Is staying in the "burn zone" necessary?

Nick Mystic said:

Punkydoodle,
You shouldn't need to keep your stove door open for 30 minutes during your start up process and letting the stove reach 400F. That's a bad habit to get into because bad things can happen when a stove's door is left open and you get distracted and forget about it being open. Once you have active flames in the firebox most stoves will continue burning with the door shut and the primary air left wide open. Have you tried closing the door sooner? On both of my stoves I can shut the door before I am even reading a temperature on my thermometer and the fire will continue to thrive. If I close the door too soon and the fire dies out I just crack it again for another few minutes and then try closing the door again. Your flames will almost always die back when you shut the door, but then they should slowly start to recover as the fire adjusts to the diminished amount of air.

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Totally agree with what Nick is saying. One point I would like to add, is that with your door open that long, it gasses your wood a lot harder, lessening it's potential left over energy.

I close my door as soon as the fire can sustain itself, and get on the air quick. I read the fire and the flue temp. Sure it takes longer to hit the high temps, but I don't need to see 500 F after 2 sips of coffee.

And as bholler mentions, every stove/chimney combo is different depending on the home.

Try experimenting, what do you have to lose? The only thing that happens if you shut down the air too quick, is the stove stalls/fire dies. This can be exciting sometimes.

200F is on the low side for a reload of full size splits if you are shooting for a quick start up without kindling. You don't want to have 20 minutes of smoke after a reload. What I do on a similar reload is I try to load the stove in a manner where I stack my splits in the back and front of the stove, leaving a small gap between them in the middle. Then I throw in some kindling and a strip of waxed cardboard that I use as a fire starter in that gap. I also make sure before reloading that I clear away the ash and coals in front of my doghouse and make a channel straight back through the middle of the stove to allow air to flow under the logs. This allows air to feed the kindling in between those splits and establish a quick flame to burn off any smoke generated by the splits sitting on the hot coals before they catch.

Punkydoodle said:

Does anyone know why the newer stoves should be burned in this manner vs 1 or 2 logs at a time? Just curious.

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I think these stoves run better when you add at least 2 pieces at a time but preferably 3 pieces if you're looking for a shorter burn cycle rather than a full firebox. There's some kind of synergy that takes place with at least 2-3 pieces.

I sometimes just throw a few pieces on, get the stove hot, and then turn down the air. I just think of it as a short burning cycle. I don't keep adding every time the flame stops or it would fill with coals eventually.

There's more than one way to run a stove.

Don't put too much stock in the zones on your cheapo thermometer. The thermometer only reads the temperature of the top of the stove, and that isn't a perfect way to gauge the temperature inside the stove. Plus, thermometers like yours aren't very accurate.

When you start a stove there is a lag between stove top temperature and temperature inside the firebox. I think you can close the door much sooner than half an hour after startup and still get a clean start. I'd try to keep secondary flames burning in the stove throughout the portion of the burn when there is yellow fire coming from the wood. This stage of the burn coincides with the release of volatile gases and smoke that can cause creosote in the chimney and could be burned in secondaries. Later, the wood all burns to coals and you usually can't get secondaries, but also wont get creosote.

Nick Mystic said:

200F is on the low side for a reload of full size splits if you are shooting for a quick start up without kindling. You don't want to have 20 minutes of smoke after a reload. What I do on a similar reload is I try to load the stove in a manner where I stack my splits in the back and front of the stove, leaving a small gap between them in the middle. Then I throw in some kindling and a strip of waxed cardboard that I use as a fire starter in that gap. I also make sure before reloading that I clear away the ash and coals in front of my doghouse and make a channel straight back through the middle of the stove to allow air to flow under the logs. This allows air to feed the kindling in between those splits and establish a quick flame to burn off any smoke generated by the splits sitting on the hot coals before they catch.

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I agree that 200 is on the low side for a reload following a burn cycle. But can you really adhere to a full 5/6 hour burn cycle when you are dealing with bitter cold outside temps (teens/single digits)? I am a newbie and have had no problems letting my insert go thru a 5 hour burn cycle with moderate outside temps...matter of fact the first few months following my install in September were so moderate all I had to do was load once and the house would stay toasty warm without trying More recently with outside temps getting down to the low 20s & teens it seems to be a whole other ball game? If I let the insert go thru a full 5 hour burn cycle my firebox temps will fall off too quickly and the house temps will start to drop...then I'm left fighting to get back up to cruising temp and get the house back up to 70?? Disclosure...I don't have a block off plate or roxul insulation which I plan to have done soon. But everything has changed with bitter outside temps. I will also concede that I'm still very much learning about burning techniques and how to get the most efficient use heat out of my insert? But like I said in my earlier post...if I had to rely on only wood heart in these bitter temps I would be in trouble right now!

This thread is interesting. I figured that you guys with more modern stoves would be feeding it less than you are. Makes me feel a little better about what I can get from my old smoke dragon that's a wood/coal combo unit. Last night I got about 4 hours or so of 650-700 (occasionally into the 750's) degree stovetop temps. I may have a larger firebox than most of you; over on the coal forums I heard a guy praise the amount of coal he could stuff into the stove I have.

I agree that it seems to make a big difference when I am trying to heat the house with lows in the 30s and when we hit an arctic snap and it drops down into the teens or even single digits. Our log home is around 2600 sq. ft. and it's not really well insulated since our climate is usually rather moderate in the winter. I think it makes a big difference where you live as to how well insulated and tight your home will be. Yes, I could beef up my insulation, but it doesn't seem to be worth the cost and effort when we might only have a half dozen or so really cold days each winter. When it gets as cold as it is today, 10F, I shorten up my burn cycles and do hot reloads when the stove drops to around 300F, which might take 4 hours. I can also fire off the Woodstock Classic located on our lower level for about a five degree temperature boost upstairs where the Jotul F600 is located in the living room.

Punkydoodle said:

It took about 20 minutes for flames to appear and it smoked quite a bit all that time.

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Large wet splits will cause this. Try this, open up your air before reload so the remaining coals are bright hot, if reloading at this stage you might need to crack the door a bit to get a flame going once you put the pieces of wood in. See if that helps on reloads.

venator260 said:

This thread is interesting. I figured that you guys with more modern stoves would be feeding it less than you are. Makes me feel a little better about what I can get from my old smoke dragon that's a wood/coal combo unit. Last night I got about 4 hours or so of 650-700 (occasionally into the 750's) degree stovetop temps. I may have a larger firebox than most of you; over on the coal forums I heard a guy praise the amount of coal he could stuff into the stove I have.

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Don't mis-interpret what you're reading here. I just went from a big old smoke dragon to a decent sized epa tube stove and the difference in burn times/efficiency is night and day. Longer burns, less wood, more consistent heat. However you want to qualify it efficiency numbers don't lie. Less heat/smoke up the chimney equals more heat in your house.

I have the same stove.I close the door on a cold startup shortly after wood is consumed with flames.If you feel the flames have died out too much,open the door back up and let them build back up.Around 400 i start turning the air down in 1/4 increments.When i reach 500/550 i either close air all the way or barely open.At this point i turn on my blower.If the secondaries die down quickly i open up air a little more-they usually increase.
I have found the 1402 is far more efficient if u load it full than if u burn a couple splits at a time.
Ideally i try to get it up to temp and closed air as soon as possible for max burn times and efficiency.
Reload around 300 if possible.I turn of blower,open air all the way.Splits should ignite but sometimes you may need to leave the door open for a minute or toss a stick match in just to initiate flame.
I would never let splits smolder with door open or closed for 20 mins.
With this process i never have blackened or brown glass,only a white haze from time to time that wipes off with a damp paper towel.
It is my feeling with this particular stove that if i get dirty glass,im doing something wrong.
4 hour burn times are average with my stove.
Anyhow this is how i do it-happy burning!

Wood Duck said:

Don't put too much stock in the zones on your cheapo thermometer. The thermometer only reads the temperature of the top of the stove, and that isn't a perfect way to gauge the temperature inside the stove. Plus, thermometers like yours aren't very accurate.

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This, many times over.

Magnetic thermometers, IMO, can be downright dangerous in the wrong circumstances. It is a LOT hotter inside whatever you are measuring than what those things say it is. How much hotter depends on just how inaccurate that particular thermometer is, and also how it is oriented & stuck on the surface of whatever it's stuck to. And the orientation/shape of the surface. There is a slight airspace underneath it, and the temp reading is influenced to some degree by how much air is passing through there.

I have one on my pipe, right beside a very good probe meter. When I'm burning, the magnetic reads 100c less than the probe. Or in other words, when the probe says it's 250c (480f) inside the pipe, the magnetic is saying it's only 150c (300f).

bholler said:

That depends on the stove and the house. If they are matched right the answer is yes medium sized stoves can go 5/6 hours. And most larger units can easily go 8 hours between loads. that is how i use mine. But if the stove is to small for the house yes the temperature in you house will begin to drop to low when the heat out put of the stove drops.

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Not to mention, a stove is a space heater. Some tend to lose sight of that fact when getting into a wood stove.

Punkydoodle said:

Alright it has been 5 hours now since I filled the fire box full of split wood. The fire is mostly out and only a few hot coals remain. The temp is still hovering at 74 degrees in the house but the surface thermometer on the stove registers around 200 degrees. I stirred up the remaining coals to get them glowing and hot and reloaded the fire box full again. It took about 20 minutes for flames to appear and it smoked quite a bit all that time. Perhaps I should have used some newspaper to help it. I have to say it is nice to not have to fill it as often.

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When you say you stirred the coals up, do you mean just knocked them all around with something, coals and ash alike, and then load the stove full on that?

Advice on here that has worked for me, is to rake the coals forward to the front of the stove, AND make sure there is a channel down the center of the coalbed, running front to back from the primary air inlet to the back of the stove. Then load some splits behind the coals. Those new splits will catch FAST, and when that happens, I finish loading the stove.

Pulling the coals forward makes the incoming air flow over them, get heated up, and then hit the new wood...it makes heat/flame flow from the coals to the new load.
Making sure the air can run front-to-back under the new load does two things that I can see. One, it lets the coals keep breathing, because they're not smothered flat under the new load. Two, it allows air to circulate better inside the stove while the new stuff catches.

Squisher said:

Don't mis-interpret what you're reading here. I just went from a big old smoke dragon to a decent sized epa tube stove and the difference in burn times/efficiency is night and day. Longer burns, less wood, more consistent heat. However you want to qualify it efficiency numbers don't lie. Less heat/smoke up the chimney equals more heat in your house.

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I'm not. I still want a new stove. As I said, the answer could be firebox size. I haven't measured mine, nor have I been able to since I decided I wanted to on account of it's been burning the whole time. The burn times and wood consumption of the newer units impress me. Makes me think that I could come home to something other than ashes and a chilly house if I get held up at work for more than about 45 minutes.

OP, I didn't see the size of the space you're heating. Also, insulation level.