Large Coal Bed

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nickn

New Member
Apr 5, 2010
16
denville nj
Hello
I have a Hampton HI300 this is my first season using the insert. I noticed that sometimes when I put in a combination of kiln dried wood, wood that has been seasoned for close to a year, and sometimes I throw in some Bio Bricks. I get a large amount of dark coals and dark ash form Bio Bricks and it piles up quickly in the stove. The stove gets up to very high temps but then after the material piles up i have to keep the airflow open pretty far. I had the flue cleaned less than a month ago; I vacuumed out the stove myself really good yesterday. What do you think is causing this? The use of Bio Bricks and wood at the same time? Thanks for your time and help.
Nick
 
while I find that bio bricks dont leave 'alot' of ash. they really dont burn like a chunk of wood. so when you break them down they dont really 'coal' they leave a black...ash or residue of sorts. It sounds like your not really letting the fire burn through the cycle. I know its hard not to but when it gets down to coals or the wood is done outgassing to leave it alone for a bit. the bio bricks are okay, great for someone who doesnt want ot mess with wood or for those who dont have seasoned wood.

by the way thats a very nice insert. how are you liking it otherwise?
 
Coals aren't just a rookie thing. I had about a cubic foot of them this morning when I woke up. I've been burning them down all day. They're about gone, I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow morning.

Matt
 
Correct me if I’m wrong when I let the coals burn down the stove temp drops rather low and therefore causing the temperature of my downstairs portion of my house drop. So is there anything I could do to let the coals burn down but keep the temperature up, particularly in the cold weather we are experiencing?
 
Somtimes when I am burning down my coals I open the air a bit. This seems to provide better draft to the coals and allows them to burn hotter. Also, you may want to stir the coals once in a while when they are burning down.
 
For the first time that I can remember I got up to a monster mass of coals in the stove this morning. Burned rounds with no splits is why. Fully half of the 30 was coal bed. My observation through the day is that I burned just as many splits one at a time burning that thing down as I normally would have in the same time frame as a load. At the same stove temps I would have had. In other words I didn't get squat out of that massive pile of oak coals.
 
Interesting that it was the rounds. Wonder why that would do it. More moisture in the heartwood?

Considering the cold temps you folks are fighting, maybe wood consumption would be a lot higher regardless? Bad time for the blower to crap out for sure.
 
I never bought a blower. I just throw a big box fan in front of the stove. It moves a large volume at a slow speed. I keep it on low unless the temp is getting away from me.

Matt
 
BeGreen said:
Interesting that it was the rounds. Wonder why that would do it. More moisture in the heartwood?

Considering the cold temps you folks are fighting, maybe wood consumption would be a lot higher regardless? Bad time for the blower to crap out for sure.
Click to expand...

It could be the rounds have a smaller surface area so they can't get the O2 to the inner coals until they are broken apart.

Matt
 
BeGreen said:
Interesting that it was the rounds. Wonder why that would do it. More moisture in the heartwood?

Considering the cold temps you folks are fighting, maybe wood consumption would be a lot higher regardless? Bad time for the blower to crap out for sure.
Click to expand...

The big rounds just take longer to break down and cooking the residual moisture out lasts pretty much the whole burn. What I normally do is one big round or split between two huge splits. Last night was both an over reaction to what happened the night before and an over reaction to how cold it was gonna get. I know exactly how this bad boy likes to burn. But just can't quit screwing around with different configurations every once in a while. Load three monster splits N/S with the fronts sitting on a coal bed, leave an inch between'em, at five hundred set that primary rod even with the lib of the ash lip and fuggidabout it till ten or twelve hours later.

But dang'it, that's just too easy. Gotta jack around and end up till one in the morning cussing the burn and myself. :red:

BTW: The wisdom about a split at a time to burn down a coal bed is all well and good but I can see folks sitting at home staring at the screen right now screaming "Yeah. Sure thing. And get to work sometime after lunch!". That is why I generally configure loads so that there are just a few coals left by morning. Too many years having to get up, load the stove, S/S/S, cut back the air and get the heck out of here. In one hours time.
 
I've been running more air at night to bunr off the coal bed produced durring the day. I find that my stove really only produces good heat for about 3 hours anyways. So rather than smoldering the fire all night with the air cut back and the stove putting off less heat, I run it hard putting out high heat for a shorter period of time and that burns off alot of coals through the night so I have only a couple inches of ash instead of 4-5 inches of charcoal. I also find that by pulling the coals forward then creating a trough infront of the primary air really burns the coals down too, plus the air gets underneith the splits easier thus giving me better burns that produce less coals to begin with.
 
BeGreen said:
But dang'it, that's just too easy. Gotta jack around and end up till one in the morning cussing the burn and myself. :red:
Click to expand...

Yea, it’s a real sickness isn’t it?
 
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