Does one side of your firebox seem to burn better/easier than the other?

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fishinpa

fishinpa

Member
Oct 7, 2008
183
SE PA
This is my first year with my own wood stove and I'm somewhat new at this, but truly a pyro @ heart. I bought my first stove and have been burning here & there so far, but it's been generally warm around here.

I have quadra-fire 4300 (acc) and have this weird feeling something might be wrong or not quite right with it, but then again I usually have a tendency to 'over' analyze things..... and this may be no issue at all.

The left side of my fire box always rocks and I seem to have to fight to keep the right side as hot. IE: Always pushing coals over to the right, etc.

Am I being paranoid and overly sensitive to the way these things work, or is something that's somewhat normal?
 
my quad 7100 does the same thing, i think it is because the air comes in from the left side.
my right side never burns as well as the left either.
 
Usually a stove should burn fairly evenly. It would be good to closely examine the secondary manifold to make sure all the tubes are correctly set in place. The ceramic baffle board on top of the tubes should be even with front tube & resting on all tubes. The blanket rests evenly on top of this board. Study page 29 of the manual for correct baffle and blanket positioning.

Also, take a dollar bill and close the door on it. Pull it out. If there is a bit of friction, that's good. If it comes out loosely, with no tension, that's not good, there may be air leaking at that point. Try this at multiple places around the door.
 
I'm aware of the baffle and blanket placement and I know that they are right. I have not checked the door for air gaps and will do that next time I get 'er cooled down. That door feels pretty tight though, but I will be sure to check it.
 
Those times when either of my stoves exhibits a "side-preferential" burn behavior, I've attributed it to the configuration of the fuel load, and it usually evens out as the burn progresses. Both my stoves' primary air is fed in from along the bottom front, with no apparent favoring of one side or the other. I'd definitely check the door seal all around. Rick
 
Be sure to rake your coal bed right up to the front of the firebox all the way across the front. If burning N/S place the ends of all of the bottom row on top of the coals but slightly back of the front of the coal bed. If E/W place the small split in the front on the coal bed but a little ways back from the front of it.
 
I find there is less tendancy for a one sided burn when it gets colder and you're really using a stove. Once you're keeping a good hot bed of coals throughout and the temperature differential between inside and out increases, everything seems to just burn easier.
 
I posted a similar problem a while back with my Intrepid. Started to look at primary air problem however I think mine has to do with warmer outside temps and the fact that my air inlet to the stove is closer to one side than the other. Once its good and hot i dont notice any difference it burns evenly.
 
I think that fossil has "nailed it" with the size of fuel and the way it is loaded. My insert has two air-injection ports at the bottom front of the insert. Thus far this fall I have been drawing my supply from the stacked rows, and most of that stuff is huge splits, and I was noticing the same oddity.

Brought some wood in today from the woodshed that I had split smaller ,and when I fired it up 2 hours ago, I got an even burn/the whole box was an inferno in less than 10 minutes. And I loaded today like I have been doing all along, that is to say-N/S. And today was no colder than yesterday, or the day before that.

My thinking on this is that the larger splits probably don`t season as evenly as the smaller ones. Hence, one side will "take off" while the other won`t.

About half of the fuel that goes into my woodsheds after seasoning outside is re-split. That is because my idea of the csd that I buy is quite different than the supplier. What they call split and what I call split is like two different worlds :-/
 
A conscientious and careful-reading member has pointed out to me that I misspoke in my previous post when I sloppliy described my primary air entering the fireboxes of my two stoves as "along the bottom front", when, in fact, the primary air in both cases (after having taken somewhat different routes in my stoves' models) actually enters the fireboxes along the top fronts. (Thanks, Matt, for keeping me honest. :)) Rick

EDIT: Actually, the Lopi Liberty I burn splits the primary air top front and bottom front.
 
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