A review of the Morso 1410 Squirrel wood burning stove
Well, things finally came together and I’ve been burning in the Morso Squirrel for the past few nights. The anticipation of finally firing her up has been killing me and I’m enjoying every minute of putting her through the paces. After about 18 hours of burning I’m ready to share a few insights on this tiny workhorse.
With roughly a 15 inch x 15 inch footprint the Morso 1410 is one of the smallest wood stoves I’ve seen. The firebox is only big enough for 12 inch splits of wood, but you can cram a few 14 inch splits in on the diagonal. Despite it’s diminutive size I have been able to get 8-9 hour burns when I pack her full of wood on a nice bed of
coals and nearly close the primary air supply. I’ve found a few coals capable of restarting the fire even after 10 hours.
It takes a really good coal bed before the Squirrel starts burning efficiently and smokeless. If I use a lot of dry kindling I can usually get to this point in about 10-15 minutes. Yes I said smokeless. This is an EPA certified stove, and when it is burning hot even the smoke is consumed inside the stove. I couldn’t believe it the first time I checked the stove pipe outside and all I could see were heat waves rising into the cold morning air.
When you are burning at an efficient temperature, for me this is around a 550 degree reading from the stove top, the Squirrel does a good job of conserving wood as well. My method is to pack her full of wood and then burn that down to coals before I load her up again. With the air supply half open that cycle takes about 2 and a half hours.
When you tune your air supply properly you can get a great secondary burn with the Morso Squirrel. You can see all the smoke and creosote burning in a ball of flame hovering above the fire. What a show!
You build your fire on a nice grated surface and all the ash collects in a handy removable ash pan below. There’s a neat little pull mechanism that makes the fire grate rotate so the ash is coaxed down into the pan.
You can run your stove pipe through the top of the stove or through a connection in the back. I chose the back so I had the entire stove top to use as a cooking surface. I can’t wait to put a big Dutch oven full of stew on for a nice all day simmer. It’s also a great spot for your kettle to put a bit of humidity back into the dry cabin air.
So far this stove has done a great job of heating my 900 square foot cabin in temperatures hovering around 25 degrees. Within 10 feet of the stove you are toasty in short sleeves. Within 20 feet you’re comfortable in a pullover. Around 30 feet you’re standing in my fennel patch outside and probably freezing your arse off.
Follow this link to see more pictures of the Morso 1410, including the inside as well.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Posted in Fire, Self-Sufficiency
December 19th, 2008 at 12:34 am
That is one amazing little stove. And by the way, the floor in your cabin is beautiful.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:57 am
I’m happy with the little Morso Squirrel thus far. For temps that rarely make it lower than the teens she’s a good fit. Thanks for the kudos on the floor, just finished that as well. A raccoon chewed a huge letter “h” in the old floor. I have no idea what significance the letter “h” holds for raccoons.
January 5th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I got myself a squirrel also, it does fire up nice although it doesn’t really heat up my house, I think my ceiling are just too high and its not very well insulated. I was just reading on another website about stoves blowing up, it was Jotul stoves in particular they were talking about, its from “whuffing” never heard of it, do you think it could happen with the squirrel? Damn,I’d hate that.
January 7th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I have vaulted ceilings too. My ceiling fans do a good job of getting that hot air back down. My roomate in college used to “whuff”. We’d find dozens of empty paint cans under his bed. My squirrel hasn’t shown any signs of blowing up or inhaling spray paint. She is purring along nicely as she enters her second month of use.
January 11th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Very funny. I almost typed ‘lol’ but I’m in my 50’s and just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Anyway, I was considering putting a fan in, I’m sure that would help. I’ve had my stove a little over 3 mos so if anything weird happens (empty aerosol cans) I’ll let you know.
February 21st, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I recently purchased the 2 B Classic it has the heat exchanger on top. I could not be more pleased. Even though I have no top space to utilize, the area inside the heat exchanger can be utilized.The heating efficiency is superb the larger fire box allows for longer wood. If you would like I can send you some photo’s.
Colin
February 21st, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I just read the comment about whuffing. I believe this is when the draft causes a pressure burn in the chamber. To meet US standards for EPA they had to change the air flows on some of the stoves Like my 2B Classic the lower air vent is not functional and if you open the clean out door for too long you can get an interesting burn going but when closing it the change in air pressure can cause a flame out that when the gas build up ignites it will whuff some time big enough to pop the top plates off the stove . You only do it once to gain respect for the POOOFFF thta happens
February 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I would love to see some pics of your 2B Collin. I’d be happy to post them for others to see also. Whuffing doesn’t sound like much fun. I haven’t experienced anything like that with my Squirrel.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Hi. I just purchased the Morso 1410, the last floor model, they took it apart and put it in a box. As one would expect, after putting it together, I ended up with two parts I have no clue how to use. It’s a small screw and a small nickel or chromium handle (they may not necessarily go together). Any ideas? Also, I think I overpaid for it, being the last one the guy charged me a little over $1,000 — was that too much? I like the design/styling of it, clean lines without being bare.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 am
I think I know the parts you’re talking about. Does the handle thing have a hole in it that you could mount it to a wall with the screw? I have the same two parts and was thinking they were some kind of hanger for the detachable handle to the stove door. That’s about what I paid too…don’t think you got overcharged too bad.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Thanks for the info Braddock. Your hearth looks great! Do you know if it’s a workable idea to use one chimney for 2 stoves? I’ll be using my 1410 in the basement, with the pipe going up thru the first floor, second floor and the roof to the chimney. I was thinking about connecting another 1410 on the first floor to the same pipe run by using a T-connector thru the back of the 1410? I’d be using one sove at a time (or maybe both?). Do you know if this is workable, or know of any source where I can read up on it? From your postings I think you’re a hiker. I’d like to recommend a hike we did 3 years ago: England’s Coast to Coast, we literally hiked across England from the Irish sea to the North sea, best hike ever! Took as 16 days. http://www.coast2coast.co.uk/
March 25th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
As important as good drafting is to indoor stoves I would recommend you check with the experts on the two stove – one chimney question. The experts can be found here:
http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/
The Hearth.com forum is where I learned everything about wood stoves, wood burning, and wood seasoning…good people!
October 19th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I was just cleaning out my stove and noticed the panel inside on the right hand side is cracked in half. Just wondering if it could have happened to you since we got our stoves about the same time. Could have happened when it was installed, the guys seemed really baked and heard from someone else they were stoned when they installed their stove too. Also besides cleaning did you do any other maintenance onf your stove. Thanks
December 18th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I enjoyed your review of the Squirrel, but nearly had an anyurism trying to read against your wood grain background. Is this just my display or is this a problem for others?
December 21st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Rod, there should be a white background under all the text on the page. The page must not have loaded properly for you. Try clearing your cache or give it a go in Firefox. Websites always look better in Firefox.
December 25th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Hi, good site,like your stove. I’ve been running a 1410 for 3 years now, great heat from such a compact stove. I am still using the original fire brick lining which came with my squirrel and it has cracked on both sides on many occasions. The rear fire brick has cracked into several pieces now. I recommend a tub of fire cement and any time you see a crack just fill it and light the stove up. Repairs on the fire brick I find last several weeks, constant burning. Spares available online from many sites. There is a good site where I found info out on stoves some years back, backwoodsman-stoves.co.uk. Morso are quality stoves, real workhorses.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
I just brought my 1410 home. It is still in the truck. I guess I got it for a steal. Brand new, and only $499. I’m happy to see that you have had such success with it. I look forward to getting it installed and firing it up. Thanks for the tips on getting the burn to be smokeless. I will have to achieve a smokeless burn in 6 minutes to meet air quality standards here. I hope it can be done.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:23 am
Hi all
Being a ‘townie’ I have had no experience of ‘real’ fires where there’s no switch to flick! However, we decided to get a stove as an alternative heat source and the only one that would fit in our tiny fireplace was the squirrel.
I have a simple problem which I’m sure you can bombard me with answers to…I understand the whole concept of feedsing oxygen into the fire but I don’t know which direction is ‘open’ on both valves which is obviously causing me a problem. I thought it was anti clockwise for the primary valve and left for the secondary valve but as soon as I turn the primary valve down, all my flames vanish and it smoulders the wood. I want flames!!! How do I get a roaring fire like you have in your photo? I’m using newspaper, kindling and seasoned wood.
You might be my only hope…
January 16th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Not includinmg the stove how much did all the pipe and connections cost to finish the installation?
February 4th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Been feeding woodstoves now for 40 yrs. My 1410 is now in its 8th year, and I’ve learned a few things, which I’ll try to share. (Mine has only one air control, at top of door, for primary air; secondary runs open, with inlet at rear bottom.)
Wood cannot be too dry, especially if you want to damp it down for a long extra-efficient burn.
Max log length = 10″, since pieces should, says Morso, be oriented perpendicular to the back face, parallel to airflow (down front & to the rear.) “Best” length = 8″ because of slope of baffle; a cheap portable table-saw works great for buzzing to this length.
Wood should be loaded in batches, upon burning down previous batch to coals. Else, airflow will be effectively blocked to pieces below.
With thermometer on stack, starting involves lighting cross-stacked kindling and some wood, and burning with door cracked until stack temp hits 250F; then door closed & pri. draft open until fire is established (at least 20 min.) Then, maybe a few more sticks.
On partly closing damper, wait a few minutes, to see that secondary combustion is still working.
Doing this, the smoke-pipe stays very clean.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I live in a very small cob house (less than 200 square feet) and have been researching small stoves to install in my home. The contenders seem to be either the Morso 1410 or 2B Classic, or a Jotul 602.
They all seem like good choices (they’re probably all overkill for the size of the house, actually)… but can anyone speak to the prices the Morso stoves fetch?
February 25th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
[...] Check out this website for a review of the Morso 1410. [...]