I got to thinking about all the quotes for burn times. And I feel there is a whole lot of apples to oranges here. So many varialbes its hard to compare. I consider burn time to start when the stove top is at least 500 and stops when it goes below 350 because that is where the heat is. A hot bed of coals doesn't constitute burn time in my book. Sure something is burning but not enough BTU's to do any real heating. IMO a bed of coals is just something to get the next load fired off.
Burn Time Quotes?
- Thread starter wkpoor
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Disagree.
I consider burn time from start of fire till when there is still enough coals that it's still making heat and I can reload and it starts burning right away. In any case, this is from the wood I put in the stove almost 24hrs ago. I just have the cat off and turned the stove all the way up to get ready to reaload it. I could turn it down and burn for another couple hrs if I wanted.
I consider burn time from start of fire till when there is still enough coals that it's still making heat and I can reload and it starts burning right away. In any case, this is from the wood I put in the stove almost 24hrs ago. I just have the cat off and turned the stove all the way up to get ready to reaload it. I could turn it down and burn for another couple hrs if I wanted.
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My stove at 350 is still pumping out usable heat and would have too many chunks of hot coals to reload. I usually wait til she's down to 250 or less and that could be as long as 12 hours on a full load.
Many folks, have many interpretations.
Keep in mind, on a cold start, alot of usable heat is going to heat the stove up. I myself would consider that burn time also, as it is heating the stove to get it going and ready to then put out heat to the house.
I also agree with Todd, even at say 300 it is still putting out warmer air around my insert, even with the blower on. Warmer air = usable heat in my book. That is just me though.
Keep in mind, on a cold start, alot of usable heat is going to heat the stove up. I myself would consider that burn time also, as it is heating the stove to get it going and ready to then put out heat to the house.
I also agree with Todd, even at say 300 it is still putting out warmer air around my insert, even with the blower on. Warmer air = usable heat in my book. That is just me though.
Which begs the question............How long after you do a cold start, is it, before you start to get any real "heat" from your stove. That, to me, is the "burn time."
Once the stove has been cranking for a while, I'm amazed at how much heat still is coming from the stove from the ember bed. Just open the door to pile the embers for a hot start, and see how much heat blasts your face!!
"Burn time" (thus) for me, is from the time the fire is lit, until the hot ember bed is more or less "out."
-soupy1957
Once the stove has been cranking for a while, I'm amazed at how much heat still is coming from the stove from the ember bed. Just open the door to pile the embers for a hot start, and see how much heat blasts your face!!
"Burn time" (thus) for me, is from the time the fire is lit, until the hot ember bed is more or less "out."
-soupy1957
wkpoor said:
wkpoor, I understand what you are getting at but perhaps you might look at it from a different angle. You quote at least 500 degrees to begin and 350 to end. What about this fall? Most times our stove top does not reach 500 degrees! We simply do not need that much heat yet. And 350 stove top is just fine if you don't need a lot of heat. I might get an easy 12+ hour burn time in the fall or spring using only 2 or 3 small splits. I'll get less in the winter with a full load. It all depends upon what is required and that changes from day to day.
During the cold of winter I want stove top temperatures above 500 and at 350 I'm ready to add some fuel, but not during fall and spring.
These questions have been asked numerous times and answers always vary. I agree w Nate and consider burn time from light up until I have just enough coals for a relight. Even a small bed of embers is still producing valuable heat and helps keep the house warm, just not as much as blazing secondaries. After a cold start, our Oslo throws enough heat to start bringing up the thermostat after about 15-20 minutes.
I disagree also right now my stove is at 325 stove top. Also it is 79.8 in my living room to me a coal bed is better then a roaring fire it doesn't over heat the house in the fall or spring. But in the winter i reload when it cools to 350.
wkpoor said:
Last year was our first year heating with wood and learned early that the coals hold plenty of btu's, burning less wood so far this year because we burn down the coals to a stove top temp of 250-300.
zap
I think for me burn time is time from loading the stove to feeling like I need to reload the stove. Start-up time and time to burn down the coals don't count in the computation of burn time. That said, I couldn't say how long burn time is with any stove I have used. I just don't keep track like some people do.
LoL. I like this one a little bit more than some of the others. Just to clarify, I think it's from the first moment when you can't touch the stove any longer, to the first moment when you can touch it again. Everything I see says tissue damage from 120-140. That seems low to consider useable heat for some, but if a stove is running at 140 and you are standing next to it, then it's probably gonna feel warm still. Maybe we should just all pick some random number and stick with it. Like 200F to 200F and call that a burn time. The problem with that is that I can drop pretty cool and then come home from work and pull some big coals out of the back to the front, open it up and shoot the temps up 100 degrees for a half an hour or so. So is a burn time how long it will burn without human intervention (opening up the air a little, stirring the coals, etc)????oldspark said:
I think that for the sake of science we all decide here, today, what we're gonna call Burn Time.
I vote for 200F to 200F without manipulating anything except the air. Who's with me?
I got home around 2:30 n morning and loaded the stove. Then I was up about 6:00 ,for what I don't remember hah, and threw a few more pieces in, and just now went down at 10:30 and stove was 200 degrees with nothing but a hot bed of coals. Since I added some ad about halfway I can't really say that was 8hr burn time but I do agree I was getting heat value but also where my stove sits downstairs is on concrete surrounded by block that all gets so hot you can't touch it and in fact I can't walk up to the stove with bare feet the floor is so hot. All that concrete must give back when the stove temps start to cool off.
wkpoor said:
Heh - based on your definition I haven't even burned much this fall as I only get up to a surface temp of 400 many days...
As others have implied, 'burn time' is a much over used and under-defined term. Come up with your own definition and be happy with it. It is as you say "apples to oranges" which is why the marketing folks love it since they can't be nailed down with a real objective definition.
I'd like to compare re-load times (average) when running 24/7 but even then there are too many variables to make it comparable since the amount of heat needed will vary not only from home to home but from day to day.
30 degrees outside, flue at 300, and stove at 400. In this weather, that's adequate. When it gets colder, not so much. So, although the actual "burn time" of the stove may be similar, the needed heat may not. So, not quite sure how to define "burn time". How do the stove makers define it?
We could use another term, "usable heat time", but that would also be very dependent upon a LOT of variables.
We could use another term, "usable heat time", but that would also be very dependent upon a LOT of variables.
Backwoods Savage said:
Dennis, when you reload at 350 stovetop temp, don't you still have a ton of hot coals taking up space? If I reload at 350 I can't get nearly a full load - maybe its your bone dry magic wood?
I reload whenever I decide regardless of top temps. Maybe I just happen to be near the stove and feel like adding a few more or maybe I'm going to be out for a while. What all this jargon about not reloading till temps are down to a certain #. Heck its not uncommon for me to reload at 500 degrees just because I feel like it. The more I read the more this whole cat thing doesn't sound like fun.Backwoods Savage said:
wkpoor said:
WKpoor: What the heck does a cat have to do with reloading when there are still lots of coals? The question would apply equally to a non-cat stove. The point is that reloading too often when there are too many coals just causes an even bigger coal base to build up and takes up room for new fresh wood. This becomes a problem especially when its very cold out and you need lots of heat, coals don't make the high heat. There a lots of threads on this point of view.
fire_man said:
Tony, when we first got this stove, that was a bit of a problem. It did not take long to learn how to control it though. As the stove temperature drops, the draft opens. I'd guess by the time the stove top is 400 we have the draft about full open. Then by the time the temperature is down, so are the coals. If we've been away and I come home to a cool house I don't worry. I then do not put in a full load but 2 or 3 small splits and burn it about as hot as we can which helps burn down those coals so when we need the full load, we have the room.
I hope this helps.
wkpoor said:
Looking at your signature line explains it. With the old stoves you won't have this problem but will with the newer stoves. You just have to adjust your thinking a little bit. Is it worth it? For me it is when I get more heat from half the amount of wood we burned with the old stove.
Is it difficult to control or run a cat stove? Absolutely not! It is really quite simple. You have a draft lever and a bypass lever. If moving those two levers is a problem, well.....
btw, reloading or whatever at a certain temperature is not written in stove. These are just guidelines.
Well Tony here is how I do it in a nutshell. I load my stove whenever I need to for many reasons none having anything to do with coal base. If in the morning I wake up and want to load the stove and the coal base is rather thick I simply shovel them out into a 20gal covered metal trash can till I have the room I want for the next load. Later after the can cools down (or I wait till its full) I take it out to the garden. Or sometimes with my wedling gloves on I take it straight out and throw the hot coals over the ground. Basically I make the stove fit my schedule, not the other way around.fire_man said:
i hope you aren't saying you put hot coals into a galvanized trash can. or if you are I hope it lives outside.
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