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Wood Stove For a Small Cabin

We've finally got a 12'x24' cabin in place at our property. We'd like to put a small wood stove in. It seems like there are some pretty good options that are made for boats, rv's, and tiny homes. I'm sure someone here on Bowsite has put a stove in a small cabin. I'd love to see your advice and suggestions.

This one from Northern Tool

I have that one in my shop. Awesome stove

I got this little Jotul 3 on Facebook marketplace for our cabin, which is 12x24 inside. It's nice being able to see the fire, and it can even be burned with the door open and a screen over the front. Gonna cost a little more than some other options but it's a great stove.

I would think 12x24 will require more than a marine wood stove to heat. Especially if you don't want to feed the stove every 30 minutes. I would get a medium to large legit wood stove for that space.

I have a similar sized cabin south of Buffalo, NY. I point that out because it gets cold. I have a small wood burning stove and an oil drip stove. The wood burner is for days you just want to take the chill off, or to help warm the place when arriving in winter. The oil drip (in my case kerosene) makes it so that I can regulate the temperature for a longer period - comes in handy at night (I don't wake up cold and have to restart the wood stove).

A lot of guys have both a wood and a drip stove. Or, you can even add a drip to your wood stove.

Personally I use kerosene in an old coleman oil furnace and have the tank outside. The copper tubing runs through the wall and to the stove (this keeps any spills an smell of kero outside).

You can make your own oil drip to add to your wood stove (https://www.hunker.com/13401720/how-to-make-an-oil-drip-for-a-wood-stove)

This write-up seems a little janky but I think this would do the job on the cheap. https://www.instructables.com/drip-fed-oil-burning-heater-wood-heater/

Or if you're not on the DIY path and have some extra dollars on your pocket, you can buy them: https://www.ruralenergy.com/heating-equipment/var-nor250-nordicstove-25000-series

The old log cabin I hunt at has an old timey (1940's/50's-ish) kerosene stove/heater in it. When it's cold outside single digits, teens, 20's, etc......it does a good job. The cabin is not insulated or sealed too good as it's real old. However the stove will force you out of your sleeping bag if you turn it up too high. I'm sure if the cabin was sealed and insulated a lot better, it wouldn't take much heat (kerosene) to keep the cabin warm. We have an elevated 55gl drum in the outside shed that holds the kerosene and a copper tube that runs to the heater. Gravity pushes the kerosene to the heater. Open the supply valve, a couple of pushes on the primer valve and the oil flows. Throw a lighted wad of paper into the bottom of the burner and away she goes. If it has one knock, it dries out the air in the cabin. Your throat gets a little dry thru the night. I suppose any large heat source like that will dry out the air in the cabin. We have a big pot that we can fill with water and set it on top of the heater to help keep the air moist.

That stove brad shows is a dandy but if your building is insulated it's going to run you out of there unless you keep the door wide open until it gets to about 15° or so. A damper will help you turn it way back but that thing is a heat making sob!

We have a 16 X 32 and the one cnelk shows was plenty warm but short burn, we went a little bigger and and are happy. Northern WI it gets chilly.

Note...a 16x32 is just almost twice as big as a 12x24.

16X32 is far from 24X48? I stated is was plenty warm for our building but we wanted a larger stove for longer burn time.

I agree with a fuel oil stove for a permanent structure. We ran an old Sears stove for 35 years. Easy to control the heat and it never goes out as long as you have kerosene. We put a propane furnace in 20 years ago and I still miss the old stove.

Screwball, 24x48 is four times bigger than 12x24.

The OP’s cabin is 288 square feet. Yours is 512.

A 24x48 is 1152, more than twice the size of yours.

Now that we have had our math lessons, anybody else got a small stove recommendation?

If your cabin is insulated it won't take much to heat it. My man cave is 16' X 20' and I keep it comfortably warm through the winter with just an electric oil filled radiator.

Rickm - I've heard that propane stoves create moisture. Did you notice that after you switched from the oil to the propane?

I tried propane as supplemental heat at our cabin and it did cause condensation on the windows. Wouldn't an oil drip added to a wood stove cause the wood to burn up quicker?

I’d buy a medium sized wood stove and just let it burn a cooler fire. It’ll heat the area probably too well. But, an open window will fix that problem. Plus, it will handle enough wood to keep burn times long enough you can sleep instead of being up three times a night filling the thing.

If I went small on my wood stove, I’d have another heat source to regulate temps or keep the frigid temps at bay throughout the night. Until I could build another fire in the morning. A 10 foot wall heater would work. They make them for 120 volts too.

An unvented propane stove will create moisture (and possible carbon monoxide problem)

A vented propane stove does not create moisture.

MF - You can burn wood when you want and switch it over to oil/kero when you want to run that. You don't really run them in parallel aside from, maybe when you're getting the oil/kero going. As I mentioned above, I have 2 separate stoves in my 12 x 24. When I first arrive, I most often get the wood burner going. If it's later in the day and I'm heading to bed in a few hours, I'll run them both (lighting my kero stove) and then let the wood fire die out once the temp comes up to a comfortable level.

If I'm just running the oil/kero stove, I get the oil flowing and toss in a small piece of fabric that I light just before I drop it in. Getting the oil to flow usually takes a few minutes as it's a very slow/low flow that comes in. I think 5 gallons lasts me a few weekends if I recall correctly. I have a tank on the outside of my cabin that I dump 5 gallons into occasionally (it's a 55 gallon tank but I rarely have more than 6-7 gallons in). Form that tank, the kero trickles into the stove when I turn the outside valve on. The stove that I have has a valve also at the stove (inside) to regulate the flow to the fire pan.

35, I wasn't clear on my response but we went to gas forced air propane furnace. Still miss the heat from the old Sears which I believe was made by Coleman.

35 Acre, thanks for the reply. Interesting stuff, amazing what you can learn here on the Bowsite!

I live near a good amount of Amish. They have stores and they have every kind of stove you can imagine. They are also extremely experienced, more than any sporting goods stores. If you can find an Amish store I think you will be well served.

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