How Full Do You Load Your Stove?

[BrotherBart]

An excellent example of why I would only want a cat in a wood furnace in the basement. If I can't watch a nice fire, what the heck do I want the stove in the family room for? ;-)

 

[North of 60]

An excellent example of why I would only want a cat in a wood furnace in the basement. If I can't watch a nice fire, what the heck do I want the stove in the family room for? ;-)

Also an excellent example of a stove that you have full control of and is able to be loaded on a full bed of hot coals without it going nuclear. Therefore not requiring it to be in the same room you are in to be baby sat until you can confirm it is not going out of overfire control after a fresh load that you think you have timed rite. :cheese:

 

[ecocavalier02]

An excellent example of why I would only want a cat in a wood furnace in the basement. If I can't watch a nice fire, what the heck do I want the stove in the family room for? ;-)

Also an excellent example of a stove that you have full control of and is able to be loaded on a full bed of hot coals without it going nuclear. Therefore not requiring it to be in the same room you are in to be baby sat until you can confirm it is not going out of overfire control after a fresh load that you think you have timed rite. :cheese:

I will second that. you just dont have to worry after. it does its thing and its not gonna go wild on you. it always does the samething over and over.

 

[ecocavalier02]

The only problem with overnight burns loading e/w is you have to worry about the splits rolling on to the glass.

I agree. I also find I can get a lot more fuel in the box and is much easier to rearrange if necessary NS. To the OP, I load fully every time. This time of year I pack the punk, cutoffs and uglies in as tight as I can. When its cold, it gets packed with denser species, consistent length, straight and larger splits.

So it doesnt matter if the wood is on the secondaries? J/C

Unless I am burning hot, this is often all I see in the stove. There will be some glows from the wood but that is about it. This was fully loaded to the bottom of the cat enclosure with shoulder season junk a little over half an hour ago and will easily burn until tomorrow evening. That glowing grate you see is the little box above the wood in my previous picture.

soalr i was wonering.. when burning on low i find that sometimes not always but just because the wood in the front will burn out quicker that after 9 or 10 hours it needs to be opened up and pulled to the front or it''ll end up gettin to the low end of active. just wondering how many times during a cycle on low do you open it open to stir things up and pull to the front?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

My stove burns cleanest stuffed to the gills... err secondary tubes. I think that this helps direct heat and restrict unburnt gases to where they need to be.

 

[ecocavalier02]

also i find because im loading with the uglies so i have chunks some in the back some in the front so its not the same cycle as with strait pieces of wood. the fire kinda needs to be stirred up to help it burn down.

 

[SolarAndWood]

soalr i was wonering.. when burning on low i find that sometimes not always but just because the wood in the front will burn out quicker that after 9 or 10 hours it needs to be opened up and pulled to the front or it''ll end up gettin to the low end of active. just wondering how many times during a cycle on low do you open it open to stir things up and pull to the front?

I usually only open the door once and it is very near full coaling stage. I don't worry about active/inactive at that point of the burn. If you need heat, do the pull front center and turn the tstat all the way up. If you need more heat than that provides, throw a few small splits of pine on top until your coals are down to where you are ready to load the next cycle. The pine doesn't seem to put off when you can load the next cycle, just puts out a lot more heat at the end of the current one if you need it.

 

[ispinwool]

I have come to love Locust...I can put in a fairly good size round and another
medium split at night and it'll still be HOT in the morning! (so I'm stingy with
them and only "allow" them to be burned at night!)
Ugliest trees God ever made...but they burn great!

 

[ecocavalier02]

I was wondering. Cuz at that point it does t matter. There's no moisture in the wood that wood effect anything anyway. I tend to feel like I need to open it up ti get it hot in the active zone after 11 12 hours when there's no need. I dint need more heat at this time I just am antsy and thunk it's burning unclean. But in sense everything. Is burned off

 

[oldspark]

A car in the wrong hands is a dangerous device also, my point about watching flue temps keeps getting reinforced every day with these over fires. I agree with BB on the placement of the stove if it is a cat stove, I do think cat stoves are a great stove for the right application.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I agree with BB on the placement of the stove if it is a cat stove

I'm so ashamed I think I will hide my cat stove in the basement this weekend :lol:

 

[oldspark]

I agree with BB on the placement of the stove if it is a cat stove

I'm so ashamed I think I will hide my cat stove in the basement this weekend :lol:

Ashamed, you should be proud, not all of us are as worried about the light show as I am. :lol:

 

[leeave96]

An excellent example of why I would only want a cat in a wood furnace in the basement. If I can't watch a nice fire, what the heck do I want the stove in the family room for? ;-)

When I first started firing my Keystone, I thought the same - what's the point in having a large window only to view some orange coals at the stove bottom and a orange glowing cat at the top of the stove? So me thinks that is kind of dull too - might as well get a Woodstock Classic where you can't see anything flame related.

But, I have modified my burn "style" and when we are at home relaxing by the fire, we want fire, so even with the cat engaged and giving me an orange glow, I crack the damper open until I get a nice rolling flame that wicks the underside of the cat shield (basically the top of the stove) and the view is fantistic! I haven't seen a non-cat stove flame, but I gather from what I read, it is a real light show with flames flashing off in all directions in the fire box. The way I burn my Keystone, with the flames burning vertically off the logs, to me it is a more natural flame than secondaries burning at the top of the stove. It is a beautiful sight. Am I getting a clean burn doing this - I think so. Am I burning a bit more wood - yes. Is the view worth the extra wood consumed - absolutely.

The fireplace like burn (vs the orange cat, orange coals) is really going to be special this Thanksgiving and Christmas as the temperatures turn colder and family is gathered in our living room.

Bill

 

[weatherguy]

When I first started firing my Keystone, I thought the same - what’s the point in having a large window only to view some orange coals at the stove bottom and a orange glowing cat at the top of the stove? So me thinks that is kind of dull too - might as well get a Woodstock Classic where you can’t see anything flame related.

But, I have modified my burn “style” and when we are at home relaxing by the fire, we want fire, so even with the cat engaged and giving me an orange glow, I crack the damper open until I get a nice rolling flame that wicks the underside of the cat shield (basically the top of the stove) and the view is fantistic! I haven’t seen a non-cat stove flame, but I gather from what I read, it is a real light show with flames flashing off in all directions in the fire box. The way I burn my Keystone, with the flames burning vertically off the logs, to me it is a more natural flame than secondaries burning at the top of the stove. It is a beautiful sight. Am I getting a clean burn doing this - I think so. Am I burning a bit more wood - yes. Is the view worth the extra wood consumed - absolutely.

The fireplace like burn (vs the orange cat, orange coals) is really going to be special this Thanksgiving and Christmas as the temperatures turn colder and family is gathered in our living room.

Bill

I was going to say basically the same thing, I turn the tstat up a notch and I get some nice flames, I find I can adjust how much flame I want with just a tweak of the stat.

 

[SolarAndWood]

until I get a nice rolling flame that wicks the underside of the cat shield (basically the top of the stove) and the view is fantistic!

I was going to say basically the same thing, I turn the tstat up a notch and I get some nice flames

I do this as well. But, when you see flames with a full firebox, you better be ready to move some heat. I usually only do it well into the burn cycle.