The art of loading the stove for long burns...

Big splits.
Fill up the firebox to capacity.
Good air control (i.e. turning down the air earlier rather than later.)
Higher BTU wood (i.e. apple, locust, oak, etc.)

N/S = North to South, or front to back.
E/W= East to West, side to side.
E/W offers some a slower less hot burn, N/S the opposite.
N/S offers better options of fuller loads, and no issues of splits rolling forward.

Larger splits = longer burn times, less air space between spits.
Most load larger splits on the bottom, and fill in on top of those with what they can.
If you load smaller splits first, it will limit how large you can load on top of them.

Think of loading like building a puzzle. The tighter the pcs fit, the more fuel in the stove, the longer the burn times.
Large split load on minimal coals will take longer to get up to temp.

For my F600 is it about two layers of smaller splits loaded N/S on the bottom and then fill in the remaining top space E/W with whatever size splits fit.

The stove can take a max length of about 17 inch split N/S and 22 E/W comfortably.

Wont filling a firebox to capacity and slowing the combustion lead to toxic emissions and high creosote?

Jordan said:

Wont filling a firebox to capacity and slowing the combustion lead to toxic emissions and high creosote?

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Nope.

Jordan said:

Wont filling a firebox to capacity and slowing the combustion lead to toxic emissions and high creosote?

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As long as you don't turn it so low as to kill the re-burn, no. Most secondary burn stoves are designed to keep re-burning the smoke even at the lowest air setting. You can stall a cat stove if you turn it too low, too soon.

No one here has mentioned dry wood. The way to get long clean burns is to choke that air down. Can't do that with either a cat or tube stove unless that wood is dry.

Yes to big splits. Love em. Take longer to dry completely though.

I only use old cast iron stoves. I still dont' understand how one gets 1100+ Degrees for secondary burns with a dampened and packed stove.

completely different burn technologies, the old smoke dragons you're used to burning are most likely designed to smolder when you turn down the air, an epa stove is counter intuitive in that it puts off more heat with the air turned down. most stoves have 2 or more air intakes, the air control on most of them only closes off the primary air, by closing this down more air is drawn in through the secondary air system, this is then preheated and dumped into the smoke before it enters the exhaust and gives secondary combustion

Jordan said:

I only use old cast iron stoves. I still dont' understand how one gets 1100+ Degrees for secondary burns with a dampened and packed stove.

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EPA stoves are designed to work that way. The secondary air on a tube stove is never fully shut off.

I go NS for more fuel in the box and quicker ignition. Ideally, bigger pieces on bottom, then fill in with smaller ones near the top. But I don't always have the perfect sized splits in the house so I load whatever I have.

MagdalenaP said:

...what is it?

N/S or E/W?
Smaller splits on the bottom, with larger on the top or vice versa?

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For our Buck 91, N/S loading will burn longer. Also allow for more fuel to be loaded.

All good advice here so far! Turning the air down sooner with dry wood makes a huge difference. I was waiting too long the first few times with my summit and that easily shaved a couple hrs off my burn times.

Depending on what stove you have would depend on best way to load. Trial and error, see what works best. In our ideal steel I like 16” splits north south then a couple big chunks east west on top. I get my best results this way.


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How much of the wood should be charred before closing down the air? Is it ok to say, only have the fire going on one side of the stove or say only the front or back, and let the fire carry itself through the wood with time.

Sometimes when loading only part of the wood takes off, I cut the air and start getting secondaries from the fire in that area but then another area of wood is just smoking with no primary flame. Is this ok? I find if I let too much of the wood get started/charred, the stove takes off and gets too hot.

SculptureOfSound said:

How much of the wood should be charred before closing down the air? Is it ok to say, only have the fire going on one side of the stove or say only the front or back, and let the fire carry itself through the wood with time.

Sometimes when loading only part of the wood takes off, I cut the air and start getting secondaries from the fire in that area but then another area of wood is just smoking with no primary flame. Is this ok? I find if I let too much of the wood get started/charred, the stove takes off and gets too hot.

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As long as the stove keeps burning and gets hotter after you cut down the air it sounds pretty normal to me. Also neve hurts to check for smoke out the chimney, if it starts smoking you've turned it down too soon.

it seems most people load N/S... my stove is shallow so N/S limits to short lengths... burns like a fire in Hiroshima... i load it E/W, goal is to have a wall of wood in the back, a small gap and a front pile of wood with a little channel in the ash under the front pile of wood as the air gets shot in at bottom dead center.

Run it wide open until fully engaged, then pull the air out 20%, run it to a top temp of 300F, then damp it way out and turn the blower on.

With good logs (shape and all) I will have a stable burn in about 20 min....

Jordan said:

I only use old cast iron stoves. I still dont' understand how one gets 1100+ Degrees for secondary burns with a dampened and packed stove.

Click to expand...

In the old smoke-blower stoves, you pretty much have to have flames in the box to get any semblance of a clean burn; You can't cut the air back and burn clean with 'em.

begreen said:

There were old cast iron stove designs that had simple secondary combustion systems. Our Jotul 602 does this by introducing air at the point where the smoke wraps around the baffle and reverses direction. The original Vermont Castings stoves had a more sophisticated secondary burn system as did the original Hearthstone H1.

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I have a jotul 606. Does the upper chamber allow this function? I was told years ago the teared style Scandinavian stoves allow for a cleaner burn.