PH wood length

[Flamestead]

I have been burning 18" wood in the PH due to the pre-PH stove being smaller. Last spring I cut the 2013/14 wood at 20"+. I'm getting ready to cut for 2014/15 and wanted to be sure I was happy with the length, so I brought a load of the longer wood up to the house today and have been burning it.

The longest piece was small, oddly cut end, and was 23.25" - it went in on a diagonal, and went in easily, which made me quite happy. I'm liking the 20+" length. Easy to load and easy to fit the over-length pieces, so I think that is what I will cut for 2014/15.

 

[rideau]

I did the same thing ---cut about a cord to approx 20 inch length last year - sugar maple. Have some ironwood cut to that length too. Have burned a bit of long dead ironwood, 3- 4 inch diameter logs, in the stove this year. Anything under 24 inches I can in a pinch get in on an angled up and down diagonal...so I'll burn a long piece when I don't need much of a fire, rather than recut a slightly too long log.

I think an eyeballed 20 inches is good to go with: gives a range of 18 -22 usually. If a log doesn't come out to a convenient multiple of that I either go fo 2 16-18 or 3 10-12. Short lengths (10-12) I burn N-S. I stack the 15 -18 separately from the 18-22.

Wil be interesting to see, when burning predominantly longer wood, whether burn times are longer, or if there is simply more heat in a given time. What happens during coal burning will be of interest. I can see where the additional coals might well make for significantly more heat at that stage, since I'll be adding close to 25 % moew wood going from 16 to 20 inch.

 

[Nick Mystic]

My previous insert could take logs up to 28", so I had been cutting most of my wood between 18" - 24". My new Jotul 600 F can just barely take a 24" log right in the middle of the stove. What I've noticed is I have to be very careful loading longer-heavier splits of wood through the side door of the new stove since it can be difficult holding the piece of wood up all the way into the stove. When I have a good size base of coals if I end up lowering the split before I have it completely inside the stove the leading edge will dig into the coals and make pushing the log the rest of the way into the stove very difficult. When the coals are good and hot I don't have a second chance to pull the log out and try again since it is already starting to fire up! So, you might want to keep this in mind when you cut your wood if you load through a side door. With my front load insert I never had to deal with this situation, so it wasn't on my radar with the new side loading stove.

 

[rideau]

My previous insert could take logs up to 28", so I had been cutting most of my wood between 18" - 24". My new Jotul 600 F can just barely take a 24" log right in the middle of the stove. What I've noticed is I have to be very careful loading longer-heavier splits of wood through the side door of the new stove since it can be difficult holding the piece of wood up all the way into the stove. When I have a good size base of coals if I end up lowering the split before I have it completely inside the stove the leading edge will dig into the coals and make pushing the log the rest of the way into the stove very difficult. When the coals are good and hot I don't have a second chance to pull the log out and try again since it is already starting to fire up! So, you might want to keep this in mind when you cut your wood if you load through a side door. With my front load insert I never had to deal with this situation, so it wasn't on my radar with the new side loading stove.

That's a really good point. With my heavier splits, what you describe commonly occurs in my case. Because I have a few inches to work with, no problem. The longer splits will be even heavier, and leave little room to play with. Which argues for having some smaller splits for the front, and raking the coals forward, so the large splits at back haven't coals to pile up as the wood is inserted. Also perhaps an argument in favor of the ashpan, since there will normally be less ash to pile up on the far side...

I still don't want an ashpan.