burn times

[BA8w7]

Wow! What a site,lots of great info and advice. We are new to the wood insert deal and are entering our second season (last year was a late start),so far so good.House is warm oil heater is off gotta love it.
We are burning a Hearthstone Clydesdale, Seasoned mixed hardwoods with good results,what I am having a problem with is the burn time. I really did not believe my dealer about the 10 hours I was figuring 8 but am struggling to hit that. What am I doing wrong? Should I be stacking the wood in the box a certain way,It seems that as much wood that can fit is in the box,the air is set to low. What am I missing or should I expect 6 hours to be more realistic? Any advice would be great, Thanks for helping a newbie.

Mike

 

[burntime]

Why yes I OWN it 10 hours is long, your definition and theirs of the time are different.

 

[kenny chaos]

My Lopi Liberty is suppose to do between 1200 & 2400 square feet. I heat about 800 square feet with it.
The house has 16" stone walls. To be up to code for R-values, the stone walls would need to be 21 foot thick.
Maybe I'll sell the house, take the stove, and go live in the garden. That's only 400 square feet.

 

[Gark]

As a new user of a modern EPA stove, I'm also trying to get anywhere near the
'burn time' specs claimed by our stove maker. Thinking that under perfect laboratory conditions
and perfect wood (and including the 1+ hour start-up fire), MAYBE it could burn that long if you consider
the end-of-burn-cycle when most coals are nearly burnt out. Alot of factors- draft, wood species and moisture content,
firebox loading, fuelwood orientation, coalbed parameters, wind direction, aircontrol operation and timing, available intake air, etc, etc. matter. Don't know your Clydesdale, but our stove gives half of the claimed burn time.
On the plus side, it's really cool to heat the place using a third of the wood that the old smoke dragon used. Hey, when I get up in the night to reload the stove, I'm still chuckling about buying less propane.

 

[begreen]

It's gradually getting cooler here. This morning I loaded up the T6 for the first time this season. After a good coal bed was established I put on two large (9") doug fir splits and then a smaller (6") one in front, all E/W loaded. The stove was full, no more fir could be added, though I didn't try to squeak in small splits between the large ones. Here's what I recorded for period of meaningful heat time (not mfg burn time):

8am: start stove from cold, establish coal bed
10am: add full load of wood onto coal bed, stove top at 600 degrees
11am: stovetop @650, stack @500 (air control is all the way closed)
11:30am: use poker to move wood closer together. Within 5 minutes 675 stove top, 400 stack
1:30pm: 550 stovetop, 300 stack
2:30pm: 450 stovetop, 250 stack
4:30pm: 300 stovetop, 150 stack

At this point I added wood There were lots of coals that would have burnt for at least a few hours more if this was an overnight burn. But the stove would have been at low heat. Basically we had a 6.5hr period of meaningful heat burning softwood. I certainly will try for more, but this is reality. Not shabby for softwood, but not up to the potential of the stove either. It will be interesting to note the difference burning hardwoods. I have cherry and locust drying. Maybe they will be dry enough by Feb. to do a comparison test.

House temps went from 67 at 8am to 71 at 12pm and has stayed there. Outdoor temps went from 43 at 8am to 47 at 12pm. High was 50 briefly at 2:30 pm. It's now back to 45 outside.

 

[Diabel]

BeGreen, I have to ask this again (sorry) your stack temps are taken with an interior thermometer right.

 

[rphurley]

I just got a Regency I3100. Supposed to get 10-12 hour burn times. After overnight burn or 10 hours later I have a nice pile of embers that will easily reingnite with some dry wood. Of course the stove has cooled down but in my case it still heats my house pretty well. As an earlier poster mentioned, I think they just define "burn Time" differently. You'll figure out what works best for your situation and of course there is lots of information available here in the forums.

 

[stanleyjohn]

With my stove i haven't had a very long burn time yet!(first year burning)maybe 6 hrs tops!but i haven't really packed the wood in yet!maybe two thirds full in a 2.6 cubic stove.Like many others who have downdraft stoves i need to get a good feel on how well this stove works before i really pack it in.My burning results i would rate as mostly good so far and i have noticed that different types of wood give me varying burn times.Alot of my wood i cut from my land is from many different tree types and its been seasoned from 1 to 2 years.I still have some brown glazing on the glass,which i clean off every few days.My average stove top temp has been running around 450!highest near 650 and lowest 350.Once i get my wood sorted out i think the master plan for longer burn times will be to start the stove burn with soft wood for a fast!hot burn to establish a good coal bed then apply a good load of hard wood on top.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

As a new user of a modern EPA stove, I'm also trying to get anywhere near the
'burn time' specs claimed by our stove maker. Thinking that under perfect laboratory conditions
and perfect wood (and including the 1+ hour start-up fire), MAYBE it could burn that long if you consider
the end-of-burn-cycle when most coals are nearly burnt out. Alot of factors- draft, wood species and moisture content,
firebox loading, fuelwood orientation, coalbed parameters, wind direction, aircontrol operation and timing, available intake air, etc, etc. matter. Don't know your Clydesdale, but our stove gives half of the claimed burn time.
On the plus side, it's really cool to heat the place using a third of the wood that the old smoke dragon used. Hey, when I get up in the night to reload the stove, I'm still chuckling about buying less propane.

Not really sure what a 1+ hour start-up fire is!

I hear people starting the fire and letting it burn down to coals before adding wood and perhaps that is what is meant. I have always started some kindling and added some splits immediately. If I want a long fire, I'll simply load it up once the kindling is lit good. Why wait for the coals? They will be there in time and this way I don't have to fiddle with the stove for a long period. Light the fire, once it is going, set the draft then go about your business. The stove is a tool. Let the tool do it's thing.

 

[begreen]

Diabel, yes, this is with an interior probe thermometer in the flue 20" above the stovetop.

OK, the saga continues and now it gets interesting. To recap:

8am: start stove from cold, establish coal bed
10am: add full load of wood onto coal bed, stove top at 600 degrees
11am: stovetop @650, stack @500 (air control is all the way closed)
11:30am: use poker to move wood closer together. Within 5 minutes 675 stove top, 400 stack
1:30pm: 550 stovetop, 300 stack
2:30pm: 450 stovetop, 250 stack
4:30pm: 300 stovetop, 150 stack

4:30pm: Add wood - 3 splits
4:45pm: turn air control all the way down
5:00pm: 500 stovetop, 400 stack, serious secondary burning
11:30pm: 550 stovetop, 325 stack, wood about 2/3'd burned, but going strong
2:00am: unknown, but stove still hot and heating
7:00am: stove warm, maybe 110F, enough live coals for easy restart

I added 2 medium splits of fir (about 4" x 6")N/S on the hot coals and one long medium split of soft maple diagonally on top of them at 4:30pm thinking that would carry us until 11pm at which point I could refuel for the night. Trouble is at 11:30pm, 7 hrs later, the stove was still going strong and the wood was only part burned! Stove top was still 550F and stack was 325. I went to bed at midnight, no point in adding more wood the house was already at 73 downstairs and the fire was cruising. My wife said that when she went to bed at some time after 2am (night owl) the stove was still burning and the ecofan still spinning. I came down at 7 this morning and found plenty of coals to start a fresh fire. The stove was still warm to the touch, maybe 110 degrees. So coals for a restart 14.5 hrs later from a modest load of wood.

I was skeptical, but now I think for the first time I am really seeing the EBT in action. The trick to getting the really long burn is getting the stove -fully- up to temperature. This hasn't been possible with shoulder season burning and I wouldn't have seen this from one fire. But this morning the old Monkee's tune is humming in my head and I can't get it out! Wow, I am really loving this big stove . (Now wipe that silly grin off your face BG.)

I thought heat was
Only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else
But not for me
Softwood was out to get me
That's the way it seems
Disappointment haunted
All my dreams

And then I saw her temps
Now I'm a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
I'm in warmth
I'm a believer
I couldn't leave her
If I tried


I thought short burns
More or less a given thing
The more I fed the less
I got, oh yeah
What's the use in trying
All you get is flash
When I wanted long burns
I got ash

And then I saw her temps
Now I'm a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
I'm in warmth
I'm a believer
I couldn't leave her
If I tried

My apologies to all of you that now have this dumb song stuck in your minds too.

 

[Bill]

I think there is a big difference on how long a fire can burn before it goes out, and how long the stove is putting out meaningful heat. The colder it gets the hotter my wife wants the family room. So the more heat output = more wood burned. I just set my thermostat at 66 and if it drops below that I get some help. Might go away and come home to a cold stove and it takes a while to start pumping out the btu's.

 

[Wet1]

Impressive BG! I wonder what that baby would do with some quality hardwood?!?!

 

[kenny chaos]

Impressive BG! I wonder what that baby would do with some quality hardwood?!?!

I'm not impressed. Mine does the same thing but five hours faster. :down: