PREP Cubic Mini wood stove for heating

[Old Gray Mare]

I know there is a lot of varied and eclectic experience and knowledge represented by the members of this board. I was wondering if any of you had any experience in heating small cabins, sail boats, out buildings or RV's with a Cubic Mini wood stove or similar product? This company also has a slightly larger stove called a Grizzly.

How safe are they? How much heat do they put out? How often do they have to be stoked? I am not pushing this company or product. I just would like to find out more about it from people who have used it but are not affiliated with the company or a similar wood or charcoal burning stove from a different company. Years ago I was on a sail boat in winter and was surprised by how much heat a tiny charcoal bricket burning wood stove put out.

CB-1008 CUB Cubic Mini Wood Stove
http://cubicminiwoodstoves.com/products/cb-1008-br-cubic-mini-wood-stove

 

[jed turtle]

Looks fine for a boat. Btw, I would never use a charcoal heater. Too likely to produce carbon monoxide.

 

[Codeno]

I'll be interested in the responses here as well.

We could use a stove this size ourselves - I read the reviews, and people seem to be pretty impressed with both this stove and the company itself.

 

[Knighttemplar]

Looks close to my tent stove. The good points are the size and weight. The bad are the size. The fire box is small so it takes more time to cut the wood and the burn time is short. Mine will heat the tent but you have to stoke it twice during the night and you have to recut standard fire wood to fit. I understand space and size limitations so I still use my tent stove.

 

[bw]

Wow, that's just the cutest thing!

 

[Old Gray Mare]

The stove (if you could call it that) that I saw on the sail boat was even smaller than the Cub and could only handle a few charcoal brickets at a time.

 

[Wise Owl]

Way too small for even a small cabin.....maybe a sailboat or travel trailer but then, I wouldn't use a woodstove in either of those due to fire hazards......

It's cute tho if you want something pretty useless in anything other than using it in a small room......and don't mind feeding the fire every couple hours with matchsticks cause you will never get a real piece of wood in anything that small.

Maybe it's a joke? Ha ha....?

 

[frazbo]

Quite a few years ago, I looked in to something like this but it was made much better and a bit bigger and heavier...cast iron and porcelain. I wish I could remember where I saw it. I think it was made by Jotul. I also think it was called "The Sardine", or some "fish" name...lol. They came in different colors and were shown on actual boats. They were made from a company in Norway, I think, somewhere, but I came within a hair's breadth of getting one but then moved and didn't need it. I always thought if I ever needed a small one, I'd keep that one in mind...just can't remember where I saw it...If you're up all day, stoking it would not be a problem I spoze. jmho

 

[Dozdoats]

How big a space do you need to heat? It's better to have a bit too much stove than a bit too little.

For any new, painted wood burning stove, do your first couple of burns OUTSIDE before installing the stove, to cure out the paint and avoid the smell inside. That's the reason I haven't painted our old Fisher since we've had it - it weighs too much to move outside. Of course it has a 30" firebox too....

 

[WalknTrot]

That seems like an awful amount of money for a tiny "tent" stove that only takes a 5 1/2 inch stick of wood. I have no knowledge of this stove, but a decent tent stove might be the best way to go - What is your proposed application?

 

[Wise Owl]

One guy said in the comments that it works great but the burn is only 1 1/2 hours. No thanks.....gotta go longer than that or you need someone handy just to feed it all day and night....

Not practical unless you only need heat for a couple hours somewhere....

 

[Laurane]

http://www.marinestove.com/sardineinfo.htm

The Jotul Sardine - good memory.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

What is your proposed application?

I was wondering for a sailboat or RV? I had heard in one video that when using propane water vapor can build up inside and be a problem.

 

[BadMedicine]

90% of the heat of either of those goes right out the roof. Need to modify the with an upside down 30 gallon barrel, have the stock stack go 2/3-3/4 of the way up, then have another exhaust too be leave the back of the bottom of the barrel, just a few inches above the top of the burn chamber, and you'll re-burn most of the smoke, have almost no soot/exhaust smoke & capture about 85% of the heat in the barrel, because the cooler air/ exhaust is pushed out. Look up rocket stoves, and can build one this size with cinderblocks for $20.

 

[hiwall]

Propane is pretty efficient heat and very safe. The wood stove you listed puts out about the same heat as two burners on a gas kitchen stove. Propane is so efficient that many models are vent-free.
As to safety just think of the hundreds of thousands of homes that have unvented propane kitchen stoves in them and have had for close to a hundred years. While making a big meal these stoves sometimes get run with all top burners going and the oven going for a few hours at a time (around 100,000 btu's).
I would suggest a nice gas fireplace or any gas space heater. Some are wall mounted and some are free standing. Some you can watch the flame and some you can't.

 

[Snyper]

The stove is pretty.
It's also pretty useless if you want to heat anything larger than a closet.
I'd use a catalytic propane heater which will probably be less than 25% of the cost of the doll house wood heater.

 

[ncmissouri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb7i71nVui4&t=356s

Just saw this. I think they are using it as their main heat.

 

[ShadowMan]

Looks like a great little stove. I would have used something like this in my converted school bus. In a small cabin....a very small cabin.

 

[eXe]

Honestly I think thats kind of pricey. You could make close to the same thing with a larger ammo can as a wood stove. I made one last year out of a 50 cal ammo can, mostly as a tent stove but if you used a bigger ammo can, you could easily make it yourself it would be slightly larger than that, and way way cheaper. Mine is more of a quick and dirty build, I mean its only going to be used outside in a tent, but I have seen some amazingly nice ones made out of ammo cans.

My vid here if you are interested on how its done.

 

[zeker]

http://www.marinestove.com/sardineinfo.htm

The Jotul Sardine - good memory.

this looks a lot like a cast iron stove (from a boat) that I sold recently at a yard sale for $50

great little stove that weighed about 20lbs

 

[bw]

I'd use a catalytic propane heater which will probably be less than 25% of the cost of the doll house wood heater.

If space is tight, you'd also have to consider fuel storage. I suspect a BTU-per-cubic-foot calc would show propane is a much better option on a boat, but I didn't work it out.

 

[Limner]

We have a three dog stove, like this, but the next size down.

http://www.canvastentshop.ca/stoves_fourdogs.html

Heats out 20 foot tipi nicely. But you do have to feed it in the night.....because it doesn't take the big chunks of wood like our Baker's Choice stove. But either Hubby or I usually are up anyway, so it works. Friends of ours has the version with a water heater on the sides, and it makes washing up water easy.

 

[Ravekid]

That stove is just too small and it would be a pain to constantly have to feed it given the small pieces of wood. If someone wants something small, I would suggest looking at the Jotul F 602 or possibly the Jotul F 118 CB Black Bear stoves. More rectangular than square, but takes more standard sized pieces of wood. I've seen similar stoves buy other companies as well.

 

[WalknTrot]

Here - for comparison. There are a lot of nice little tent stoves out there that have been tried in the boonies and come through as champs. And they take a decent sized stick of wood.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ten...ved=0ahUKEwjEwJaZ9u7QAhVYVWMKHWJZDNsQ_AUIBygC

For the BTU output of the one in the OP, you might as well just burn a couple of Aladdin lamps.

 

[Freeholder]

I would never, ever use propane on a boat, not for cooking or heating or anything else. Too many boats have blown up after a propane leak -- the propane is heavier than air and accumulates in the bilge, then a spark from something (the engine starting, or whatever) causes an explosion. Far better to use an oil stove. Also probably more efficient as far as BTU's per quantity of fuel. I was talking to my brother (who lives in Alaska where heating is a Very Important Thing) recently, and mentioned that I was considering getting a propane heater for the house. He suggested we'd be best off with an oil-fired heater, like a Toyo stove. (And, coincidently, the house we hope to buy already has an oil-fired heater in it!) Oil is much safer on board a boat so anyone who is looking at a marine application needs to keep that in mind.

And unless it is extremely cold (like way below zero) and you are sleeping in a tent, you will probably just let your tiny stove go out at night and depend on good bedding to keep you warm, unless you have several people who can take turns at getting up with the stove.

If you put a wood stove in a travel trailer (it can be done safely), you need to be extremely careful about heat shielding, and IMO you should put a masonry surround around the stove -- underneath, at the back, and both sides. This will help with the heat shielding, and it will also help hold heat at night even when the fire goes out. (It will also take a while to warm up once it gets cold.)

Kathleen