starting a Cold stove..everyday

Yeah I often have to start from scratch if the wife is not home. I work shift and when I am on nights on the weekends she goes to her moms so its just me. Same thing on holidays, etc. I work 12hr shift, 1hr drive each way, plus about 15 minutes to turn over shift, so typically gone for over 14hrs. Neither one of my stoves has yet been able to restart from that, just cold powder left at the bottom. When I get the money to replace the big smoke dragon I hope to get a one that will be able to restart after 14hrs but that might be wishfull thinking.

Our house temp drops pretty darn quick, but since I fire it up and go right to bed it doesnt get as hot as it could by running it a bit more open and keeping an eye on it. I am to tired, I get it rip roaring, pack it pretty decent, and damper it down and go to bed. Need to have the place evaluated for insulation and the like. Without ripping down walls or a major renovation, I'm not sure if anything effective can be done. The worse part of the house is the huge great room that was done cheaply, 2x4's, and the ceiling is the roof so no attic. the next biggest problem is the wall between the old and new side of the house, very cold air gets in there, but I can't figure out from where.

Stump_Branch said:

No Joke, in the 25x30 some room two walls are shared to a bathroom...thats completely gutted. I can hang meat in there.

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That reminds me of our recent cold blast here - well maybe not cold for some of y'all but single digits for many days is rare for december here. Very windy too which is what hurts us - seems the cold air just comes down the walls from the attic or something. Main stove room around 80, great room with insert about 68, upstairs bedroom and MBR about 66, but MBR closet was 41! Yeah I was curious so I put a thermometer in there. You really could hang meet in our closet lol.

In 15 minutes, with decent wood and a good draft, your stove should be throwing some heat.
Check these items off first.
And, while top downs are clean starts, you'll get up to temp quicker (in my experience) with a modified top down are plain old boy scout-bottom up.

I have a similar situation. My work days aren't as long [9-10 hrs], but the burn times I can get out of my Timberline are really pathetic, loading it up doesn't seem to do much good, and I get tired of having to get up at 4 in the morning to throw more on to keep it from going out even overnight.

Stump_Branch said:

Time never seems to be on my side. it can mean not being able to make it home in time to stoke the stove, or time to get the house prepped for winter. Yes I Live in MD, But I live right at the base of the mouuntains. My house sits on one of the highest points in the county. I can see for miles and miles. It does get cold in these parts. The past week has been 20's with single digit wind chills. When I am able to be home and keep a good fire going in my small stove, It does a decent job.
I am liking the advice of cheap and creative methods for trying to get temps up. Like the saw dust...i actualy tried that, was nervouse so i only dusted it. I have load of saw dust i saved from laying the red oak hardwood floors. Actualy my poor'edness extends to taking scraps of those floors and burning them. Only seeing first hadn that seasoned wood is just a whole other level. The more i think about it, the poplar i have must have been laying down alive. It does not burn well, last night i heard some hissing too, nto sure if it was from the wood or snow covered sticks i threw in to gt it going. I just cant wait fro the 4 cords i have sitting outside to season. aybe next year wont be as bad. It looks as if i will have to buy some here this weekend. Wish I would have planned a bit better.

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I with you. I have a small englander insert and I am gone 10 - 11 hours per day. I have found a cheap way to light the stove with out having a lot of really dry kindling or super cedars - hand sanitizer. You can get a gallon if it for about $25 and it lasts a long time. Stack you stove, put 4-6 pumps in the center or the wood and light - no paper. I just found some sanitizer wipes on ebay really cheap so I will try those. Stick a sheet in the middle of the pile and light.

Stump_Branch said:

I have load of saw dust i saved from laying the red oak hardwood floors. Actualy my poor'edness extends to taking scraps of those floors and burning them.

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Not sure where you got the flooring, but some flooring comes through with fungicides and other poisons, be carefull.

NATE379 said:

I am away from home at least 10-12hrs each day for work and I don't end up with a cold stove... or house.

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this is the joy of the blaze king. another reason why i picked this stove. fits my schedule perfectly

I think the only real answer would be a stove like the Blaze King. I'm doing the same thing, but I have to say after 3 years the wood supply has finally caught up. It takes about 15 minutes before the fan kicks on and the stove is @ 500+ degrees, and another 6 hours to heat the house back up. Whatever. As long as one room in the house is warm we can live with it.

I'm excited for a smaller house when I grow up.

I hope you are burning splits and not rounds ? You can get split wood packed much tighter with less air gaps and thus more lbs of wood in the stove, which is what counts for a long burn. You need to basically have the wood all the way up to and nearly touching the burn tubes. 24/7 heating is not about putting a few pieces in, unless someone is there all day to keep repeating the cycle. Furthermore, if only 3 splits fit, its a sure sign that your splits are too big for the stove. Split them finer and you will get more wood in there. Pack it tight, lots of air gaps just accelerates the burn, not what you want for endurance... When I'm done loading my T5 its tough to find a place to insert the nozzle of my blowtorch and its only 3/8".

KeithO said:

I hope you are burning splits and not rounds ? You can get split wood packed much tighter with less air gaps and thus more lbs of wood in the stove, which is what counts for a long burn. You need to basically have the wood all the way up to and nearly touching the burn tubes. 24/7 heating is not about putting a few pieces in, unless someone is there all day to keep repeating the cycle. Furthermore, if only 3 splits fit, its a sure sign that your splits are too big for the stove. Split them finer and you will get more wood in there. Pack it tight, lots of air gaps just accelerates the burn, not what you want for endurance... When I'm done loading my T5 its tough to find a place to insert the nozzle of my blowtorch and its only 3/8".

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This technique works well for cats and for the PE firebox (which puts very little secondary air in the rear of the box), but not for all stoves, and especially not with all types of wood. If I pack my Quad tightly with smaller pinon splits, I get one uncontrollable burn. The ONLY way I get control of the fire and extend the burn is by using fewer but larger pieces and preferably rounds, because they gassify more slowly.

Also, the OP didn't say he wanted to start burning 24/7. He is wanting advice on how to get heat more quickly from a cold start. I think basswidow basically answered that.

Hi Stump_branch, there are probably a limited number of suggestions that can really help you out here - not having the stove on for 12 hours is going to be tough to recover from. If I hear you correctly, you are coming home to a pretty cold house and want to get a good burn going quickly.

Least cost things that can help with the "coming home to a pretty cold house" issue are to add another 6-8" of blown-in insulation to your attic. 6" is really not enough, make it 12-14" and you'll probably cut your fuel bills by 20-25% and the house will stay warmer and feel warmer also. Be sure to seal up all of the attic penetrations first with caulk or spray foam. Next thing I would do is to look at your windows - are they loose and leaky? If so, weatherstrip them. I don't know what types of windows you had - mine were double hungs that were in good condition. I put some EPDM weatherstripping on the bottom and some sprung bronze weatherstripping on the sides. Total material cost for lots of windows was $150. I think I would save that in oil costs in 2 years. It is something you can do yourself if you are handy and can make the time (and it sounds like you can qualify).

Doing these things will keep the house warmer and make it less necessary to work the stove as hard and as quickly when you return.

The OP's locations is shown as MD, so generally one would expect him to be burning hardwood, which fits the technique I described better than softwood. I would agree that softwood presents its own set of challenges and a small firebox doesn't seem like a solution in that case.

What I was getting at is that the amount of heat released while he is away is proportional to the BTU's loaded in the stove. More wood (hardwood) = a warmer home when he gets back. The other comments regarding conservation are of course on the mark. If the basement is sufficiently leaky even a BK may not keep it warm. I have read of people living in TP's in Montana and "warm" is what one side of you gets when about 16" from the stove and water is freezing 40" away.....

The OP can try the technique safely while at home in the evening to see if it works and is safe for the wood he is using and his setup. Sometimes a damper is needed to tame the draft to avoid the totally out of control combustion one gets from too much secondary air. Also, one has to work the stove up to temp slowly, not get it going flat out and then try to crank it down. That certainly doesn't work for me.