How many are running their stove hard!

ive been going 24/7 since the beginning of nov... although it was pretty mild till the beginning of dec when we got hit with some cold temps... -14 is the lowest so far this year.

not looking forward to the nwxt few weeks when we traditionally get below zero temps for 2 weeks straight... low isially around -15 and high usually around -5...

Fahrenheit.

Weekend burner, had the stove going 24/7 throughout the holidays. I had her cranking hard because the wife felt cold in the front rooms (I think they pretty much the same temp as when the heat is on, but having the living room at 75-77F rather than 68 makes the other rooms seem colder).

Stove was going around 600F griddle most of the time during the day. I have to be careful though, I have found that over 550 you have to really babysit her- with a full load and the air open >1/3 it must make the top splits start to smoke/gas off and that makes the cat go nuclear (first year problem - borderline wood winch must take off once it gets fully dry halfway through the burn ). One time I walked by and caught the cat probe at 1900F! I could see flames under the cat hood! Scared the $(&% outta me so I shut er down till it backed off.

I am burning the stove hot all of the time right now. I am using more wood than usual but it is warm

I've been burning since Labor Day, but I don't remember when I started 24/7 exactly. 24/7 burning for me just sort of happens, kind of eases into itself every Fall. One evening when I go to build a fire for the night, I notice there is still some fire in the stove. From then on, it's usually 24/7. Almost always happens sometime in October.

I haven't turned the furnace on. I do a 5 minute test run in the Fall to make sure it still works, then turn it back off until next year, barring any emergency. My old smoke dragon never works too hard, even way below zero. I just add an extra split, or maybe two, when it gets below zero and windy, but even then it's still barely above idle. With it's 7 cubic foot firebox, there's plenty of room for more heat, if needed. Never have needed it all.

24/7 since turkey day, with most days prior to that back to haloween as well. Rarely full tilt though, and air closed off for night burn so she runs 8 hours with ease. Even if the second floor gets down to 60 everyone is covered up so its not noticed. Now I could hold it to 4 hours burns on a load and get up to feed it but have not done that yet. 5 above is as cold as its been here so far.

Burning mean and clean on 5 splits N/S in a pyramid. I'm getting 4 good hours between reloads and the house is nice all over.

Just shot a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k9JfBvHdjE

I've been running balls-to-the-wall. I have to reload the BK like every 4 hours or so - it's crazy !

Burning my new regency 24-7 and lovin it. Never had the house so warm before.

Battenkiller said:

RIDGERUNNER30 said:

hey LLigetfa, that sure is some cold weather you have were you live, I have never been in that kind of weather, takes a tough person to brave those conditions . I always wanted to go see canda they say it a beautiful place but maybe in the summer time.

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Canada is a beautiful place, but you don't have to go up to where LL lives to get extreme cold. We get temps like that every year where I live in NY, and Old Forge in the Adirondacks has hit both -40ºF and -40ºC... at the same time. Still, never this early. Lowest we've been to is -5ºF (-21ºC) so far this year. Stove is in the basement, so we start to lose the battle upstairs at about that point. Running her as hard and hot as I dare, no burn cycle, just keep throwing dry wood on fast as she'll eat it. If I slow down my masonry chimney will cool off, and that's how I store most of my heat.

Decided to turn the lights off at one point when my pants felt like they were going to catch fire filling it. There was a distinct dull red glowing area visible in the darkened room. Grabbed the IR and got a reading of 947ºF about 5" up the left door. Oops. A little too hard and hot.

Funny, coldest part of the stove at that time was about 700ºF... dead center on the top, where everybody seems to use as a reference point for overfire.

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Where did you get your IR thermometer? I have a BIS Tradition and don't have access to the chimney temps but it would be nice to see how hot the face is getting. Thanks!

I'm running the 30 normal..... 450°F to 650°F

Temps are in the 20's during the day and teens/single digits at night.
After last years 2 weeks below zero this isn't to bad. ;-)

Fill up the stove around 11:30pm and wake up to 70°F to 72°F at 7:00am, plenty of coals that a couple of splits will take right off.

My wood selection & quality this year is stellar. I have been using Cherry,White Birch, & a little Black Locust. (Black Locust Rocks!!)

The only thing I'm doing different is when I'm home I will just use 1-2 splits instead of filling the box to capacity. Seems to use less wood and get great heat.

I have been using the blower less and when I do, I'm running it at low speed,to keep the stove temp & efficiency high.

Cheers,Hiram

Yep - running stove top at 900ºF+ nightly to warm the house up. Though surprisingly not a terrible large amount of wood. Moderate armload of hedge for the first feeding @ 5pm, 2-3 more splits to cruise until ~11pm, then another armload to pack the stove for the overnight burn. Leave the house @~7am and 70ºF.

We were running 2 stoves hard for about 3 weeks just trying to stay in the upper 60's. Replaced one with an NC-30 and been only running that this week. Despite the highs being below freezing every day, I'd say we are not even running it hard. We designed the house for passive solar so as long as the sun is out, we get tremendous heat gain from 10am til 3:30. The sun alone keeps the house around 70 with no other heat source. Couple of medium fires for evening and overnight and we're good. House stays in the mid-70s. But I did take a huge hit on my wood pile for December. Way more than I planned for. I need to harverst some of the deadfall for late Feb/March in case this cold spell does not break.

Pine Knot said:

My cat stove is most efficient with the cat at 1100 degrees and the firebox near cutoff, which puts out about the the same amount of heat from load to load. I'm feeding it 25year old Locust post and Chestnut Oak. Nights here in the single digits and days in the twenties. Predictions are for this weather pattern to last into next week.

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Wow! And these guys on this forum give me a hard time with my 6-7 year old wood! lol

I really like burning the Castine up around 600-650°F which is the upper end of its efficiency range. I guess that is pretty hard.

The F 400 does well if you keep the temps up. You just have to operate it like a train engineer, feeding it wood. I'll be the first to admit that it is not the biggest stove out there, BUT matched to its application, it makes a fine selection. I personally kind of enjoy the experience, and I actually have to cool it down after awhile or I over-cook my 1,100 sq. ft.

What I have learned with the F 400, and this probably applies to much of Jotul's product line, is that the 400-600°F range is the sweet spot for their stoves. I'd even bump it up to 500-650°F, but you gotta watch it above 600. It seems like a lot of people on the forums who are having problems violate this rule. I have burnt some questionably dry oak and with a hot firebox it still burns pretty good.

Reading about the dealer who goes to his customer's houses with dry wood and shows them what the stove can do when they are having problems has it spot on. Once they can see what the stove can do with dry wood the eyes open up.

cycloxer said:

Reading about the dealer who goes to his customer's houses with dry wood and shows them what the stove can do when they are having problems has it spot on. Once they can see what the stove can do with dry wood the eyes open up.

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I think that if I were a dealer I would make a point of doing this demo with each stove if at all possible. Would put to rest a lot of "the stove doesn't work" complaints before they even are formed. Heck, seems dealers miss out on a great opportunity to sell premium wood after they sell the stove. Pellet stove dealers sell pellets, wood stove dealers ought to sell wood too - bet they could make some extra $'s that way.

Anyway to the topic - we're still running a good steady burn schedule. I don't think we're running the stove "hard" as such - still keeping peak temps at or below 600 surface (redline seems to be 650-675 on the supplied thermometer so I'm conservative and stay away from that). Doing 4 loads a day here and keeping thing comfortable for the family. Looks like about 1/4 cord per week right now.

I hit a bit of borderline wood in my pile yesterday/this morning and it was noticeable. Even my wife commented that she thought the flue temp was higher than normal relative to the stove top (had to give it a bit more air). No sizzle, just a bit more dense and I figure there must be more moisture in there or maybe something about the type. Still burning clean and putting out decent heat. I have some more punky looking wood that came in with the load this morning that will burn up hot and fast so that will balance it out I suppose.

njtomatoguy said:

I have not turned on the furnace yet. Gas to furnace is OFF. and I intend to keep it that way.

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Same here. Aint burned a drop of oil since last year! It's been darn cold out the past week or so but not as cold as it could be. When it hits the single digits for a few days straight the stove will be eatin some wood.

24/7 since some time in November. I don't even remember the last time we had to actually light a fire. I have been running the Fireview pretty hard to keep the drafty old house warm. We are doing about 4 loads a day. When home we just keep it loaded and cranking the heat. I will be dealing with an uninsulated crawl space issue with the '09 tax return. This has been the windiest winter I can remember. I have given up on long efficient burns for now.
One end of the house is just too darn cold not to run the heat and the rest is staying in the low 70s. If I can get the other end tighter, I could probably fall back to three loads per day and save some wood.

Its been warm on the coast of Maine, 20s at night 30s during the day, stove is cruisin' but not running hard. Probably start this weekend as its supposed to get cold

Flatbedford said:

... This has been the windiest winter I can remember. I have given up on long efficient burns for now.
One end of the house is just too darn cold not to run the heat and the rest is staying in the low 70s...

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Guess we just have to settle for shorter, hotter efficient burns eh? ha! well, I hope they are efficient, or at least not terribly inefficient.

4 loads a day isn't all that bad really if you think about it given the size of the firebox and all. I think I'm getting better at the 24/7 pattern with mine and may well keep it down to 4 a day... then again it has been relatively warmer lately without any single digits so who knows.

What have your peak surface temps been running most of the time? I've been sub 600, more in the 550 range for the most part but it seems to hang there for a very long time (bulk of the time between reloads) and then I'm at 350-400 when I do my next load during the day. First load in the morning after 9-10 hrs it is more like 250-300 but what can I expect eh?

I am getting about the same numbers with slightly higher highs. I've been opening the air to full for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or so at the end of each cycle to burn down the coals. It seems to hold at around 400 while I do that. I think that my fuel is not as good as I thought it was and that may be shortening my cycle and increasing my coaling. I have 3/4 of next years Ash, Cherry, and Maple mix split and stacked already so next year should be better. I'll also have some Oak for next year as well. The stove is doing great, my drafty old house seems to be the problem.

kingfisher said:

Burning my new regency 24-7 and lovin it. Never had the house so warm before.

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Welcome to the Regency family. Here you will find other snooty wood burners. ;-P No, really great stove, great choice. We've been pretty mild on this end this season. But we did have a bout of cloudy days andsingle digit night and that's when I had to put the whip to the stove a bit........

Running it as hard as I can. Small stove, people said I would need to run it hard to heat the house. They were correct. But, it is doing the job. Also running through lots of wood. People on here said be prepared to use double what you think you would burn and they were correct again! All worth it when I got the heating bill this month!

burning as hot as I can 25/7 (I don't stop for lunch), going through lots of this low BTU poplar, hopefully I have enough to make it all the way till spring. I know I am good after this year!