Morning stove temps....&......coffee

-18* this morning. House down to about 65*. Boiler temp was down to 130, lots of coals. Threw in 2-14" rounds of birch. I like birch, it comes wrapped in its on lighting strip! Back in the house poured coffee. Liberty still had coals after about 8hrs so I stoked it up. 600* in about 15 min. House back up to 70* before my wife even gets up. Propane used since November, only what we cook with.
Doug

Great post!

I loaded up my VC Merrimack last night at midnight and at 6:30 there was still alot of red coals, but the two rooms by the fireplace had dropped from 64 to about 60 in that time. I should say I don't have a stove thermometer because I haven't found an accurate place to put it, but I more or less let the fire die out from the morning's burn with only putting on a few pieces at 5pm. So the stove temp was probably pretty low to begin with. Couple that with very poor insulation (to quote Middle Aged Man "I'm workin' on it!"), temps around 5 degrees last night and not much wood left. With the stove undersized for my house I guess I should really load it three times a day instead of keeping it going just enough to load it twice =/.

I was thinking this morning about a couple of things regarding woodstoves. One is that 62-on-the-way-down is a lot warmer than 62-on-the-way-back-up; a house that has a nice, cozy thermal mass thing going doesn't feel chilly. The other thought was that one of the perceptions of soapstone stoves is that they take a long time to start generating heat, but if they're already warm, they are probably comparable to a cast-iron stove. I find that by the time I've finished laying a fire, setting the ashes out, sweeping up the detritus from the firewood, and am ready to sit down in front of it, it's generating serious heat.
My stovetop mag thermo this a.m. read around 100, but I know that was off because it was hotter than I would have comfortably kept my hand on for long.
It's around zero-ish outside.
Probably about 9-9.5 hours to reload. Loaded the stove before 8:30 pm, shut it down then to pick up my son after the basketball game. (Absolutely off topic, but too funny not to share--one boy on the opposing team kept after one kid, kept bumping, pushing, finally got an elbow to his nose and made him bleed. After the game, that boy's mama came down on to the court and confronted the Elbow. "Why did you keep hitting my son?" To which the boy unwisely replied, "Get outta my way." BOOM! Two handed smackdown in the chest and the Elbow was on his back on the floor. Another home team player came over and told him not to dare get up until they were off the court, and that he needed to apologize to her. The kid had a 300 mile bus ride home with his team that night, so I assume by this morning, he's dropped out of high school and joined the merchant marines.)
Burning poplar, because it's what I have.

Loaded at 9:00 last night on a deep coal bed. 3 locust and 3 ash splits. 25* outside temps.
House temp at bedtime was 72* back in the hallway, definitely warmer in the stove room.
At 5:30 this morning, I had a 300* stove with a monster bed of coals. Hallway temp at 69*. . . . . 10* outside temps at daybreak.

Downdrafting and drinking coffee 30 minutes later.

Loaded the Isle Royale at 9:30 p.m. last night. Too lazy to start the insert. The house was 73 degrees and
outside temp zero. This morning at 6 a.m. with outside temps at -8 F, the stovetop had cooled to 200 F, and
the house had cooled to 65 degrees. By 6:30 a.m., the stovetop was back up to 650, and I was drinking my
first cup of coffee in the rocking chair. The stovetop is 450 now, and the house is a comfortable 70 degrees
with zero outside. The first pot of coffee is long gone.

Loaded at 10:00 last night with maple and oak. 5* this morning, stove top was ~300 with a big bed of coals. Threw on some more maple and it took off immediately. House was 68*, but my furnace was running to maintain that.

The Mansfield has no problem keeping active coals for an easy restart for 12-14 hours (maybe longer). The only problem is that with a stone stove, it takes 1-2 hours before the stove gets back into the 450-500* range in the mornings.

great thread... I work second shift and get home around 12:30am to a bed of coals, thanks to the wife. I load it up with chestnut oak, heat it up, engage cat, turn air down and I'm in bed around 1am. Wife gets up around 7-7:30 to a nice warm stove with plenty of coals. She has enough time to feed the baby, take her time and when she gets around to it, reload the stove. Then I get up to a warm stove. We have a system that seems to work. Consistent 8 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Loaded the stove at 8PM last night, 13hrs ago. 15* outside, 75* inside. Stove is still cruising at 400* and still enough wood in there that it will burn for another 4-5hrs easily. I normally load it every 12-16 hours. T Stats are set at 63*, rarely does it get that cold in the house.

10pm: 76* in BR hallway, stove top 450*, top load stove quite full, let catch well, air down to almost lowest setting
6am: 68* in BR hallway, stove top 225* with good coals for easy re-light with small splits
Outside was overnight low of 15*.

johnstra said:

Loaded at 10:00 last night with maple and oak. 5* this morning, stove top was ~300 with a big bed of coals. Threw on some more maple and it took off immediately. House was 68*, but my furnace was running to maintain that.

The Mansfield has no problem keeping active coals for an easy restart for 12-14 hours (maybe longer). The only problem is that with a stone stove, it takes 1-2 hours before the stove gets back into the 450-500* range in the mornings.

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From 300 and a good bed of coals.... I have no problem getting her back up to temp.

Loaded up last night at 10:15. Inside temp was right at 72*, stove top temp 350*, outside temp was already at -7. I was up kind of early this morning (4:30), house was 69.8*, stove top was around 300*, outside temp was -14.

Had a nice bed of coals and didn't even need kindling to get it going again. 3-4 splits and an hour later when I finally decided I couldn't get back to sleep the house was 70.5*, stove top temp was 500*. Outside temp bottomed out here at 7:30 this morning. It hit -16.4* but no wind, a nice -16.4*. By 8:00 am house was 74 degrees .

This little napolean is really holding it's own on anything under 8-9 hours between reloads. Yesterday we didn't see 5 degrees and I came home to a blower still running and enough coals to start another fire with just kindling and a little crack of the door. This was after 12 hours!

Motor7 said:

Dang Nate, how much wood are you loading at one time in that Blaze King?....wow


RD

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I was wondering the same thing.

If I reload the fireview at 9:00 pm she's got no problems keeping 300 by 7 am when I wake

Wow. Reading Nate's post, I want a blaze king. My last load goes in between 9 and 11, wake up to enough coals for a restarts with a sheet or two of newsprint. Basement is usually about 65 in the am, upper level is cooler and heating via the evil propane boiler. I'm ok with that, once the stove is up to temp, the boiler tends to pretty much stop until the next morning.

loaded with 2 large pieces of ash on a large bed of coals at about 10 pm. outdoor temp around 15 ? or so and 70 indoors. 6 am 65 indoors and i cleaned out the ashes and a lot of coals and reloaded with more ash. this time about 3 small splits and one large piece. coffee is instant and is first priority and peeing the dog 2nd chore. got home to 63 degree main floor and 53 in basement. its 11 pm and the place is 69 even. tgif so i can reload during the day to warm things up.

Wasn't too cold last night (about 18*), so I only loaded the stove 3/4 full at 9:15. Slept in this morning and didn't get around to reloading until 8:30 - after I had coffee! Stovetop was 200* and there were still plenty of coals to re-light.

As much as I can fit in there, probably around 8-10 logs, depending on how big there are. Only time I don't fully load if it's warm out, upper 30s and warmer, cause it would get too hot it in the house even with the stove turned all the way down.

Motor7 said:

Dang Nate, how much wood are you loading at one time in that Blaze King?....wow


RD

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When I went to look for a stove last summer and the salesman told me that the BK was more or less set and forget, I didn't have to think all that hard to make up my mind. I have heated my house all this winter with just the stove other than a couple times where I was out of state or had to clean the stove.

Used some hardwood blocks from the local pallet mill last night, 1/3 full in the fire box. Hot fire to let burn down so I can clean the ashes out this am. Stove top temp of 100f. Only -1c this morning(feels like spring) and 16c in the living room. Time to get off the computer, remove ashes from stove, set fire and enjoy coffee in front of the stove. Life is good!

I have a fairly tight 2500sq.ft.house built in 1986...two story colonial.
Anyways with the BK Classic the overnight burn sure is faster to burn up then a daytime one.
No heat from the sun so I figure my thermostat is more active.
I use the same setting most of the time since colder weather arrived(2).
I can load 2/3 full around 10:00pm and still have some wood left and a lot of hot coals at 7:00am.
Stack 8 inches up..single wall, ir is always just around 200..stove top at cat is 350-400.
I'm very impressed with this stove,never clean out ash less then every 3 weeks.
I ran a non cat BK Classic for 24 years which did good but could not hold a match to this one.
I have wood stacked in the basement...one row is 3 fc...which = 1 cord.
Happened to be I started on a new row on the 1st of this month.
I believe so far I have used just a little over a fc..maybe a fc and a quarter.
I should take a pic.lol.
But it will be interesting to see at the end of the month how much is left.
To be fair they are talking a warm up this week maybe close to 50f.
Sorry so long but got typing away drinking my coffee!
Edit: almost forgot...usually 75 in the room next to the stove when we go to bed..67-70 the next morning.