Reloading

[HatCityIAFF]

Couple quick questions for you guys that get some good burn times. I'm currently buring 24/7, ash that has been split and stacked last july. (july of '11.) Im not sure that it is normal, but there is no WAY i'd get more usefull heat out of my insert than say 4-5 hrs. My firebox is small, but it isn't too small at 2.3. I'm able to get 8 decent sized logs 18" in there on reloads.

When I reload, i load N/S/ or E/W, (I think get longer burn times E/W). Close the door, and let the temps get up around 400, back down to 3/4, temps get to around 500 then back down to about a 1/8-1/4 open, and usually leave it there. (find the sweet spot with a little bit of fire.) If I close it anymore there will be no visible fire. This will stay around 500 for about 2-3 hrs, then i'll see the stove top temps start to drop. Sub 350. No more visible fire, and looks like the coals/logs could use a good stirring, or the air opened up. If i'm home, i'll usually stir everything around and open air to about 3/4, and let the coals burn, and this will last about a hr. By this time, temp is around 300, and I'll rake coals forward, and reload fully again, and go through the whole process. Time wise were about 4 hrs. To give you an idea, I get home from work at 4:30. Temp in stove room is 58-60. Stove room which is the bottom floor 300sqft, and 1400sqft upstairs, split level. Full load get the stove up to temp. Usually after dinner, around 7:30 another full load, and then around 1030ish load for bed. Temp in stove room is around 75. Thats 3 loads in 4ish hrs!?!!? When I wake up at 530am, theres enough coals for a reload.

Yesterday, I was home all day. 30 degrees outside. I figured i'd try something new. NOt sure i'm saving wood or using more, but every two hrs i threw in a split. This kept the temps around 400, and that stove room 77 and upstairs 67.

Sorry for my rant, i'm done.

 

[savageactor7]

...'Not sure I'm saving wood or using more, but every two hrs i threw in a split. This kept the temps around 400'...

Yup, when were up and about that's pretty much the way we burn around here too...a split or 2 and WOT. The fire may not last long but with my wife useful heat trumps a long burning fire anytime.

 

[HatCityIAFF]

It actually worked out pretty good. I would say the air was open a little less than half.

 

[raybonz]

I have a freestanding T5 with a 2.0 cu. ft. firebox and get 10+ hr. burns seems like you may have an air leak or some other issue. I get plenty of heat on these long burns as well. Do you have an insulated block off plate in your chimney as you could be losing heat up the chimney? Last night it got down to around 20 degrees here and was windy when I reloaded 10.5 hrs. it was still 70 degrees in the house. My home is ~1632 sq. ft. and has an inside chimney with average insulation and loads of windows.

Ray

 

[HatCityIAFF]

block off and roxul. This is my 2nd season burning with it, and the gasket is good. If I shut the air down, it'll go out and smoulder. I mean i'm not really loosing heat or so to say. I just see a pile of burnt ashes 3 hrs into the load and think to myself "the air needs to be opened or i need to stir the ashes."

 

[corey21]

This morning i woke to a 250 degree stove and plenty of coals stove room was 75 and the rest of the house was in the low 60's. That was after 8 hours but i have notice that i use more wood by just adding a log every 2 hours.

 

[HatCityIAFF]

i'm going to keep track one weekend. When u get up in the AM, its about the same as you, 200-250 stove temp and almost same temps. I guess I need to get out of the mind set that you need to see flame for heat, and let the stove do its job and run the whole cycle.

 

[freddypd]

This morning i woke to a 250 degree stove and plenty of coals stove room was 75 and the rest of the house was in the low 60's. That was after 8 hours but i have notice that i use more wood by just adding a log every 2 hours.

I think I read here somewhere that you use more wood when you put small loads more often and less wood when you use large loads less often.
Right now we are a small load, more often family. My wife likes to see the flames and she is actually becoming the primary wood burner!!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Couple quick questions for you guys that get some good burn times. I'm currently buring 24/7, ash that has been split and stacked last july. (july of '11.) Im not sure that it is normal, but there is no WAY i'd get more usefull heat out of my insert than say 4-5 hrs. My firebox is small, but it isn't too small at 2.3. I'm able to get 8 decent sized logs 18" in there on reloads.

When I reload, i load N/S/ or E/W, (I think get longer burn times E/W). Close the door, and let the temps get up around 400, back down to 3/4, temps get to around 500 then back down to about a 1/8-1/4 open, and usually leave it there. (find the sweet spot with a little bit of fire.) If I close it anymore there will be no visible fire. This will stay around 500 for about 2-3 hrs, then i'll see the stove top temps start to drop. Sub 350. No more visible fire, and looks like the coals/logs could use a good stirring, or the air opened up. If i'm home, i'll usually stir everything around and open air to about 3/4, and let the coals burn, and this will last about a hr. By this time, temp is around 300, and I'll rake coals forward, and reload fully again, and go through the whole process. Time wise were about 4 hrs. To give you an idea, I get home from work at 4:30. Temp in stove room is 58-60. Stove room which is the bottom floor 300sqft, and 1400sqft upstairs, split level. Full load get the stove up to temp. Usually after dinner, around 7:30 another full load, and then around 1030ish load for bed. Temp in stove room is around 75. Thats 3 loads in 4ish hrs!?!!? When I wake up at 530am, theres enough coals for a reload.

Yesterday, I was home all day. 30 degrees outside. I figured i'd try something new. NOt sure i'm saving wood or using more, but every two hrs i threw in a split. This kept the temps around 400, and that stove room 77 and upstairs 67.

Sorry for my rant, i'm done.

No need to be sorry for a rant like this. It appears to me you are looking for ideas. Bingo. I have one.

It has always amazed me how folks will put wood in the stove and leave that draft full open until the stove top reaches a certain temperature which is usually 400 or higher. In your case, you back it down to 3/4, or 75% at 300 then down again when it gets to 500. Then you are adding a split every 2 hours! Yes, that will keep the temperature up but perhaps there is a better way.

Suppose you start closing that draft a lot sooner? What happens when you leave that draft open full is that most of the heat goes up the chimney rather than staying in the house. I agree we have two different types of stoves but we have ran several types of stoves over the years and although there are small differences, they are small.

I'll use an example with starting a cold stove as this is the most extreme. Put the wood in and full open draft gets the fire going. On our stove the magic number we look for is a 250 stove top temperature. If I leave the draft full open it seems to take a really long time, and it does, before the stove top will hit that 250. However, once the fire is going nicely, if I cut the draft to 50%, the stove top will heat up in about 1/3 the amount of time vs full open. Of course the difference is with full draft that heat is mostly going up the chimney but we try to keep it in.

On reloads, again we have a full draft. The time may range from 3 minutes to perhaps 20 or 25 minutes depending upon circumstances. But an average would perhaps be 10 minutes for a full draft before we cut it to about 25%.

By doing things this way it does perhaps take a bit longer vs some stoves to reach, say, 500 degrees. However, when the stove is at 500 degrees we will have a lot more wood left in the stove than the other fellow. This, of course, means we will get a longer burn because there is not as much fuel used to get the stove up to that higher temperature.

fwiw, about the most we can get in our stove is 5 or sometimes 6 splits maximum. Through the fall and into early December our normal practice was to put in 3 splits before bedtime. Now we are putting in 4 and occasionally 5. In 12 hours the house will still be in excess of 70 degrees. Very comfortable when we get up; just the way we like it.

This week I also visited a home where they seemed to have the very problem you have. Just for that one time they did notice a difference when I asked them to turn the draft down sooner. They extended their burn a lot and will do even better once they get used to this.

 

[remkel]

Sounds a lot like what I am doing here Dennis. Once I goes some good flames indropmit right to 50%, and on some occasions I will drop it even more to the point where the flames are sustained. Eventually I look for sustained secondaries and then I go down to almost completely closed. If I lose the secondaries, I die up the air until I see sustained secondaries again. Usually once I get the secondaries going a second time I can shut the air right down. I am getting longer burns and am beginning to think that I need to consider a damper in my flue if I want longer burns. The 34' of pipe is drawing like mad!

 

[corey21]

i'm going to keep track one weekend. When u get up in the AM, its about the same as you, 200-250 stove temp and almost same temps. I guess I need to get out of the mind set that you need to see flame for heat, and let the stove do its job and run the whole cycle.

That's what i am trying to convince the family they like to see flames all the time that means i have trouble heating in cycles.

 

[Hogwildz]

Try larger splits also.
I fit roughly 8 splits in my box, and it is a 3cf box.

 

[ohlongarm]

Couple quick questions for you guys that get some good burn times. I'm currently buring 24/7, ash that has been split and stacked last july. (july of '11.) Im not sure that it is normal, but there is no WAY i'd get more usefull heat out of my insert than say 4-5 hrs. My firebox is small, but it isn't too small at 2.3. I'm able to get 8 decent sized logs 18" in there on reloads.

When I reload, i load N/S/ or E/W, (I think get longer burn times E/W). Close the door, and let the temps get up around 400, back down to 3/4, temps get to around 500 then back down to about a 1/8-1/4 open, and usually leave it there. (find the sweet spot with a little bit of fire.) If I close it anymore there will be no visible fire. This will stay around 500 for about 2-3 hrs, then i'll see the stove top temps start to drop. Sub 350. No more visible fire, and looks like the coals/logs could use a good stirring, or the air opened up. If i'm home, i'll usually stir everything around and open air to about 3/4, and let the coals burn, and this will last about a hr. By this time, temp is around 300, and I'll rake coals forward, and reload fully again, and go through the whole process. Time wise were about 4 hrs. To give you an idea, I get home from work at 4:30. Temp in stove room is 58-60. Stove room which is the bottom floor 300sqft, and 1400sqft upstairs, split level. Full load get the stove up to temp. Usually after dinner, around 7:30 another full load, and then around 1030ish load for bed. Temp in stove room is around 75. Thats 3 loads in 4ish hrs!?!!? When I wake up at 530am, theres enough coals for a reload.

Yesterday, I was home all day. 30 degrees outside. I figured i'd try something new. NOt sure i'm saving wood or using more, but every two hrs i threw in a split. This kept the temps around 400, and that stove room 77 and upstairs 67.

Sorry for my rant, i'm done.

After a 10-12 hr burn just to keep the house at 70* or so I will throw a couple splits in on a raked coal bed and set it at #2 good to go at least 6 hours before reloading for an overnight burn.

 

[LarryD]

I saw that you are burning exclusively Ash. Is this correct? If so, have you burned a higher BTU wood like White Oak? If you know someone that has seasoned wood trade some of your Ash for their Oak and see if that makes a difference. Just a thought.

LD

 

[HatCityIAFF]

Larry, all ash, off a relatives property. And a little cherry mixed it. Got some locust this fall so next spring we'll see how that does.

Thanks a lot backwoods for the advice. I'll give that a try. But one thing kinda got me thinking me. My stove has 6 air settings. My morning routine is, up at 5:30, shower. Downstairs by 5:45 loading the stove. Keep draft at fully open at level 6, make a coffee, watch the news, tend to stove, and out the door by 6:30. NOW, if i wake up late.....I'll wake up, load the stove, and set the draft to level 4, shower, and come back down, praying the thing didn't take off on me, and by the time i get back downstairs, its around 250*. By this time i'll usually open draft fully, let it get going, then back it down, then out the house i go. I'll try what you said, let it catch, then back air down way earlier. By the time i have the air down ready to go, 1/4 of the wood has been burned!! Also, i think its wierd that I don't get any secondaries under 600. And thats magnetic temp, IR temp is around 675. And I'll only get them if the air is fully opened on startup up to 600, then i close it off completely. secondaries will be good for about 15 minutes, thats all.

when I got home today, i loaded the stove good at noon. 8 big pieces. High of 28*. Right after 6:00pm, the fan to the stove shut off, (happens around 250*). stove room (300sqft) was 68 and upstairs was 63. So I got a max of 6hrs, and not great temps. Will let you know. Thanks again backwoods.