New wood burner here, question on reloading the stove

[draftstone]

Hi!

I bought a house beginning of this summer (my first one yay!) and it has a wood stove.
Here's the model
Drolet Myriad (http://drolet.ca/en/products/wood/myriad)

I've cleaned my chimney 1 month ago before the cold started to arrive. I've already made a couple of fires and so far, it is not great, but it is not bad.

The issue I have, is when reloading, it takes a long time to catch fire (only small flames) so it produces a lot of smoke for quite some time. When I start a new fire, everything goes great, everything catches fire rapidly (even a huge log placed on top of kindlings, the draft seems perfect, etc...). So since big logs catches fire rapidly when starting a fire and my draft seems good (I can get an inferno in the stove easily when starting a fire), I think it is more a user issue than a draft/seasoned wood issue

On the website for my stove, it says it is a reload over depth type. Is this what I see on the internet called "front to end" ? Because most diagrams I saw for front to end seems to have the intake right trought the door, but mines uses a pipe in the upper front with the intake behind the stove (you can see the diagram by clicking on download the brochure).
If it is, I saw that I should move the red ambers up front real near the door and then place logs. But how exactly?

Should I make a pile of ambers and place logs with the end facong the door on top of the ambers and the other end at the back on the bottom of the stove? And then pile up multiple logs if I want to burn more than one log? Or should I simply put the whole log at the bottom and simply make them touch the ambers? And if I want to put more than one log, should I stack them in opposite directions (3 logs on the bottom going front-end, 3 logs on top going side-side) or all logs in the same direction all stacked tightly like when you pile up wood?

Thanks for your inputs and if I have a warm winter, it will be in part because of what I read here before starting

 

[DAKSY]

Hi!

I bought a house beginning of this summer (my first one yay!) and it has a wood stove.
Here's the model
Drolet Myriad (http://drolet.ca/en/products/wood/myriad)

I've cleaned my chimney 1 month ago before the cold started to arrive. I've already made a couple of fires and so far, it is not great, but it is not bad.

The issue I have, is when reloading, it takes a long time to catch fire (only small flames) so it produces a lot of smoke for quite some time. When I start a new fire, everything goes great, everything catches fire rapidly (even a huge log placed on top of kindlings, the draft seems perfect, etc...). So since big logs catches fire rapidly when starting a fire and my draft seems good (I can get an inferno in the stove easily when starting a fire), I think it is more a user issue than a draft/seasoned wood issue

On the website for my stove, it says it is a reload over depth type. Is this what I see on the internet called "front to end" ? Because most diagrams I saw for front to end seems to have the intake right trought the door, but mines uses a pipe in the upper front with the intake behind the stove (you can see the diagram by clicking on download the brochure).
If it is, I saw that I should move the red ambers up front real near the door and then place logs. But how exactly?

Should I make a pile of ambers and place logs with the end facong the door on top of the ambers and the other end at the back on the bottom of the stove? And then pile up multiple logs if I want to burn more than one log? Or should I simply put the whole log at the bottom and simply make them touch the ambers? And if I want to put more than one log, should I stack them in opposite directions (3 logs on the bottom going front-end, 3 logs on top going side-side) or all logs in the same direction all stacked tightly like when you pile up wood?

Thanks for your inputs and if I have a warm winter, it will be in part because of what I read here before starting

If your stove has a small "doghouse" or hump just inside the front loading door, that's where your combustion air enters the firebox. Rake all your coals/charcoal into a pile in the air flow from that entry point (DO NOT BLOCK THE AIR FLOW) & place your splits behind the pile. The air coming in will be super heated by the coals & ignite the splits. You can also use this "piling" technique to minimize the amount of charcoal during your ash removal. Rake it into a pile & you'll get every last bit of heat out of it...

 

[draftstone]

Thanks for your quick reply.

No there is not any "doghouse" inside the loading door. The primary air enters via a tube located at the top and is sent down. That's why I think it does the same thing since the air will go from top to bottom near the door before going horizontal.

I'll try the raking + placing the wood behind tonight (-3 celsius annonced for tonight) and see if I can easily get the fire back!

 

[begreen]

Here's a method that always works for me when the wood is not perfectly dry. Gather the hot coals front and center. Take a couple 2-3" splits and put them down on either side of the coals, laid parallel with the stove sides (N/S) and about 2-3" apart. Now take another couple splits an lay them E/W on top of those 2 bottom splits, about 1" apart. Open up the air full. If the wood is not fully seasoned place some thin kindling on top of the coals to ignite faster.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I rake the coals to the front and then cut a channel down the center in my Century, which doesn't have a doghouse. The channel lets the hot air move down under the logs.

It takes a little playing around with a stove to find out what works best for your setup. Don't get discouraged, we all burn more wood the first year trying to figure it out.

Matt

 

[Hardrockmaple]

I have the Drolet Austral, same fire box as you, just a few different aesthetics. For the best results to date....

Get a stove top thermometer and stove pipe thermometer.

Use dry wood.

When reloading use the bypass until the fire is going good. When reloading I rake the coals towards the door, place a split EW at the back of the coals, load as Begreen described NS, the two splits running NS should level on the EW split you put towards the back, if loading for over night fill that firebox up. Close door with primary air lever at three quarters open and the bypass open. Your fresh splits should ignite quite fast. When the smoke is clearing itself up the chimney (3-5 mins.) close the bypass, continue to close primary air in increments (3/4. 1/2. 1/4 etc.) as usual.

These stoves are serious heaters. I've had my stove top briefly visit 800 once already, but soon settled down to cruise at 400 thru the night. Fill up around 10:30 PM, all kinds of hot coals and stove top at 250 at 6 am.

Good luck, hope this helps.

From the owners manual

USE OF THE BYPASS DAMPER
Your stove is equipped with a bypass damper. This feature should be used, if needed, upon
start-up of the stove to help heat-up the chimney faster. The bypass damper should be closed
as soon as there is a fire going inside the firebox and smoke is moving upward through the
exhaust system. The bypass damper should also be used upon reloading to avoid smoke
spillage into the room. Before reloading your stove, open the primary air intake control
completely and then, open the bypass damper. Wait for approximately 10 to 15 seconds and
open the stove door. Close the bypass damper when you are finished reloading. Never leave
the bypass damper open under any condition unless you are building a fire or reloading
the unit. To open the by-pass damper, insert the removable handle into the small rod extension
located on the left-end side of the unit (Figure 1). Turn the handle counter clockwise to open the
damper (Figure 2). Turn the handle clockwise to close the damper

 

[DaHole]

Maybe I have more draft, but on my Austral, I only use the Bypass at start up. I almost ever get any smoke on tart up.