Homemade Barrel Wood Stove

Barrel Wood Stove

• Homemade barrel wood-burning stoves, although inexpensive and simple to build, are generally considered inefficient wood devourers. In an effort to make the wood-burning barrel stove a more productive heater, major wood stove manufacturers such as Vogelzang market a kit that makes it easy to convert a 55-gallon steel drum into an economical heater. These kits contain a cast iron fuel-feed door with a gasket ensuring an airtight closure, an ash cleanout door and a draft control apparatus. You can find discarded steel drums at local junkyards and at businesses that receive product packed in steel drums. You also can buy them through various local or online suppliers of wood-burning accessories and stoves. You can purchase a grate specially designed for steel drums so you do not risk burning out the bottom of your barrel stove.

  To convert a steel barrel into a wood-burning stove, you cut an opening in the end of the stove, install a door through which you feed the stove wood, cut openings for draft control, install the mechanism to control airflow, place the completed barrel on cast iron legs to ensure stability, and attach the completed barrel wood stove to piping that adheres to local building codes.

Local Code

• Many municipalities have rules and regulations that limit and, in some cases, prohibit the installation of wood-burning appliances. If you plan to build your own barrel wood stove, contact your local building department in advance to find out whether you can install one in your home.

Environmental Protection Agency

• Since safety and performance are paramount in the placement and installation of any wood-burning heater, the EPA recommends that you have any such device installed by a licensed professional. A professional will make sure your wood burner conforms to all local building codes, ensuring proper clearances and distance from combustibles. He will also match your stove to the correct size venting system, which produces a more efficient burn for more usable heat with less wood consumption. The EPA also certifies wood burning stoves. Certain devices are required to meet emission standards established under the Clean Air Act. The EPA supplies a list of certified stoves.

Considerations

• Never install a barrel stove in a mobile home or a manufactured home. Do not use a barrel stove in a tent or a travel trailer. Some consumers construct barrel stoves using two barrels -- one used as a main firing chamber and the second serving as a heat exchanger. Commercially available kits make this option as simple to construct as the single-barrel model. Barrel stoves may not be as aesthetically pleasing as today’s wood-burning stoves, which come in a variety of finishes from high-gloss enamel to natural soapstone, but they still function in the same manner as their pricier cousins, heating your home with a minimum investment of time and money.