Coaling, whats your opinion

Easy answer. When we got our first epa stove this problem cropped up. Too many coals and we needed heat. I looked but could not find any decent answers that seemed to work for us. After experimenting, I found that if I opened the draft all the way just about the time it was down to all coals or even just a little before the all coaling stage, it then became easy to keep the stove temperature up while burning down the coals. We've been doing this for 7 years now and it still works.

I might add that we have never burned marginal or poor fuel. All our wood is dried for 3 years or more and for this stove I think the oldest wood we've burned has been 8 or 9 years in the stack. Too dry? Absolutley not! It burns like a charm. In addition, with this being our 7th year with this stove, we have found that we could have gone the complete time without any chimney cleaning. However, we have done it twice just for kicks. Very, very little do we ever get from brushing.

I'll also add that many say our chimney won't work. After all, it is a simple SS chimney that goes up along side of the house.....without any chase. We live in Michigan and they say it is too cold for that to work. But our stove and chimney does not realize it won't work and we happily stay warm.

I'm new to burning in a stove and I burn in a pre EPA one. After reading info on this site, I find that keeping the flue temp up is extremely important. Like Backwoods Savage said, I also open the air intakes up before the coal stage to keep the temps up in the flue.

Being my first year, I am not burning the best seasoned wood and I know it. I do have a tremendous start on future wood, though.

I, too, have a set up that is contradictory to what most would approve. I have less than 15' of flue from the firebox to the cap with 3 90's. Most info will tell you that I have no chimney. Well, like everything else, it all depends on the situation.

Do what it takes to keep the flue temps up and avoid creosote buildup.

Less than ideal moisture content increases problem coaling. Good dry hardwood produces coals too , but hot ones that should be left alone till they break down on their own.

A piece or two of light wood on top usually takes care of things.

I have some kiln dried small diameter rounds (i.e. non split) from a post & rail company....when the coals are red hot but no flame I like to throw a few rounds on top of them...amazing how long a burn time you can get with hot coals and dry rounds.

windchaser said:

I have some kiln dried small diameter rounds (i.e. non split) from a post & rail company....when the coals are red hot but no flame I like to throw a few rounds on top of them...amazing how long a burn time you can get with hot coals and dry rounds.

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I agree, two small splits or a small round really raises the stove temp extending the time I get useful heat while leaving fewer coals after it's burned down. Loading on less coals means it's less likely to go nuclear when I do start a new burn cycle.

Seasoned pine is your friend in a situation like this, if you have some.

Wish I did this year *cries like a girl*

I agree with Backwoods, air full open to keep the stove warm and burn the coals down to ash. Just before they are gone, reload. I'll sometimes toss a small, very lightweight split on which immediately jumps to flames, actually speeding the coal reduction process. This helps keep the ashes down so I only remove some of it every two weeks or so.

Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:

Seasoned pine is your friend in a situation like this, if you have some.

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That's what I do... When it's cold and I'm burning hardwood, I'll mix in a full load of pine every couple of cycles and that takes care of the coals. I still get great heat out of the pine loads; they just don't last quite as long as the oak.

Usually i burnt it down as discribed above, but on the frigid days we have had recently i wanted topush the stove harder. my process was as follows:

built a normal fire, get it down to coals as usual.
when the fire is out, just barely, and i am at full coals, push all the coals to the back of the stove
brush the ash to teh sides up front so there is a little channel in it for the air to go from the inlet (front center) to the back
put a log or two just "reloading" the front of the stove.
air control 90-100% out (closed).

then once that log is down to coals, most of the coals in the back are burnt out, repeat the process. This let me keep the stovetop between 500-600F all day (got the house very nice when it was 8F outside).

About 3 hours before bed, i raked all the coals forward, and opened the air fully, tried to burn them down over a period of 2 hours or so, then a normal reload with as much wood as possible for the overnight burn.

the draft on my chimney lets this work, but it sure could go nuclear when you push the coals to the back and reload the front. Worked great here. I have an insert, this hole process had the blower on high and a fan pointed at the front of the stove. Highest I saw was 660F with the IR thermometer.

maverick06 said:

the draft on my chimney lets this work, but it sure could go nuclear when you push the coals to the back and reload the front. Worked great here. I have an insert, this hole process had the blower on high and a fan pointed at the front of the stove. Highest I saw was 660F with the IR thermometer.

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Good Point and observation on pushing the coals back and reloading the front. Its much like when loading wood high up front. many have seen stoves go nuclear. I think what happens is with a fully loaded stove with just a small space up top around the secondary air tubes or baffle, you got yourself a small burn chamber that will build up heat easily and fast. Then when you load the wood high in the front, East/West loading, you block some what the exit path for the heat that goes up the flue. So its an ideal perfect storm scenario. Especially on a hot coal bed. I think your pushing hot coals back to the back of the stove and loading wood up front creates that small hot burn chamber back in the stove just like my situation of loading wood high up front but my coals are raked forward.

I agree, getting the gap between the log up front and the front burn tube right makes all the difference. You get secondaries faster, and stronger. I was actually thinking you could probably put in a small steel plate to force that gap to always be there, better burns, but harder to load.

xman23 said:

I read opinions here about how to deal with the burn cycle I think we call coaling. That's the point the visible flame stops and you have a bed of large coaled chunks. If I need heat I break them up and reload on top of 4" of coals. Other times I let them burn out or down to a point I can just get a relight from them. Besides that, I haven't found doing one thing or another makes any difference.

What do you guys do and what do you think the advantages are?

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Here is what I do sometimes, if I'm home and can watch the stove. I'm also meaning at the time when the ashes are building up and lots of coals are building up like after a day and nights hard burning, say in the morning. I'll stir up the deep coal bed and uncover the air intake of course. Throw in some good split,"whatever I've got room for, and with full air open let'er go till it is all turning into a big red coal bed. Then swing the door open and enjoy the heat and coal show. "Under supervision of course."

Doing this will really put out the heat straight ahead where I'm at in the living room, of course the rest of the house may suffer some but thats normally ok, as my house is small. I'll stir it 3 or 4 times as it burns on down. The door is open and is now cooled down, so it's a good time to wipe the glass off.

When it's getting burned down pretty far, i'll take my big flat point shovel and scoop up some, trying to get more of the spent ash. It's only about 15 feet to my front door, so I just jiggle the shovel off good inside the stove, have the front storm door propped open and walk it out and toss it in the bucket on the walkway out side. So not much dust involed, like shoveling into a bucket inside the house. After about 2 good scoops I'm ready to rake up the remaning coals, create the tunnel of love, load it up with splits and go again.

This works well for me, if time permits. I feel like I'm getting the most out of the coals and not just tossing them out, just to be able to get a good burn again. Use your own discretion please.

embers aplenty said:

When it's getting burned down pretty far, i'll take my big flat point shovel and scoop up some, trying to get more of the spent ash. It's only about 15 feet to my front door, so I just jiggle the shovel off good inside the stove, have the front storm door propped open and walk it out and toss it in the bucket on the walkway out side. So not much dust involed, like shoveling into a bucket inside the house. After about 2 good scoops I'm ready to rake up the remaning coals, create the tunnel of love, load it up with splits and go again.

This works well for me, if time permits. I feel like I'm getting the most out of the coals and not just tossing them out, just to be able to get a good burn again. Use your own discretion please.

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I can see me going head over heels from tripping over a cat and coals all over the place....

embers aplenty said:

It's only about 15 feet to my front door, so I just jiggle the shovel off good inside the stove, have the front storm door propped open and walk it out and toss it in the bucket on the walkway out side.

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Wow I worry when I shovel hot ashes into a pail zero inches from the stove. I can't imagine walking the ashes out the door!

I open the stove break down the coals, close the stove, open the air all the way and get another 1-2 hours of good burn time then reload on a much smaller coal bed 1-2 inch instead of 3-5 inches.

Past few days with -30 wind chill...I just throw more wood on top of the heavy coal bed and let the stove coast as hot for as long as I can reasonably manage it though.

Sometimes I do shovel it out to begin with depending on how lively it is or how spent it may be. With it real cold like it's been sometimes I'll have a lot of hot coals in the morning instead of ash with my massive 1.5 cu. ft. firebox, that I've reloaded a time or two through the night.

Like I say, I don't recommend it to anyone but I have flat point shoveled my stove out to the bucket on the front walk for years. Really it's only about 6 steps. I have older wood floors that I could pick up a coal quickly if need be. Seems like no matter how careful and slow I worked shoveling into a bucket in the house it always made too much dust for me.

After I clear the threshold and 2 small steps I can just dowse it into the bucket. A big shovel half full with the ash and coals slid back in the center of the shovel is safer then one might think. If I had carpet or a long way to go, no way would I do it. Not trying to be a fire hazard, just my way of doing it. I do feel safe doing it or I wouldn't.