A Survey Of Sorts - Small Firebox Burn Times...

precaud said:

With the Quad 2100M (1.5 cu ft.) I get 7 to 9 hours every morning; it would be longer if I packed the firebox full for the evening's last load. The key to extending burn times is cutting off the air supplies - all of them - and only allow enough "bleed" air into the firebox for the coals to burn down at the desired rate.

Click to expand...

Are your temps getting down to like 250 range when you do this?

Are there visible flames?

Do you get your stove blazing before you shut her down?

So you close your air intake AND your flue damper all the way? (You may not have a damper i guess)

Does your glass get all sooted up when you smolder burns like this?

nojo said:

Are your temps getting down to like 250 range when you do this?

Click to expand...

Have no idea - I don't monitor the stove temps, only the flue.

Are there visible flames?

Click to expand...

Not at 7 hours in. Burn time is different than flame time, which is 2-3 hours depending on the load.

Do you get your stove blazing before you shut her down?

Click to expand...

Depends on the load. With rounds, maybe. With splits, rarely.

So you close your air intake AND your flue damper all the way? (You may not have a damper i guess)

Click to expand...

No flue damper. Primary air damper is not closed all the way.

Does your glass get all sooted up when you smolder burns like this?

Click to expand...

By design, the Quads leave about 1" of the glass edges dirty, easily cleaned with just a damp rag. The rest stays very clean.

Here's another way of looking at this - "ease of relight".

Last night, I started a new fire at 10:30am. I loaded the stove with cherry, ash and maple. Biggest piece was a piece of sugar maple about 3-1/2" on a side. When I went to bed at midnight, it was still in secondary burn mode and the house was 70 degrees. This morning when I woke up I didn't relight right away. House was 62 degrees at 8:30am when I got around to relighting the fire. I Raked the coals forward (just a few were glowing, and not much), and arranged some splits inside the still warm firebox. Then I put in a broken up wax fire starter and some kindling and now 25 minutes later the stove is at 500 degrees stovetop and climbing fast - and I'm getting ready to start shutting down the primary air.

So, it doesn't qualify as an "overnight" burn, but there wasn't a lot of pain to getting a good fire going again either. Compare this to an absolute cold stove start with a cold flue pipe - I'd be lucky to have a decent fire going after an hour.

Temperature is 20 degrees outside and the wind is blowing hard. But I expect that most of the house will be approaching 70 degrees by the time this fire burns down in ~4 hours.

Cool thanks for the reply.

Got a good burn in out tiny stove last night. 7 hours 15 mins.
This was the stove at 8:15 am after I raked the coals forward.

(dont mind the no paint-job, I picked it up for $100 and installed it pretty much right away. It will have to wait till spring to get paint)

I stuffed the fire box (which I calculated to about just over 1 cubic foot) of our little trailblazer stove last night at 1am. Before stuffing it I threw a small split on the fire to get stove temps up a bit since it was pretty much coals. I packed the firebox with mostly splits, I think most were a bit damp. Set the air wide open and went upstiars for a bit about 30 mins later I came down to see the flue temps on the magnet at almost 650f. I watched it for a few minutes then throtteled it down to 2/3 air intake. About 5 minutes later down to 1/2, then too 1/3. Then once that was burning good I shut it down all the way and then closed the flue damper. I had a pretty good burn going at this point. Went to bed and woke up this. I may have been able to get another hour and still have useful coals. There was very little heat output at this point and the steam heat had kicked on. Its not too cold outside its only about 30 when I woke up so.

nojo, it sounds like you're doing just fine with your new stove... enjoy.

Thanks Precaud,
Although I dont know how it will hold up come the colder weather. We've got 1800sqft here in a 2 story 1880's colonial. Well 3 if you coulnt the attic (that is not insulated yet). So I'm already thinking about a bigger stove.

"PE Vista, about a 1.4 cubic ft. firebox. I normally get about 3 to 4 hours from a reload with 3 to 4 medium splits of red/white oak to significant coals and time for another reload. If I stuff the firebox and turn the draft all the way down, I can have some coals the next morning after 8 hours or so, but I don’t usually stuff for overnight since I’m not trying to heat solely with wood."

We have the same insert and basically get the same results, except we're heating the entire first level using just the insert. Our house is just a tad under 1500 square feet, most if it on one level, and it heats the first level just dandy without any other heat source (we have a forced air oil furnace). Our master bedroom and bath are the only rooms on the upper level and we use a slantfin heater for up there during the night...no sense in heating the whole house while we're sleeping, either with oil or wood.

Morso 7110 Can go 4 hours between refills with plenty of hot coals to start the next fire and stove top at about 250*

[quote author="mrsmarv" date="1262039929 no sense in heating the whole house while we're sleeping, either with oil or wood.[/quote]

I quite agree, which is why I don't generally try to get an overnight burn. Also, we don't burn day-time during the week when we are both at work.

Yeah nojo, it sounds like you could easily triple the firebox size for that big a space. Where are you located?

i jus put 3 sorta small splits in my vogelzang colonial, got'er blazin, shut the only air control on the stove all the way down, had secondairys (not sure how to spell that lol) for about40 mins into it and no flames right at an hour into the burn.....do i need to pack more wood in this thing to get longer times.......

On a full load of hard wood, and providing its not very windy and sub 0 temps, I have been averaging 8-10hrs with easy restarts from coal (stove top after 10hrs typically 250 °F ). I really haven't had to light a fire since the shoulder season, with the exception of 1-2 days when I was away just a little too long.

Last load at 9:30pm in my NC-13 I have coals in the morning at 6:00

precaud said:

Yeah nojo, it sounds like you could easily triple the firebox size for that big a space. Where are you located?

Click to expand...

Yeah we just picked up an Englander 30 with a 3.5 cubic ft firebox. It may be a soul-less cube, but it should warm us up Haven't installed it yet.

I have a 1.8cu ft firebox on my XTD insert. I load my stove with oak which usually consists of 3-4 18" long splits going E-W depending on how many coals I have. I get the stovetop up to 450-500 and cut the air back to all secondary air coming in, stove will creep up to 550 and hover around there for about 45 minutes then gradually cool off, I can go for about 3-4 hours and reload when it gets down to 300 and cycle starts again.

I load up my stove with 3-4 18" splits and get it up to 550 around 10pm and I can come back at 8am to the stove around 150 degree's and rake the back coals forward and toss in a few pieces of timber and have the stovetop temp back up to 500 in about 20 minutes.

When the temps are like they have been and in the 40's during the day with very little wind I can keep my downstairs around 76 and the upstairs at 70 in my 1200sq ft home.

I get about 3-4 hours with my Vogelzang Colonial. It says it has a 1.3 but I measured roughly 1.7. I can get about 3/4 medium sized splits in there are a time. I will say, I have been surprised by coals after 16 hours We are not talking about raging coals here, but coals hot enough you wouldn't want to put them in a plastic bucket. Most of the time I have enough coals still going after 10 hours to get a fire going. I pool all of my coals into the middle right in front of the boot and epa air hole and crack the door. After about 20 minutes the coals will have flames and off to the races with fresh load. I rarely get the stove past 500. It's actually been a while since I have hit 500. Seems my stove likes to ride 450 and I have no idea why. The wood is good. I guess it doesn't matter when it's 73 in the living room.

Since my last post it has been downright cold, temps in the single digits so I was able to give the XTD a good workout. With the temps in the 20's it has shortened my burn times to about 3 hours before the fan will kick off (ie below 300), which I would consider as usable heat with the downstairs at 72 and the upstairs about 66.

I am still figuring out my stove, as it is a new install. I've been using it for 2 weeks now and in that time I've installed both an OAK and flue damper.

I believe the firebox on my stove is rated at 1.8 cuft - and it is cubic alright. I can place a 14" split NS, EW, or straight up and down. If I pack it up with 7-9 splits of hickory at 10pm, leave the flue damper closed and the air intake closed all the way to a 1/4 of the way open I will wake up at 7am with an inch and half of glowing hot coals on the bottom. Glass is clean and firebricks are white. I do not have a thermometer installed yet.

I've been working to understand how to get the slowest, longest burn out of a small stove. I've found that 2 medium splits, a large split and a small split of hard maple works best. The large split is about 5"-6" on a side, the medium about 4" on a side, and the small whatever I can fit in after these other three splits. The pieces I use for this are squared off when I split them, so I can get a lot of wood in pretty tightly. The two medium pieces go in the back, the large and small one in the front. Before loading, I'll scoop the coals forward and put a small V in the coals to let just a little bit of primary air get to the back pieces.

Then, after I load the stove, I keep a very close eye on the stove top temperature. Before it gets much past 400 degrees F, I start turning the primary air down. If it gets above 500 degrees F, I shut it down for a minute or so to cool it down until it just dies out, then I give it a quarter more air. The whole idea is to keep it right about at 500 degrees F but burning cleanly. At some point, I can get it stabilized at just a little over 500 degrees F with the primary turned all the way down and a good secondary burn. It will gradually inch up over 500 degrees, but perhaps only gets to 560 degrees F or so.

Using the above method, I've had good coals 11-12 hours after initial loading.

If I let the burn get away from me early, the stove top will get up to 650 to 700 degrees F and the burn will be much, much faster.