What Is A Smart Stove And How Does It Work?

Imagine this: you are enjoying a weekend at home, snuggling with your cat as the heat from the wood burning stove gives off a comfy warmth.

You might be too tired to get up to adjust the heat so you reach out to get your phone and open the app.

Yes, you read that right.

A smart wood stove can be controlled through an app on your phone, which makes it one of the most convenient options for modern living. Traditional wood stoves are notoriously hard to finetune in terms of heat output, but a smart stove helps you control the temperature conveniently from your phone.

Key Point: A smart strove marries the rustic and naturalistic appeal of a traditional wood stove with smart technology to improves its functionality and precision.

the all-too-familiar wood stove situation

What is a Smart Stove?

A smart stove is the only wood stove you will need!

It makes use of modern technology to operate with the minimal effort, providing users total control of the product.

Often connected to a different chimney system, a smart stove can accommodate different types of woods of varying sizes and in various conditions.

It gives optimal control for efficient burns at a temperature ideal to you.

A smart stove has the ability to regulate and maintain the temperatures you set. Guaranteeing precise temperature control, this innovation takes away the need for adjusting the fire manually, keeping you from going to and from the stove to add more wood or reduce the heat.

This is what smart stoves do what they do best: help you achieve controllable temperature settings. They are often designed with stainless-steel top, and up to a third heating element with controllable temperature settings.

Summary: With this smart appliance, you have the comfort, convenience, and control with minimal effort. Load the wood, ignite the fire, and program the thermostat. This makes it an excellent option for homeowners who enjoy the conveniences of technology, but love a good wood fire.

What are the Benefits of a Smart Wood Stove?

Upgrading your home with smart technology provides all sorts of benefits. Check out our ultimate guide to upgrading to a smart home.

While traditional wood burning stoves–which have become a centuries old tradition–are a charming addition to your home, they require a lot of effort.

There’s two major responsibilities: burning wood to start a fire and keeping the room temperature at a comfortable level.

With the entry of smart stoves, you can reduce the time needed to heat up the room on a cold winter night!

Here are the reasons why smart wood stoves deserve consideration for your home:

Smart stoves are efficient in reducing emissions.

Unlike traditional wood stoves, smart stoves are more efficient when it comes to the energy used as it is customizable and adjustable.
This means you’ll waste less wood, since the stove controls the burn rate.
Most smart stoves map out the beautiful burn, which means the fire can burn with no smoke and soot buildup.
With less emission, you will not need to devote so much time to cleaning and maintaining the stove.

Smart stoves save energy and money.

Most wood-burning stove are considered essential heat source during cold winter months. So smart stoves make excellent replacements for your traditional heater, which also means significant reduction in your energy consumption compared to traditional HVAC units (heating, ventilation, AC).
Smart stoves come with advanced machine-learning features, as well as functionalities that mirror a programmable wall thermostat, which translate to efficiency and precision.
The smart technology power consumption used for this stove is often minimal.

Smart wood stoves conveniently keep your home within comfortable warmth levels.

A smart stove regulates heat levels in your home more quickly and evenly.
It has the ability to adjust automatically and bring an even heat distribution while helping maintain fires and ensuring that the warmth stays for longer.
It can optimize and improve its performance to give you the best experience.

Smart wood stoves are extremely convenient and safe to use.

Smart stoves are connected to your home Wi-Fi network.
This means you have the flexibility to operate it from your smartphone and other smart devices to set just the right temperature–much like the typical wall thermostat control–from anywhere on your property.
This makes the smart stove an excellent choice for safely warming your house from another room.
The smartest wood stove is equipped with a voice recognition system. You don’t have to adjust manual controls; instead, you use voice commands or smart dial features to maintain efficient fires and reach your desired room temperature.
The latest wood stove brings convenience that cannot be duplicated in a regular wood stove, thanks to its customizable settings that allow for a more personalized wood burning experience.

The Bottom Line: The major selling points the smart stove include its efficiency, safety, convenience, and precision controls. Basically, it offers everything a regular wood stove does and more.

Who Would Want to Buy a Smart Wood Stove?

Investing in smart appliances in your home is a no-brainer in this modern day and age. Smart wood stoves, in particular, draw people in for the convenience and comfort they offer.

Smart stoves are most suitable for:

Busy homeowners and business owners who could use some automation to heat their home, office, or other place of business.
Homeowners who want a safer and more sustainable way to heat their home, not to mention an easy-to-operate or easy-to-control system that maintains heat.
People who prefer less hazardous options to traditional wood stoves and heaters.

Bottom Line: When it comes to traditional wood stoves, there’s always a concern about fire hazards and safety. Smart technology helps to alleviate these concerns.

How Much do Smart Stoves Cost?

To date, the smart wood stove products equipped with the latest technology for the most efficient burns are Quadra Fire’s Adventure Series Wood Stoves.

A pioneer in smart wood stoves made of solid steel, Quadra Fire takes pride in its smart burn technology that makes it a cost efficient investment.

quadrafire - a pioneer in smart wood stove technology

Quadra Fire gives two options for the size of the stove and the price is dependent on this. A 2.5 cubic foot firebox starts at $2,999.

On the other hand, it can cost around $3,499 if you choose the 4.5 cubic foot firebox that heats larger spaces for a longer period.

As an emerging product technology, there’s not a tremendous amount of options. But from our research, here’s the cost breakdown:

Low-range / Budget Option: $1,000 – $1,300
- At this price point, you may sacrifice some features for affordability. For instance, some models include a programmable interface directly on the stove instead of being linked to a smart phone app.
Mid Range: $1,300 – $2,500
- At this price point, you will find great options that include the features we discussed above. The caveat is that they will be smaller than high-end models. This means they may not be able to heat the space you need it to.
High-End: $2,000 – $3,500
- At this price point, smart stoves become larger and more feature-rich. These options will be great for those who plan to rely on it for heating their home in cold climates.
Luxurious: $3,500+
- If you have the budget, this price point offers the most innovative and powerful smart stoves on the market. These will be powerful enough to heat your home efficiently and provide the best smart technology available.

Can You Build Your Own Smart Stove?

Building your own smart stove primarily entails finding the suitable materials–such as cement, cast iron, red bricks or clay–that can be used to form the mold.

Some wood stoves can be portable while others can be built permanently on a particular spot. Depending on your desired tech capabilities you want on your smart stove, you can integrate a single button control system that is linked to your smart stove.

Remember to use the right materials and build your DIY smart stove properly so it does not become a fire hazard.

Bottom Line: While a DIY smart stove won’t match the precision and functionality of an optimized smart stove offered by a top brand, it’s a great option for those who plan on only casual use.

Related Articles and FAQs about Smart Stoves

A smart stove makes a great addition to any smart home, but there’s many other awesome smart technologies and appliances to consider, too. Check out our articles on the subject:

And if you want to learn more about stove technology, we’ve compiled some of the most relevant FAQs below.

What is a Hybrid Wood Stove?

Hybrid wood stoves often have two different burn systems combined in one firebox. These systems each have their own unique advantages:

The combustion system, more commonly known as burn tubes, work best at temperatures above 1000°. This type of system delivers secondary combustion air that enables the stove to incinerate most of the smoke.
The other system, called a catalytic combustor system, is for lower temperatures within the 500° level. This allows the hybrid stove to continue burning clean and efficient heat on medium and low burn rates.

The hybrid wood stove equipped with a catalytic combustor is responsible for lowering down the temperature when the wood smoke burns, allowing it to convert smoke and unwanted pollution into useable energy.

Generally, a hybrid wood stove burns cleaner than non-catalytic stoves, spending 80% of their life in the low to medium burn rates. Another advantage of a hybrid wood stove is the ease of maintenance. Since it reduces smoke, you have less cleaning to do.

What is a Banking Wood Stove?

Owning a wood stove, especially a traditional one, requires proper banking at night so it can be readily lit in the morning.

A banking wood stove naturally includes this process. When you bank a stove, you are slowing the fire and reducing heat output. This allows you to keep the fire longer without tending, allowing you to save fuel in the process.

Banking lets you position the fire in a way that preserves the fuel, whether it is wood or coal, so that they will still be hot hours later. This process is often done at night so that the leftover coals can still light new wood in the morning with ease.

So, how do you bank a stove?

First, you must give the logs in the stove some time to reduce to coals.
Second, you will need to open the flue and rake the coals to the center of the stove. You may use a fireplace shovel or a similar tool to do this.
Next, you have to add one of two logs on top of the coals.
You will then need to cover the newly added wood with ash using a fireplace shovel. You have to make sure you are using enough ashes to thoroughly cover all the wood and coals.
Finally, you must turn down the flue so that it is mostly closed. This will cut the airflow, letting just a little air to get through and completing the process of banking.

What are the Different Types of Wood Stoves?

Essentially, there are two types of wood stoves – the catalytic stoves and the non-catalytic stoves:

Catalytic Wood Stove

Catalytic stoves have ceramic “honeycomb” catalysts similar to a car’s catalytic converter. This feature allows the stove to send their smoky exhaust through and burn off the gasses and particles, resulting in fewer pollutants.
Catalytic stoves are considered more efficient than its counterparts as they burn longer and emit less heat. The only caveat is they tend to require a bit of maintenance, especially when it comes to replacing the catalysts every few years.

Non-catalytic Wood Stove

Without the catalyst mechanism, other features are in place to reduce emissions including the interior baffles, a feature that enables longer flow path for the hot exhaust.
Non-catalyctic stoves are are often less expensive than catalytic wood stoves. However, they produce more emissions and may require maintenance over the years as some internal parts will have to be replaced eventually.

Bottom Line: A catalytic stove provides more power and better sustainability, however a non-catalytic stove costs less.

How Much Space Can a Wood Stove Heat?

Wood stoves come in various sizes of wood burning hearth. The basic benchmarks include small, medium, large, and extra-large wood stoves.

Determining the size of the stove is important if you want to install one in your home.

The size of the stove can affect its heating capacity. For example, if the space you want to install a wood stove in is less than 500sq. ft., then a small wood stove will do.

Putting a large one in a cramped space can very likely lead to dangerous buildup of creosote. A large wood stove can cover a space that is around 1,000 to 2,200 sq. ft.

However, it is good to remember that these can still largely depend on a host of other factors:

The height of your home’s ceiling
The insulation in your house
The number of windows that you have at home
The layout of the room
The type of wood you are using

Conclusion: A smart stove represents a group of emerging products with innovative technology. Those who love warming up with wood stoves but hate the inconvenience will likely fall in love with smart stoves.

Jack Kelle

Jack is an entrepreneur, outdoorist, and animal lover with a background in philosophy, psychology, and business. He enjoys music, friends, and family. At RAVE, Jack works as the manager of marketing and content development.

Posts by Jack Kelle