Impressed I had coals to restart this AM

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DianeB

DianeB

Feeling the Heat
Apr 26, 2012
399
Foot Hills of the Berkshires
Lit a small fire with just 3 small to medium splits last night around 8:00 pm. Let it burn hot for a couple of hours and then slowly backed it down thinking it would just burn out. I did not re-load as it was supposed to be up in the 70's today. Shocked to find enough coals this morning to relight. I did not think I would get that with the Castine. I did not re-light. Glass had small haze. I checked my wood last night - a couple were 16% and one was 20%.

Going to make sure I save some of the 16% to mix with my 20% as I sure got a nice fire that held coals.

Anyone out there mix there wood like this?
 
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I have had a few fires so far in my Oslo, I was also very surpised to have had enough coals in the morning to start a fire based on the small amount of logs i had in it prior to going to bed. I am also blown away how long the cast iron holds the heat compared to the steel stove I had in my last house. Cant wait for the heart of winter!
 
When your castine is running, and you have a bed if hot coals, take them forward and put a 6" round in the back and load the rest with normal splits. 8 hours no problem, and have hit 11 hours, still had coals, but minimal heat
 
That's an excellent start Diane. Nice going.
 
Nice work glad to hear it working out good.
 
That sounds great. i gotta get a castine! I love the F3, but with the castine i wl be ale to keep the furnce from running at all. sorry not trying to steal thread...
 
DianeB said:
Lit a small fire with just 3 small to medium splits last night around 8:00 pm. Let it burn hot for a couple of hours and then slowly backed it down thinking it would just burn out. I did not re-load as it was supposed to be up in the 70's today. Shocked to find enough coals this morning to relight. I did not think I would get that with the Castine. I did not re-light. Glass had small haze. I checked my wood last night - a couple were 16% and one was 20%.

Going to make sure I save some of the 16% to mix with my 20% as I sure got a nice fire that held coals.

Anyone out there mix there wood like this?
Click to expand...


Good start Diane. My only concern is with your comment about letting it burn hot a couple hours and then slowly backing it down. I hope that was not full draft for 2 hours. If so, that is far too long and later on this could cause you some problems. Also, you stated that you then slowly backed it down. No time to be slow here. Just turn that sucker down!
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Good start Diane. My only concern is with your comment about letting it burn hot a couple hours and then slowly backing it down. I hope that was not full draft for 2 hours. If so, that is far too long and later on this could cause you some problems. Also, you stated that you then slowly backed it down. No time to be slow here. Just turn that sucker down!
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only let it run to 500 for the 2 hours then slowly shutting it down until it reached 400 and held
 
DianeB said:
only let it run to 500 for the 2 hours then slowly shutting it down until it reached 400 and held
Click to expand...

Diane, where was the draft setting while getting this 500 degree burn? You wording makes it sound as if you are leaving the draft full open or close to it. If so, you need to change. Once that fire gets established you need to turn the draft down. If you don't, you are just sending a lot of heat up that chimney. It is better to keep that heat in the house!

I'll give an example on how we run our stove. When starting a cold stove, we put the draft full open but not for long! Else the stove actually takes longer to heat up. We cut it to 50% usually within 10-15 minutes. Then after perhaps another 10-15 minutes we'll cut the draft again to only about 25% open. On reloads, we have the draft full open for anywhere from 5-10 minutes. This time we'll cut the draft really low once the fire gets established and the wood is charred. On our draft we have setting from 1 to 4. We regularly run the draft from 1 to about .75 (that's below 1). This is the way to get the heat from the wood.

We find there are many folks who think they have to give the stove lots of draft and you do, but only until the wood is charred. Leaving the draft open for long periods only wastes fuel and you always take the chance of overheating the flue.
 
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Backwoods Savage said:
Diane, where was the draft setting while getting this 500 degree burn? You wording makes it sound as if you are leaving the draft full open or close to it. If so, you need to change. Once that fire gets established you need to turn the draft down. If you don't, you are just sending a lot of heat up that chimney. It is better to keep that heat in the house!

I'll give an example on how we run our stove. When starting a cold stove, we put the draft full open but not for long! Else the stove actually takes longer to heat up. We cut it to 50% usually within 10-15 minutes. Then after perhaps another 10-15 minutes we'll cut the draft again to only about 25% open. On reloads, we have the draft full open for anywhere from 5-10 minutes. This time we'll cut the draft really low once the fire gets established and the wood is charred. On our draft we have setting from 1 to 4. We regularly run the draft from 1 to about .75 (that's below 1). This is the way to get the heat from the wood.

We find there are many folks who think they have to give the stove lots of draft and you do, but only until the wood is charred. Leaving the draft open for long periods only wastes fuel and you always take the chance of overheating the flue.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the details on this. some of my wood 20% -pehaps taking longer to ignite? I need to pull from both piles and mix the 16% and 20% so I don't have to leave the air open that long. Next year we should have all well seasoned wood. I know if I get distracted this can be a problem, will be fastidious about setting kitchen timer. Will set for 10/15 minute intervals. Glad it is just cool now and not cold, got to get a lot of practice in.
 
Diane, it sounds like you will get this down pat rather quickly. Good luck.
 
It's great to have hot coals and a warm chimney in the morning! For the past couple of weeks, I've started a fire in our basement stove in the evening for the coal nights. In the morning, my wife adds wood and has the house nice and warm for everyone by the time we are out of bed. Yes, I love my wife - but not just for her fire building skills. Wood heat allows us to have the house as warm as we want any time of year without worrying about running the furnace and keeping the house cold. The heat is worth the work!
 
With just three small/medium splits ya did it just fine Diane. Takes a small load a long time to warm up that much cast iron from a cold start. Dennis neglected to say when he engages the cat. Again.

With that non-cat you can back the primary air down around a quarter after an hour with the cold start and pick up a little advantage in heating the stove. But with that small a load, not much.

Enjoy that puppy. It is a great wood stove.
 
Bart what would be a good rule for closing down the primary air on a non cat such as the Quad 3100? It seems I could use a lota learnin to get the best out of that stove, any help would be much appreciated.
 
Husband having a hard time getting the hang of it. Came home last night and found that he had turned the stove down to almost being closed - too hot in the house. He built too big of a fire...shoulder season is a hard time to learn how to use an EPA stove. Of course glass very dark, and I am sure creosote building. Old dog, new tricks...hard.
 
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Shoulder season is a bit trickier, but you'll get the hang of it. Just don't try to go for long burns. Next fire, make it with just a few splits and let the stove heat up well, then let the fire go out. And enjoy the nice Indian summer while it lasts.
 
begreen said:
Shoulder season is a bit trickier, but you'll get the hang of it. Just don't try to go for long burns. Next fire, make it with just a few splits and let the stove heat up well, then let the fire go out. And enjoy the nice Indian summer while it lasts.
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will do! sunny clear blue sky today...perhaps 70
 
This fall i have been building fires with 2 or 3 small splits burned hot and fast that keeps from over heating the house.
 
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sounds like you have got a good start indeed!! i often thought about buying an oslo but went with the progress because i have a little more room to heat. if you can run three splits hot for two hours and have coals the next day...touche. sounds good to me! i think we all succumb to the beauty of the flame, when in reality, we dont want raging fire storms because its less efficient. you will have that jotul so dialed in by winter it will be an extension of yourself. Stay safe!!
 
corey21 said:
This fall i have been building fires with 2 or 3 small splits burned hot and fast that keeps from over heating the house.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I've been doing so far. Once any of these stoves gets up to, say, 500F on top, they will continue to radiate heat for hours, which is all that's needed for warmish days assuming the house isn't too drafty or poorly insulated. I've noticed that my stove is still at over 100 many hours after the morning fire has diminished.
 
Sprinter said:
Exactly what I've been doing so far. Once any of these stoves gets up to, say, 500F on top, they will continue to radiate heat for hours, which is all that's needed for warmish days assuming the house isn't too drafty or poorly insulated. I've noticed that my stove is still at over 100 many hours after the morning fire has diminished.
Click to expand...

My stove top is at 200 right now from this mornings fire and it was a max temp of 550.
 
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