Air space - how critical?

[DTrain]

So I've been enjoying my stove for a week or so. We're into morning and evening fire time. New liner, 20' chimney, pretty dry wood. Tonight the stove was dogging pretty bad. Door open got me to 350 and when I shut it, the thing just fizzled out. I though well I didn't put in enough kindling. My other splits were a little big i guess. More kindling was tossed in on top. That all burnt up and it fizzled again. I decided to jostle thing up into a looser pile. Left the door open until the flames took. I shut the door and it took right off. I can hear the draft pulling hard now.

So how important do folks find having some good air space around splits?

How do you like to load the stove?

 

[Grisu]

So how important do folks find having some good air space around splits?

Not that important when the wood is really dry and the stove is already warm. In fact, I like to pack it as tight as possible then for longer burns and more control. Was that from a cold start? What kind of wood? And have you tested those big splits for moisture?

 

[begreen]

Fairly important when cold starting a fire. It's an essential ingredient for combustion. For easy starts lay kindling lincoln log style with a few inch gap between pieces.

 

[DTrain]

I didn't test the splits. But I was fairly sure they were in the 20% Neighbourhood. It was a cold start. Seemed crazy how fast I got to 500 after re arranging things.