Reloading before coals

[James02]

Is there any reason, while there is still an active burn?

 

[jeff_t]

A bit vague. What do you mean?
Not really a good idea to add a bunch of wood to a hot stove. It will offgas really quick and likely go nuclear. Probably look pretty cool, until the glow starts.
Can't think of a good reason TO do it.

 

[shawneyboy]

I run in cycles.... No reloading during active burn for me. I Reload only on coals.

 

[pen]

If it is really cold and I need the stove cranking, I have done this. For normal operation, running in cycles as Jeff and Shawn mentioned is best.

If I do load w/ a lot of coals or when the wood isn't burnt right down I use only one or two splits and those splits are usually large to very large.

pen

 

[James02]

A bit vague. What do you mean?
Not really a good idea to add a bunch of wood to a hot stove. It will offgas really quick and likely go nuclear. Probably look pretty cool, until the glow starts.
Can't think of a good reason TO do it.

For the cold weather, I "thought" it might be a good idea to toss some wood in while there are still flames visable....

 

[oldspark]

A bit vague. What do you mean?
Not really a good idea to add a bunch of wood to a hot stove. It will offgas really quick and likely go nuclear. Probably look pretty cool, until the glow starts.
Can't think of a good reason TO do it.

For the cold weather, I "thought" it might be a good idea to toss some wood in while there are still flames visable....

I do what ever it takes to stay warm, not waiting for a cycle to finish when the temp in the house is dropping.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Like oldspark, we want to stay warm. Generally during the coldest part of winter we are opening the draft full when the stove top gets to around 400 or a bit above. When it gets down to 350 (sometimes a bit higher) we are adding wood. This time of year, we most times light a small fire and just let it burn out. When the house cools a bit, we light another fire. Most days lately we've had one fire per day and that with 3 or 4 splits maximum. We have yet to load our stove full this year.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

I've found that if you keep doing that you end up with a box full of coals and no more room to put wood and then you HAVE to let it burn down before you can do anything else.

 

[jharkin]

A few times, when its really cold and Ive done the full night load very early in the evening that has burned down enough I will add a split or two to the top just before bed. If the cat is up to temp and you immediately close the bypass again and set the air back low the new splits on top don't start burning until later on

 

[Grannyknot]

I always let the burn cycle complete itself.
I've found that throwing logs on mid-cycle can sometimes smother the active burn or bring down the temperature of the firebox due to the wood being cold or room temp.

 

[James02]

I always let the burn cycle complete itself.
I've found that throwing logs on mid-cycle can sometimes smother the active burn or bring down the temperature of the firebox due to the wood being cold or room temp.

That's what I was worried about....

 

[pen]

I always let the burn cycle complete itself.
I've found that throwing logs on mid-cycle can sometimes smother the active burn or bring down the temperature of the firebox due to the wood being cold or room temp.

That's what I was worried about....

I've never personally witness this. If your fuel is dry it should climb pretty much immediately. If it's wet, then I could see it taking away from what is already going on in the stove.

Play around yourself and find out. Worse thing than you could do would be to put in a bunch of small stuff on hot coals. If that happens, the full charge is going to fire off and things could get a little hotter than you'd like. That's why I use large stuff on really hot coals or a partially burnt load. The large piece of wood won't have as much surface area and won't take off in an out of control way.

pen

 

[oldspark]

As Pen says-its not what you do its how you do it.

 

[firefighterjake]

I almost always wait until the coal stage before adding wood . . . once in a blue moon if things are close to the coal stage and I need a little more heat or burn time I'll add in a single split . . . but it's rare that I'll add in a full load before the coaling stage . . . I think I've done this twice and almost pooped my pants when I saw the resulting temps climb in both the flue and stove.

 

[Creature]

I try to let it get to coals, but I find I get the odd smoldering log at the back (realistically I can only load E/W) that just doesn't want to light off without going full open. When that happens I get as even a bed of coals near the front as I can and put a dry piece of oak (or beech) on top of that and then something a little lighter (Alder, fir, etc) on top near the baffle to get the secondaries fired off again. Then the whole box seems to even out for me.