Rake Coals Forward and Stove Start-up Pictures

Here is a pictorial of Raking coals forward and loading stove.

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Orange thermo is stove top , brown is pipe.

the times are from the time stamp embedded in the pics

I used a fire starter to help things along.

Pics wont go in sequence in this post

more pics
Times taken off time stamp embedded in pic data.

Interesting to see different setups.

Do you end up emptying out the ash every few days? Doesn't look like it holds all that much.

I've never measured on my stove, but I know I empty it when the ash is about level with the door opening and it fills a 5 gal pail.

I empty almost everyday as it doesnt hold much but the ash pan is nice as it doesnt get ash dust all over the place. Not sure why it doesnt as the back is a litle open but there must be a little vacuum going on with the access plate open in the bottom of the stove and the flue still warm it must draw upwards thru that whole to keep the ash dust down if there is any.

The coals and ashes you see is from 3 full loads.

Here is more pics as this site isnt letting me post them very well.

Stove got pretty hot at 31 minutes but closing the pipe damper cooled the stove top a little after these pics to around 750.

Notice the stove pipe damper closed all the way in the pipe thermo pic. Thats why there isnt much secondaries going on as I was trying to cool it down some.

Nice to see that you run the stove hot ; )

Well I did not want it that hot but my start was better than I thought as this new using kindling made of dry white oak really gets things hot fast. I was using in the past poplar kindling not as good and doesnt heat things as fast.

Here are some more pics as I was burning hot as this is gonna be one of the coldest nights of the year.

Wood burnt down pretty quick.

That is a hot stove. Raking the coals is a good idea.

Nice pics and accounting of your reload. Thanks Huntingdog!

nice pictures of some good wood burning.
I can feel the heat

Great to see how different stoves react. That is one fast warm-up. If I ever saw those temps on my insert (Regency I-2400) I'd be in a whole lot of trouble. The end result is the same though, air closed down & cruising along, throwing out serious heat.

Ive been raking the coals forward on the Rangeley but not that much, im going to try that technique! Thanks for the pics

wow that looks allot like a englanger 30 with the door on backwards.

the princess really doesnt hold that much, its rather small, infact im kinda disappointed in it compared to what my king will hold. i would say i can hold almost as much ash in my englander as the princess.

my wife says she doesnt like that princess stove, she likes the king allot better, infact im kinda disappointed by the princess, i dont like the firebox size, and i dont like the way the door opens, its stupid the design of the door, opens to the left instead of folding down like the king we have. would be easy to spill stuff outa that princess, then its got all the junk in the top taking up the fire box (the cat and all the metal involved in housing it).

but what you gonna do. guess im gonna go buy another king, but this time it will be the king ultra cat king.

the princess really doesnt hold that much, its rather small, infact im kinda disappointed in it compared to what my king will hold. i would say i can hold almost as much ash in my englander as the princess.

my wife says she doesnt like that princess stove, she likes the king allot better, infact im kinda disappointed by the princess, i dont like the firebox size, and i dont like the way the door opens, its stupid the design of the door, opens to the left instead of folding down like the king we have. would be easy to spill stuff outa that princess, then its got all the junk in the top taking up the fire box (the cat and all the metal involved in housing it).

but what you gonna do. guess im gonna go buy another king, but this time it will be the king ultra cat king.

Good pictures and technique. I am learning more all the time.

I wanted to point out something on my pics. In the second post of pics you can see the little fire started I put in the kindling even tho the kindling was on hot coals.

The fire started will get things going even fast as it burns the coals get air sucked thru them and the coals heat up much quicker. This adds to the burn even more.

As this technique with the kindling is all about getting the heat up fast in the stove so you dont burn too much of the big stuff in the back for a longer burn time.

Its like building your own burn chamber up in the top and front of the stove. Then it burns front to back.

WOW! From 200°F to 500°F in 8 minutes! That is fast...

yes thats what dry small split oak does on hot coals and a fire starter to boot. I used to use lower quality poplar for kindling, doesnt give the same results.

Plus might I add the back of the box is full up to the air tubes and the front and top is the only open air so the small area heats up quicker.

Well looking back at the pics i could have got it a little fuller.

Since making those pics I found out that stove top thermometer above 600 degrees is not in line with my infrared thermo but below 600 its pretty accurate. That stove wasnt getting too 900.

You done a good job.

Once it gets a little cooler around here im going to give this a a shot. Winter is coming back so it wont be to long.

Great timeline. Thanks for posting.
Wish my grandpa bear would warm up that fast.

Wow, pretty cool, thanks for that next time I reload, I'm gonna try it that way and see how it works out for me.

Why is raking the coals a good idea? Given that different stoves have different air flows etc, does that make a difference? for instance I have a down draft Resolute Acclaim which feeds the secondary cumbustor (Cat) from the lower rear. Would I still rake coals forward?

I see that rake coals forward a lot on here, but not why.

Why is raking the coals a good idea? Given that different stoves have different air flows etc, does that make a difference? for instance I have a down draft Resolute Acclaim which feeds the secondary cumbustor (Cat) from the lower rear. Would I still rake coals forward?

I see that rake coals forward a lot on here, but not why.

Not sure about your situation but most of these front loading firebrick lined burn tubes in the top epa certified stoves, its basically getting part of your load of wood off hot coals so you can load all the way to the bottom of the stove. Loading all the way to the bottom I can get 3 medium sized splits instead of just 2 splits if they were raised up on the coals. Plus by the wood not being on hot coals that wood wont be burning for a while , your basically getting the front of the stove burning then it will burn its way back to the back of the stove but that will take some time and this will increase your burn times. Plus some people are worried about the stove getting too hot as if you load all the wood on hot coals the thing takes off and can be burning much more wood all at one time and could possible create an over fire condition.