How full do you load?

I'm not familiar with your stove so I can't give you specific advice for your exact stove. In general, I think most quality built stoves are designed to be able to burn with a full load of wood. Over firing dangers are more related to how much air you are letting into the stove through the primary air control. When you start packing more wood into any stove you are increasing the surface area available for burning. Once you have a stove really packed you can get into trouble if you don't pay close attention as the wood is catching fire. If you wait too long to start reducing the amount of air from the primary you can get a real blast furnace effect going and then you can get into trouble since just reducing the air at that point might not be enough to quickly bring down the temperature of the stove. I'd recommend experimenting by gradually increasing your loads while you closely monitor the burning characteristics of your stove. This way you'll develop knowledge of how your stove is going to burn with various size loads. That will help you decide what size load you need for the various indoor/outdoor temperature situations. Good Luck.

If I need to, I pack it absolutely full, but when I do, I make every effort not to leave large gaps between the wood, AND I set a timer for 10-15 minutes later so that I shouldn't forget to close down the air.

TE

I fill mine to the top every night and every morning in the winter. Leave the air open enough to get good flames going and then I close it down so it's only open about 10%.

All the way to the top. Can't fit any more in.

The only risk is damaging the soft ceramic baffle plate on top of the non-cat englander.

i fill my super 27 until the baffle moves around and let it rip.

For a reload in my Super I rake the coals to the front, then I lay two shorter splits E-W in the back to get a level surface and stack the rest N-S on top of it until right under the baffle. I have a similar feeling as BB that the stuff right under the secondary air holes just burns away too quickly. Thus, I leave a gap along the center line in the Super to have enough room for the secondaries. The air from the rest of the baffle does not touch much of the wood. Using dry ash, I had the blower still running and plenty of hot coals after more than 10 hours.

I know this doesnt apply to the op but what about a cat stove, how to load that?

To the roof, especially on a cat stove.

Most of the winter I will load my Clydesdale insert with a 3/4 load and I'm good for at least 12hrs

I shoot for 12 or 24 hour cycles with my BK. Sometimes that means stuffing it full, other times it depends on the kind of wood and size of splits I load.

The PE gets filled up most every time, unless I'm timing it for a last load before bed. The biggest thing I've found with that one is to pack it tight, so there is very little airspace between splits. That helps to keep temps in check by slowing down the off-gassing. Just tossing in 4-5 smallish splits can lead to a pretty hot stove, pretty quickly.

I fill the box within a few inches of the secondaries. But, I fit the logs in tight so there's not much room for air between them, otherwise it can get really hot really fast and when you're that close the secondaries they start to act like primaries and like BB said, the top of the load will get roasting. But every stove is different and it took me nearly a whole season of 24/7 burning before I was comfortable doing this.
It's also like cooking a meal, once you figure it out. You need to start planning from your finish time (bed time) backwards to know when to load, adjust, etc. So it's all settled in before you want to hit the sack.

jeff_t said:

The biggest thing I've found with that one is to pack it tight, so there is very little airspace between splits. That helps to keep temps in check by slowing down the off-gassing. Just tossing in 4-5 smallish splits can lead to a pretty hot stove, pretty quickly

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Im with Jeff for the PE. I dont have much to add as its been said above but reading this thread is getting me excited! Its almost like wood stove porn.

While we are on the subject ... .

We have a used older-model Hearthstone Heritage, noncat. It has a pretty big box. Anyone have experience with how full that should get for a night?

thanks y'all for this awesome helpful friendly forum!

The Summit has no problem burning packed to the gills. Those ports have no problem burning down in the wood. The front ports also have no issue burning the hell out of everything rolling around the front & up.
As with any stove and set up, experimentation will tell you what works best for you.

Hey, sharp looking fireplace/stove!