Dumb question from somone new to wood burning: When should i add wood?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

cowtown

Member
Sep 10, 2011
148
Alberta Canada
This is my second weekend buring. The question I have is, when should I add more wood to the insert? How low should i let the coals go? Or do I base my decision on the termperture?

I did a search, on hearth.com but didn't find anything.


Dan
PS. Did my first overnight burn last night - got up this morning, put some wood in and off the stove went (i have spent all day infront of the fire today :) )
 
Dan- I'm with you. Brand new to this wood burning stuff. I am getting some overnight burns too, and when I do, I get up in the morning feeling like a champ! It's one of life's little victories. And when I get a perfect fire cooking, I will just sit there and watch and watch.....such a feeling of accomplishment. Enjoy...As for how often to add wood? I'm still winging it too, but we'll catch on soon enough. Good luck.
 
Skeezix_McGoo said:
Dan- I'm with you. Brand new to this wood burning stuff. I am getting some overnight burns too, and when I do, I get up in the morning feeling like a champ! It's one of life's little victories. And when I get a perfect fire cooking, I will just sit there and watch and watch.....such a feeling of accomplishment. Enjoy...As for how often to add wood? I'm still winging it too, but we'll catch on soon enough. Good luck.

Snowing like crazy out now, and just sitting her watching the secondaries.

"Feel like a champ", me and my buddies use this expression as well, made me smile. It is the little things in life that we must enjoy - an overnight burn is one of them.

i think I add wood too soon as I don't like watching the coal, i like waching the fire!


Dan
 
What you don't want to do is get in the habit of throwing a couple splits on there every time the flames start to die down. These stoves are best burned in 'cycles' of a full reload that is allowed to burn down to coals and repeat. If you do a search on 'burn cycle' you'll come up with quite a few threads that discuss this in pretty good detail.

The short answer is add wood when it gets down to the coal stage and they have burned down to about an inch on the bottom. Rake them to the front where the air comes in on most stoves and reload.
 
WoodpileOCD said:
What you don't want to do is get in the habit of throwing a couple splits on there every time the flames start to die down. These stoves are best burned in 'cycles' of a full reload that is allowed to burn down to coals and repeat. If you do a search on 'burn cycle' you'll come up with quite a few threads that discuss this in pretty good detail.

The short answer is add wood when it gets down to the coal stage and they have burned down to about an inch on the bottom. Rake them to the front where the air comes in on most stoves and reload.

thanks - i will look up burn cycle. Much appreciated.
 
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.
 
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.

Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.
 
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.

Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.

Try letting it cycle longer. Let it naturally go down to bed of coals with the air closed. As BB said the other day "coals make heat". You'll save wood. Alot of wood.
 
WoodpileOCD said:
What you don't want to do is get in the habit of throwing a couple splits on there every time the flames start to die down. These stoves are best burned in 'cycles' of a full reload that is allowed to burn down to coals and repeat. If you do a search on 'burn cycle' you'll come up with quite a few threads that discuss this in pretty good detail.

The short answer is add wood when it gets down to the coal stage and they have burned down to about an inch on the bottom. Rake them to the front where the air comes in on most stoves and reload.

Sound advice. Being a "2nd" year noob, I found myself doing this last year.
I thought if I only added a piece or two at a time during the waking hours, I'd use less wood. Could not be farther from the truth. I'm pretty sure I actually used more. I broke this habit pretty quick(thanks to this forum!)
 
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.

Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.

Try letting it cycle longer. Let it naturally go down to bed of coals with the air closed. As BB said the other day "coals make heat". You'll save wood. Alot of wood.

Will do, thanks for the advice.
 
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.

Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.

Try letting it cycle longer. Let it naturally go down to bed of coals with the air closed. As BB said the other day "coals make heat". You'll save wood. Alot of wood.

Will do, thanks for the advice.

You're very welcome.

It really works, ask me how I know this :)
 
One would think the opposite is true, but the less you mess with it, the better it will tend to work. As others have said, let it burn down to coals before you reload. My stove is a little small for my house, so I tend to reload a little more aggressively when its colder out, but it's always the same method - rake the coals, reload, let it 'catch', shut the door and walk away. I don't even mess with the air damper all that much unless I absolutely have to.
 
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.

Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.

Try letting it cycle longer. Let it naturally go down to bed of coals with the air closed. As BB said the other day "coals make heat". You'll save wood. Alot of wood.

Will do, thanks for the advice.

You're very welcome.

It really works, ask me how I know this :)


Eileen please do not think I am contradicting you here but we do things a bit different.


You will very soon start to see many posts by various folks who have tons of coals and not enough room for the wood! Happens every year and it also happened to us when we got the new EPA stove. You will also see many suggestions to add some kindling or a couple very small pieces of wood on top of the coals as this will sometimes help. However, after some experimenting a bit this is what we came up with for our stove and I don't doubt but that it should work on any stove.

Note: we have super dry wood so have less of a problem than many because the greener the wood, the more coals you will have to contend with.

We started looking at the fire and just before it reaches all coals, we open the draft to full open. At this point you really won't be losing heat up the chimney and the stove top temperature will hold; neither up or down. Then, of course, before all the coals get burned down we add wood for the next fire. Having a nice coal bed makes the stove just work so much better so don't get rid of all the coals for sure.

In the coldest part of the winter is the most difficult time with coals but doing it this way we've had no problem and many times I do add wood a bit quicker than I will at this time of the year. It is nice to have a quick lighting wood to lay on the coals which helps the new fire get established quickly. In our case, we like to add a piece of soft maple and then fill with other wood.

As for raking the coals to the front, yes, sometimes we do, especially if there are not many coals. If there is a good amount of coals, all we do is level them off. To be honest, about the only time we rake the coals to the front is before stocking for the night or if we need a long burn, say, if we are going to be gone all day. For a simple restocking of the stove, I really like just leveling them off.

EDIT: Remember that the wood you burn will determine how much you have for both coaling and for ashes.
 
Depends . . . as Nate said . . . when it gets cold is a valid answer . . . this time of year I let the coals go a lot longer . . . often until they're the size of marbles or plums . . . during winter however when I'm keeping the heat more or less steady I add the wood when the coals are the size of baseballs or softballs.
 
Oh yeah . . . forgot to add . . . it's not a dumb question . . . a lot of people wonder about this . . . and honestly it's probably one of the most common mistakes made . . . adding wood too soon which results in excessive amounts of coal, a dwindling firebox and when added too soon you can experience the joy and fun of backpuffs.
 
If I am pushing the stove for maximum heat I load when there are still lots of hot coals. This reduces the amount of time I have a cooler stove, but after a couple loads I end with too many coals, so I have to add a split at a time to burn up coals. If I am not pushing the stove as much I wait longer to avoid building up too many coals. I guess the only way to know the difference between 'lots of coals' and 'not too many coals' is practice. I do try to avoid waiting too long because that can make reloads start slowly.
 
All good thoughts. I'll add... it is VERY easy to get carried away and burn more than is needed to provide the right amount of heat.... especially with your new toy.... one of my first year lessons learned was to back off how hard I ran the stove and not over heating the house. As Nate said, if its cold add wood. If its comfortable or warm then wait.
 
If you have a stove top temp gage it helps alot. For me I get the stove cruising at about 500-600 deg, when the temp drops down below 300 and the coals are way down then it is time. Every stove and setup is a little different but using the temperature gage and a visual will help you to find what works best for you. As mentioned above, coals will build up if you are loading too often.

Jim
 
ive always been an advocate of "cycle burning" as the constant adding a stick at a time actually wastes some of the thermal energy cooking out the fresh splits, leat the coals do that. when burning wood i generally would load fully, burn fully and reload when i had ample coals to relight but not so many that they used up too much space that fresh wood would occupy. its a feel thing. also i would rake and wait on some occasions to allow the coals to reduce a bit faster when i wanted to get to reloading in a hurry.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
cowtown said:
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle" date="1322978763 said:
Hay Dan, good job :)

You want to let the stove "cycle", that's what helps you conserve wood, and burn effeciently (I'm adding "dry/seasoned wood" here for the faint of heart :) ). Helps minimize coal build up, as well.

Yea, i let it cycle. i open back up the air when the flames have gone, to burn off the coals. I then put the new load of wood in.

Try letting it cycle longer. Let it naturally go down to bed of coals with the air closed. As BB said the other day "coals make heat". You'll save wood. Alot of wood.

Will do, thanks for the advice.

You're very welcome.

It really works, ask me how I know this :)


Eileen please do not think I am contradicting you here but we do things a bit different.


<the rest of Dennis's post cyberspaced here>


EDIT: Remember that the wood you burn will determine how much you have for both coaling and for ashes.


High praise from the "Master/Sensei", indeed. I thank you
cool-smiley-008.gif



The wood being burned is a major factor, as Dennis has said. Do not forget house layout, insulation and air flow are major factors, also.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.