What's your definition of "burn time" - I found how to actually achieve mine

[jtb51b]

Right now I am going 9 hours on the night burn and the rest on the day burn.. I have a lot coals to burn down in the evenings due to wetter wood but its working well.. I need more heat at night so I set the thermo a little higher, and since I will not have the time to do much in the AM (as far as burning down coals) I load and turn the stove down lower.. Seems to be working for me so far.. Back on point-- I call BURN TIME how long I can usefully heat my home without needing to reload. It gets shorter on nights like tonight (19* here) I will probably be about done heating at 6am (I just loaded).

(and like S&W) I also apologize for my BK ways. I have this advantage for the stove I bought and you guys get the advantages for the stove you bought simple as that..

Jason

 

[nate379]

Yeah big reason I got the BK was for the "set and forget" that you can do with it.

 

[Battenkiller]

Yeah big reason I got the BK was for the "set and forget" that you can do with it.

Now where's the fun in that, eh? :roll: ;-P

 

[mrfjsf]

I define MY burntime as USEABLE heat. For me, anything below 400 stovetop is not very useable in my uninsulated leaky house. For me to keep warm using the woodstove as primary heat, stovetop has to be above 500. I try to cruise around 600-650. You say you stack "log cabin style"...im assuming this means one row of splits north/south and the next east/west, etc etc? Is this on reload or from a cold start? If it is on cold start, thats fine, but on a reload, I would suggest as other have to load tightly in a north/south direction. This has yielded me the longest and hottest burn times.

As far as overnight burning for me, If I drop a full load of hardwood in around 10pm, let it settle down a bit, I can wake up at 7-8am and still have useable coals for a relight. At that point, the stove has been sitting around 200-275 for quite a while so for me, that is too cold to use as a only source of heat. But, the oil furnace kicks on in the am to take the chill off and then I reload, get her kickin again and the furnace doesnt run again all day.

These are just my experiences...

You are correct on my definition of log cabin. Using the stack tight method how long does it take to close down the air controls. This all sounds fine, but I don't want to get up a 5am just to slowly close my air down before work.

If I pack her full and tight, I could completely walk away from the stove in 30-45 mins (an hour max if its being tempermental). Mind you, my chimney setup is not at all what it should be (i.e unlined 7" x 11" clay tile chimney that doesnt go above the highest peak of the roof within 10 ft) so im sure if your chimney setup is ideal, you will have much better "control" of the stove than I do and be able to start dialing it in much sooner.

 

[DanCorcoran]

Last night I loaded up mine about 90% full at 8:30 PM, by the time I went to bed 10:00 the stove top was 600°. I woke up at 7:00 AM and the stove top was 250° with a small bed of coals. I put a small load in there to get the house from 67 up to a nice 72. Now that the sun is shining I will let the fire go until sunset and I will d1 o another small fire until 8:30 or 9:00. Last night it got down to around 5°, when it is warmer outside I can load it to 70% and still have enough coals to start it back up in the morning.

All I have is lodgepole pine. The burn time is about 2 hours less than with my old first generation cat stove that did not put out nearly as much heat.

How do you measure stove top temps on an insert? (Or is a Merlin 3 a freestanding stove?) Just curious...

 

[amellefson]

I have a mag thermo above the door. The hottest it's gotten is 550 or so. I am borrowing an infrared from my boss tomarrow, to compare accuracy at diff temps.

 

[Todd]

Just burning the Fireview today and I reloaded at 8am, swept chimney at 10am, reloaded at 3pm and will reload tonight at 10pm. Lately it's been 3 loads per 24 hours, when it's warmer out I get away with 2 loads per 24 hours.

 

[burleymike]

I don't have the Merlin 3 setup yet. On the Osburn insert, I have about 6" extending out of the fireplace onto the hearth. The manual says to put the thermometer on the center of the stove top. It is about 8" forward from the connector. That seems to be the hottest point on the stove.

 

[nate379]

haha. If I had to tend to the stove every 4-6hrs like many of the older stoves I would have a cold house for the most part.

Yeah big reason I got the BK was for the "set and forget" that you can do with it.

Now where's the fun in that, eh? :roll: ;-P

 

[k3c4forlife]

Burn time and usable heat are the same in my thinking. I reload on something that looks like this. Yes, I could probably squeak out another 4-8 hours and still light off of the coals, but the house temp would go down. So, my definition of burn time is full load to reload time on top of a maintainable coal bed, one that stays hot and doesn't grow. This time of year it is 12 hours, 24 in more moderate temps.

Next stove is going to be a blaze king...