East to west burn small insert

[rad3110]

I just wanted to share my experience. My striker C160 a very small insert was, in my opinion, underperforming. I took the liberty of cutting my wood down in length and loading east to west instead of my traditional north south. The east west turned it into a whole new animal. My stove temp went from 325 to easily maintaining 475. I had know problem with a secondary burn and the burn time lasted just as long. An additional benefit for night burns is that I was able to load more product in the stove. The burn was hotter cleaner and just as long. When I bought this stove it came down to the Regency 1100 0r 1200. I choose the striker mainly because it was about 500 bucks less. I would imagine the east west method might work just as well in those stoves.Also, Im not going to cut all my wood that short but in the future will make my own supply of east west. and mix in north south.

 

[Mmaul]

I do this in my small firebox on really cold night's it works great. I happened on doing this just by chance, with elm that I cut small so I could split it.

 

[paulie]

sorry for the dumb question...but what do you mean east to west?? etc/ are you loading the wood front to back? or putting wood in side ways? I ask because I too can only seem to get around 325f, and woudl relly like to run around 400+ I also have a Regency 1200

 

[Cearbhaill]

sorry for the dumb question...but what do you mean east to west?? etc/ are you loading the wood front to back? or putting wood in side ways? I ask because I too can only seem to get around 325f, and woudl relly like to run around 400+ I also have a Regency 1200

East to west is side to side and north to south is front to back.

 

[Vic99]

Forgive the newbie question . . . . why does an east-west burn give longer burns? I realize that many fireboxes are wider than they are deep. Is this some how connected to surface area/volume?

 

[myzamboni]

Forgive the newbie question . . . . why does an east-west burn give longer burns? I realize that many fireboxes are wider than they are deep. Is this some how connected to surface area/volume?

Air flow typically goes from the front of the stove towards the rear. North-South should give you a faster, hotter burn as there is less turbulence for the airflow.

 

[precaud]

Air flow typically goes from the front of the stove towards the rear. North-South should give you a faster, hotter burn

My experience says it depends somewhat on the geometry of the stove. But generally speaking, burning N/S results in slower, more controllable burns. Burning E/W, the whole load gets ignited which burns off quicker and hotter. In a N/S designed stove the combustion zone moves back as the load is burned.

In either configuration, using smaller splits will predictably burn hotter...

 

[myzamboni]

Air flow typically goes from the front of the stove towards the rear. North-South should give you a faster, hotter burn

My experience says it depends somewhat on the geometry of the stove. But generally speaking, burning N/S results in slower, more controllable burns. Burning E/W, the whole load gets ignited which burns off quicker and hotter. In a N/S designed stove the combustion zone moves back as the load is burned.

In either configuration, using smaller splits will predictably burn hotter...

that's because your experience is with a 'cigar burn' stove which does not really have an east-west option.

 

[precaud]

that's because your experience is with a 'cigar burn' stove which does not really have an east-west option.

No...
The Nestor Martin is E/W...
The Morso 2110 which I had for 2 years is E/W
and there were others.
The Quad 2100 is wide enough to use either way.

But it does highlight why I prefer N/S stoves... they're more controllable. Which, with the wood available in this area, is what I need.

 

[begreen]

I have to admit this post is confusing. It sounds like the poster has the compass rotated 90 degrees.

I took the liberty of cutting my wood down in length and loading east to west instead of my traditional north south.

The Striker's firebox is wider than it is deep I think, so this would mean that the stove was more responsive burning north/south, more like a boxwood stove.

 

[precaud]

Yup, you're right BG. Methinks maybe rad is just starting to use it as it was intended... which would explain everything.
From the Lennox website for the C160, the firebox is 18" wide and 14" deep.

But... why did he have to cut his wood down to do E/W? Confusing.

 

[begreen]

I think he just got the terms reversed. Here's a drawing for rad.

 

[precaud]

BG, remove the confusing "North" and the arrow and that will clarify things.

Assuming the air comes in over the door, that is

Maybe you should put it in the Wiki? The topic certainly comes up enough...

 

[TMonter]

Last week or so after I saw the video I've been experimenting east/west burning in my 3100i with pretty good success. It seems to work well for a fire that is a slower burn, but also puts out less heat over shorter periods. Seems to be good for warmer days or overnight burns.

Still on colder days I've been still loading the stove in the north/south fashion.

I cut my wood to 15.5" lengths when woodcutting so this has worked out well.

 

[Elderthewelder]

Yup, you're right BG. Methinks maybe rad is just starting to use it as it was intended... which would explain everything.
From the Lennox website for the C160, the firebox is 18" wide and 14" deep.

But... why did he have to cut his wood down to do E/W? Confusing.

Ain't no way you are going to get a 18" split into the C160, 16" is about the max / even a little smaller is better. Some of my longer splits I have do load diagonally, gets even trickier when I have a good coal bed going/ can add only a max of 2 splits most of the time

FYI N.I. Firelogs are 13" and they fit great in this stove

 

[Wolves-Lower]

After watching that video about correct way to burn I immediately got N/S burning envy!
Next time I split wood I will split some shortys for the N/S varriation.

 

[velvetfoot]

I used to be able to burn n-s on my Quad 2100 insert.
Another nice thing is the logs don't roll out.

 

[rad3110]

you folks were right I had east/west and north south confused