What is the longest you can go without reloading?

woodsie8 said:

...Is there something that makes the wood last longer?

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Density. Rick

Burning hardwood in our 30, I'll go 6 or 7 hours between full loads if I want meaningful heat the whole time. (Dead of winter in New England in an old house).

I base burn time on how long the automatic blower stay on. That said, about 7-8 hrs fully loaded.

Well I've only had once chance to run my new Blaze King Princess... With 3/4 of a load of wood (a mix of fir and pine) the stove ran for about 9 hours! I know that Blaze King claims 20 hours on a full load... So I'm thinking with either Oak or Madrone I should see 12-16 hours on a full load.

I've been burning some spruce and pine this fall and with a full load I can get 7 hrs and still have a bed of coals to rekindle. With a full load of Oak or Locust I can get 12hrs between loads.

I get between 6-8 hours if it is cold and I trying to keep the house warm.

BrotherBart said:

I frequently go from May to October without reloading. :coolsmirk:

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dito!

BrotherBart said:

I frequently go from May to October without reloading. :coolsmirk:

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Damn, you beat me to it!

My wife & kids have gone a couple of years without
reloading :red:
That's my job :coolmad:

12 hours is my record on the current stove, 9-10 hours is closer to the average. But that's exclusively with hardwoods and fully dampered down.

if I burned softwoods I would expect half that at best.

In the burn season, I do 9-10 every day, burning softwood. Small stove modifications were necessary to get it. Record is in the 13-14 hr range.

Really? That's great work! What kind of mods did you do?

If I'm carrying my revolver, I can get off 6 rounds before reloading. Rick

Secondary air control makes all the difference. Here are two modification examples:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Add_secondary_air_control_to_stove_Morso_2110/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/5716/

We must have a very hot bed of coals, then reload and let it rip about 1/2 hour. 'Shut it down about 7/8ths, and it'll be hot enough 8 hours later to easily light new fuel. (Lodgepole pine in a Jotul Firelight CB)

That's different. I'm talking about 9-10 hours from the end of one load to the beginning of the next:
Last load of the night burns before going to bed, shut down air controls.
Wake up, pull forward coals, reload, fire.

Some other tips or tricks that I have learned from years of burning and from this fantastic site of knowledge that a new guy may want to keep in mind for longer reload time is wood and coal-amber setting. If I am starting out and need some quick heat and will be around to reload fairly soon, I line my coals up north to south right in line with my intake air. Then I line my wood east to west right on those coals with maybe a small split to prop it up a bit. The intake acts like a blow torch on those hot ambers an gets most of the logs going at one time. If I am looking for a long slow lasting fire so that I can come home from work to hot ambers, I set it up differently. I line my coals east to west a long the back wall and load my wood east to west also. That way the rear log gets going and slowly works it's way to the front log (domino effect). All stoves and drafts etc are different and it takes some good experimenting around to find that sweet spot for your needed burns. All the more reason why I love wood burning

Well, last night I tried my first all night burn. I'm not sure what my results will be during the coldest stretch of the winter (our temps are dipping down to the low 30's at night now, we'll be lucky to have that as daytime highs during the winter). I was able to get a good 7 hours burn time loading 2 decent sized rounds and 1 split of pine and still had a good bed of coals this morning. Given my location, most of the wood that is available is softwood; I envy those of you back east and in the midwest who have access to hardwoods. Adjusting burn times using hardwood would be a nice option. I do think I'll be heading to the nearby sawmill and loading up my truck bed next week. I'm just not comfortable that the 4 cords I have will be enough to last this winter, especially since we're to get snow in the valley at the end of this week. I'm thankful I have a woodshed--rainy season seems to have set in.

9-10 hours

So far almost 20 hours and thats with softwood, But my stove is noted for long burn times Harman TL-300. I heard of 27+ hours with hardwood with this stove but i did not try my hardwood yet as i have loads of softwood i want to get rid of.

fairly long while using a belt fed weapon....................