Filling up with coals

sportbikerider78 · Dec 30, 2015

I load up my stove at night and choke it down a bit so that I do have a nice coal bed in the morning. If I left it wide open, I doubt I'd be able to do an easy restart around 6am. That easy restart is important to me as I have to stoke the fire and get ready for work..play with the kids,,,ect.

I open the air all the way, rake the coals forward, leave the door partly open to get a good draft going...wait 2-3 mins to get the coals very hot, then throw on 3-4 splits. Still leave the door open till they get nice and hot. Close the door with the air still fully open. Let it burn down for about 30 mins and then trim the air to 25%-50% open.

Instead of burning down my coal bed at night, I do it in the middle of the morning, because I know my wife will not reload till she feels the house getting cooler.

Highbeam · Dec 30, 2015

Dagoof said:
BTW,
Does anyone think that I should have considered a bigger insert? (if they even make one bigger)

My fireplace is in the center of my 1,900 SF basement. We've got an open stairwell on either end of the house leading up to another 1,900 SF on ground level. The insulation isn't the greatest ever (1972 2X4 walls), but its reasonably tight, so I figured that if I had a good hot stove right in the middle, we could circulate air with the HVAC fan and keep it's heating to a minimum.

It's been -20 here in Idaho, so I'm learning quickly on the fly.

So 3800 SF, 1972 build, an insert, in a basement, 2.5CF (small/medium), in Idaho at -20. It's not your wood, your stove is not big enough at all. You are running into what happens when you try to get more heat from a stove than it was designed to produce. In order to keep your house warm you need that stove running at full blast all the time and doing that will cause coal buildup.

It may also be your wood but even if you had awesome wood, you'll have this problem. You need one of those stoves on each level of your home to have a chance and even that isn't really adequate. 2.5 CF in an insert is just not much HP.

I attached a picture of what happens when I try to get max output from my much larger non-cat. It coals up. Those first few stages of the fire make much more heat than the coaling stage which is a long stage. People have even gone so far as to shovel out those coals to get fresh wood in the box and make more heat.

And yes, one full summer cut, split, and stacked in the sun and wind is enough to dry most of our PNW species. Longer is better and for crying out loud, cover your wood in the fall before the rain/snow.

TedyOH · Dec 30, 2015

Highbeam said:
People have even gone so far as to shovel out those coals to get fresh wood in the box and make more heat.

<< Raises hand

Dix · Dec 30, 2015

That's alot of space to heat. I've got 2000 SF, and need two stoves due to layout (offset semi split ranch ... didn't take me long to figure out you can't move heat "down" through a 3 foot door way

)

Is the basement insulated?

Dagoof · Jan 22, 2016

Reporting back on this thread.

It's been a couple weeks now, and I'm getting better at this thing.

Thanks to the advice on this thread, I now think that I was force feeding my stove with too much wood too quickly. I was putting in more wood almost as soon as the roaring flames were finished up and not allowing time for the coals to burn up and do their thing. I think I was burying the coals under more coals and more ash until there wasn't much room left for wood. My coals are burning up a lot better now that I'm not burying them -- especially if I get a chance to rake them forward and/or open up the air to finish them up.

I do still have to empty our the ash after about a week and a half of full time burning. Is that typical?

I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get the full 8-10 hours burn time because I was expecting 8-10 hours of leaping flames. Now I understand the concept a little better and, when I've got it choked down, I can pretty easily go for about 12 hours. With the air fully open, I get closer to 6-8 hours between loads.

I do still have more to learn, and I'm wondering about over-firing.

I know that most of you guys leave the door cracked when starting up, and leave the air fully open for the first while too, but how far should that go?

I've noticed that with the door barely cracked, my stove creates a mini wind storm inside, and that wind can be helpful for getting things going. Also, if you get enough flames going and then shut the door and/or air quickly, you can about suffocate the fire, but it seems to flair back up bigger than ever after being starved for a moment or two. It's all about the air it seems. In fact, I got the stove going so well one time that I decide I'd better tone it down a little by chocking off the air, and when I did, the incoming air actually turned to flame.

So I'm wondering about the best way to run things:

Do I need to open it up and let the fire get going big enough to see flames at the secondary air tubes before cranking it down?

If I run the air fully open, am I wasting heat out the chimney with too much draft?

Am I in danger of getting thing too hot by running full bore?

billb3 · Jan 22, 2016

Dagoof said:
Reporting back on this thread.

It's been a couple weeks now, and I'm getting better at this thing.

So I'm wondering about the best way to run things:

Do I need to open it up and let the fire get going big enough to see flames at the secondary air tubes before cranking it down?

If I run the air fully open, am I wasting heat out the chimney with too much draft?

Am I in danger of getting thing too hot by running full bore?

Do I need to .... NO

If I run the air ... maybe, you really don't want the neighbors calling asking why you have flames shooting out of your stack

Can I run it too hot ? Absolutely.

I don't know where you should put a thermometer on your stove but I would get one.

I have a stove that is a little too small too. Feeding it too soon is easy to do. I have super dry red oak and I'll get coals if it gets pushed.
When I come home from work and there is a huge pile of coals I'll either open the air and get them really glowing and the temp on my thermometer will go up a little and I'll suck the rest of the heat out of them, or, I'll throw a couple fat splits of white pine on top of them. With the pine burning hot and fast the stove comes right back up to 450/500 and gives the coals time to finish burning. ( pine coals burn up real quick ) Then I go back to oak splits.
I've been tending to do the pine trick much more often so I don't have more air going into the box to get the coals to glow. I figure I'm losing less heat up the chimney this way.

tarzan · Jan 22, 2016

Uh-yeah. 3,800 SF, -20F. No wonder your running out of room in that stove. I would think a two stove setup would be your best chance.

jetsam · Jan 22, 2016

Highbeam said:
I attached a picture of what happens when I try to get max output from my much larger non-cat. It coals up. Those first few stages of the fire make much more heat than the coaling stage which is a long stage. People have even gone so far as to shovel out those coals to get fresh wood in the box and make more heat.

Fedex 'em to me, my cat will heat my house all day on that load. That is a cool picture; I have never seen so many coals in a stove!

westkywood · Jan 23, 2016

Dagoof said:
Bingo. Just trying to keep a good fire going.

I think you guys may be right though. I'm probably burring the coals that would otherwise keep burning under more and more ash and coals, cuz it seems like once it gets full enough for me to have to take a break, it takes about two days for it to cool off and ash to settle all the way down. Even then, you can still dig through the ash pile and find coals that will glow again once they get a little air.

I'll try and adjust my procedure and report back in a few days.

Do you guys let it burn all the way out, or are you reloading at a point where you still don't have to add any kindling?

I'm late getting in here. Even with good seasoned wood, your stove will reach the point in the cycle where you have only a good bed of coals going, but may not be enough to heat the house. At this point, rake the coals forward and place a couple small dry splits in there and open the air control. This will create a good draft and burn the coals down rather quickly ( while putting out heat) so you can make room for more wood. It's cycle that should be followed to keep the heat flowing. Don't let the fire go out or burn down to no hot coals. You're basically doing this just to keep the heat going and to make room for new wood. Good luck to ya and welcome aboard.

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Filling up with coals

sportbikerider78

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