For those of you searching for the perfect burn look here

iceman, it sounds like you are on to something that works great for you. Now you can really enjoy that thing!

How big is your firebox? And how deep(N/S) is your firebox? I am guess those pieces you put in N/S are pretty short

I am trying your method right now...I will let you know in the morning

All right Iceman!

A hybrid fire.

iceman said:

This is what i found to work EXTREMELY well for me...
i have pacific energy summit insert
first load the back of the stove e/w i use 2 pieces on top of each other almost the exact width of the stove..(if wood is semi seasoned put it back there) then i load n/s as much as possible (with smaller splits in length) then bam (of course wood is dry)
you get a hot burn cause its n/s but you will get a longer burn because of pieces e/w in the back!! if your wood is semi seasoned in the back it will be kiln dried by the time it actually starts to burn or catch "fire"
when i burn like this i believe i can get 14 hrs outta my stove But it will be down to about 250 at 14 hrs... guessing
stove says 10-12 hr burn with ebt so if this can plus your stove 2hrs its about 15-20% longer burn time ... please try it and post results!!

if you have any other sugg please post stove type along with what you do!!
this should help our newbies big time

Click to expand...

This method I found works great in the PE T5 for clean long burn times. All pieces loaded EW gives the longest burn but I find it isnt as clean as having the NS pieces burn back to the EW splits like you stated. The NS pieces seem to provide more flame and the EW pieces dont start burning until the NS burn back to ignite them and then this piece burns real slow. I haven't packed the stove completely full yet(not needed) but 1 large split EW in back of stove, 2 or 3 large splits NS will easily provide 12 hours of heat and still plenty of coals to rake forward and throw 2 large splits on and have ignition in a couple/few minutes. There's enough room for 2-3 more small splits NS and 1 more EW on top in back. I don't have many rounds to try them in different configs, hopefully someone else does and will post. I should also state our wood is very seasoned oak and tulipwood.

The only problem with this method is loading the pieces in the back of the stove. It's so friggin hot in there and I'm never happy with placement using a tool.

iceman said:

This is what i found to work EXTREMELY well for me...
i have pacific energy summit insert
first load the back of the stove e/w i use 2 pieces on top of each other almost the exact width of the stove..(if wood is semi seasoned put it back there) then i load n/s as much as possible (with smaller splits in length) then bam (of course wood is dry)
you get a hot burn cause its n/s but you will get a longer burn because of pieces e/w in the back!! if your wood is semi seasoned in the back it will be kiln dried by the time it actually starts to burn or catch "fire"
when i burn like this i believe i can get 14 hrs outta my stove But it will be down to about 250 at 14 hrs... guessing
stove says 10-12 hr burn with ebt so if this can plus your stove 2hrs its about 15-20% longer burn time ... please try it and post results!!

if you have any other sugg please post stove type along with what you do!!
this should help our newbies big time

Click to expand...

I have to say that this works pretty darn well.

Put some semi seasoned cherry (split in June) to the rear and some seasoned ash to the front.

Nice!

hummmm well I have a non cat stove but I'll give that a try for when I leave the house. Normally we're not into smoldering long burns cause wood is no object and 90% of the time interested in max heat only.

Just so happens I've been sticking some 'too long' splits off to the side so when I cut a bunch up I'll use them for this Iceman modified longer hotter fire....heck if I get an extra 45-60 minutes out of it that'll be enough to check the 'success' box.

...just say'en, sometimes I read something that just doesn't add up and then there are times when I'm immediately impressed with the potential of an idea...and this would be one of those times. I'll check in here with my results.

iceman said:

Hiram Maxim said:

iceman said:

This is what i found to work EXTREMELY well for me...
i have pacific energy summit insert
first load the back of the stove e/w i use 2 pieces on top of each other almost the exact width of the stove..(if wood is semi seasoned put it back there) then i load n/s as much as possible (with smaller splits in length) then bam (of course wood is dry)
you get a hot burn cause its n/s but you will get a longer burn because of pieces e/w in the back!! if your wood is semi seasoned in the back it will be kiln dried by the time it actually starts to burn or catch "fire"
when i burn like this i believe i can get 14 hrs outta my stove But it will be down to about 250 at 14 hrs... guessing
stove says 10-12 hr burn with ebt so if this can plus your stove 2hrs its about 15-20% longer burn time ... please try it and post results!!

if you have any other sugg please post stove type along with what you do!!
this should help our newbies big time

Click to expand...

I have to say that this works pretty darn well.

Put some semi seasoned cherry (split in June) to the rear and some seasoned ash to the front.

Nice!

Click to expand...

the only bad thing for me is now i need to cut smaller splits for next year i have mostly 16-20 inch splits next year i will cut alot of it to 12 -20 and stack by size

Click to expand...

I always have odd smaller pieces from cutting, that's what I used when I tried this out.

Personally I wouldn't go cutting small pieces purposely. And I also wouldn't want to keep using semi seasoned wood unless one had to.

My $.02

We get triaxles of log ends and stumps delivered. We get some big wafers which are about 4' across and 6" thick, wedges of all sizes, 2.5'x2'x6' solid blocks, and assorted cut offs. When splitting these by hand we get all kinds of different sizes, some are so unmanageable we don't have the luxury of getting precise splits, they split how they want and I'm just happy they split! This means we always have shorties for the EW piece in the back and just a tad longer for the NS.

As far as smoldering, I never had a fire do this, loading it this way, although the wood is 3-5 years seasoned and always been covered, nothing registers on the moisture meter(7%-35%) so it must be under 7% moisture if you want to believe the POS china made MM. I can't say anything about using a semi seasoned or semi wet piece in the back but I can imagine that this would work as well knowing how hot the fire box is and by the time the fire would get back there, it would be pretty dried out.

I don't have any luck burning rounds or I am burning them wrong so I'm not going to try them in this formation until I figure that out(another topic).

Hiram Maxim said:

iceman said:

This is what i found to work EXTREMELY well for me...
i have pacific energy summit insert
first load the back of the stove e/w i use 2 pieces on top of each other almost the exact width of the stove..(if wood is semi seasoned put it back there) then i load n/s as much as possible (with smaller splits in length) then bam (of course wood is dry)
you get a hot burn cause its n/s but you will get a longer burn because of pieces e/w in the back!! if your wood is semi seasoned in the back it will be kiln dried by the time it actually starts to burn or catch "fire"
when i burn like this i believe i can get 14 hrs outta my stove But it will be down to about 250 at 14 hrs... guessing
stove says 10-12 hr burn with ebt so if this can plus your stove 2hrs its about 15-20% longer burn time ... please try it and post results!!

if you have any other sugg please post stove type along with what you do!!
this should help our newbies big time

Click to expand...

I have to say that this works pretty darn well.

Put some semi seasoned cherry (split in June) to the rear and some seasoned ash to the front.

Nice!

Click to expand...

Was this in your Englander 30? Do they burn front to back? I was thinking this maybe only useful for front to back burners. Something like the harmon tl300, I cant see it working in or at least not doing any better than normally expected because of burning from the bottom.

I have used semi-seasoned wood to prolong burns for a good while. Loading it in the back on the bottom seems to allow it to give up it's moisture slowly and not noticably effect the fire. The semi-seasoned wood then burns later in the cycle. I find it an effective way to get long burns. I have not tried the E-W and N-S loading because my Dutchwest firebox is long but only a foot wide and not built to be loaded N-S.

Do you light the fire top down? Or front to back?

caber said:

Do you light the fire top down? Or front to back?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand your question but I put a couple pieces of newspaper(out of Super Cedars) under some kiln dried cabinet shop scraps, then a split or 2 on top of that and a bow of newspaper on top of it all. I then light the upper piece of newspaper near the top of stove to create draft and then light the lower newspaper. I never loaded the stove in this hybrid fashion without a good bed of coals already established and raked forward in the box. Hope that answers your question?

So the fire starts form the bottom and moves up?

With the cabinet scraps it kinda just bursts into flame. The way I do it, it's not the top down method, if thats what your asking. Top down works for me but old habits are hard to break.