Hearthstone Hot Coal Morning Restart!

[AndyD1480]

So, each morning I wake up and clean out the ash, leaving a ton of workable coals in the fireplace. Now, the Canada wood stove video and Hearthstone say to rake all the coals to the front. But I've noticed on the Heritage that the air really comes in right in the center of the front. So I've started just raking all the coals to a make a line from the center, front to back.

It really seems to work well and I notice it ends up burning off the coals better than just raking them all to the front. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this. I would guess it probably works to pile them up wherever the primary air comes in.

 

[Harley]

When raking the coals in the morning in the Heritage, I will rake torwards the front, but make a little "channel" (front to back) in front of the doghouse, then lay some splits on top of the coal bed. The primary air then seems to really get the coals glowing and the air is pulled in under the layer of splits and they are off and running in no time.

 

[swestall]

I'm kind of a hybrid of all of these. I rake the coals forward, with most in the center. Then I take the rake and push back in front of the air inlet about 3 inches; so I havea big pile of coals with a fully open air hole in front of them.
When I burn them off, I pull them all forward the same way, but then I put a couple of small splits on top of them, toward the back and let them burn full open.
The other day we were away for a long time and when we got home the coals had burned down by themselves and the stovetop was still 200; not much heat but warmed up again in good time.

I love my Soapstone stove......

 

[AndyD1480]

Yeah, that's what I love about teh stove, there's coals 12-14 hours later to restart. My mom gave me a bag of newspapers to "start" the fire with. And I havent used a bit of it since we got it installed!

Also, I do make sure its not blocking the front there. And I kinda like the idea of leaving a open funnel of sorts for the air to blow in. Sometimes when i load up and leave it open, its almost like the fire just burns straight from the air hole right to the back, then works outwards as it burns. Hmm, I'll have to keep experimenting.

I love the soapstone too... long, even, gentle, HEAT... relaxing after work in a t-shirt in January... priceless!

 

[Highbeam]

I have been burning a wood that leaves lots of ash covered coals which gets me overnight burns. So in the morning I have what looks like a full stove of ashes but really there is gold beneath. My tools are a single piece of stout kindling and welder gloves.

First thing is fully open the air control. Then I till the whole bed and this brings the coals to the top and ashes to the bottom. I push everything away from the front of the stove leaving a full width trough. Then dust off/remove the buildup from the bottom of the glass window and the doghouse area paying particular attention to the little hole in the doghouse. Then push the coals into the trough being sure to get a decent heap in front of the doghouse.

I always wonder if I am inadvertently pushing ash into the doghouse hole and plugging it. All of my work is from the side loading door since opening the front door adds a lot of cleanup work.

So now I have a glowing pile of coals. A red haystack. I lay two 1.5" pieces of full length kindling diagonally in opposite directions to make a triangle with a point of the triangle above the doghouse. These two pieces of kindling straddle the haystack and allow me to begin stacking a full load in an E-W direction without risk of tippage and without blocking air flow to the fuel load.

In no time the air from the doghouse hole has blown through the haystack and is sending fire under the fuel load all the way to the back.

 

[bcnu]

I probably have not been diligent enough with the raking. I often just keep adding wood and then get to the place where I shovel out ash/coals leaving enough to rekindle. In the beginning of this year I did rake all forward in a long line most of the time, but also tried a pile right in front of the doghouse. Think I'll try the N/S tunnel and see what happens.

 

[abj1969]

my tribute does the same thing.. dead center in the front is where the coals get the hottest.

since its such a small stove it doesn't have a real long burn time so it depends on the coals i have.. some times i rake them forward and just dig a lil V in the front center and put a couple smaller splits there and it will light right off... others i do the same and put a piece of fatwood under the split and it usually lights off in a few minutes

 

[jpl1nh]

This thread makes me think of a wood burner's version of the Japanese zen gardens where you carefully rake sand (coals) into patterns for its calming and meditative effect. More productive than a zen garden I guess...

 

[sgcsalsero]

This thread makes me think of a wood burner's version of the Japanese zen gardens where you carefully rake sand (coals) into patterns for its calming and meditative effect. More productive than a zen garden I guess...

. . .not that calming when my arm hair is getting singed when placing splits behind the raked to front coals .. . yeeeooww!

 

[AndyD1480]

Ha! Zen coal gardens... well the comparisons are pretty good. The fire seems to have a calming and warming effect.

I remember reading an article that quoted the head guy at Hearthstone. He was saying their stove business was more of a "comfort" product than a heating product. That people bought and installed stoves for the comfort and enjoyment of having it, rather than just an alternative to heat your house.

I guess I can really see that now, although I do like the heat it puts out as well!

 

[DriftWood]

This thread makes me think of a wood burner's version of the Japanese zen gardens where you carefully rake sand (coals) into patterns for its calming and meditative effect. More productive than a zen garden I guess...

A Bonzi Tree would look good in there and help keep the coals from forming in the first place.

 

[cmonSTART]

I wonder what the BTU output of Bonsai trees are...

In the morning I rake my coals similarly to Andy, and then stack my wood sort of log cabin style above it. The first 2 pieces I lay either side of the row of coals, and then the next two, so they just barely hover above the coals E/W. Then, build my "roof" with a few pieces going N/S. Make sure air can flow from the doghouse all the way back and leave the door cracked and away it goes.