Owning a wood burning furnace has a lot of perks. They can help you save money, they utilize a renewable fuel resource, and they’ll last for years at a time (if you maintain them properly).
They’re not without their challenges, though. And one of the biggest challenges of owning a wood furnace is just how proactive you need to be about operating them and cleaning them.
While natural gas furnaces are (mostly) set-it-and-forget-it machines, wood burning furnaces require you to add more wood every eight to ten hours. They also require much more maintenance and care than a normal gas furnace to prevent blockages and creosote buildup.
But the right tools can make the process so much easier — and we’re going to examine some.
At HY-C, we manufacture EPA-approved, forced-air wood burning furnaces under our Fire Chief and Shelter brand names. We also manufacture several accessories to make operating and maintaining our wood furnaces (or any wood furnace, for that matter) simpler and safer.
In this guide, we’re going to cover seven essential accessories to have on hand if you own a wood burning furnace. We’ll explain what they do and how they can save you some valuable time and effort during your daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal furnace maintenance routines.
Table of contents (click to jump to an accessory):
- Chimney cap
- Firewood rack
- Fireplace tool set
- Spare firebricks
- Chimney cleaning kit
- Soot scrubber
- Stove board
1. Chimney Cap
Every wood furnace needs a chimney, and every chimney needs a cap. We’re no stranger to chimney caps at HY-C; in fact, we’ve been manufacturing them since 1947. They’re humble and unassuming-looking, but their function for wood burning furnaces is absolutely essential.
Firstly, they act as a guard to keep out nuisance wildlife. If critters get inside your chimney, they can cause all kinds of damage and even access the rest of your house. A steel chimney cap will stop any curious squirrels or raccoons in their tracks.
Secondly, a chimney cap will keep rain from getting inside your flue. Rainwater and chimneys don’t mix well. Moisture accumulation can cause the chimney to deteriorate. A wet chimney will even accelerate the formation of creosote. A chimney cap, though, solves these problems easily.
2. Firewood Rack
The furnace itself may be the star of the show, but it couldn’t warm anything without any firewood. And whether you store your wood outside your house or inside your house, you should always store it on a firewood rack.
Not only does stacking firewood help to keep it neat and organized, but it also elevates it, allowing airflow that alleviates and prevents moisture buildup.
Whether you need to store a full cord or a face cord, there are plenty of firewood racks out there that can meet your storage needs. There are even DIY firewood racks and adjustable firewood racks that allow you to adapt on the fly.
Discover Shelter Firewood Racks
3. Fireplace Tool Set
If you’ve ever tended to a fire, you know wood doesn’t always burn evenly. Depending on how the air moves around the fire or the moisture distribution throughout the logs, firewood can be finicky if left to burn unattended.
Sometimes it’s necessary to push and prod the burning wood to rearrange the stack and keep the fire going. You can do this with any old pipe or stick, but fire pokers and fire rakes are specifically designed to help tend fires. If you own a wood furnace, consider getting one of these tool kits.
Discover the Liberty Foundry Co. Furnace Tool Set
4. Spare Firebricks
The firebox of a wood furnace comes lined with refractory bricks. They serve two functions:
- They help protect the steel walls of the furnace from intense heat
- They insulate the firebox and transfer heat where it needs to go
There are a few options available when it comes to wood furnace firebricks, but even the most high-end firebrick will break eventually. The cycle of heating up and cooling down coupled with impacts from logs thrown in the firebox day after day simply takes its toll.
For that reason, it’s wise to keep plenty of spare firebrick on hand. If and when yours breaks, you’ll be able to replace it quickly without interrupting your furnace’s cycle.
5. Chimney Cleaning Kit
Because wood burning furnaces utilize wood fuel, their chimneys are at risk for creosote — a flammable residue that can build up inside the flue. Creosote can form for a number of reasons:
- If wood fuel is too moist
- If the chimney’re airflow is restricted
- If the flue is too wide or too tall
- If the flue is too cold
Creosote can cause chimney fires. That’s why it’s important to keep your chimney as clean as possible. You could hire a chimney sweep to take care of the problem, or you could use a DIY chimney cleaning kit.
These drill-powered chimney brushes use centrifugal force to scrub the inside of the chimney flue, knocking away creosote, soot, and other combustion byproducts.
If you have a wood burning furnace, you should use a chimney cleaning kit once or twice throughout the year to keep its flue clean.
Discover the SootEater Chimney Cleaning Kit
6. Soot Scrubber
Like a fireplace or a wood stove, the firebox of a wood furnace and the area around the furnace tend to get a little messy. Soot is a natural byproduct of burning wood. Its fine, black particles spread similarly to dust, caking everything around it in a dark, dirty residue.
Tools like Soot Eraser make cleaning up this soot easy. It’s made of vulcanized rubber designed to scrub away dirt, smoke residue, soot, and fly ash, all without needing any cleaning solvents. When it comes time to clean and maintain your furnace, it’s a good idea to have one around.
7. Stove Board
Though they both provide wood heat, wood stoves and wood burning furnaces deliver their heat differently. Wood burning furnaces connect directly to a home’s HVAC system and blow hot air through the house while wood stoves simply radiate heat into the room around it.
And while stove boards are used primarily for wood stoves, that doesn’t mean that wood burning furnaces can’t utilize them as well. There are, after all, two types of stove boards:
- Type 1 stove boards that only provide ember protection
- Type 2 stove boards that provide both ember and thermal protection.
Wood stoves need type 2 stove boards because they radiate heat. Wood furnaces don’t radiate heat, but it’s still possible for them to emit sparks or hot embers into the room by accident. To prevent any accidental fires, consider adding a type 1 stove board in front of your wood furnace.
Discover the Liberty Foundry Co. EmberGuard Stove Board
Which Wood Burning Furnace Accessories Should You Get?
There you are — seven great accessories to own if you have a wood burning furnace. Now, we’re not under the illusion that every wood burning furnace owner is going to go out and buy all seven of these accessories.
So, how do you decide which ones you should get?
It’s helpful to think of these products as belonging to one of two categories: safety and convenience.
A chimney cap, for instance, is essential for the safe operation of a furnace. A stove board is, too, as it can potentially prevent a house fire. A chimney cleaning kit can help to prevent a chimney fire and ensure the safe operation of your furnace.
Firewood racks, tool sets, spare bricks, and soot scrubbers, on the other hand, are things that are nice to have rather than things that can potentially save your life.
When considering which accessories to purchase for your wood burning furnace, we absolutely recommend starting with the products that will make your wood burning experience safer. And, if you have some leftover spending money, then you can look at buying some of the extras.
Want to take a deep dive on some top-of-the-line wood furnaces? Then read our guide to the best wood burning furnaces of the year. It compares and contrasts four premier models to help you decide which one to buy.
