me again! reload question...

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Nov 11, 2010
39
Coastal MA
heyyo folks.

im on the second year burning, and typically, im starting from a cold stove in the early evening after work. ive adopted the top-down fire starting method and am enjoying the great results (thanks to the forum)!

now that it appears that the winter has at least started to appear consistently, im starting to burn all day/night on the weekends. my question is about reloading the stove.. im reloading at about 275-300 stovetop with many coals.. i brought them to the front and burned them down a bit and threw a couple larger and a couple med. sized logs. the question is, should i leave the air open until all of the logs have caught, or should i let the coals do the work and keep the air somewhat closed (maybe 1/2 way?) then slowly damper down from there. find if i leave the air open, the stove tends to peak around 700, which is a bit high, though only for a little before settling in the low 600s, but i wonder if im waitng too long to cut the air and burning too much wood? this time around (currently) there is a smallish grouping of slower flames in the middle, with some secondary combustion, but it looks as though not all the wood has caught, and the air is about 1/3 open., and the stove is still around 350-375 (according to my questionably trustworthy IR gun...).
am i right in assuming that if there is enough heat in the firebox to have secondary combustion, then i am burning cleanly? the first fires go very well, im just curious on the timing for the reloads and air supply...
ideally, id like to get a bit longer burn times out of the stove, but not at the risk of burning dirty...

thanks as always for any input!
 
I keep the air open when I reload. Even with coals, I make sure that I give the firebox time to heat back up, and back the air off slowly until I'm cruising along again.

If you reload and keep the air shut down, you'll probably smolder the load and make your glass and chimney all dirty.

-SF
 
You do need to keep the draft full open for a bit but usually not too long if you have good wood. Certainly I would not leave it open long enough to get to 700 degrees. Many times I'll turn the draft down on our stove within 5 minutes but we also have very dry wood. I also watch the flue temperature and try to not go over 400 or 500 measured on single wall horizontal pipe.

As for the reload, we usually reload (in winter) with the stove top around 350 but before that, when the stove is around 400 we will open the draft full at that point. This does burn down the coals and by the time the stove reaches 350 the coal bed is about perfect.

For loading the stove, I like the largest piece or a round in the bottom rear and find that is usually one of the keys to a longer fire.
 
"As for the reload, we usually reload (in winter) with the stove top around 350 but before that, when the stove is around 400 we will open the draft full at that point. This does burn down the coals and by the time the stove reaches 350 the coal bed is about perfect."


when you are reloading with a full load at 350, what stovetop temp do you typically top-out t before settling to the usual cruising temp? i seem to have trouble not topping out around 700 stovetop, with the air completely closed. i leave it open on reloads until the fire is well established and the temps start to climb, then i close it by a 1/2 until around 450, then slowly to closed until 550 or so, but it seems to climb to 700 anyhow. being that its an insert, i cant quite get a reading on the flue temp...
 
We wait until the fire is established and the flue temperature of 400 or thereabouts. At that point we engage the cat and the temperature will usually go up to around 650. It will stay there for some time before gradually dropping little by little.

700 is not a bad temperature and that is exactly how a stove is supposed to work. To not get so high it is a matter of not putting in as much wood. Actually quite simple. Enjoy.
 
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