Reloads

firefighterjake said:

You can do a partial load and still get a good burn.

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firefighterjake said:

Avoid the temptation to reload the stove . . . even if it is still cool OUTSIDE if it is plenty warm inside. A hot or warm stove and warm walls, furniture, etc. will radiate/hold the heat for a decent amount of time. . .

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firefighterjake said:

Use up your punks, chunks and uglies

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Thanks firefighter--More confirmation that I am doing things right--and that my instincts about this have been pretty good (other than the night I had to put my beach clothes on).

Looks like shoulder season is just going on and on down here in the "south". Many of the next 10 days predicted to be in high 40's or low to mid 50's---nights varying from 27-42.

Don't think I will have trouble having enough space in the box in the winter--it seems a bit on the big size for my space---less need for scientifically precise loading!!

dyerkutn said:

And one more thing--For monitoring the stove temp--I have a magnetic thermometer on the flue about 18" above the stove top--would I be better off to have one on the stove top instead.

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I like having both. Getting the best efficiency is kind of a balance between keeping the stove temps up and the flue temps down but above creosote levels.

firefighterjake said:

This is the time to use your "second class" firewood -- the softwood, the poplar, the silver maple or other wood that cannot stack up to the BTU producing power of the oak, black locust and osage orange.

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Great post (all the stuff I deleted too!)..however these are the kinds of things that make me jealous. Some people don't have a choice and all we get is spruce. I would love to get a blaze king and load it to the gills with oak and never have to touch the thing the rest of the winter....

When the stove pretty cool is a good time to clean out the ashes and clean the glass.

Sprinter said:

I like having both. Getting the best efficiency is kind of a balance between keeping the stove temps up and the flue temps down but above creosote levels.

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Same here . . . well actually I have a probe style thermometer since I have double wall pipe and a thermometer on the stove. The stove thermometer lets me know I am not overfiring the stove and I use the flue thermo to let me know I am burning in the Goldilocks "Just Right" temp zone to minimize creosote . . . together the thermos also let me know when I can start cutting back on the air.

NBABUCKS1 said:

Great post (all the stuff I deleted too!)..however these are the kinds of things that make me jealous. Some people don't have a choice and all we get is spruce. I would love to get a blaze king and load it to the gills with oak and never have to touch the thing the rest of the winter....

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Sister lives a bit north of you (at least I think she is a bit north) . . . used to live in Portage and had some friends on the island there . . . she now lives in Wasilla . . . commutes to Anchorage. While living in Portage (well technically Girdwood) they had a woodstove. They pretty much only burned beetle kill spruce.

She doesn't have a woodstove in her new place . . . says she likes central heat and being able to wake up to a warm house and the dog's water dish isn't frozen (long story short . . . the cabin she and her husband were renting had little to no insulation and they were using an old smoke dragon for heat). She also says it is nice to come back to a warm house. That said . . . I'm kind of having my own bet with myself as to how long it will take them to decide that they want a woodstove installed in their new house to offset the price of heating oil.

And yeah . . . we are spoiled . . . but for the record this may be the first year since I've started heating that I actually get to use oak and black locust . . . although I have used sugar maple, beech and yellow birch in the past which are also much better than most softwoods.

I'm in year two and my wood is so much better. Here inside I495 it's really only been necessary to heat after 5pm on weekdays, and morning/evening on weekends. It's been tough for me not to keep loading because I love seeing the stove / wood perform so well just like the good folks here told me it would last year. Kinda like taking your new car out to get milk when there are already three gallons in the fridge!

We don't mind the temp in the house going up and down. Wife starts to tapping foot at 60deg though. She's really the big factor in when to reload in the shoulder season!

firefighterjake said:

Same here . . . well actually I have a probe style thermometer since I have double wall pipe and a thermometer on the stove. The stove thermometer lets me know I am not overfiring the stove and I use the flue thermo to let me know I am burning in the Goldilocks "Just Right" temp zone to minimize creosote . . . together the thermos also let me know when I can start cutting back on the air.

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Exactly. The Goldilocks zone. I like it.

DTrain said:

Here inside I495 it's really only been necessary to heat after 5pm on weekdays, and morning/evening on weekends. It's been tough for me not to keep loading because I love seeing the stove / wood perform so well

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I am in your neighborhood and having the same experience.

Sprinter said:

The Goldilocks zone

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great image