Frequently Asked Questions

The short answer is that you can expect up to 8 hours for Kimberly™ (embers to embers) and up to 10 hours for Katydid™ and Krikit™, (embers to embers).

The species of wood, the moisture content in your wood, and the size of the load in your firebox will affect your your burn times. Softwoods such Douglas Fir and pine will burn just as cleanly as hard wood species, but softwood species will not burn as long as hardwood species. 

Remember that there is only so much wood gas in any load of firewood. When burning one of our wood stove models, you will see flames only as long as there is wood gas to burn. However, embers will remain, after flames diminish, and continue to release heat until they too are exhausted and ccoast to a powdery gray ash.

No. Flames will be visible as long as there is wood gas in your load to release and burn. Embers will remain and continue to release heat until they to diminish and turn to a powdery gray ash. 

Depending on the species and the size of your last firewood oad at bedtime, you might expect to wake up to a stove that is warm to the touch with enough hot embers to make it easier to light your first fire of the morning.

The overnight temperature drop will depend upon your outside temperatures, wind speed and direction, insulation and window quality, etc. One of our team members reports an average overnight temperature drop of 8 degrees Fahrenheit in an 1850’s farmhouse in the Upper Midwest. Your experience will be unique for your situation.

Our Unforgettable Fire® wood stoves have always been (and will always be) manufactured within the United States. We have shipped to clients from coast to coast in the United States, Canada, parts of Europe, Mexico, and New Zealand. 

Unforgettable Fire, LLC started out on the island of Vashon, located in Puget Sound, about a 15-minute ferry ride from West Seattle, Washington. Roger Lehet, our Chief Executive Pyromaniac, eventually settled in western North Carolina, in an area recently made famous by Hurricane Helene.  

Through the miracles of modern technology, we are able to take client phone calls and emails from wherever life finds us at the moment. In the past this has included a Maui beach, a cow pasture at the foot of the Colorado Rockies while working a tiny house show, the National Mall in Washington, D.C. while attending the 2013 and 2018 Wood Stove Design Competitions, and once while hanging from a 50-foot cliff in Northern California at a retreat. 

Mostly, however, you will find us taking care of business from our home offices, and occasionally from our cars—hands free, or while safely pulled over on the side of the road. On occasion, you might catch us on a roof, while completing an installation.

Please peruse our website to learn about how our patented 2-stage combustion technology can save you both time and money by making more efficient use of your firewood. Then contact us with your questions. We are here to help!

When considering the price of any new wood stove, one should always consider total installation costs, not merely the cost of the stove itself. Even a “FREE” wood stove can quickly become a $2,000.00+ investment by the time you add in the cost of Class A chimney pipe, hearth pad, and that doesn’t even include installation labor. 

As an alternative to seasoned cordwood, manufactured sawdust logs are often available at many Big Box stores. We have found that the darker and shinier brands of sawdust logs are superior to light-colored sawdust logs with protruding fibers, as the darker and shinier logs were compressed under greater pressure. Never burn sawdust logs containing wax or paraffin.

Although our inventor and CEO, Roger Lehet, currently burns locally sourced seasoned cordwood in his personal wood stove, during the development phase of each of our Unforgettable Fire™ wood stove models, Roger Lehet relied upon Home Fire Prest Logs which provided him with a consistent moisture content and size of load. As Roger was living in the. Seattle area at that time, these logs were also readily available.

If Home Fire Prest Logs are not readily available in your local area and you do not wish to source seasoned cordwood, we suggest that you look for alternative brands of compressed sawdust logs, which are held together only by pressure and do not include wax or paraffin.

Never burn coal, as it will immediately void your warranty and may damage your stove, which is not designed for this fuel.

Our original Kimberly® stove, has been renamed as Kimberly® 1.0 to distinguish it from the re-engineered Kimberly® 2.0 with the new and improved grate/ash dump cover at the bottom of the combustion chamber. Other than this change, the stoves are identical.

Our new grate/ash dump cover provides unprecedented damper control in our Kimberly™ 2.0 model, resulting in improved client experience in the removal of ashes, even longer burn times, and even cleaner emissions.

Unforgettable Fire, LLC will contnue to offer replacement grate/ash dump covers for sale to our valued Kimberly™ 1.0 clients into the foreseeable future as the grate/ash dump covers for Kimberly™ 1.0 and Kimberly™ 2.0 stove are not interchangeable. 

Our Kimberly® Owner’s Manual includes the exploded view of both grate/ash dump cover designs. As well, we have included new information about installing a Kimberly™ wood stove in a “moveable building”. As we understand it, “moveable buildings” under Canadian laws, include such structures as tiny houses on wheels, tiny houses on skids, float homes on water, and RV’s – campers.

The performance of any wood stove is influenced by its chimney, it’s fuel, and its operator. To avoid smoke escaping the door of your wood stove always read and follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions. Always burn wood that is 20% moisture content or less, which is the wood stove industry standard. Always fully open the damper handle of any wood stove before opening its door to avoid flashback of smoke and flames.

Every wood stove that has been UL-listed by Underwriter’s Laboratories, including the UL-Listed wood stoves manufactured by Unforgettable Fire, LLC, undergo a “spill test” as part of the UL-testing protocols. The “spill test” measures the amount of smoke that escapes from the door when the door of a wood stove is opened.

The UL-listing from Underwriters Laboratories is your assurance that a wood stove model meets or exceeds the threshold of allowable spillage. When burning adequately seasoned firewood of 20% moisture content or less inside a wood stove with a properly installed and functioning chimney and when the operator opens the damper handle prior to opening the door, the amount of wood smoke that escapes from a UL-Listed wood stove, such as those manufactured by Unforgettable Fire, LLC, should be virtually undetectable.

In the early days of Unforgettable Fire, LLC, we spent a great deal of time and effort to develop a removable baking oven. Clients quickly discovered that the cast iron Dutch oven they already owned was just as effective, so we abandoned the baking oven project.  

Our clients. have proudly reported great success in baking cookies, brownies, breads, poultry, and meats on top of their Unforgettable Fire® wood stove. Some of our clients have taken things a step further by drilling hole in the top of their Dutch oven to accommodate a thermometer. Because a cast iron Dutch oven must make full contact with the wood stove top, the Dutch oven should not have feet on the bottom.

Our patented 2-step combustion technology facilitates higher stovetop temperatures than do other wood stove brands. While we appreciate cast iron as a material for its ability to heat food evenly, it is not necessary to use cast iron for cooking on our Unforgettable Fire® wood stoves, as cooking vessels made from other materials can also provide you with a hot and delicious meal. 

All wood stoves draft better when the chimney runs vertically through the structure’s ceiling and roof. Some of our clients express their fear this over the possibility of leaks when following this advice. Although that may have been a valid concern in great-grandma’s day, when using today’s modern sealants, venting straight through the ceiling and roof is a non-issue when done correctly.

Venting out the wall allows greater heat loss because heat transferred outdoors, rather than keeping that heat in the home. Horizontal runs, which must include the use of elbows, places back pressure on the inside of the chimney, which can cause hard starts and smoke spillage when opening the door for reloading. Chimney costs increase because additional Class A chimney pipe is required.

Whenever possible, always install the chimney straight through the ceiling and the roof, and not out the wall. This is true not only of our Unforgettable Fire® wood stoves, but is good practice for others, as well.

As with any wood stove, the relationship between your heart and your lungs is much like the relationship between your wood stove and your chimney. Each must work together in harmony or the performance of the other will suffer. For this reason we sell and warrant the performance of our Unforgettable Fire® wood stoves when they are sold with our custom-manufactured pipe.

Because our patented 2-stage combustion technology keeps more heat in your home and wastes less heat up your chimney, our interior flue temperatures are much lower than chimneys connected to other wood stoves. To overcome the possibility of condensation or drafting issues because the interior flue temperature drops too low, we use custom-manufactured insulated pellet pipe, developed exclusively for our Unforgettable Fire® wood stoves. 

A greater consideration is your safety. When you purchase your chimney pipe Unforgettable Fire, LLC, you eliminate the possibility that some big box employee may sell you 3-inch or 4-inch pipe that is not UL-approved for use with our wood stoves, and thus put your structure at risk for a chimney fire. 

For these reasons, we sell our Unforgettable Fire® wood stoves as a package with our custom-manufactured pipe because your safety and the performance of the stoves is critical to your satisfaction. For additional information about our unique UL-approved venting systems, please consult our owner’s manual for the model that you are considering, and contact us with questions.