Burn times

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stircrazy

stircrazy

Member
Dec 6, 2011
74
BC, Canada
I see lots of people talking about burn times and was wondering how are you measuring the burn time.

I loaded up my stove with 5 small rounds of cherry last night and after 3 hours the flames were gone and just had glowing red logs. 6 hours from the time I started it I put three more logs on it and they lit. does this mean I had a six hour burn time or a 3 hour burn time?

Steve
 
I go by useable heat. I don't have any flames after a reload, but I add wood 18-24 hours later ;-)
 
stircrazy said:
I see lots of people talking about burn times and was wondering how are you measuring the burn time.

I loaded up my stove with 5 small rounds of cherry last night and after 3 hours the flames were gone and just had glowing red logs. 6 hours from the time I started it I put three more logs on it and they lit. does this mean I had a six hour burn time or a 3 hour burn time?

Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, welcome to the forums !!

What stove are you using? How's the firewood? Rounds need time to season, longer than split wood.

Adding your stove to your signature line will help with responses :)
 
Seriously, I think manufacturers call it burntime when you have the last possible ember left to light off a new load without building a new fire. All depends on who you talk to. I'd call it a six hour burn if you still had plenty of coals that were keeping you warm.
 
Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:
stircrazy said:
I see lots of people talking about burn times and was wondering how are you measuring the burn time.

I loaded up my stove with 5 small rounds of cherry last night and after 3 hours the flames were gone and just had glowing red logs. 6 hours from the time I started it I put three more logs on it and they lit. does this mean I had a six hour burn time or a 3 hour burn time?

Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, welcome to the forums !!

What stove are you using? How's the firewood? Rounds need time to season, longer than split wood.

Adding your stove to your signature line will help with responses :)
Click to expand...

Hi, signature updated,

the fire wood is 15% on a fresh cut. been sitting outside for a year and we are in a very hot and dry area. the rounds were 4" dia and about 12 to 14" long.

Steve
 
jeff_t said:
Seriously, I think manufacturers call it burntime when you have the last possible ember left to light off a new load without building a new fire. All depends on who you talk to. I'd call it a six hour burn if you still had plenty of coals that were keeping you warm.
Click to expand...

the insert top was 430 degrees at its hottest part of the burn, at the six hour mark it had fallen to 300 degrees.

Steve
 
I'd probably say you got a six hour burn time. When it gets cold and you need more heat from the stove you might call it more like a three hour burn time. Burn time has a fluid definition.
 
What a cord is to the general populace, burn time is to folks here.
 
jeff_t said:
Seriously, I think manufacturers call it burntime when you have the last possible ember left to light off a new load without building a new fire. All depends on who you talk to. I'd call it a six hour burn if you still had plenty of coals that were keeping you warm.
Click to expand...

That's about how I now define burn time . . . which of course is quite different from what I originally pictured burn time to be -- a raging fire for a solid 6 or 7 hours. As others have noted . . . "burn time" is a pretty subjective term used by manufacturers and by us.
 
My burn time is determined by how cold it is outside, how well the house holds heat, and how much the stove is rated for. I added the last one because my stove is a bit undersized. Beginning and end of the season i can go 8-10 hrs, while in the dead of winter i can get to a point where i am throwing logs in every 3.
 
For me, it's the time from when I load the stove until I load again. Not counting when I have to relight. This will make your burn times vary depending on wood, useable heat, outside temperature etc etc. Sometimes I only get a 3-4 hour burn, other times I can go 10-12 hours with my unit. It all depends on the conditions and my needs. It can also depend on the context you are talking about. Overnight burns will almost always be longer than "normal" burns because my needs are different.
 
For me, and me only since I am the one using it, I define my burn time as the time between when I strike the match or put new wood on coals and when the stove body drops below two hundred degrees.
 
Burn time is the time that something is burning. Seems simple right. It is. If you can restart the fire without a match then your previous fire was still burning. This is the way that manufacturers will determine burn time and is the accepted definition by the general population.

There is another term that these forums have developed. PMH, or period of meaningful heat. That term more closely describes what some people want to call burn time.

One of the most important specifications or qualities of a stove is burn time. If you area really using a stove as a primary heater then there is almost nothing more important than a long burn time. The only thing that is more important is firebox size.
 
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