Top Down Fire Starting (I'm no Vanessa, but I'll show you how I did it)

It looks like the frost won't be a problem tonight. Your 'top down' experiment was a success.

Whatever works best for you and it looks like this worked out really well.

so, what are the benefits? I do the opposite; Paper, kindling, bigger wood.......

I'm trying my first top down tonight. I am very sceptical. All the articles I read say to leave as few air gaps in the pile as possible... I do have stuff set up like the pictures in the articles. Man am I going to be mad if it wastes time or wood getting hot. I have always burned bottom up, no problems. I guess I like the forum though, it has changed my rigid ways, if only a little!

clr8ter said:

so, what are the benefits? I do the opposite; Paper, kindling, bigger wood.......

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Clean burn, from the top all the way to the big splits on the bottom.

Top-down is the only way we start fires now. Just did it tonight...works great.

Seems like getting the heat closer to the secondary burn tubes has something to do with it.

I don't seem to have good luck packing the wood in tight like Vanessa did in the video. I also use a little more wood than the OP did in the first photo. I usually criss cross the wood with 3 small to medium splits on the bottom sitting EW on top of two small (1 or 2 inch) sticks NS to let the air get underneath. On top of that I do another layer of small sticks NS and lay real small kindling or splitting trash on top. 4 or 5 bows for the final layer and one match to light it off. I can usually have the stove at 500 in 15 or 20 minutes and start dialing the air down.

RNLA said:

I'm trying my first top down tonight. I am very sceptical. All the articles I read say to leave as few air gaps in the pile as possible... I do have stuff set up like the pictures in the articles. Man am I going to be mad if it wastes time or wood getting hot. I have always burned bottom up, no problems. I guess I like the forum though, it has changed my rigid ways, if only a little!

Click to expand...

Do what works for you. I have seen videos and many posts here about top down starts, yet I will continue the 'bottom up' technique as long as I'm using this particular stove. I have had no problems with my set up, lighting the paper, closing the door and walking away. I will come back in short time and make some minor adjustments and then shes on cruise control.

My Oslo heats my home said:

RNLA said:

I'm trying my first top down tonight. I am very sceptical. All the articles I read say to leave as few air gaps in the pile as possible... I do have stuff set up like the pictures in the articles. Man am I going to be mad if it wastes time or wood getting hot. I have always burned bottom up, no problems. I guess I like the forum though, it has changed my rigid ways, if only a little!

Click to expand...

Do what works for you. I have seen videos and many posts here about top down starts, yet I will continue the 'bottom up' technique as long as I'm using this particular stove. I have had no problems with my set up, lighting the paper, closing the door and walking away. I will come back in short time and make some minor adjustments and then shes on cruise control.

Click to expand...

I'm in same boat.... I keep thinking about trying top-down but my bottom-up fires using a Super Cedar are so simple and predictable I have a hard time wanting to change. I may bite the bullet and try it out sometime though.

for me, because i run a old stove and have to do many cold starts (at least 2 a day) it make alot of difference in the chimney. much less buildup. and 2nd benefit for me is i have a bimetallic spring on my primary air. i don't have to baby sit the stove. i use alot more wood in the stove right away. for anyone that trys it take a look out at your chimney for the first 10 or 15 minutes when starting and you'll notice how much less smoke there is coming out of it.

back to the original poster. pen did the new chimney make a difference?

pen said:

It really depends on the setup. Here's how I built a fire in my old fisher.

pen

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This is what I do except I use full size on top as well.

Edit: No newspaper but Super Cedar

sorry your post came in while was typing

Here's my version.

that looks great. do you remember how long it took from picture 1 to picture 3?

here is mine after 20 mins. i am burning a lot of small (4"x4"x16") super dry wood (5-10 percent moister content) so mine takes off real fast and i can start to shut the air down after about 10-15 mins.

fbelec said:

that looks great. do you remember how long it took from picture 1 to picture 3?

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30-40 minutes

Bubbavh said:

fbelec said:

that looks great. do you remember how long it took from picture 1 to picture 3?

Click to expand...

30-40 minutes

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Yeah, I was all excited about the top-down method after using it all summer during camping trips and in the outdoor fire pit or Chiminea. Then I tried it in my stove and got the same poor startup times. I can get my stove looking like that in 10 minutes using a graduated stick feed method, but the top-down takes half an hour to 45 minutes. Way too slow for me, I want heat and I want it right away. The way I start a conventional fire, I really don't get smoke coming out the stack, so the only real advantage to me is the guaranteed burn with one match at the start, and the ability to walk away from it without worry.

A bit different from the top down method I use . . . I tend to use larger wood so I don't have to add wood until I have a nice bed of coals . . . but the truth of the matter is if a method works for you and is safe . . . go for it!

Incidentally, I had issues the first few times I tried lighting top down fires . . . the fire would go out . . . or it just plain didn't work . . . after experimenting some and tinkering with things I figured out what worked for me and now rarely have any issues . . . for me part of the issue was having a loose, not tight, load of wood, kindling and paper in the firebox.

Islander08 said:

Top-down is the only way we start fires now. Just did it tonight...works great.

Seems like getting the heat closer to the secondary burn tubes has something to do with it.

Click to expand...

+1

I get much faster ignition of the secondaries with the top down. I attribute this to the fact that the fire starts out right below them and it's heating them up the whole time rather than heating the load of wood up (and outgassing all the BTUs at the same time).

For me, being a rookie burner I will give you my unbiased opinion. I've burned both ways now.

Bottom up thoughts:
If you want a very, very hot fire that goes quick this is the way to burn. Your fire will get much hotter this way once it gets things going, but it will take a while to get that whole load of wood up to temp and burning, all the while smoke (unburned BTU's) is pouring out the chimney. I've often found that it sometimes takes almost 45 minutes to get good secondary ignition with this method.

Top down thoughts:
This fire is a very slow, lazy fire. It will certainly get the stove/fireplace good and hot, but it takes it's time. However, that doesn't mean that it is slow to get hot enough to light the secondaries off. I've had a couple instances where I had pretty good ignition of the secondaries within 5 minutes of striking the match. This is the way to burn if you want maximum efficiency because the smoke can't get up the chimney without passing through the flames (and thus being burned up).

With similar loads of wood: using the bottom up method I was actually quite concerned on a couple occasions that I was going to overfire my fireplace because it going going so big and hot. Not so with the top-down method, I've actually been quite surprised to find a good bed of hot coals in the morning left-over from the previous days "quick, hot fire" using only smaller splits and bark from splitting.

firefighterjake said:

A bit different from the top down method I use . . . I tend to use larger wood so I don't have to add wood until I have a nice bed of coals . . . but the truth of the matter is if a method works for you and is safe . . . go for it!

Incidentally, I had issues the first few times I tried lighting top down fires . . . the fire would go out . . . or it just plain didn't work . . . after experimenting some and tinkering with things I figured out what worked for me and now rarely have any issues . . . for me part of the issue was having a loose, not tight, load of wood, kindling and paper in the firebox.

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Similar experience here. Once I figured out a good technique I have become a complete convert.
By using a 1/4 chunk of Super Cedar I've eliminated using paper, and like Jake, I also put in some bigger splits at the bottom so i don't have to reload before I get a nice base of coals. Top-downs have been very handy during the shoulder season, as I usually let the fire go out when we are at work.
Barring any warm up, I think my last top-down fire for the season happened on Friday afternoon - 24/7 going forward! :cheese: