How Do You Start When Cold (no coals)?

velvetfoot said:

Yes.

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take that AVC!

Coal Reaper said:

NO coals? or NO HOT coals? are COLD coals acceptable? the only time i ever had NO coals was the very first fire ever in my boiler.

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ditto

but no torch needed......really(for the boiler).

no coals break in fire is simple, a few small splits(2"-3" wide), a piece of cardboard over them, then regular splits on top, ball up some newspaper and light through lighting door and then fan on, closed doors after 2 minutes or so.
If coals, just throw splits on bed and 90% of the time no lighting needed(2 fires a day),

SK

maple1 said:

I get better results only loading a small part load at startup and then loading full a half hour later, than I did when I lit with a full load of fuel. Might be a nature of my beast - just seems to build a good fire faster at first with the small part load.

Although it has been a long time since I've done that - maybe I'll try it again sometime for the heck of it.

Why relight again after 12 hours? That's two fires in one day. Why not do it all in one burn with a re-load on a hot bed & refractory after 3 or 4 hours? That's only one fire a day.

Just goes to show the flexibility that storage allows - usually more than one schedule and procedure set to skin these cats with...

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sometimes i do, mostly on the weekends. weekdays i am in the barn to get my truck in the morning and again to tuck her in at night, so every 12 hours fits my schedule 5/7 days. also, if something comes up after work and i stop on the way home, i know the house will not go cold cuz I DID have a fire 12 hours ago and have more BTUs to run on. AHH, STORAGE...
put it this way. starting a fire while in the barn already is less inconvienient than making a special trip out there to reload hours after lighting. the act of starting a fire in itself is probably equal for those guys that merely need to walk down a flight of stairs to the basement to reload.

maple1 said:

Why relight again after 12 hours? That's two fires in one day. Why not do it all in one burn with a re-load on a hot bed & refractory after 3 or 4 hours?

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From 0 to 30 I need two fires a day to keep my home warm.

wish i could afford to let it go out, lol

Coal Reaper said:

take that AVC!

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Apparently. Keep changing the parameters and everyone can be happy.

Either way, starting these boilers is simple.

Forced draft. Love it.

ac

The Jetstream is a much older clean burning technology with a very large refractory component .It depends a lot on how long it has been between firings how it is lit . For firings that are only 24 hours apart put 3 lbs of kindling into the bottom of the burn chamber the paper on top of the kindling light the paper turn the draft inducer on leave the loading door ajar when the kindling has been reduced to coals ( about 5 minutes )add a full charge of wood close the loading door and the forced draft kicks in and its away .When firings get up to 14 days between firings in the summer month for DHW supply the lighting sequence becomes a little more prolonged . To allow the refractory to warm up gradually I may go through 3 or 4 batches of kindling before adding full charge of wood then still running on just the draft inducer until I can hear gasification taking place then shut the loading door and going to full forced combustion. Sounds tedious but I get a lot of satisfaction out of how many years that I have been able to get out of the refractory 30 + years and counting .When the boiler has sat 2 weeks or more it is possible to have the boiler to full gasification with in 5 minutes , but when I clean out the bottom of the burn chamber for the next fire there will be small bits of refractory in the ash . Your modern types make it sound so easy !

avc8130 said:

You guys keep answering with "coals". This man wants to start with NO coals.

For me, I throw some cardboard in that I was going to recycle anyways. Then I grab some of the smallest splits I have (realize I do not "make" kindling, just whatever happens to be smallest in the pile). These are usually ~4". Then I touch off the cardboard with the propane torch and the forced draft carries it from there. Pile on the real splits (6-9") and go upstairs and sit in the warm house.

ac

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what do you have for a boiler?

avc8130 said:

Apparently. Keep changing the parameters and everyone can be happy.

Either way, starting these boilers is simple.

Forced draft. Love it.

ac

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Yes, I own both an EPA stove (in LR) and have owned and operated several stoves and wood-boilers in the past. I can honestly say that an induced draught boiler is truly the easiest thing to get going.

I use no cardboard, newspaper, kindling....just rake the cold charcoal from yesterday's fire over the nozzle, stack a split on that charcoal, and fill to the brim with whatever you want. Light through the nozzle from the lower chamber close it all up and walk away.

TS

flyingcow said:

what do you have for a boiler?

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Wasn't there something about fire gremlins in the wood-gun?

TS

BoilerMan said:

Yes, I own both an EPA stove (in LR) and have owned and operated several stoves and wood-boilers in the past. I can honestly say that an induced draught boiler is truly the easiest thing to get going.

I use no cardboard, newspaper, kindling....just rake the cold charcoal from yesterday's fire over the nozzle, stack a split on that charcoal, and fill to the brim with whatever you want. Light through the nozzle from the lower chamber close it all up and walk away.

TS

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You just described my lighting procedure to a T only I have forced draft. Looking like if you use the correct procedure the type of draft isn't a factor in the procedure.

velvetfoot said:

Key also seems to be charcoal, cold or not.

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Right on!

I don't have coals after a burn. Maybe I'll look closer, but I don't think i can restart without a bit of kindlin'. I do one fire a day.

Picture of lighting the Jetstream.

I also do one fire per day. Just went down and shut down the boiler while there was still a large amount of glowing charcoal. Hopefully there will be a half dozen one inch pieces buried in the ash that I can stir out when I go down to start the boiler tomorrow. I don't worry about making creosote when the wood is burned down that far.

velvetfoot said:

Key also seems to be charcoal, cold or not.

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Having some charcoal to start with really makes re-starting easy and gets gasification going very fast.

Some just use a timer to shut the draft fan off while there's still plenty of coals left. It's pretty easy to guess within a half hour or so when to stop the fan.

Or you can use a flue gas temperature sensor to tell when to shut down.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/timer-for-boiler-fan.103569/

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/end-of-burn-draft-fan-shutdown-control.73405/

I put in a full load of regular wood, stuff the lighting door area full of newspaper, and light the paper. When flu gases get to 120c, I close the lighting door and then close the safety door.

The first fire after a cleaning in which I have removed all the ashes from the primary and secondary, this will take about four to five minutes. A normal fire with ash from the previous burn will take about two. I do not use cardboard or kindling, but I do have a blow torch to light my newspaper.

flyingcow said:

I don't have coals after a burn. Maybe I'll look closer, but I don't think i can restart without a bit of kindlin'. I do one fire a day.

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Ditto. Maybe a few clinkers but that's it, just a bunch of ash.

I kind of start form scratch each fire.

K

SKFire,

Did you pick that fire starter up at HomeDepot or Lowes Maybe my wife might let me get one for Valentines day.

kopeck said:

Ditto. Maybe a few clinkers but that's it, just a bunch of ash.

I kind of start form scratch each fire.

K

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I may put my Innova down in my truck garage. And put a Froling (if i get a favorable price out of Chris Hoskins, hint,hint). But i have been talking a little with one of the guys at Tarm. Where thats Lambda controled unit, it shuts off the air once the fire is out. And I should have enough coals/clinkers for a restart without kindlin'.

timberr said:

SKFire,

Did you pick that fire starter up at HomeDepot or Lowes Maybe my wife might let me get one for Valentines day.

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Excellent..
best firestarter EVER..
I would ask my wife for asecond one.....imagine those babies in stereo...
but she has more weapons than I do...but I have the bunker down below....

Brace yourselves, video uploading...