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.

My cabin is situated in the deep woods of North Mississippi where heat is really only a concern for 4 months out of the year.  When it does get cold we can see temperatures in the teens for several days though.  I suffered through a weekend like that just a few weeks ago and decided it was time to act.  Kerosene heaters and down blankets can only do so much.

Knowing nothing about modern wood heat, and with a desire to be as efficient in it’s use as possible, I started Googling.  I found a great forum on the topic of wood heating, heating in general really.  Hearth.com was a wealth of information and had me leaning toward an EPA certified wood burning stove.

There are many brands and types of wood stoves to choose from.  I knew I wanted proven quality and cast iron, so I went with the Danish stove maker Morso.  There’s a bit of a debate on which company is the oldest wood stove maker in the world.  Depending on who you talk to the title goes to either Morso of Jotul, both from Denmark.

My cabin is only 900 square feet, and from what I’ve read some of these big wood burners could have you opening a window long before they were up to operational temperature and burning efficiently.  I needed a really small stove with a good reputation and decided on the Morso 1410, or the Squirrel as it’s also known.

The Morso Squirrel has arrived and I’m in the process of constructing a hearth.  I hope to have the old girl fired up within the week.  I’ll have a little review soon.  I included lots of pictures in the post because pics of the Squirrel on the net are hard to come by.  She’s elusive like that.