When to refill the stove

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pharmsaler

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Dec 12, 2010
75
Western PA
I have been reluctant to pile the stove to the hilt yet, rather just throwing in 2-3 pieces of 1/4 splits every 3-4 hours. I noticed since burning yesterday I have about 4" of really hot coals that are just not turning into ash yet. At what point will they just burn up and become ash...or am adding too much and just not being patient ?

Thanks
 
It's best not to put a full charge of dry wood on a large hot coal bed unless you want to have a pretty dramatic next hour. When you get down to that large pile of coals, rake them forward, then open up the air control to burn it down a bit. Refill when there are still plenty of hot coals to reignite the new wood, but not a deep fiery hot bed of coals.
 
For sure this time of year you don't want too much in the stove at one time. 3-4 splits work well. As for the coals, like BG stated, rake them forward and open the draft fully. Don't be afraid to open the draft full just a tad before it is down to all coals to help get them burned down.

One little hint; if you are already having too many coals that can and probably will get worse as the weather gets colder and you burn more wood. That is one of the first signs that your wood is not as dry as it should be so you may end up having the draft open further than normal.
 
Well after reading my owners manual for like the 8th time, I realized I may have been making an error. Every time I was refueling I was pushing the coals to the back of the firebox.

The owners manual said to rake them to the front as this is how the Enviro boston insert burns, from front to back.

This is probably my 5th day of burning and I haven't cleaned out any ashes so far. We left for 4 hours today, and I didn't want to add any more wood before we left, so I opend the flu to full open and I noticed that it burnt down significantly more than when I left. Now I may have 2" of ash.

My wood is pretty dry, when I add it to the hot coals, it takes off burning within a solid minute. I try and strip the bark off (if possible) before putting it in the stove and do notice a little moisture there, but the split side is super dry.

What is your opinion on how much ash should I have after 5 days of burning?
 
pharmsaler said:
What is your opinion on how much ash should I have after 5 days of burning?
Click to expand...

No way to answer that, it depends on how much wood you have burnt in that time along with other factors including the type of wood.
 
pharmsaler said:
My wood is pretty dry, when I add it to the hot coals, it takes off burning within a solid minute.
Click to expand...

A minute on a Hot Bed of Coals is a long time... Should be more like seconds.. Over 15-20 seconds and I would say the M/C of the wood may be high. Also another reason why you will have a large pile..

What type of wood are you burning? How long has it seasoned?
 
pharmsaler said:
We left for 4 hours today, and I didn't want to add any more wood before we left, so I opend the flu to full open and I noticed that it burnt down significantly more than when I left.
Click to expand...

Flue?
 
BeGreen said:
It's best not to put a full charge of dry wood on a large hot coal bed unless you want to have a pretty dramatic next hour. When you get down to that large pile of coals, rake them forward, then open up the air control to burn it down a bit. Refill when there are still plenty of hot coals to reignite the new wood, but not a deep fiery hot bed of coals.
Click to expand...

Haha, I did this last year and boy DID we have a dramatic next hour....Lesson learned.
 
tbuff said:
BeGreen said:
It's best not to put a full charge of dry wood on a large hot coal bed unless you want to have a pretty dramatic next hour. When you get down to that large pile of coals, rake them forward, then open up the air control to burn it down a bit. Refill when there are still plenty of hot coals to reignite the new wood, but not a deep fiery hot bed of coals.
Click to expand...

Haha, I did this last year and boy DID we have a dramatic next hour....Lesson learned.
Click to expand...

+1!
 
Dune said:
pharmsaler said:
We left for 4 hours today, and I didn't want to add any more wood before we left, so I opend the flu to full open and I noticed that it burnt down significantly more than when I left.
Click to expand...

Flue?
Click to expand...

If he means the bypass, I would not do this as a regular practice. With the bypass open you are creating more draft. The stove will be under better control with the bypass closed. The bypass should only be opened for starting and reloading the stove.
 
Enviro doesn't have a bypass damper. He's talking about the primary air control.
 
Crap, sorry, thanks for catching that kq. I was thinking of stax's new Declaration setup. You are correct.

Still, I would not open up the air control and walk out of the house. That is feeding more fuel (oxygen) to the fire.
 
pharmsaler said:
Well after reading my owners manual for like the 8th time, I realized I may have been making an error. Every time I was refueling I was pushing the coals to the back of the firebox.

The owners manual said to rake them to the front as this is how the Enviro boston insert burns, from front to back.

This is probably my 5th day of burning and I haven't cleaned out any ashes so far. We left for 4 hours today, and I didn't want to add any more wood before we left, so I opend the flu to full open and I noticed that it burnt down significantly more than when I left. Now I may have 2" of ash.

My wood is pretty dry, when I add it to the hot coals, it takes off burning within a solid minute. I try and strip the bark off (if possible) before putting it in the stove and do notice a little moisture there, but the split side is super dry.

What is your opinion on how much ash should I have after 5 days of burning?
Click to expand...

Don't worry about those ashes yet. We generally keep 2" in the stove at all times. Typically during mid winter we'll empty ashes maybe every 4th day. Before that, maybe every other week. The ashes will work in your favor.
 
BeGreen said:
Crap, sorry, thanks for catching that kq. I was thinking of stax's new Declaration setup. You are correct.

Still, I would not open up the air control and walk out of the house. That is feeding more fuel (oxygen) to the fire.
Click to expand...

This is the point I was going for.

This could be very dangerous.
 
It also depends on what kinda of wood you are using. Some wood leave coals for longer periods of times, while others tends to give up to ash's rather quickly.
 
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