Overnight Burn Questions F55

[msk]

Hey guys... I have tried the search button, but have not quite found the answer I was looking for. This is the first year that my wife and I are attempting to heat 24 hrs a day and we are having a tough time establishing a nice coal bed for the morning startup. Currently we have 10 cord of Maple and Walnut CSS with moisture ranging from 16 - 21%. We have 2 cord of Hickory and Beech that won't be ready until next year and 1 cord of Red Oak that is still 2 years out.

We have the Jotul F55 with double wall stove pipe going to Class A Chimney. Total stack height from top of stove is 15'. No Bends. We have no issues getting the stovetop hot. We have seen temps as high as 750F and stable burns in the 500s. I am finding that for the overnight burns we have zero coals left. Just ash! Maybe 6-7 hrs time after load. Are we not choked down enough? Maybe my splits are to small? Is Maple a crummy overnight wood? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks,

MK

 

[begreen]

You could be right on both points. For a good overnight burn try larger splits loaded E/W. Once the fire is going well turn down the air until the flames get very lazy, but not out. Wait 10-15 minutes and turn down the air some more until the flames get very lazy again. For overnight you want the air control set as low as it can go without putting out the flames and smoldering the fire.

 

[msk]

Thanks bg. I'll give that a shot tonight. This morning the stove top was 100 on the gun and there were zero coals! It would be nice to not have to start cold in the morning. Other option would be to get up around 1 am and add a split or 2.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum MK.

It sounds like you have a good handle on your wood and know what is needed. My congratulations to you on this point. On overnight burns, much depends upon the size of the stove and the amount of heat you need and, of course, the wood. You asked about maple and it depends upon if it is soft or hard maple. Soft maple is not so good for holding long fires but hard maple is toward the top for this. We normally burn a good amount of soft maple but use it mainly during the daytime hours. We might put one in the overnight fire just to help get the rest of the wood going nicely but we want the hardest of the hardwood for holding overnights.

What we've found works best is to push the hot coals to the front of the stove for overnight burns. Then in the bottom rear of the stove, place a large split or round of something like hard maple or oak or something similar. Most times there are very few if any hot coals under that log. The rest of the stove is filled as tightly as possible. Then if you follow what begreen stated, it is hard to do better.

I might add that the walnut will not be as good as the maple (if it is hard maple) but still good firewood. When you get that hickory and beech ready to go you will be very happy with the results.


The only other question I might want to ask is how are you handling the ashes? How often are you removing them? The reason for asking is that we find some folks removing all the ashes sometimes daily and that is not a good practice. The stove will work much better if it has at least 1-2" of ashes in the bottom.

Good luck.

 

[msk]

I typically leave 2 inches of ashes on the firebox floor. I am going to try to rake more coals to the front tonight and set the big splits behind them. I have a nice fire going now. Temps sitting at 580 secondaries going and damper only open 30%.

 

[begreen]

Be sure not to reload on a large bed of coals. Burn the coals down first by raking them forward, then putting a single small split on top and open up the air half-way open. Let this burn down for about 30 minutes before the overnight reload.

 

[JA600L]

I've fooled with softwoods and seen nothing but ash in the morning for too long. Never again. If its not hardwood I split it into small sections for getting the fire started. Walnut leaves a lot of ash and burns quick. Hard maple burns great, but silver maple burns fast. I saw in my Quadra fires owners manual that they rate my stove for 3-12 hour burns. I am guessing 12 hours for oak and locust, and probably 5 at the most for walnut. Order in a load of dry oak and locust and you will see a difference.

 

[aansorge]

I think the trick is getting the stove hot but not too hot before shutting down the air for the night. You need it hot to get the secondaries going but not so hot that it will gas out in an hour and quickly go into the coaling stage.

Practice makes perfect.

 

[msk]

Thanks for all your replies. I am happy to report that last night's burn left plenty of coals to relight the fire after going for about 6 hours last night. The coals easily could have made it another 2 hours. Getting a fire hot is easy...tuning it to burn longer....that is the trick.

Thanks again!