Coals Spread Out or Raked to the Front

[Huntindog1]

Whats the preference?

I find raking coals to the front gains me room to put an extra log in the back east to west as the first one goes all the way to the bottom of the stove. With the right size splits I can get 3 - 3-4 inch splits against the back wall. Then I will push the coals back against them so as to spread those coals out a little more to lower their level for more head room for loading in the second row of east west logs but because of the coals I only get two splits stacked on top of each other for this second row as I need head room for those secondary burn tubes.

Then I could load a 3rd row up in front of the dog house primary air but I dont as I leave that space open so as to load a pile of small kindling on top of the coals to burn hot and fast to quicky get the stove temps back up to fire off the secondary burn and hopefully the kindling burns fast to get the temps up before I burn up too much of my big splits in the back which are for the long burn time.

But had talked to stove rep earlier after buying and he said they load on top of a coal bed spread out and get 12 hour burns. I havent got more than 8. Its a 2.2 cubic foot box.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I like front center as well. Lights off better and more complete burn when going 24/7.

 

[Wood Duck]

I ppull them to the front to try to burn them up a little more completely.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Using kindling should not be required on reloads. I do not always slide the coals to the front and probably do that only at night. Other times I just level them out and put the wood in. The only difference it seems to make is that if I do slide them forward, that bottom piece in the rear tends to burn slower. Still, not a lot of difference in burn times unless one counts the lower firebox temperatures as burn time. For us, if the stove gets down to 300 degrees, we're usually looking to add wood and not let it get down further. In the coldest part of winter we don't even want it to get down to 300 degrees. Once again I state that we do not like the big temperature swings which are common with many folks. We like a more even temperature in the house and are able to achieve this very easy.

 

[jharkin]

Once again I state that we do not like the big temperature swings which are common with many folks. We like a more even temperature in the house and are able to achieve this very easy.

Same here. I find the sweet spot in the house its to keep the stove room at 74 so that the rest of the house remains around 70. My cold day routine is to reload at no lower than 72F room temp regardless of stove temp, slow down the stove a bit when it hits 73 usually lets it just drift up to 74 and hold. I will shutdown the air completely if we hit 75. Not too hard to keep it in that 3 degree range except for mild shoulder days.

 

[BrotherBart]

With E/W loads I pull'em all to the front and the the last piece on is a small or medium split right on top of the coals with the air all the way open to get the show on the road.

 

[gpcollen1]

Depends on if you want a fast reload or for a large load and an extended burn.

Pull to front: leaves more room in back for wood but hurts the air flow a bit so it takes longer to get up to temp and close her down.

Spread them out: when i do this, i make sure to leave a little channel right down the middle so the air can flow better. this gets the load going much quicker.

 

[LLigetfa]

Just like with many questions, the answer is "it depends".
If I have enough coals and just tossing 2 more splits on, I spread the coals and put the splits on top.
If I have too many coals I pull them forward to get more air from the air wash and place a small split on top as a catalyst to burn down the coals.
If I am down to just few coals I pull them forward to get the benefit of the zipper air to rekindle the fire.
If I'm stoking it up for the night, I don't want coals under the load so I pull them forward so that the wood burns front to back gradually.

See... there is no one answer fits all.

 

[Chettt]

If you have too many coals, slide most of them to the left or right and place nothing on top of them. This way you get all the heat from the old coals while the new splits are starting and the old coals can burn down to ash.

 

[firefighterjake]

On a reload I spread them around to level out things and then pull the bulk of them towards the front of the stove where the air inlet is . . .

I also do not like a lot of temperature spikes . . . but other than the first fire in the morning after a long overnight burn I generally don't notice a big change in the temps . . . temps stay relatively even for the most part.