Keeping a wood stove going all night

My dad's stove is really interesting. It's a conventional woodstove, maybe 20 years old, and holds coals overnight without turning it down, easily. Never any smoke, except when first started or if using exceptionally wet wood. The other stove in the house, which is newer... doesn't hold a flame overnight, and sometimes even during 8 hours away, and often smokes. We actually have a hard time cleaning out the ashes in the main stove, as after 2-3 days without burning it still has a few hot coals. Dad controls the heat of the room by opening the front door, or how many logs he puts in, and seldom uses the damper. You don't even need kindling in the morning!

Why is it so special???

Thermal mass.

The stove is recessed  inside a fireplace that's about 12' x 12' of solid rock and concrete, with about 1 ft of space on all sides. The wide chimney extends two stories in the centre of the house. It's beautiful, and a crazy amount of thermal mass. The chimney is straight up, and the local chimney cleaner has said he only wants to come every 3 years or so, as there is not enough creosote to bother with. If I ever have a house with a woodstove, I want one built exactly like this.

Holy moly..can't believe this post...We have had a Hearthstone Soapstone stove since 2002. We maybe clean our chimney every 2 years(now that we live in a wet cold climate we are doing it every year)...hardly anything there. Use dry wood..old super dry willow (we had tons of it) and now fir..My husband and I have arguments as to what constitutes dry..He tolerates a little wet.. me NO!!
Pile Juniper or oak on the coals at night ..damp it down and go to bed. Always a little bit of coals in the AM. 6-8 hour burn without attention.  As per smoke..ok once in awhile I see smoke from the chimney but little or no creosote in the chimney speaks for itself.
We now use sugar pine pine cones to restart the fire in the AM..works a treat!!
I had an old ..who knows what.. wood stove in Mt and same thing..I guess it comes down to how well ya build fires!!
We need a small  auxiliary stove in our house now..and I am totally confused as to what to buy..pretty concerned..quality of a lot of things has gone to hell..heard rumors it's that way with wood  stoves too. Catalytic converter? May only cost $200-$400 for the part but how hard is it to change them? Heard impossible in some cases.
A little leery after all this 2020 EPA change and maybe I'll just wait till the dust settles before I buy one.
Am considering a Blaze King Ashford 20..swore I'd never do a catalytic converter..oh well. Ok maybe  Lopi of Morso 2B classic..
I personally think cutting down on procreating will have more affect than EPA regs on wood stoves!!

There are quite a few good 2020 compliant options available.  Many have gone to cats but there are still some that are non cat.  That being said cat stoves are not a bad thing.  The blaze king for example is extremely easy to change cats.  You don't even need any tools to do it.

Our Waterford Stanley cookstove does not keep a fire or coals overnight so in the cold months I need to feed it once or twice during the night. My method is to drink a glass of water before going to sleep and I usually have to get up to pee right about when the fire needs reloading. With practice, I can gauge how much water to drink during the night so I time my wake-ups to maintain comfortable temperatures.

Those are fantastic cookstoves.  But yeah it's tiny firebox isn't going to hold fire very long.

Michael Helmersson wrote:drink a glass of water before going to sleep

Haha! This is exactly what I do when I need to get up for anything at night, not just the stove.

Ben Holler wrote:Those are fantastic cookstoves.  But yeah it's tiny firebox isn't going to hold fire very long.

No, but it sure radiates heat for a long time.

Yeah there is allot of metal there to hold the heat