Over Night Burn???

PARKBOY · Dec 5, 2011

After reading another thread and looking at others pic's I think I may be burning all wrong on my over night loads. Once I load for the night I get the fire going good and my flue temp about 400f and then I start choking it down. I took some videos of what it looks like once its choked down at different air setting. Could you guys take a look and tell me which if any of the video's looks like what your fire looks like once youve choked it down for the over night burn? Thanks. Also should my flue temp stay in the burn zone (300-550f) even after I choke it down for the night.

Video A:
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d5/PARKBOY/Shared Items/?action=view&current=104_1565.mp4

Video B:
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d5/PARKBOY/Shared Items/?action=view&current=104_1566.mp4

Video C:
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d5/PARKBOY/Shared Items/?action=view&current=104_1567.mp4

Backwoods Savage · Dec 5, 2011

Parkboy, fires will look different depending upon what species of wood you have, how it has been dried, your particular installation and even the weather outside. Some stoves will allow for a smoldering fire and others will not. For example, I can damper our stove down so you won't see any flame and barely any hot coals, yet it burns nice and clean. Some of our older stoves really had to have a lot of air to burn good.

So for overnight burns, the flame is difficult for us to judge. Do you have dry wood? How long has it dried since it was split? What kind of wood is it?

For our stove, I like to put the largest piece of wood in the bottom rear of the firebox. In bottom front I like to put a fast starting wood. Then the firebox is filled with good wood for an overnight burn. For us right now, white ash is our primary fuel and what we are burning right now was split and stacked in April 2009. We also have some soft maple (the faster starting fuel) that was split and stacked at the same time. For sure the maple is much drier than the ash but the ash burns just fine. We have some oak but will let that stay in the stack another couple years before attempting to burn it.

PARKBOY · Dec 5, 2011

Parkboy, fires will look different depending upon what species of wood you have, how it has been dried, your particular installation and even the weather outside. Some stoves will allow for a smoldering fire and others will not. For example, I can damper our stove down so you won't see any flame and barely any hot coals, yet it burns nice and clean. Some of our older stoves really had to have a lot of air to burn good.

So for overnight burns, the flame is difficult for us to judge. Do you have dry wood? How long has it dried since it was split? What kind of wood is it?

For our stove, I like to put the largest piece of wood in the bottom rear of the firebox. In bottom front I like to put a fast starting wood. Then the firebox is filled with good wood for an overnight burn. For us right now, white ash is our primary fuel and what we are burning right now was split and stacked in April 2009. We also have some soft maple (the faster starting fuel) that was split and stacked at the same time. For sure the maple is much drier than the ash but the ash burns just fine. We have some oak but will let that stay in the stack another couple years before attempting to burn it.

Backwoods Savage, I kind of new that the video's probaly wouldnt get me the answer I was looking for but I thought Id try. I think what I need to do is keep an eye on smoke coming from my pipe. But thats hard to do in the dark. Any amount of smoke is not good right?

The wood im burning is oak (thats what I was told anyways) but whatever it is Its a pretty good hard wood that have no complaints about. I got the wood last winter, unsplit so I split it then and stacked it and Im burning it this season. Also I dont know if this makes a difference as far as drying but the wood had been cut about 3 yrs prior to me splitting it.

Backwoods Savage · Dec 5, 2011

No. the 3 years do not count. Only after the wood has been split. Then it needs to sit in the wind to dry.

As for the smoke, that can vary by stove and by fuel but yes, seeing no smoke is ideal except for when you first reload the stove. You will get some then. As for looking to see if there is smoke, I can't say that I go out looking at the chimney much but when outside, you will notice if there is smoke. And I'm not about to take a flashlight outdoors after dark to check the smoke either. You also need to be aware that when it get real cold outdoors it may appear that you have some smoke. If that disappears shortly after leaving the chimney it will be steam rather than smoke so nothing to worry about.

PARKBOY · Dec 5, 2011

Sorry about the video links not working they should work now if not please let me know.

PARKBOY · Dec 5, 2011

Backwoods Savage said:
No. the 3 years do not count. Only after the wood has been split. Then it needs to sit in the wind to dry.

As for the smoke, that can vary by stove and by fuel but yes, seeing no smoke is ideal except for when you first reload the stove. You will get some then. As for looking to see if there is smoke, I can't say that I go out looking at the chimney much but when outside, you will notice if there is smoke. And I'm not about to take a flashlight outdoors after dark to check the smoke either. You also need to be aware that when it get real cold outdoors it may appear that you have some smoke. If that disappears shortly after leaving the chimney it will be steam rather than smoke so nothing to worry about.

Ok, thanks for the info.

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Over Night Burn???

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