A stove cord carries no legal definition; a cord does. Enter your quote to see what it is really worth in cords.
Two sellers, two units, two species. Price per cord is not enough — oak carries nearly twice the heat of white pine. This compares dollars per MMBtu (one million British Thermal Units — a fixed unit of heat, not a brand or a volume).
Going the other way is where buyers lose money. A stove cord is 42.7 ft³ — you need 3 of them before you have the 128 ft³ a cord requires. It is the one term on this list that describes an intended use rather than a fixed shape, which is exactly why it carries no legal weight.
A stove cord is defined by your firebox rather than by any standard, which makes this the conversion most sensitive to a number nobody writes down. Measure the inside of your stove first: the difference between a 14 in and an 18 in cut is nearly 30 percent of the wood at the same advertised name.
Three stove cords at $110 each is $330 for 128 ft³ — 1 cord, so $330 per cord. Quoted against a $300 cord, the stove cord deal is the worse one.
Common log lengths against a 4 ft × 8 ft face. Your pair is highlighted.
| Sold as | Stack | Cubic feet | Cords | Defined by law |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cord | 4 × 8 × 48″ | 128 | 1.000 | Yes |
| Bush cord | 4 × 8 × 48″ | 128 | 1.000 | Yes |
| Stove cord, 16″ cut | 4 × 8 × 16″ | 42.7 | 0.333 | No |
| Face cord, 16″ cut | 4 × 8 × 16″ | 42.7 | 0.333 | No |
| Rick, 16″ cut | 4 × 8 × 16″ | 42.7 | 0.333 | No |
| Face cord, 12″ cut | 4 × 8 × 12″ | 32 | 0.250 | No |
| Cubic feet (1) | Any | 1 | 0.00781 | n/a |
A stove cord of wood is a regional name for the same 4-by-8-foot face as a face cord or rick, cut to whatever length fits the buyer's stove — commonly 16 in. It carries no legal definition, so the actual volume depends on the cut length the seller used.
Roughly 3 in shorter than the inside width of your firebox, so splits load without wedging. For most stoves that lands at 16 in; for compact inserts, 14 in. Ask for the number in writing, since it decides the volume.
Depends on the firebox, but a 2 ft³ stove burning four loads a day gets through roughly 128 ft³ of stacked wood in a season of steady use — about one cord, allowing for the air space in the stack.
It takes 3 stove cords to make one cord at the standard 16 in cut, since a stove cord is 42.7 ft³ against the cord's 128 ft³.
Because that is the unit a price comparison — and a dispute — has to be settled in. The cord is the only firewood measure most states will enforce. NIST Handbook 130, which nearly every state weights-and-measures office adopts, fixes it at 128 cubic feet of ranked and well-stowed wood.
Advertising in stove cords is not itself illegal in most states, but the receipt generally has to state the quantity in a defined measure. Measure your firebox first, then ask the seller for that cut length in writing.