming Jim!  You are going to love it!
Vermont castings with soapstone are well known for being a top of the line stove!
I'm sure it wasn't cheap but it was money well spent!

Thanks, Tom. This one is not a Vermont Castings. It is made by an Australian company by the name of Nectre (https://www.nectre.com/en-au/wood-fired-ovens/nectre-big-bakers-oven#m-au-p-18). They call it The Nectre Big Bakers Oven, but when sold in the USA, it is called the Vermont Bun Baker. It is pricey (a little over 4 grand), but it is extremely well built and has a good reputation and reviews. (Weighs 550 pounds!). It is available with soapstone veneer, but we decided against the soapstone because we think the bare stove will fit better into our old farmhouse. I'll post a couple of pics once it is installed.

that pizza looks awful yummy
great idea, ive yet to see a stove anything like that in person. I would think they would be very popular to the general wood heating permies. in a quick google of "nectre" stove, its a major investment of $3000-$6000.
I really enjoy not being dependent on anything other than wood from my forest to keep warm through the winter, cutting and splitting wood is one of my most physical activities. just bucked and split and stacked about half a cord the past few days. ive got 5 dead trees spotted to cut in the coming weeks.
on subject of SHTF, I'm pretty sure producers will keep producing and packers and copackers will keep on packing and truckers will keep on trucking and stores will keep on selling. I suspect the giant oil and gas companies will do whatever they have to do to keep selling gas and oil

I will be curious to hear how you like it and how it bakes.

My parents replaced an heirloom 1920s cookstove with a modern one when the 1920s one was unable to be repaired. The modern cookstove put out more heat, seemed to burn cleaner, and had a much larger/longer lasting firebox, but was no where near as good for baking. Things needed to be rotated multiple times as the heating was uneven, and we could never keep it low enough temperatures for more delicate baking. Even the warming oven above the stove had to be left with the door open, or meringues, apple slices, etc would burn. But it didn't handle a small fire well. The cookstove was always used as an additional heat source on the coldest days, but after the switch, we stopped lighting it for winter baking unless it was already going.

I have always been curious about that style of stove.

bruce Fine wrote:that pizza looks awful yummy
great idea, ive yet to see a stove anything like that in person. I would think they would be very popular to the general wood heating permies. in a quick google of "nectre" stove, its a major investment of $3000-$6000.
I really enjoy not being dependent on anything other than wood from my forest to keep warm through the winter, cutting and splitting wood is one of my most physical activities. just bucked and split and stacked about half a cord the past few days. ive got 5 dead trees spotted to cut in the coming weeks.
on subject of SHTF, I'm pretty sure producers will keep producing and packers and copackers will keep on packing and truckers will keep on trucking and stores will keep on selling. I suspect the giant oil and gas companies will do whatever they have to do to keep selling gas and oil

LOL. That's the fist thing I thought when I first saw this picture a few months ago. I agree, things will continue if the SHTF, but everything may be in shorter supply and take longer to get.

Catie George wrote:I will be curious to hear how you like it and how it bakes.

My parents replaced an heirloom 1920s cookstove with a modern one when the 1920s one was unable to be repaired. The modern cookstove put out more heat, seemed to burn cleaner, and had a much larger/longer lasting firebox, but was no where near as good for baking. Things needed to be rotated multiple times as the heating was uneven, and we could never keep it low enough temperatures for more delicate baking. Even the warming oven above the stove had to be left with the door open, or meringues, apple slices, etc would burn. But it didn't handle a small fire well. The cookstove was always used as an additional heat source on the coldest days, but after the switch, we stopped lighting it for winter baking unless it was already going.

I have always been curious about that style of stove.

I don't think anyone makes things as good as they used to. I watched some YouTube vids of folks cooking in/on this particular stove. They talked about a learning curve, but were overall happy with the results. Of course, I guess they didn't have a 1920's stove to compare it to. I'll report back about cooking/baking after I give it a few test drives. BTW...my grandmother used to cook on top of a pot belly stove! Wow!

Well, after almost 3 months, our stove arrived. The installer came a couple of days later, and we now have our stove. We need to do a few small fires before we let it roar. Once we have it broken in, we'll try our hand at doing some cooking in the oven.

Jim, I'd love to hear what you think about it with a couple years of use under your belt. We were looking at a Wittus Klassic until we discovered the price and our wood-stove guys recommended the big Nectre stove for similar functionality at a third the price. It's the direction we're leaning now.