Burn Time Quotes?

[fire_man]

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.

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.

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.

Wkpoor, isn't your coal disposal method sort of like coal-abuse or something? I must admit I have been tempted to do exactly what you describe, but now I try to time the burns better so that I get maximum heat out of the stove without dumping coals. Two great points that Dennis has often made 1. Open the draft when the stove temp drops 2.Dry wood makes less coals.
THe old smoke dragons were not as bad at making coals. I had an old VC Resolute and Coaling was much less of a problem but that may partially be because it had an automatic thermostat which opened the draft as the stove cooled.Boy do I miss that automatic draft control. BK owners are lucky dogs. If they put one on the next Woodstock stove they will really have a winner.

 

[oldspark]

wkpoor, what is your house like, my nashua heated my house with out breaking a sweat (except for below zero south wind) most of the time it only had a 1/2 load or less.

 

[wkpoor]

The hot coals in the galvinzed trash has a locking lid and even with live coals I don't think it get all that hot. Just more than my hands can take if I go to dump right away. Its not like I'm burning galvinize with a torch.
As for the whole coaling thing, its all about convienence. Sure if I let it, it will burn them all down to ash but its a continuos cycle of adding wood on top of coals and at some point I'll have a choice to either wait till they burn down some more or just go ahead and take out the extra and get on with it. Like I said, the stove doesn't run my life. If I get up and need to leave I'll shovel out, fill er up, set it for what I know to be the right draft, move on. I check the stove often thoughout the day and pretty much add wood whenever. Don't care about temps unless they are too high or I'm too hot.
Including the walkout basement I'm heating about 2800sqft. Just as you mentioned unless we get below zero and wind it keeps the house cozy even on the 3rd floor. But my house plan is open and lends itself well to the way we heat. Standing at the top of the stairwell fells like standing over a registar of an old gravity furnance. Heat just pours off the old girl. Concrete gets so hot in front of the stove I need shoes on the load it or it will burn my feet.
OBTW, I do burn very dry wood. Most of my wood is 3yrs old since split.