Wood in back of box not burning as well

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vixster

Member
Nov 20, 2010
148
Rockland Co , ny
Does anyone have similar problem where the splits closest to back wall stay black and less (not) red-hot coal like. I find that I need to poke the disentegrated split to the front to burn a bit then reload in ten minutes, I load it full, stuffed, wood hitting top tubes. I get burns easily up to 500-550 before begin to dial down. I usually leave air open 5/10%. Also, I find that once I dial down, temp continuously drops, not cruising per say ( from 600 down to 300 in 2 to 2.5 hrs) So is this common, blackened wood in the back? Thanks
 
The wood may not be fully seasoned. Try giving it a bit more air.
 
My Mansfield behaves this way. I think I'm just a little lacking in draft to burn hot at the back of the stove. I know the Mansfield is deep, but I'd still like to see it burn a bit hotter back there. I end up pulling all my big coals forward to get them to burn down to ash. Same for oak splits all the way out at the sides. I burn N/S and the splits that are closest to the sides generally need to be pulled into the center to burn.

The advantage is that I can easily keep a good bed of coals for 12 hours. Last night I loaded at 9:00 and at 6:00 this morning, I still had a BIG bed of coals to work with.

The disadvantage, of course, is that it takes me a while to burn the coals down when I'm burning oak.
 
I have this happen on some loads too. I just give it more air when I see it occurring. May be not all of my wood is completely seasoned.
 
This happens in my stove, too. if I wait long enough, the splits pushed against the back wall will eventually burn, but normally before that happens I will pull all the coals, including the charred split in the back, to the front and reload new wood on top of the coals and charred wood. I think my wood is well seasoned, so i blame this on poor air flow to the lower back of the stove. Primary air in my stove comes in at the glass, moves back along the bottom of the stove (unless the wood gets in the way too much) and rises as it does, then moves up the back wall then forward across the top of the stove to exit near the top, front of the stove. The lower back of the stove is the part most likely to get poor air supply in this stove.

The one advantage of this situation is that if I leave the fire too long, the last place that hot coals remain for restart is in the back of the stove.
 
Try going for a 10-15% open primary. If from your initial shut down, you DON'T cruise for a bit, I am guessing that your choking it down too far.

If that doesn't work - I would suspect your wood MC% as being a bit high.

Good wood, hot fire, no poking necessary.
 
I have the same "problem" with my stove which is likely caused by poor draft.

Other ways to solve besides giving it more air:

Use smaller pieces in the back and/or put the lower btu firewood species in the back of the stove so the heat transfer is aided. Also using the zipper method of building a fire helps in aiding the draft
 
My rear wood will "stall" some times when the front split starts coaling and is too big or in the wrong position. Like it steals the incoming air from the rear wood. I either have to increase air a little or move the front split a bit. Then the rear secondaries resume. Other times it's a seamless, perfect burn front to back. I know the MC on my wood is a little high so I put really small splits in back. Seems to help most of the time.
 
On my stove, I find the coals to be "deeper" on the right side of the stove near the reburn chamber. Air feeds in from the left side of the stove. It may just be a matter of how air is coming into the stove.
 
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