I got a 30 gallon barrel stove kit last year for my fur shed. It works, but not really to my liking. My shed is only 12×16 and the barrel stove will cook you out in no time! It is only 15" deep, so you have to build more of a vertical fire and can't fit any decent "longer burning" size logs in it and there is a grate on the inside that doesn't really allow you to get a bed of coals. Problem is, I get a fire going and my shed gets HOT, by the time it gets to a "comfortable" temp, the fire is out. I spend more time messing with the fire than I want.
My neighbor has a Vogelzang boxwood stove for $75.00 I could get. It is 25"×15"×12" on the inside with a solid bottom (good for a coal bed). Would I be better off with this or the barrel stove? Anyone have experience with the Vogelzang? I know it is a cheap stove but it will be in the fur shed (away from the house) and won't be left unattended. Thanks for any advice.

go for the vogelzang,,sounds more like it fits

The current barrel stove I have


The Vogelzang I might get

The Vogelzang will be easier to load, and horizontal at that, but it probably won't damper down too much on account of the cooking top and plates on the top.

Put a blue flame LP on the wall it would solve a lot of space and safety issues some have fans that kick in and they go to pilot when the desired temp is reached!

You get what you pay for in a woodstove. Barrel stove being the bottom of it all. A small firebox is about worthless for anything.

The cheaper you go, the more heat goes out the pipe. Put a fan behind the stove to regulate heat. More fan = more heat. A cheapo fan works just fine. You're just blowing the heat off the stove....and the pipe into the space.

The nice thing about wood (in a fur shop) is it decreases humidity. I can dry rats in 18 hours in mine when it's cold out.

Seems like a good price on the boxwood. They cost about three times that much new in this area.I have one I believe is the next size smaller I paid $200 for new 6 or 7 years ago.

Do what Law Dog said and go with the Blue Flame, wall-mounted gas heater. Any woodstove you put in that small shed is going to cook you right out of it in no time. My fur shed is 10 x 16 and not insulated. I heat it with a Mr. Buddy heater that mounts to a grill size (20 pounder?) propane tank. In sub-zero or single digit temps it gets it up to 40-45 degrees in there on high. Temps above twenty I have to turn it down to low.

I recently built a 16 x 28 shed and I was going to put a woodstove in it. It's pretty well insulated and I decided against the stove in favor of a wall mounter gas heater.

If you insist on a woodstove, get a small one with good air control, one where you can just about cut the air completely off, that way you might be able to keep it below ninety in there.

I have that Vogelzang stove. It works fine with dry fine split wood and best with 24" long stuff. Because it is all Cast Iron it gets hot very slowly but retains heat longer than a barrel or sheet metal stove.
Put a couple of solid cement blocks under the legs to make it taller or you will tired of belly crawling to fill it.

Small wood "tent " stove would work and they're pretty cheap, might have to cut your wood smaller, but the airtight ones are easy to damp down and control

Good stuff, instant heat, instant off; secure the gas feed when you aren't going to use for a while.

I have the same stove in My garage, it works great. An LP heater will put a lot of moisture into the air, A small pellet stoves also works great and can use a thermostat.

Scott

Thank you all for all the info. I won't go the LP route. In the future, when I build a new fur shed I might, but this shed isn't worth a nice heating system like that.
J.Morse- the barrel stove has a cook plate on top also (under the decorative top with the diamond shaped point). Neither stove is "air tight", but I believe the boxwood stove is more than my barrel stove.
Calvin- I know you get what you pay for, and for this purpose it just has to heat. I do use a fan, GOT TO HAVE A FAN! As I said about the LP, if this was a nice, new building, I would spend more. I was just wondering which of these two would be better for my situation. Thanks again, more information is welcome.

The humidity is very low during fall and especially during winter. The amount of moisture a gas heater puts out is negligible under those conditions. I use mine to get the temp above freezing when I'm working in the fur shed and to dry my fox pelts before flipping the fur side out (they don't dry very well when they're froze). Between the little gas heater and an oscillating fan, they dry quick.

DD, can you load from the cook plate on the top of the barrel stove? Either way if it were me I'd keep the barrel stove.

I could, but it is only about 6" round. It's easier to just set the would in vertically from the front (don't burn your hands). If you don't mind me asking, why would you stick with the barrel stove? Just looking for more reasoning....

Both kerosene and LP gas have H2O as a combustion product, so if vented to the heated space they will add to the moisture. It is much better to do LP with combustion air pulled from inside and exhaust vented to the outside. That way when it is burning none of the combustion H2O goes into the shed and it actually pulls wet air in from the shed and exhausts it. The air from outside that replaces the combustion air should be much drier. That's all good unless your fur shed is also a wood shop or garage in which case combustion air needs to come from outside for fire safety.

This is the one I use in my fur shed, a Mr. Heater Tank Top heater. 15,000 BTU, you can pick them up for about $45.00-$50.00. I use about two twenty pound tanks in a season.

vogelzang may make it pretty hot,,its a small building....damper it down

I can't tell from the pic but it looks like the grate is broke on the barrel stove and that may be why you can't keep a good bed of coals. If so then I would cut me out a piece of metal and drill holes in it so everything doesn't fall down into the ash area. The reason I would keep it is it's a good little stove that you may have to adapt to, and it's already there. Also, why spend any more money if your gonna build a new shed in the future. Have you thought about maybe using a little anthracite coal?