How full Do You Load Your Stove Before You Leave The House?

[Uper]

Greetings, I've been mostly lurking about reading this forum for a while and have wondered what the seasoned experts think of this issue. I have a small insert and am always a bit concerned when leaving the house with a fire going. I'll keep the air flow at about half and not load anything in for about 45 minutes prior to leaving, and then we pray. So far the house is still standing when we get home. What do you do?

 

[Soadrocks]

We have a Jotul Castine and we always plan accordingly. Our goal is to pack it full, let it get to 600-650, reduce to half for a few minutes, then reduce it to almost completely off with temps floating at 400-500 with a godd secondary burn. This sometimes frustrates the wife as many times she just wants to leave the house now...i need at least an hour notice.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

It depends on the stove. The little Century could be loaded up to the gills and left to burn on low.

The big Englander likes to run so I'll load it up and let it get to temp. Then I'll cut it down and run errands.

Every stove and install is different. I wouldn't do anything I wasn't comfortable with or felt the need to pray about.

Matt

 

[Shari]

You pray?

Get to know how your stove runs/burns before leaving it alone. Normally, once you see temps starting to drop you can feel safe to leave it. On our Oslo, once I get the fire running well and temp is a tad over 400, I shut down the air 1/2 and leave it like that for about 15 minutes. Then I shut air down to 1/4 or less. At this point I feel safe to either leave or go to bed for the night.

Shari

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Greetings, I've been mostly lurking about reading this forum for a while and have wondered what the seasoned experts think of this issue. I have a small insert and am always a bit concerned when leaving the house with a fire going. I'll keep the air flow at about half and not load anything in for about 45 minutes prior to leaving, and then we pray. So far the house is still standing when we get home. What do you do?

Praying is just fine; either before or after.


What do you suppose us folks do who heat entirely with wood? We don't even have a furnace and depend solely on our Fireview for heat. If we are to be gone for all day we would never hesitate to fill the stove. Wait until the wood gets charred good and then dampen it down and go about your business.

In your area, that means still doing this in June....


EDIT: Please forgive me as I forgot to welcome you to the forum. Welcome; you are amongst friends.

 

[Flatbedford]

Load it to the gills.

 

[ChillyGator]

Greetings, I've been mostly lurking about reading this forum for a while and have wondered what the seasoned experts think of this issue. I have a small insert and am always a bit concerned when leaving the house with a fire going. I'll keep the air flow at about half and not load anything in for about 45 minutes prior to leaving, and then we pray. So far the house is still standing when we get home. What do you do?

Open the air control, stuff it to the gills with wood, wait for inferno, reduce air, lock the back door when I leave :coolsmile:

 

[wood spliter]

I have a medium insert. I pack it, make sure it gets going and than damper it down. I do it before I go out and before bed.

 

[firefighterjake]

How full do I load it before leaving the house?

Depends . . . today my wife is home and was still sleeping when I left the house . . . plus it's above freezing . . . so I just tossed in a 3 or 4 medium sized splits . . . got the fire going well, turned down the air, watched the secondaries for a bit . . . headed to work.

If we're both leaving the house or I'm loading the stove up before she comes home and it will be a while (she works nights) before she'll reload and/or the temps outside are cold I'll load the stove up about 75-80% . . . I don't feel compelled to fill every nook, space and cranny . . . and still get a decent burn time and plenty of heat . . . as mentioned I let it "free burn" for a bit with the air open all the way and then start turning down the air . . . the one thing I never do is leave the house with the air open more than a quarter . . . and typically I am able to get a nice secondary burn with the air all the way "shut."

 

[grommal]

If I want it to produce useful heat for as many hours as possible, I fill it as full as possible. If the day will be a little warmer, and I just want to have some decent coals for an evening restart, I'll fill the stove when I first get up to get the house nice and toasty, but I won't put any more wood in when I leave.

Once you get comfortable with how your stove behaves with different amounts/types/dryness of wood, different outside temperatures, and different draft conditions, you'll know how to set things for a long unattended burn.

 

[Slow1]

I load the stove about the same no matter the plans - unless we are going to be gone for an extended time, then I'll consider loading it full (as if for an overnight burn in the coldest part of the season) to insure that it runs as long as possible with useful heat.

It's been said before but worth repeating: As long as your stove is installed to code, properly maintained and operated to specs then it will burn safely whether you are there or not. We exceeded the minimum clearance specs on our install, have a larger than required hearth pad and keep everything clear of the stove. I imagine that combined with whatever buffers are built into the code and testing of the stove I could even load up the stove full and make a serious operator error such as forgetting to engage the cat and/or leave the air open too far and I'd still come home to find the house standing. I may not like the shape the stove is in, but the house likely won't burn down.

With that said - when we are leaving I do make it a point to NOT be in a rush with the stove. I'll load it and let it get settled down before the 'mad rush to pack the kids up' starts. This is just to protect the stove and my sanity from the "did I really remember to engage the cat and set the air?" syndrome from ruining my time away.

 

[Uper]

In your area, that means still doing this in June....

EDIT: Please forgive me as I forgot to welcome you to the forum. Welcome; you are amongst friends.[/quote]

Through June last Year!

Thanks for the welcome. Don't want to harm this cabin any:

 

[ChillyGator]

How full do I load it before leaving the house?

. . . the one thing I never do is leave the house with the air open more than a quarter . . . ."

Great point that I failed to mention.......I can run mine 1/2 way open without overfiring but try to leave it 1/8-1/4 .

 

[SlyFerret]

It totally depends on how long I'm going to be gone and what the weather is.

If high temps are going to be above 40, I usually don't load the stove before I go to work. When I get home, temps are usually mid to low 60's in the house.

If high temps are 20's or 30's, I'll load it up about half maybe.

If in the teens probably 2/3's, and if single digits, I pack it full.

I've gotten to know how my stove burns, and don't worry when I leave.

-SF

 

[velvetfoot]

When leaving for work in the morning, I load it full, get some flames going, then shut it down and leave with the fan at half speed.

PS: I noticed today that the fan at full seems to take 80 watts at full speed and 40 watts at lowest speed.

 

[rdust]

I'll load it full if it's cold enough outside that it needs to be. I usually like at least a half hour to 45 minutes to allow the stove to settle in. The air is usually an 1/8" to a 1/4" open when it's settled in.

 

[breezewood]

I pack it with as much wood that will possibly fit, sit in my chair and wait for the temps to hit 550 or so, marvel at the flames for a bit, damp it down, give all three dogs a bone and head out. I love this heating with wood thing!

 

[ansehnlich1]

pack it full, run it up to 600 +/- then set it at about 1/8 open and I'm good for 10 hours.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Fill it up and set the thermostat to the required heat whether we are home or not.

 

[ControlFreak]

A proper installation should not burn your house down no matter what you do. Still that doesn't have much impact on the fear of a fire burning the house down. I've done this long enough that I just don't worry about it at all anymore, so I load it up with as much wood as I feel is needed for the amount of time I'll be gone and how much heat is needed.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

In your area, that means still doing this in June....

EDIT: Please forgive me as I forgot to welcome you to the forum. Welcome; you are amongst friends.

Through June last Year!

Thanks for the welcome. Don't want to harm this cabin any:[/quote]


That is a mighty fine looking cabin there Yooper. It should provide you with much comfort, especially now that you have wood heat.

 

[PapaDave]

In your area, that means still doing this in June....

EDIT: Please forgive me as I forgot to welcome you to the forum. Welcome; you are amongst friends.

Through June last Year!

Thanks for the welcome. Don't want to harm this cabin any:[/quote]

Uper (yooper), welcome to the Hearth from a troll. ;-)
Wife and I are retired, and are only gone for about 3-4 hours at a time, max. Older stove that won't hold a long burn, but I'll put in about 3-4 splits before we leave, get it going with a decent burn. Turn the air down, latch the door, and off we go.
The first season was tough, because I kept thinking I'd come home to nothing but a charred shell for a house. :lol:
By the time we get back (4 hrs.), the house temp may have dropped to mid sixties, but there are enough coals to get a fire going very easily. I keep the flue and cap clean. Mostly the cap.
Nice "cabin", but I see you don't have as much snow as I would have expected.

 

[snowtime]

The key to feeling secure is to know your system has been set up to code or better. If you did not put it in then check the chimney for clearances and what type of chimney was used. Do you need an R value hearth protection or just ember protection? Do you clean it regularly and if so how much creosote did you find at the last cleaning?
When you have determined your system is good to go then be assured everyone is correct in saying the new code requirements will assure you of years of safe burning As Long As You Perform Regular Scheduled Maintenance and burn dry seasoned wood.

 

[Uper]

Thanks for the replies. I installed the stove and 5 1/2 inch liner. There was 22 ft. of straight pipe and 3 feet of flex to get through the little bend directly over the top of the fireplace. The fireplace is a Majestic BR36 and the store I bought the insert from recommended this method. My only real concern was a chimney fire. I cleaned the pipe in January and got a small amount of soot out (my first cleaning). My wood is all in pretty good condition, so only slow burns should add anything to the pipe. Being that my burn box is small, if I load it up too much (easy to do) I can overburn and the flame is shooting around the bend.
Now another issue is (and it makes me almost crinch to write this) during installation I couldn't get the flex to fit well into the 8" fireplace pipe. The stove dealer, who is a professional chimney sweep and installer told me that they have had to cut the fireplace pipe in order to make the liner fit. I have the masonry board and fake stone chimney built to code for the fireplace 7 years prior. I went ahead and cut a small section to make it fit. We were very careful with our initial fires and haven't had any problems. The stove shop assured me that they have had to do this exact thing before and there haven't been any problems. I am basically putting a completely sealed unit into another sealed unit (except for my cut). I was just curious to hear what other long-time wood burners felt about leaving the house with a fire going.

Yes the snow level is down this year. Apparently the El Nino has kept a lot of systems south of us, hence the east coast getting more moisture.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I load it to the gills. Shut down in stages until I'm convinced it will maintain good secondary combustion. That's it.

Everyone sane goes through a learning curve and the stage where they gain confidence that it's a safe appliance. It's completely normal.