All Nighter " Big Moe "

[royrizzle]

This stove is hungry for big wood , 11 " dead Elm x 28 " long , burns a long time . Best vintage stove .

 

[fbelec]

with just one log on the coals after a hour when the coals burn down what was the stove temp? that would go a while i see some moisture coming out on the bottom of that tree.

 

[royrizzle]

Of coarse with smaller wood thrown in around it to keep stove at proper temp .
Log is a little discolored there , not moisture , when these big roasters are cut , they are all moisture metered.

 

[begreen]

The way to read the moisture is to split the log open, at room temp, then take the reading on the freshly exposed face of the wood. If it is below 20% then it's good to go.

 

[royrizzle]

I see no need to split these chunks , since the freshly cut dead Elm logs were tested at 14 % at the ends, last May .

 

[begreen]

You'd only split one or two as a sample to get an accurate reading if curious. Otherwise if it's burning well be happy.

 

[royrizzle]

All is well . I'm happy .

 

[bholler]

if I had to load logs like that to get a long burn I would be very unhappy. And certainly would not be calling it the best stove in any regard. Hell if I had to load logs like that for any reason I would be unhappy.

 

[begreen]

Based on that theory...

 

[bholler]

to be clear I do think the allnighters are definatly one of the better vintage stoves around but not the best.

 

[vasten]

I am using a mama bear (very similar to an allnighter stove) , and I found that it performs better when I take chunks like that and split then down several times. I have tried the large rounds, with the thought of all nighter pieces, and they would last forever but didn't crank the heat.

By taking that same piece and splitting it several times I can get more wood in the stove, get more heat out of it, and can control it with the damper for heat output and burn times.

Just my thought on it, but if putting one of those in works for you and it burns hot enough to do what you need and keep stack temps hot enough. Then good for you.

I have noticed that we all have our own variations of feeding and running our stoves, as long as they perform for what we need, and stay in a safe burn range, then guess it is personal preference