Wood Stove Accessories

Wood stoves are not only a way to add beauty and charm to a home, but also save money in fuel costs as well. Furthermore by using the appropriate accessories you can also get a lot more out of your wood stove than you’d probably have thought. Here is a short run down of some of the most popular wood stove accessories and how they can be used to make your wood stove an even more valuable asset for your house.

Wood Stove Accessories

Fans are an attractive and practical accessory for any wood stove. Circulating fans help transfer the warmth of the air from the stove throughout the any room. There are also doorway fans that circulate the heat into other rooms of your home and fans that are designed to fit into existing ducts to spread the heat throughout the house.

Modern homes are built more air-tight than ever before, which can also cause problems with a wood stove’s drafting. These air-tight designs sometimes prevents the drawing in of sufficient air into the home to burn efficiently and can also create excessive smoke within the home. Air supply ventilators resolve this problem because they take advantage of the negative air pressure inside today’s tight fitted homes and there is no power source required. The improved draft means more efficient burning and better heat distribution throughout the home.

A wood stove thermometer helps ensure that your fireplace is burning at highest efficiency possible. This saves on the cost of wood supplies, reduces maintenance and improves the safety of your home. Wood stove thermometers attach to the stovepipe in most cases magnetically or just by drilling a small hole in the stove piping.

There are also electrically operated Draft Inducers which increase the air flow up through the chimney. This increases the negative pressure (i.e. draft) in the stove and prevents the smoke from leaking out.

Wood stove steamers also can be used to humidify the air and by adding potpourri to the water you can fill your home a nice fragrance.

Heat from a wood stove can often cause the air in your home to dry out. Wood stove kettles are a simple way to humidify a room and can often be quite decorative. Just fill them with water and place them on the wood stove. Porcelain coated kettles that don’t rust on the inside are usually best.

Another decorative, yet functional accessory are Trivets. These are durable hot plates made from cast iron. They are quite decorative and are used to protect the top of your stove from accumulating rust spots from kettles or steamers. They keep kettles or cooking pots from getting too hot as well.

It is important that your wood stove sit on a fire proof floor, if you don’t have one, you can use a hearth pad to provide the necessary fire proof protection between a wood stove and the floor beneath.

Stove pipe shams can turn your plain stove pipe into a wonderful decorative addition. Stove pipe shams are designed to accentuate your plain old black stove piping and add a touch of shine. Shams are easy to put in and you don’t need to disconnect or remove the piping.

Freestanding wood stoves could be custom fitted with legs of different shapes, sizes and materials. This provides a unique personal touch to your new wood stove as you are given the leg piece of your choice. Another accessory of a wood stove that shouldn’t be overlooked is the ash drawer, this collects the ash made by burning wood. Select an ash drawer that is sufficiently large so that it doesn’t need constant cleaning is a good idea.

A soapstone steamer is yet another wood stove accessory. This is a high-density soapstone that limits the transfer of heat that the stove emits. It is placed at the top of the stove and humidifies the area where the stove is burning because stoves tend to absorb all the moisture in the rooms which they are located. Some users employ a self-powered stove fan, especially in winter, to evenly distribute the warm air throughout their homes. Wood stoves can be used for heating an entire house with the help of these stove fans.

Many high temperature paints are available for touching up, renewing, and protecting the finish on steel or cast-iron wood stoves. There are also high temperature polishes available to make your wood stove black and shiny, just like new.

Gaskets, when installed correctly, could improve the energy and heat efficiency of a wood stove and aid in keeping the stove’s glass cleaner and newer looking. On average these can last a long time, but when your stove’s gaskets have worn out there are kits available for new gaskets which will return your stove to working efficiency.

As wood stoves are specially designed stoves to use wood as the primary source of fuel , there are many types of wood stoves are available today, these differ in their modes of operation, type of fuel they use, brand, the heating strength, and the type of materials they are made from.

Standard wood stoves can have lots of wood stove accessories that could be bought and added separately and are not normally included with the purchase. The most common accessory is the kettle, the kettle is used for making tea and coffee (obviously) or heating water on the wood stove. Kettles are sold in many different shapes, sizes and materials, like copper, etc. The next sort of accessory is the wood stove door which can be custom fitted as needed. In general, glass panels are used for the front doors of these wood stoves.

Wood stove accessories compliment any kind of wood stove, reduce energy costs and add value to any home as a heating alternative. They are in local hardware stores or find a great deal online.