Burning East West w/pic

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dafattkidd

dafattkidd

Minister of Fire
Dec 11, 2007
1,870
Long Island
So I'm mostly a NS burner, but I loaded the stove EW tonight to see if I get a longer burn out of less wood. So far this burn seems to be burning much slower than my usual NS overnight burn. The only problem is a big oak split fell right up on the glass. That is the best feature of burning NS for me. No worries about logs rolling into your glass. When I had had a smaller insert I loved burning NS because I could pack it to the gills. Now with a larger firebox that's not an issue. I'm going to be experimenting with EW burning and I'm curious of other burners experiences.

Anyone prefer burning EW? If so, why? What are your experiences with both? I hear a lot of members on the forum switching from EW to NS. Anyone switch over from NS to EW? I'd love to hear your input.

Here's a not so great pic of my EW burn tonight. You can see the black and gray oak split leaning on my glass.
 

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I prefer NS but my firebox isn't deep enough for average firewood to fit that way. What I don't like about EW loading is that pieces of wood can interrupt the air flow if they aren't positioned right. Sometimes I'll cut a few piece of my firewood in half with the saw and use them NS as my first load. They seem to get going faster that way because of how the air flows between the pieces.
Most of the time I just go EW because that's how the wood fits in the stove. I'm careful about how I position things so it doesn't fall against the glass.
 
The T-5 can take 16" (I think) EW and 18" NS and I do both directions but not with round firewood, that's strictly NS or it will roll out of the stove or onto the glass.. With split firewood orientation isn't really a problem..

Ray
 
E-W is the only pratical way to burn in our stove because the firebox is shallow: 9.5 inches from the andirons to the fireback. The owners manual warns against N-S also.
 
I burn the Eco Bricks N-S (they are 9.5 inches long) but everything else E-W. To burn everything N-S I'd be cutting it to 10 inches.
 
DaFattKidd said:
So I'm mostly a NS burner, but I loaded the stove EW tonight to see if I get a longer burn out of less wood. So far this burn seems to be burning much slower than my usual NS overnight burn. The only problem is a big oak split fell right up on the glass. That is the best feature of burning NS for me. No worries about logs rolling into your glass. When I had had a smaller insert I loved burning NS because I could pack it to the gills. Now with a larger firebox that's not an issue. I'm going to be experimenting with EW burning and I'm curious of other burners experiences.

Anyone prefer burning EW? If so, why? What are your experiences with both? I hear a lot of members on the forum switching from EW to NS. Anyone switch over from NS to EW? I'd love to hear your input.

Here's a not so great pic of my EW burn tonight. You can see the black and gray oak split leaning on my glass.
Click to expand...

DaFattKidd, that is why we changed to loading N/S in the Liberty. I thought all our would was cut down to 14.75, we still have some we are bringing in that are 17 inches long so we load four of those E/W and 2 or 3 on the side N/S. For overnight burns everything is loaded N/S.

We have to bring in wood tomorrow so it looks like I'll be cutting some down, this should be the last year for that.

zap
 
I burn EW because it allows for much larger logs to go in.

Agreed that if the logs arent sitting "right" they will screw up the airflow and prevent it from working right.

Maybe its not ideal... but 5 heating seasons so far, its worked....
 
I don't know how much anyone cares about this, but here's an Update on my EW experiment last night:

I woke up this morning a little over 7 hours later. It was 33* outside. The house was warm. The stove top was at 220*. The log that rolled onto the glass was practically still full sized just blackened, and the monster round I put in the back still had a lot of its shape and was blackened as well. This was both helpful and annoying. Helpful because once I opened the door and repositioned those to pieces they went up in a blaze of glory. So I threw a few more splits on there and that was my fire for the morning. Very little work because I had two logs in there leftover from the overnight. Annoying because those suckers were probably just smoldering in there gunking up my chimney all night. ugh.

Anyway, I have another EW load of 4 oak splits in there for tonight's overnight burn. We'll see. I was a little more strategic about my placement so hopefully it should go well. I must say, in the Osburn 2400 EW seems to burn more slowly. Lower heat spikes, but seemingly a slower steadier burn. We'll see.

Zap, I remember you telling me that last year. When I had the Napoleon 1101 it was advantageous to burn NS because I could get so much more wood in there. But now my firebox is 3.2 cf so I can go either way with most of my wood, and I'm experimenting with EW. And if you're cutting your wood down tomorrow I suppose you'll be using that super helpful devise you built especially for cutting longer splits to that sweet spot of 14.75".
 
E-W = longer less hot burn. N-S = hotter less longer burn.
Fortunately for me, I can load her full N-S and get plenty long burn for overnight and then some. Lately in say 20-30degrees overnight, 12 to 14 hrs later, still plenty of coals for reload.
Under teens's to single digits, Maybe 10 hrs and still have coals for reload. But, single digits and teens, while there is plenty of coals, I still load every 8 hrs as the coals are not heating enough to steady indoor temps after 8 hours or so.
 
DaFattKidd said:
Anyone prefer burning EW? If so, why? What are your experiences with both? I hear a lot of members on the forum switching from EW to NS. Anyone switch over from NS to EW? I'd love to hear your input.
Click to expand...

Of the four stoves I've owned, only the Heritage can, sort of, burn north/south. I didn't like how it burned. Didn't get good temps and the outer logs didn't burn well. I've tried it about a dozen times.
 
Since I mostly load EW, rounds only go in the very back so they can't roll forward. My splits are usually triangular shaped, so when I put the front-bottom split in the stove I position it so the fatter side is near the door to keep things from falling forward.
 
We often load pieces in a diagonal log cabin fashion. Mostly lighter loads and frequently. This usually gives us the best heat and cleanest burning fires. Our method can't be compared directly to other stoves because of the heavily modified nature of our stove, but such loading could probably be utilized in many stoves to good effect.
 
With the side door on the F600, I prefer the E/W loading. I do believe that I could probably fill the firebox fuller going N/S, but I do not like to load throught the front doors.
 
DaFattKidd said:
Anyway, I have another EW load of 4 oak splits in there for tonight's overnight burn. We'll see. I was a little more strategic about my placement so hopefully it should go well. I must say, in the Osburn 2400 EW seems to burn more slowly. Lower heat spikes, but seemingly a slower steadier burn. We'll see.
Click to expand...


So the 4 oak splits was optimistic. I had to chuck in 2 more oak splits EW around 2:30 to ensure a full overnight burn. Woke up to 32* outside, a warm house and a bed of coals. It seems either way keeps my house warm. I'll keep messing with it throughout the winter and figure out what I like best. I have a feeling it's going to be what hogwildz said.

Either way I'm still interested to hear other's experiences with NS and EW burning. Thanks for all of your input.
 
DaFattKidd said:
I don't know how much anyone cares about this, but here's an Update on my EW experiment last night:

I woke up this morning a little over 7 hours later. It was 33* outside. The house was warm. The stove top was at 220*. The log that rolled onto the glass was practically still full sized just blackened, and the monster round I put in the back still had a lot of its shape and was blackened as well. This was both helpful and annoying. Helpful because once I opened the door and repositioned those to pieces they went up in a blaze of glory. So I threw a few more splits on there and that was my fire for the morning. Very little work because I had two logs in there leftover from the overnight. Annoying because those suckers were probably just smoldering in there gunking up my chimney all night. ugh.

Anyway, I have another EW load of 4 oak splits in there for tonight's overnight burn. We'll see. I was a little more strategic about my placement so hopefully it should go well. I must say, in the Osburn 2400 EW seems to burn more slowly. Lower heat spikes, but seemingly a slower steadier burn. We'll see.

Zap, I remember you telling me that last year. When I had the Napoleon 1101 it was advantageous to burn NS because I could get so much more wood in there. But now my firebox is 3.2 cf so I can go either way with most of my wood, and I'm experimenting with EW. And if you're cutting your wood down tomorrow I suppose you'll be using that super helpful devise you built especially for cutting longer splits to that sweet spot of 14.75".
Click to expand...

The devise is hacked up pretty good, seems the 2x4's got in the way of the 660 last time. :coolgrin:


zap
 
BeGreen (I think) posted how to do this with the coals racked forward and one split on the hot coals and the others in back and it works well for me so far, stove was half full or so last night and woke up to a 300 degree stove top after 8 hours. During the day I burn N/S but for the longer burns it seems to work well in the summit.
 
We have a side door, but still prefer n/s, by far. 'Two reasons: The primary air intake causes the burn to under-mine an e/w fire, and logs roll onto the doors/glass. Also, it is MUCH easier not to have ashes pile up against the door. We have learned that, with our installation, full cycle fires work best, so not much is lost by not using the side door. (We will reload onto the coals, occasionally, using the side door.)

BTW: 16" or less, loading N/S, but we can actually get more wood into the box. At least, that's my impression.

'Very Best...
 
IMO, to get the longest burn, you need to put large splits in, and pack them at tight as possible. More air space between allows more surface area to burn, and quicker burn.
Of course this will also give more heat. If your getting the heat you need burning E-W, then that may be your best option. I can load NS and load it full, with no worry of rollers, or unburnt wood at the back of the stove. For me, it is N-S all the way. And with the larger firebox, overnight burns is not an issue. Even in the shoulder season, I burn N-S, just less splits, and still get the temps for efficient burn.
Its not so much the size of the load that determines the burn and efficiency for me, but the quality and the dryness of the wood.
 
I almost always burn E-W because we only have lodgepole anything I can do to make it burn longer is welcome. I split most of my wood this year almost square so I don't have much issue with logs rolling toward the glass. I do need to give it a tad bit more air with a full load of larger splits/logs or the fire will die out in the end of the burn cycle.
 
Great conversation concerning Wood Burn methods. Even though I am waiting for my wood stove install I am discovering a ton of information about wood stovin.

I knew that there was more to just tossing wood into a stove and thinking that was all. If one thinks about, Wood Burning is truly a Science. I am glad that I discovered Hearth.com so I can burn more effectively.

I found a few Utube videos concerning Directional Firewood Burning as I call it. So, for any one out there that would like to see Directional Firewood Burning methods and why wood is burned as such I would highly recommend videos.

Looking forward to my moisture meter in the mail next week. I also hope my Osburn 2000 will be installed too...


Fredo
 
oldspark said:
BeGreen (I think) posted how to do this with the coals racked forward and one split on the hot coals and the others in back and it works well for me so far, stove was half full or so last night and woke up to a 300 degree stove top after 8 hours.
Click to expand...

This is how I've been doing it and its been ok. Sounds like some of you have been having better results than me. I mean bottom line my house is warm, but as far as having nice clean long burns, not perfect, but so far ok.
 
burleymike said:
I almost always burn E-W because we only have lodgepole anything I can do to make it burn longer is welcome. I split most of my wood this year almost square so I don't have much issue with logs rolling toward the glass. I do need to give it a tad bit more air with a full load of larger splits/logs or the fire will die out in the end of the burn cycle.
Click to expand...

Mike, what length do you cut those splits to? Do you get a longer burn EW? Is NS a faster hotter burn for you?
 
Both of my fireboxes are small. I love to burn N/S and really enjoy the "uglies" because I can burn them N/S, in a pile, or whatever. Fact is, the fireboxes are so small that I have to cut for E/W or stacking my wood is nearly impossible. I cut 14 - 16 in. for E/W. N/S requires no more than 10 in. If my fireboxes allowed, I wouldn't burn anything but N/S.
 
My shallow firebox also necessitates a E/W loading. I find better start-ups and reloads if I put a pair of small pieces in a V open to the front and stack the rest on those. I get better air flow to fully involve the batch and by the time the support pieces burn out everything is going pretty good to damper down.
 
Although my stoves are set up for E/W loading with the side door I have plenty of shorties I can use to burn N/S and I can definitely tell the difference in the burn between the two. N/S is a shorter hotter burn just because it allows more air to circulate towards the back. E/W in my stove forces the fire to work itself front to back log to log.
 
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