To open the door or not to...

[jadm]

Wondering what others here do when stove/insert temp is in the 400's and wood in front of insert is pretty burned up and broken down but wood in back is still intact and just burning at a slower rate.

I feel conflicted about opening up the door to rake the remaining 'log' forward knowing that by opening the door I will be cooling the firebox off. On the other hand of my conflict I know that by raking the 'log' forward it will burn more thoroughly and it will produce more heat through that burning plus it will reduce the build up of coals.

 

[rphurley]

I'm no expert but it sound like a situation where I'd just crack another beer and worry about it in a little while

 

[LLigetfa]

A stove has so much thermal mass that it can quickly recover for the small heat loss from opening the door. I often open the door to adjust the wood and sometimes add one small split to act as a catalyst to burn down coals. A stick all alone at the back will often degrade to an inefficient smolder.

 

[meathead]

I'm no expert but it sound like a situation where I'd just crack another beer and worry about it in a little while

Excellent suggestion. I'm going to give this a try and ponder the issue right now. I'd say I'll get back to you...but I'm probably going to fall asleep infront of the stove, log inefficiently burning in the back and all.

If it looks like it will smolder, open it up and move things around. If it'll probably go just fine but you feel like playing with the stove and need an excuse, open it up and move things around. Otherwise, let it go man...just let it go

 

[begreen]

I just finished pulling forward some locust from the back of the firebox. If the temps down, tend the fire.

 

[jadm]

Thanks for chiming in here. I will here after open up the door without a single twinge of conflict to contend with. :coolsmile:

 

[atvdave]

I always pull the log forward. It helps burn down the coals in the front and heats back up very quick.

I then crack another beer and wait till I reload the firebox for the over night burn. or maybe crack open two.. with the wife... :coolsmile:

 

[Superlite]

A stove has so much thermal mass that it can quickly recover for the small heat loss from opening the door. I often open the door to adjust the wood and sometimes add one small split to act as a catalyst to burn down coals. A stick all alone at the back will often degrade to an inefficient smolder.

Roger that

 

[colsmith]

We have that situation a lot lately - I move the log to the front. Normally we have a heck of a draft going and it burns right up, front or back. But right now the mesh around the chimney cap is getting gunked up, hence the draft isn't as strong. (We can't clean it off until some of this snow disappears.) So meanwhile the air flow that comes in the front is more critical and the back doesn't burn as well. I try to make my fires with the wood side to side so that it all burns up more at the same speed, in other words so there isn't a log in back. (We were cutting long wood last week between snowstorms and almost got to the 'back log' and hubby who knows everything explained that is where the word backlog comes from.)