Middle of the Night Feedings

[Herculoy12a]

I just got it JAN 4TH and it is doing a great job so far. It is actually sold as a coal stove but as I found out, a coal stove is a defacto wood stove. I paid $1650 USD for the unit from a dealer and $375 for the install. I helped the guy bring it in and it is HEAVY. It does have one small issue- the blower on the right is noisey when it gets too hot. I have 90 days for the blower warranty. It is not the blower, it is the piece it is fastened to. Otherwise, I LOVE it. I looked at Quadra fire, Century and Napoleon - Dollar-for-dollar this is the hottest score around ( haha!). I had him (the dealer) come back and he said he will give me a pot for the blower speed because running wide open is too hard on them. I don't know if that is molarkey or not.

Oh yeah, it is rated at 80K BTU's ( I guess that is for coal).
For what it is worth, it will heat 3000 sq. ft. - That all depends on how the house is laid out.

The fire box i believe is 3+ cu feet.

 

[ControlFreak]

On the Smart Stove posted by Control Freak.

What is the list of wood stoves does it work with?

Is it easy to install?

MishMouse,
For the sake of everybody's sanity, this will be integrated into stoves at the manufacturer and sold as an option with a new stove. Perhaps in years to come, it will be available to retrofit stoves that have shipped without the option, but have been tested with it.

Dan

 

[newbie 08]

anyone else have thoughts on using the coal burner as a woodstove.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I'm begininning to think that they're really all not that helpful, as I'm finding that if I get up to throw on a few splits at 3 AM, I also have to stay around an open the air control. Leaving the air damped down often leaves the new splits to smolder (especially as the wood I'm burning this year is not completely seasoned), and leaving the air wide open wastes energy and wood. Do I leave the air control at halfway-- or just chuck the whole middle of the night feeding process? Nevermind that it's hard as heck to get back to sleep once I'm up. (And, with that, perhaps I just answered my own question). H.

------------------
If you have to get up in the middle of the night to put wood on,you have the wrong stove, My typical burn time is 12-18 hours and can go as long as 25 hours.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

What you need is an incontinent little dog. I got 2 of them that have me trained to hop right up when they start sneezing at me at 3:30-4 am (yes, I am a wimp). Feed them, throw on some wood, take them out, sit in front of the fire with the dogs until it's ready to shut down, go back to bed.

I appreciate the last 2 hours of sleep so much more when I have to get up before them

 

[SlyFerret]

I pack the stove full when I get home from work. That's usually enough to carry us through until the morning reload before work.

Last night it was down to -10F. I knew I was gong to have to reload at some point.

Loaded at 7:00pm when I came home. Fell asleep on the couch at about 10:00pm (stove wasn't ready for a reload yet). Woke up at about midnight, reloaded. Enjoyed some quiet time watching the fire. Finally crawled into bed for real at about 12:45 after damping the stove back for the overnight.

This morning at 7:00, I had plenty of coals for a relight and didn't even need a chuck of those handy little super cedar firestarters!

If I have to choose between burning a little propane and crawling out of my comfy warm bed, I'm usually going to choose the propane.

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

Did my first middle of the night reload of the winter last night. Loaded the stove at 8 o'clock and went to bed at ten. Woke up at 3 o'clock and it was 12 degrees outside and 71 in the bedroom. Went down to check the stove and even though it might have pulled through to sun-up I had my doubts so I put in three medium splits and went back to bed twenty or thirty minutes later and got up to a warm house at seven thirty.

Not a habit I want to get into but no other heat to fall back on.

 

[Rich L]

Ya just got my Blaze King Classic this thing not only heats overnight it heats from go to work am to come home in the pm and still doesn't need to be feed.To wake up in the wee hours to feed a stove means that stove is not doing the job.

 

[ansehnlich1]

On the coldest nights around here, when it goes down to 10 or 15 degrees, if I'm up, and motivated, I'll open the side door on the Oslo, throw in 3 medium size splits, set the air at half, and go to bed.

No problem.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Negatives last night. Probably negatives tonight. I'll be feeding the 2.3 cu ft firebox a lot... until it hits the 50's this weekend.

Schizo weather.

 

[SmokinPiney]

Since flipping the grates over in my volcano II i can get a great overnite burn and the house will still be 55-60deg when i wake up at 5:30. And that's with the outside temp anywhere between 10-30deg. I load the firebox till it wont take another piece, close the thermostatic damper 95%, and set the secondary burn dampers at about 50-60%. The only problem with the grates flipped is that it will burn completely out rather than leave a nice ash bed for morning startup. But it burns alot hotter and considerably longer.

I've only used a few gallons of oil this yr and don't plan on usin much more by spring. I don't know how some of you can keep your houses 80+ deg! That's like a dang sauna. I'll sleep all night and wake up to a 55-60deg house any day. Beats wakin up throughout the night.

 

[Badfish740]

I've only used a few gallons of oil this yr and don't plan on usin much more by spring. I don't know how some of you can keep your houses 80+ deg! That's like a dang sauna. I'll sleep all night and wake up to a 55-60deg house any day. Beats wakin up throughout the night.

Ditto. I like it nice and toasty when I'm on the couch watching TV but at night I like a cool room with the blankets piled on. There's nothing worse than waking up feeling like you're baking.

 

[duwed1250]

Just installed Bis Tradition 4 cu ft box. Load her up at about 10:30pm
get up for oatmeal cookies & milk at about 3:30 secondary burn looking good.
Full bed of coals at 6:30. Temp at 64 degrees.2200 sq open concept two story home

 

[wendell]

If you have to get up in the middle of the night to put wood on,you have the wrong stove, My typical burn time is 12-18 hours and can go as long as 25 hours.

and

Ya just got my Blaze King Classic this thing not only heats overnight it heats from go to work am to come home in the pm and still doesn't need to be feed.To wake up in the wee hours to feed a stove means that stove is not doing the job.

Are we really going to get into a "My burn is bigger than yours" or "My stove can beat up yours" fight? Believe it or not, some of us have other considerations when we buy our stoves and don't equate our firebox size with certain parts of our anatomy.

 

[savageactor7]

For those middle of the night feedings we just pack as many splits as can fit in there & close the door, go back to sleep. I started splitting smaller after we got this stove and thanks to that splits will easily pancake together and fill up voids easily without bashing the tubes on top.

The primary is usually choked a third and we don't touch the prim air for midnight feedings ...just load it up and back to sleep. The fire is still burning hot 400 plus many times hotter so why bother? Sleeping and leaving the house is the only time the stove gets loaded to the max...

...other times 1-3 splits burning at various stages with a wide open Primary air is enough to get the stove hot enough to provide adequate heat.

Last year the stove was more than adequate cause it was a mild winter compared to this year. If the opportunity presents itself we'll trade up from the qf4300 to a big box stove.

 

[Constrictor]

Im getting on average a 7 hour burn. Never ever have to load in the night. its always 65-70 in the house when i wake up with plenty of coals to just throw a few on and go.

 

[Rich L]

If you have to get up in the middle of the night to put wood on,you have the wrong stove, My typical burn time is 12-18 hours and can go as long as 25 hours.

and

Ya just got my Blaze King Classic this thing not only heats overnight it heats from go to work am to come home in the pm and still doesn't need to be feed.To wake up in the wee hours to feed a stove means that stove is not doing the job.

Are we really going to get into a "My burn is bigger than yours" or "My stove can beat up yours" fight? Believe it or not, some of us have other considerations when we buy our stoves and don't equate our firebox size with certain parts of our anatomy.

Well I didn't purchase my stove due to my anatomy.I just don't want to get up at night and if there are others who are tired of it this stove is a possible answer.It's really nothing to pout about.

 

[eba1225]

I used to get up also but have figured out how to avoid that.....do not use poplar for overnight as by morning the stove is cold. Using Oak or Hickory for the overnight leave the stove still putting out the heat in the morning as well as giving a good bed of coals to start up on in the morning, of course the poplar it great in the morning fires up quickly and gets things heating up fast.

Amazing what you learn the more you do something.

 

[Ken45]

The more I run my stove, the more convinced I get that a simple thermostatic draft control, that looks at flue-gas temperature and adjusts draft to maintain a setpoint, would really reduce the amount of tending that our stoves require. In particular, the need to hang around for 10-15 minutes after reloading while the new burn gets established and stabilized.

PE stoves have something like that, EBT (Extended Burn Technology) although I don't really know exactly what it does.

We sleep with the bedroom door closed to keep the heat out. Load the stove at 10 pm. Usually at 7 am I just rake the coals forward and open up the air to burn the coals down but don't reload until 8 or 9 am. On single digit nights, I rake the coals earlier. I think the lowest the house has been in the morning is 68 or 69 degrees.

I probably could have added some wood the night we got down below zero, but I just let the pellet stove kick on. It only used a coffee can of pellets. See, pellet stoves are good for something!

Ken

 

[HittinSteel]

I load up around 9 and still have coals to get it going again in the morning at 6. Gas kicks on when the temp falls to 60. This is fine with me. Bought an electric blanket and my gas bill was still only $40 last month. I pay the gas man a little for a good nights sleep all m onth.