N-S VS E-W

What is the problem you are trying to address? If I'm reading correctly between the lines, you are either having more trouble getting a fire started, or trouble getting as much heat because you are now burning e-w instead of n-s?

There is a difference in the way your air will flow through the stove. I think many would say that given the same wood, just oriented differently in the stove, that the n-s load will burn faster/hotter than e-w because the air flows better between the pieces of wood. I have not personally changed the way I have put wood in a particular stove, but in my old stove, I burned e-w, and in my current stove I burn n-s. It is hard to compare because they are different stoves, but I can tell you the air flows through the stove loaded n-s better than it did in the old stove loaded e-w.

You state that you have checked both supplies of wood, do you have a meter, or are you using some other method?

Is the maple the same sugar maple or is it another variety of maple? This would also affect the heat coming off the stove.

I would try a couple of things before I start the chainsaw to cut that wood down. When starting the fire or reloading, make sure there is an open channel under the firewood and between the hot coals so that air can get under the firewood load. I would try loading the firewood in a way that will allow a little more air movement in that stove while the wood is catching fire in the startup phase. If you can, try to load with more hot coals in the bottom of the stove to help get the wood going faster.

And of course, open the air up just a little more, allow more air for combustion than you needed previously, it probably will not take much more air to get you back on track.

Now, when I changed stoves, I had about a pickup load of wood that was too long, and I stewed about it for a year. I tried to find a buzz saw that was ready to use with no luck, kept sorting for the shorter wood. I finally broke down, bought myself the smaller chainsaw I had been wanting to buy anyways, and went to cutting, and before long, it was all the right length to fit. Just took a couple of evenings. I now have way more cut ends than I need, but they are handy to have when starting a fire. Cutting it down was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Don't know that I would want to cut several cord, but a full-sized pickup load wasn't too bad.

My lopi liberty is primarily an E/W loader which will take a 24in split. I loaded it this way the first year and said no more of that. Then I read on here where another liberty owner was loading N/S. So we started to cut our wood between 14 and 16 inches and loaded N/S. I find a new reload takes off faster, burns hotter, and you don't have to worry about wood falling against the glass. Plus I can leave my wood split pretty big and still get more in that way than I can with smaller splits E/W. But you have to be careful because of the fact that it burns hotter. Real easy to have a run away fire.

You want a hot quick fire, lincoln log it, then keep a close eye on the temps cause it will take off like a sky rocket.

Most of the time i burn N-S.

Sometimes i may burn E-W not very often.

I used to have the same stove as an insert. I found I could get a lot more wood in with each load if I loaded NS. It was annoying cutting everything to 12 1/2" but it liked NS loading. If you burn EW be sure to make a valley in the coals/ashes from the front to the back to allow for air flow.

N-S, in principle, burns a little faster, but I get good burn times from big short splits N-S. Love not worrying about splits rolling up against the glass. Plan to cut to 12 inches next yr, but some of what I burn is c/s/d and it's difficult to buy at that length.

I've been having great results with my bottom layer N-S and then piling E-W on top of that. Burns excellent and airflow thru the whole load is excellent as well. E-W only works OK especially on a hot reload, but can be a bit sluggish to burn. N-S of course works too but I can get more wood in the box if the top of the load is E-W due to the slanted top of the firebox. I'm sure it all has quite a bit to do with where/how your stove introduces primary air into the box and the dimensions of said firebox. Loading my Dad's old VC Defiant N-S would've just been silly.

For me personally I'll do whatever it takes to burn N/S. I too have a small firebox (for now, Englander 30 on the way). Last winter I burned E/W and also lost a lot of hand & arm hair in reloads. Not to mention all the cussing and swearing at the piece that was always 1/4" to thick to fit.

I made a jig this year and cut everything down to 12"-13" and now load N/S. You can really pack it in there loading this way which gives me a more controlled, better burning load. Too many air gaps for me loading E/W. With the tighter loads and slower controlled burns I probably added 2 hours onto my burn times. I have consistently, almost daily been throwing small splits on the coals after 12 hours and she'll start back up on her own. Pretty nice for such a small stove.

Rake coals forward, one EW in the void. NS on top of that. works great for me.

with the huge box in my old morso 1125 I like to load n/s a row with a row of e/w on top of it then another row of n/s or vice versa depending on what size of have more of. I can go up to 24" e/w and about 16" n/s

I've burned both ways in the King seems about equal to me,be interested in hearing from other BK burners.

herdbull said:

For me personally I'll do whatever it takes to burn N/S. I too have a small firebox (for now, Englander 30 on the way). Last winter I burned E/W and also lost a lot of hand & arm hair in reloads. Not to mention all the cussing and swearing at the piece that was always 1/4" to thick to fit.

I made a jig this year and cut everything down to 12"-13" and now load N/S. You can really pack it in there loading this way which gives me a more controlled, better burning load. Too many air gaps for me loading E/W. With the tighter loads and slower controlled burns I probably added 2 hours onto my burn times. I have consistently, almost daily been throwing small splits on the coals after 12 hours and she'll start back up on her own. Pretty nice for such a small stove.

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Sounds like you get some great performance out of that stove. Also sounds like its time to get a pair of gloves.

With the Mansfield we now go N/S almost exclusively. (but it will take nearly a 20 incher) I don't notice any difference when we don't as far as burn or temps... but for us we like the fact that it can't/won't fall against the glass now.

...although, if the split is overly long, slamming the door closed could break the glass.

Exactly, i always check for this but N/S it is for me.

My Cumberland Gap takes a 21 inch east west so that's pretty much the way I go cutting my pieces to 18-20 inches however on start up I will stagger ew and ns with a top down fire. North south burn will be way faster in the consumption of wood.

North/south loads start up faster, but once the stove is hot I can burn either way and it works out about the same. I have a stove that takes an 18 inch log but lots of my splits are 13 or 14 inches long, so I burn most loads with 14 inch logs loaded E/W but pushed to one side and the 4 inch gap on the end loaded with a few shorter logs loaded n/s. This works great for me.

Why do I have so many 13 and 14 inch pieces? When I cut my firewood I intend to cut to 16 inches. I measure by eyeball and apparently 14 inches looks like 16 inches to me

Measure twice cut once.

Dakotas Dad said:

With the Mansfield we now go N/S almost exclusively. (but it will take nearly a 20 incher) I don't notice any difference when we don't as far as burn or temps... but for us we like the fact that it can't/won't fall against the glass now.

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I'm all N/S with the Manny too - I don't like E/W unless I'm cross-stacking the load for a quicker, hotter fire on a more mild day (and then the E/W is the second layer). DD - do you actually use 20" splits N/S? I find 16" to be about perfect, with 17" getting pretty close to the glass - anything more and I'm not happy with how close the splits are to the glass. Cheers!