I'm still experimenting with my Econoburn 150. And I, too, was concerned about the size of my splits - worried about bridging and pieces too large not burning up. So I split my wood, mostly maple, so that I could easily pick it up from the end with one hand. I left rounds unsplit if they were about 5" or smaller. And I threw in a cord of Poplar, just to see if my gasser would take softwood.
So - burning from Christmas to spring last winter:
- I had nothing to worry about! I never had a fire-stopping bridging. Yes I had one or two times that part of a chunk didn't burn, but never a full blown bridge. My kids sometimes chucked wood in, instead of laying it in, and a vertical piece took two fires to burn it up. But it did burn it up. I was too over-concerned about bridging.
- My Poplar burned fine. I had every piece split, including 3" diameter pieces, because it was not well seasoned before we put it it. I have a 12 cord wood room in the basement, and we put the Poplar near the middle of the wood, so I hit it in February. I burned a few dozen loads of just Poplar: it burned perfectly fine, a bit faster than the hardwood, of course, and little coals, as you would expect. But it burned no problem. This year I have about 1/3 of my wood made up of softwood: Poplar, Balsam Fir, Spruce, Pine and Water Birch. I'm burning it as I come to it, either as a whole load or mixed. It all burns.
- I'm splitting my wood larger, now. Some of the softwood is huge - 10" on a split face. It all burns without any problem.
- You'll love the ash removal. I got a Thompson's Water Seal can with the handle on the top, and cut open one whole side. It serves as my ash pail. I pull the ashes with a custom poker / shovel I made into this pail, and dump it into my ash bucket. In my old Kerr, I used to take out an ash bucket per week. Now I'm down to less than one ash bucket per month. And I hardly ever push the ashes in the firebox down to the gassification chamber. Maybe once a month.
- I start a lot of fires in my EB. In my old Kerr, I started about 12 per year, and could easily have enough coals buried in the ashed to re-start a fire. I probably only used 24 pieces of kindling in the Kerr per year. In the EB, I make a new fire about 5-10 times per week. I now have a fresh supply of Cedar kindling ready to go. But I have a great system for starting a fire: in the bottom of the firebox, I put two pieces of Cedar in a 10 and 4 O'clock position across the refractory slot. Then I tear up about 2 full sheets of newspaper into strips and spread them all over the Cedar. Then I add one more piece of kindling, in a 2 and 8 O'clock position across the slot. Then a couple of splits on top of the kindling, and then whatever I can grab on top of that. I close the firebox door, but leave the draft in the bypass position. I take one more sheet of newspaper and fold it backwards into its original 1/4 page size, but since it is backwards, it is wrinlky and loose. I put this on top of my gasification brick, and light it. The flame usually pulls up through the slot, and my firebox paper and Cedar start popping. In 10 minutes, I close the gassification door and start the boiler up. It works EVERY time! (Okay - sometimes I have to use a second piece of newspaper in the gasification chamber, but it still works!)
There's my epistle. Split large but dry, burn softwood if you want, use my fire starting method and laugh about how little ashes you remove.
I can't wait until I add (more) pressurized storage. My little 60 gallons only showed me that I want 1000!
Happy burning.
