How long from first light to stable, clean burn in a cold stove?

I had a thread a few days ago. Timing was such that we did not have much leeway on how long before the fire was going good, cat engaged and stove final set so we could leave and forget it. If memory serves me it was just a tad under 40 minutes. Our normal times run from about 35-45 minutes. I've done it faster and I've done it slower, but would guess that 40 minutes is about average.

Really depends on the size/amount/type of wood I happen to use for starting, but it used to be 90 minutes, plus. With the modified stove it is now an hour or less. I made the firebox smaller, but the biggest difference in the modification is keeping the ashpan filled with firebrick/ash. This allows the coal bed to build quickly, instead of all those embers dropping through the ash grate. So I can now load with larger splits sooner than I previously could.

It will be interesting to see the change when I restore the firebox to normal size but still keep the ashpan filled.

Top-down start with dry wood, some medium splits, some fine splits, and one or two quarters of a SuperCedar. 30 minutes or less from match to blazing secondaries with all stove doors closed.

precaud said:

The more metal you see, the longer it will take.

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Gee, imagine if I stuffed my VC Vigilant with Kaowool or IFB. I can get my stone-cold 300 pounds of unlined cast iron up to what most folks consider operating temperature (400-500ºF) within 10-15 minutes without using any heroic measures. If I insulated the crap out it... maybe a minute or two? :lol:


After initial startup, my coal bed takes about 30-45 minutes to develop, and I need that to be well established in order to close the bypass and keep temps up in the correct range for good draft and a clean burn. Therefore, I'll say that it takes about 45 minutes to an hour before I can load the stove up all the way and shut the primary air to a trickle and walk away from a clean burning unit. However, I'm getting great heat into the room almost from the get-go, without a wisp of ceramic blanket or an insulating firebrick anywhere to be found.

The old stove (Jotul 118 clone) had cast liners, so it took a little longer to throw out its heat (the air space between the liners and cast plates is insulating to the firebox), but I could walk away from it in 10 minutes time because of the way the stove operated (box stove; no bypass damper). It would be up to operating temp (not sure how hot because I never used a thermometer on it) in less than 1/2 an hour, but took longer than my Vigilant takes with its liner-less construction.

Roughly 30 min. depending on wood type and weather conditions.

45 minutes to an hour with seccondaries and 500 degree stove top. I suppose it would be faster without my horizontal pipe issues. I use the top down method to light the stove

Jim

30-45 mins.

I just started one at around 1:30. It's 2 now and stove it turned down and chugging away at 450*

40-60 minutes depending on the load size. Smallish take the chill off fires don't take long at all and I'm not to worried about achieving that sweet spot on the air setting but a full load on top of burned down kindling will take a full hour to get it just right.

Battenkiller said:

precaud said:

The more metal you see, the longer it will take.

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. If I insulated the crap out it... maybe a minute or two? :lol:


.

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When I first read that I got-"if I insulted the crap out of it a minute or two"! Piss it off and it gets hot real quick.

My Napoleon 1900 takes about an hour to walk away confidently. CONFIDENTLY is the key word. I would not want to light it and leave it. Stoves are a lot like a fine woman. They must be coddled and wooed to get them to do what you want out of them.

I'm going to change my response of 30 min, the more I think of it. I just noticed the OP's question had the word "clean" in it. I can shut my stove down in 30 min or less, with good temps and without the fire smoldering, but it takes about 15 min longer to see no smoke from my chimney.

Not sure why, as the firebox is clear as day with just flames, even when I turn the air down all the way, but went outside to check it yesterday and smoke was coming out at a pretty good clip. Let it burn another 15 min or so to see if it would clear, and it did. So yeah, about 45 for a clean burn, for me.

Yesterday's startup of the Quad took more like 12-13 minutes, a few more than I'd said before. It's probably because I used elm for the bottom pieces of the top-down, instead of the usual pinon. The elm is definitely more reluctant to burn.

42.3 minutes.

Actually on a cold start . . . which is getting rarer as the cold weather starts to settle in here . . . usually even on a long overnight fire I have some coals to work with . . . I would say totally cold . . . 40-60 minutes . . . for a stable, clean fire.

Like DaFatKid I find my first fire is designed more to bring things up to temp and make some coals . . . for a longer burning "normal" fire I have to go a bit longer . . . one problem with using kindling I suppose is that using kindling means less room in the firebox for the "serious" wood.

Jake,

That's exactly the same reason I don't do top down very much any more, and instead do the quick hot fire, then I can load my little firebox with the "serious" wood.

It takes about an hour for me. I'm glad I'm not the only one. This is my first time using the woodstove for heat so I thought i was doing something wrong.

DaFattKidd said:

That's exactly the same reason I don't do top down very much any more, and instead do the quick hot fire, then I can load my little firebox with the "serious" wood.

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Hmmm, interesting. In the Quad I do mostly top-down with 3 splits at the base, because it creates a fire that stabilizes quickly and burns unattended for an hour or so. In the X33, I hardly ever do top-down anymore - with its underfire air, the more normal kindling-on-paper works best. But I don't get a burn I can walk away from right away. I have to load more wood in as soon as the kindling is burning and the firebox is warmed up, so that one is more like 30-40 minutes for clean, stable burn.

Forty minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the splits and the type of wood being burned.
I burn top down method and often have a couple of big splits at the bottom of the load. If I'm
burning all oak, I make sure that I start the load at least an hour before I have to leave the house.