Today, a cast-iron woodburning stove reads as old-fashioned, nostalgic, and cozy. It screams “cabin,” “thick chunky socks,” “snowy day in Vermont.” But when they first arrived, they were a technological revolution—and not necessarily a welcome one, either.

According to Smithsonian, many Americans hated the very idea—for one thing, they wanted to be able to see the flames. Prominent authors like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Hawthorne railed against them. But they gradually took over, thanks in no small part to the widespread adoption of burning coal, and were omnipresent by the end of the 19th century. (There's even a story in Andrew Lang’s Yellow Fairy Book where a lost princess takes up with a prince who’s been cursed by a witch into an iron stove.) Switching from open hearths to ovens and stoves set American homes on the path to our modern kitchen layouts. The stoves themselves became subject to decor trends: many 19th-century models are downright ornate, covered in curlicues and other fanciful elements that must’ve been a monster to clean.

Technology eventually moved on once again, and Americans moved toward gas and oil to heat their homes. But even after the peak of their popularity, stoves have had a long afterlife as an iconic image of nostalgia. What was once cutting edge and controversial became cozy. You’ll spot a mammoth old kitchen model in the endpapers of the 1948 children’s classic Blueberries for Sal; midcentury plus-size pinup Hilda is often portrayed in a pair of red long johns in front of a freestanding potbelly model. Check your grandmother’s recipe cards—there’s a good chance her pumpkin pie recipe is scrawled on a card decorated with one. Nor was their functional era over entirely, either: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, woodburning stoves saw a boom in popularity as oil prices spiked.

While they’re no longer a fixture of public and private spaces, there are still plenty of woodburning stoves, both installed in homes and available for sale, complete with glass windows, so you can actually see the flames. Here’s what you need to know if you’re dealing with one for the first time or thinking about adding one.

Some fast facts about woodburning stoves

“In general, I think a lot of people look at woodstoves as a backup heat,” says Sean Summers, cofounder and CEO of Woodstovepro.com. (After the 2021 ice storm in Texas, for instance, he says, “I’ve sold more woodstoves than in probably the last 20 years I’ve been in this business to Texas.” My own family weathered an ice storm and lengthy power outage with an old woodstove in the early 1990s in Georgia.) They’re much more effective at actually heating your home than a traditional fireplace, which are really more for the vibe than the sheer number of BTUs they can produce: “[Fireplaces] actually pull more heat out of your home and cause your central heating to kick on,” he says.

There are two basic types of woodstove: freestanding and inserts, which fit into a traditional fireplace and replace the open fire. (There are also gas and pellet-burning versions.) They might be made of steel, or cast iron. There’s also two basic technological types: catalytic and noncatalytic. Without getting too deep into the weeds, catalytic stoves are a bit more complicated to operate and tend to be higher-end, but they also tend to be more efficient. All of them are governed by federal efficiency standards, which have tightened considerably in recent decades out of concern about carbon emissions and air quality.

What to do with your new fiery friend

Your first step upon buying a home with a woodburning stove that you’d like to use is pretty straightforward: call a licensed inspector to come and take a thorough look at it.

“They can come out, they can inspect it, see if it needs to be cleaned, go over with the homeowner the best things to burn in it, how to get a fire started, let them know some history if it’s available on the stove,” explains Amie Ryan, director of sales and marketing at the National Fireplace Institute, an industry organization that certifies inspectors. They’ll be able to look for the biggies: “You want to make sure it meets the clearances, the hearth extension’s the way it should be, the chimney’s tall enough off the roof for drafting issues, things like that,” she says.

You can certainly use older stoves as long as a licensed inspector says they’re structurally sound and installed properly—don’t just plunk one down on a wood floor, obviously, and you must consider the state of the chimney—but it’s worth noting that they were built to earlier and more lax regulatory standards. A beautiful behemoth straight out of Little House on the Prairie will likely require more fuel than a more modern model, and it’ll burn dirtier.

Using your stove without setting your house on fire

Obviously, you’ll burn wood in a woodstove—but don’t just start picking up sticks out of your yard. “You’re gonna want to burn a good, seasoned wood,” Ryan explains. That means that, depending on the type of wood, it’ll need to sit dry and sheltered from the elements for 12 to 18 months after it’s split. “If you burn wet wood, it’s going to smoke, it’s going to burn dirtier, it’s going to clog up the system.” You can go to a wood dealer, and anything you buy from the grocery store will definitely be dried enough (though it’ll likely be on the expensive end). Clouds of woodsmoke billowing out into your home, to be clear, is not just gross and annoying—it is a very real health risk, and you want to minimize your exposure over both the short and long term.

If you’ve got a big spread with lots of trees, you can certainly split firewood yourself. But it won’t do you any good to split the wood and then let it sit out in the snow and rain. Ryan recommends the EPA’s Burn Wise website, which has a useful, clear guide to building a woodshed that’ll create the optimal seasoning conditions. (And the entire site is a useful resource to bookmark.) “Just be prepared how much work and equipment you need to split your own wood,” Summers cautions.

Newer models are also pretty finicky about the types of wood it’s even possible to burn: “You have to have very dry fuel,” Summers explains. “I would say that’s my number-one callback that people bring up—it ends up being a fuel issue.”

Oh, and by the way: Don’t burn wrapping paper, and don’t burn your Christmas tree. “Yeah, they look great when they’re burning, because they burn really hot and they burn huge flames,” Ryan says. “But they’re also going to not do good things to your fireplace or your stove.” Nor should you burn processed logs like Duraflame, which are designed for traditional fireplaces, not woodstoves: “They have a waxy buildup, and that’s gonna cause those stoves to gum up and not work properly.”

How do I clean this thing?

The primary fire danger for both traditional fireplaces and woodstoves alike is the gradual buildup of creosote, which is a residue left behind by woodsmoke that’s highly flammable. It’s a risk for traditional fireplaces, too, but wood stoves have a narrower flue for it to build up in. Ryan recommends you have your woodstove professionally cleaned at least once a year—and you might even consider twice, if you use it constantly.

Proper burning of dry, seasoned wood will help reduce the risk and speed of creosote buildup, but you’ll still want to get it cleaned and serviced regularly to check for problems (and birds’ nests). Check for certifications from NFI and/or the Chimney Safety Institute of America. And if you schedule that cleaning during the months when you’re using the stove, wait at least 48 hours beforehand; if the technicians arrive at your home and it’s still too hot, they’ll have to come back another time.

Her final tip? Be smart with your timing. If you want until late October to call a licensed chimney sweep, they’re likely to be booking appointments weeks out. If you call in the summer, not only will your wait time be shorter, but you might even be able to get an off-season discount.

What do I need to know before installing a woodburning stove?

If you’re interested in adding a woodstove, be it a new freestanding one or a more efficient insert in your existing traditional fireplace, one concern is simple: make sure it’s one you want to look at for a long time, Summers says. But you’re not picking from too large an aesthetic universe, either because the technological requirements tend to guide the design.

If you’re considering installing a freestanding stove, Summers cautions that one thing to be aware of is the sheer cost of adding a chimney, if you don’t already have one. “They could be as much or more than the stove itself,” he says. You’ll also want to think carefully about where to put the stove: “Ideally, you’re gonna center it in the house where it’s going to radiate heat through the most part of the house,” he says. But that’s often impractical because you can’t plow the chimney through the middle of the house, so you’ll just have to be strategic about where you put it, and how big it is. “You don’t generally want to put it in a very small area, because it’ll kinda blast you out of there,” he notes.

He cautions, too, that it’s an area that demands a lot of technical know-how, and you want to work with experts: “Find somebody who is actually qualified to help you and provides customer service.”

One step you don’t want to forget has nothing to do with the stove, the roof, or your chimney: take a good look at your homeowner’s insurance. “I’ve had customers either completely cancel projects over it or they’ll go around and shop different insurance companies until they can find somebody that will insure them,” says Summers. “Insurance is a big deal.”

Top photo by Johner Images

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