ShawneyBoy's zipper method for coal placement at reload - my first attempt w/ pics

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NH_Wood

NH_Wood

Minister of Fire
Dec 24, 2009
2,602
southern NH
Hey everyone,

Tried the reload method that ShawneyBoy posted a little bit ago (rather than taking time to burn down the coals, rake into center, front to back, treat as a split, and then load full). Very good results. First pic is the raked coal bed. Second pic is right after loading about 11 splits. Third pic is after 15 min, fourth pic at about 25 min, fifth pic at 35 min and beginning to cut back air. Final air cut back (primary air fully closed and pipe damper shut 1/2) within the next 5 min or so (40 min start to finish). This was as 1430, and just returned home at 2000 and still have flames, stove top at 400. I'm liking this a lot - have been spending too much time burning down coals. I'll be using this method a lot. Thanks! Cheers! (I hope the darn photos come out in the right order!)

Edit: okay, these darn photo attachments kill me. Seemed to jumble them up after posting. Oh well, you'll get the idea - the bigger the fire, the later the pic!
 

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Looks like a good method and should work fine with that amount of coals in the stove. However, the amount of coals you are dealing with is not much of an issue. It s when you have 4 times that much and you cant even open the door without a Dolly Parton Bra filler amount of coal spilling out. This is whn its really an issue
 
11 splits!!! I do good to get 4 in my little stove, nice pics.
 
Codey the more I get used to this stove the more I believe the n/s loading is the only way to go. Shes finicky with e/w.
 
N/S loading rules.
 
I find if I center off my coals, and do this regularly, I don't need a "Dolly Bra" to hold em in. I do this almost every load, and it burns down the coals and uses the BTUs effectively and I don't have any coal burn down issues later. I still run in cycles but... I can load sooner, to pump out the heat on these burn hard days, and not have any coal issues. It works for me.

Glad you had success there NH.
 
I'm going to give this a try next reload, thanks for the pic's. Thats a very tight reload. Unfortunately I guestimated my N/S depth when cutting and often have to alternate directions to make things fit. Something to watch for with the next load of wood this summer.
 
NH_Wood said:
Tried the reload method that ShawneyBoy posted a little bit ago
Click to expand...
Would you please link the original thread?
I have the same stove as you and LOVE it. My last house had the Phoenix and while I liked it... the larger firebox of the Mansfield is way better.
I notice you have a flue damper with your set up. Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting to much draft even when my air is shut down completely.
How should I determine if I should have a flue damper installed?
 
I agree there ain't too many coals in that photo. Looks perfect to me, and I've been starting new loads that way for over 20 years. What's so revolutionary here? Ain't that the way everybody has to do it?

BTW why is your stove so black with soot inside? Looks like the air is being shut down too much, but maybe it's just the photo.
 
Please excuse me...I am still learning...what kind of are you burning in the picture...trying to learn wood ID from bark.
Also...do you put smaller pieces next to the coal and larger pieces on the outside of that?
 
1) Sorry - not sure how I post a link to the other post!

2) I need the pipe damper on the stove. Even completely shut down it roars and brings the stovetop right to 600*. I never completely shut it, usually 1/2 shut.

3) I agree, no real large coal bed. I just always tried burning down as many coals as possible, then raked the coals evenly across the front of the stove. I like the idea of creating the long N/S coal bed and loading N/S on top of and surrounding that coal bed. Probably nothing new here, but some old techniques might not be discussed much, and lots of new wood burners can benefit from the 'new' 'old' ideas. I burn nice and hot and my wood rarely sizzles. I've seen other pics of stove interiors and I didn't think mine was too bad. There is no shiny or gooey black creosote - I assumed the blackness was simple carbon deposits that would have to end up on the stove interior at some point. Perhaps I'm missing something important.

4) That's a full load of white ash. Doesn't seem to matter if I load small or large splits on the coal bed, but the wood is well seasoned (about a full year split/stacked in sun/wind + it's ash) so catches pretty quick - usually have some flame before I'm done adding all the splits. If is was less seasoned, I'd probably place the small splits on the coals.

Hope I remembers all the questions! Cheers!
 
The zipper method did not work for me and its because I did something wrong.

Last night I piled my coals in the middle
What did I do wrong?...I took all of the coals from the left and right side of the stove...so the wood was not setting on any coals at all...just the pointed wedge part.
Also, the wood was close toghether ( all split points pointing inward ) I believe this left very little space for the fire to breath.

I will try again tonight.

The good news is I was able to fit seven splits in the N-S position that were 4 to 5 inches thick at the biggest part of the split.
 
Holy heat. If I put that much wood in my stove I would have a 1800sf sauna. I have not put over five splits in our stove in two years and that is only for an extended burn, other than that it is two very small sticks and three splits.
 
cre73 said:
Holy heat. If I put that much wood in my stove I would have a 1800sf sauna. I have not put over five splits in our stove in two years and that is only for an extended burn, other than that it is two very small sticks and three splits.
Click to expand...
Yes, I can see that! I'm heating about 1200sqft more, and trying to let a lot of the heat make its way upstairs so that the oil heat doesn't turn on. I could get away with less wood if I closed the upstairs and let the baseboard HW do its thing, but....so far, 3 loads per day as you see above keeps the downstairs toasty and the upstairs in the low 60's. This stove has allowed me to completely abandon the oil furnace so far this year. Glad I went for a big boy. Cheers!
 
BrotherBart said:
N/S loading rules.
Click to expand...

show-offs! Right now I am working my way through fat splits so long I have to angle them to get them in the stove. BUT I am getting all night burns in my little stove.
 
Magus said:
The zipper method did not work for me and its because I did something wrong.

Last night I piled my coals in the middle
What did I do wrong?...I took all of the coals from the left and right side of the stove...so the wood was not setting on any coals at all...just the pointed wedge part.
Also, the wood was close toghether ( all split points pointing inward ) I believe this left very little space for the fire to breath.

I will try again tonight.

The good news is I was able to fit seven splits in the N-S position that were 4 to 5 inches thick at the biggest part of the split.
Click to expand...

Magus, first off you say it didn't work for you..... What did you expect to happen, what didn't happen ??

You probably didn't do anything wrong. On that stove does it have a "dog house" ? Is there an air inlet in the front center of the door? If not how does the air enter the stove? That may be the issue.

If you were able to shorten the burn cycle, while effectively using the coals BTUs as opposed to spending time "burning" them down, that is one goal accomplished.

This method will not work in all stoves, but that being said....it may work in yours. It isn't something that you can do right or wrong, more so it will work with your stove and setup or it wont.

As I am unfamiliar with this stove, any additional info will help.
 
shawneyboy said:
Magus said:
The zipper method did not work for me and its because I did something wrong.

Last night I piled my coals in the middle
What did I do wrong?...I took all of the coals from the left and right side of the stove...so the wood was not setting on any coals at all...just the pointed wedge part.
Also, the wood was close toghether ( all split points pointing inward ) I believe this left very little space for the fire to breath.

I will try again tonight.

The good news is I was able to fit seven splits in the N-S position that were 4 to 5 inches thick at the biggest part of the split.
Click to expand...

Magus, first off you say it didn't work for you..... What did you expect to happen, what didn't happen ??

You probably didn't do anything wrong. On that stove does it have a "dog house" ? Is there an air inlet in the front center of the door? If not how does the air enter the stove? That may be the issue.

If you were able to shorten the burn cycle, while effectively using the coals BTUs as opposed to spending time "burning" them down, that is one goal accomplished.

This method will not work in all stoves, but that being said....it may work in yours. It isn't something that you can do right or wrong, more so it will work with your stove and setup or it wont.
Click to expand...
My question of what I did wrong was self answering. When I loaded the new splits over the coals..I did not have any coals under the far left and far right split because I put them all in the middle...I should have left some and not put the wood right against the fire brick...figured this out once I had it all loaded.

What I was expecting?..the wood to catch fire from the middle outward..chaneling through the spaces between the splits or sweeping through the rear..back to the front.
What actually happened? The wood touching the coal bed caught fire and stopped ...smoldered a bit, the I had to move the wood around because the wedges were too tight the fire could not breath (my thinking was that the whole split should have caught fire)

Does my stove have a dog house? I dont know.
Is there an air inlet in the front center of the door? I have no Idea...I can find a schematic of my stove. (too cheap I guess)
I have NO IDEA how the air enters the stove. (again...its a low end stove and I dont see many people talking about it)
I do believe once I find this out..It will make life alot easier.
The only thing I can tell is that it has an "air wash" system for the door glass and the damper is attatched to the stove above the door on the right hand side...sliding to the left closes it and sliding to the right opens it.

Thats al lI got right now.
 
Magus said:
My question of what I did wrong was self answering. When I loaded the new splits over the coals..I did not have any coals under the far left and far right split because I put them all in the middle...I should have left some and not put the wood right against the fire brick...figured this out once I had it all loaded.

What I was expecting?..the wood to catch fire from the middle outward..chaneling through the spaces between the splits or sweeping through the rear..back to the front.
What actually happened? The wood touching the coal bed caught fire and stopped ...smoldered a bit, the I had to move the wood around because the wedges were too tight the fire could not breath (my thinking was that the whole split should have caught fire)

Does my stove have a dog house? I dont know.
Is there an air inlet in the front center of the door? I have no Idea...I can find a schematic of my stove. (too cheap I guess)
I have NO IDEA how the air enters the stove. (again...its a low end stove and I dont see many people talking about it)
I do believe once I find this out..It will make life alot easier.
The only thing I can tell is that it has an "air wash" system for the door glass and the damper is attatched to the stove above the door on the right hand side...sliding to the left closes it and sliding to the right opens it.

Thats al lI got right now.
Click to expand...

OK, I did a search for the stove..... Page 18 of the owners manual (see link) has an exploded view. http://www.usstove.com

That stove does not seem to have a doghouse. The doghouse is important for this method. The intense push of O2 from the doghouse feeds the fire right at the pile of coals, burning down the coals as well as pushing the flames back and out from the center. I am gonna guess that with your stove, this is one method that will not work.

It seems that they only mention the airwash system and that may be where a vast majority if not all of your air comes from. I am not familiar with this stove myself but from what I can see that unit does not have any secondary burn tubes either. That being the case, I would guess that the airwash is the only air inlet, and you will end up smothering the coals if you pack splits to tight.

This is more or less a free standing fireplace as opposed to a woodstove.

In my original post there is a disclaimer... Available for a limited time and at participating locations only. Mileage may vary. Well I think you are at a location (your stove) that will not participate.
 
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