I have been using my new Osburn 2400 insert (just installed last week) for the past few days and I am constantly experiencing having too many coals left behind after burning. Just to give you an idea of my process I am burning oak wood seasoned about a year, year and half. During my first burn I loaded the Osburn up and let it burn. I followed the steps of choking in the air intake in steps until it was pushed in all the way. I have a good draft and have experienced secondary burning without any issue. At some point the heat emitted by the insert goes down and am left with a bed of coals at which point I load in more wood. Repeat this cycle a few times and I now have so many coals in the insert which has significantly decreased the amount of wood I can burn in the insert. Besides having too many coals, the problem I am experiencing is the wood burns down leaving coals which do not emit enough heat to keep the house warm. I proceed to load more wood and the same happens again. What am I doing wrong? Just a little about the the space I'm heating the home is about 2500 square feet, open concept with high ceilings and lots of glass (a lot of floor to ceiling glass walls). I have attempted to burn off the excess coals by raking them forward and opening up then air intake but this hasn't been too effective. Please advise, thank you.
Coal Bed, Too much of a good thing?
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jb6l6gc
Minister of Fire
I find I have that same problem when burning nothing but oak in my furnace so i always mix in some other species.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
^This^ Excessive coaling can be a sign of higher core moisture content in the wood. Oak, hickory and other dense hardwoods can take a while to fully season. Before reloading put a couple small dry splits on the coals and open up the air to 50% or more. Let the small splits burn down along with some of the coal bed for about 30 minutes before reloading.
saskwoodburner
Feeling the Heat
Could be not shutting the air down soon enough (sort of gassing your wood off the line) while warming up or once burning well, not quite dry enough wood, not letting the fire run it's full cycle by reloading too quick/without pulling coals forward. Food for thought.
Could also be just demanding more heat than your insert can provide. Most of the heat from a load is given up at the beginning and then you have all of these coals to deal with that can be enough heat for a right sized stove, or not enough heat if your stove is undersized. Folks typically shove more wood in but as coals accumulate there is less room for wood and the house cools. People have even shoveled the hot coals out of their stove to make room for more wood.
Here is bone dry wood in my shop stove when it is being asked to make more heat than it is capable of.
Here is bone dry wood in my shop stove when it is being asked to make more heat than it is capable of.
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The osburn 2400 insert is marketed as 3.2 cubic feet which is a good sized stove. Smaller than my NC30 and being an insert is at a disadvantage.
I propose you are asking more of the stove than it can provide.
I propose you are asking more of the stove than it can provide.
Yes, if the fire goes out and stove goes cold without burning up the coals/fuel you have a different problem. Leftover fuel is a big wet wood symptom.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
I love it when the coals are salmon pink like that with no ash stuck to them. The ones I dislike are the bright orange coals in a bed of grey ash. The orange ones cloak themselves in ash and burn slower and slower and slower.
The salmon pink ones like you got pictured, at least at my house, are burning hot and will keep burning hot until they burn away.
Too bad I am seeing orange instead of pink in my stove this year, but I am in the game and looking forward to next year already.
I do also agree with highbeam that 3.2 cu ft stove is going to be working hard in 2500sqft, plus you got lots of glass AND its an insert.
If you are heating with wood only, yup you probably will need a bigger stove no matter how dry your wood is. If you are supplementing you can pull quite afew BTUs out of the insert you have, should cut your oil bill noticeably.
Hi thanks for responding. I'll try to add some different species, but I'm somewhat limited to burning oak.My wood supply came from cutting down a few trees when I moved into our house. Which a vast majority was oak trees.
On average the moisture content is around 14% some are 16%. I split a piece of some wood from my pile and it was 14% on the inside.
Hi Begreen, thanks for chiming in. I'll try this and see if it helps, just so we are on the same page what are some rough dimensions of small splits? It's probable that this could be part of the problem, maybe I should by some firewood from the store and see if I notice a difference in the heat output and coaling.
Funny you mentioned this, last night I reloaded the stove after coming back from work and the stove shot up to 700 degrees within 15 minutes after the reload. I'm still working on getting my technique down. I think I need to reduce the air control quicker so it stays within 600 degree range. Also is it common practice to rake the coals forward during the mid/late part of the burn cycle? Or does everyone just load the stove and and only rake the coals forward when it's time to reload?
Thanks for the visual Highbeam. This could also be a factor, my home is also very drafty so I'm sure none of these traits are helping me keep the home warm. If I am understanding correctly the process of accumulating this many coals is from constantly reloading the stove to keep the stove hot enough to generate then heat that's needed to warm the area, because the heat generated from the coals is not sufficient to do the job.
I d
The type of coals I have is orange/red coals scattered through the base of the firebox. I don't think I have seen dark coals, unless they are buried underneath the red coals, but I'll pay closer attention.
Don't assume that the wood sitting in front of a store is any dryer than what you have. I can show you a place right now that is just starting to split wood for sale at a local gas station.
As BG said - throw a couple of smaller sticks on the coal bed and give it some air. This will accomplish two things...the smaller sticks will give you back the hotter flame without adding to the coal bed...and the extra heat will help to consume the coal bed. You may even need to go through a couple cycles like this to manage a good burn down of the coals.
towards the end of the burn cycle, the coals put out less heat and therefore develop less draft than the fresh wood at beginning of burn. you can open the air intake towards the end of the burn to increase your heat output and to burn off some of your accumulated coals before reloading. i sometimes rake them forwards also to help expose them to the air
claydogg84
Minister of Fire
Like many have already said, you're asking the stove to do more than its capable of. The only way around this is to remove coals so you can load more wood. If you're struggling to heat the home now, wait till the temps dip below 0..
NW Pa Burner
Member
I too am burning my first year with the Osburn 2400i and experiencing a large amount of coal build up. I believe some of my oak firewood is suspect as far as seasoning is concerned. As mentioned earlier in this thread adding some smaller splits and running hot seamed to help burn down some of the larger coals.
When the flames in the firebox go out open up the draft more. This will help burn down the coals quicker. I have to season Oak 3 years before it's ready.
CentralVAWoodHeat
Minister of Fire
The coal build up is a result of asking too much of your stove if you are burning dry wood of any species and you allow for a properly controlled burn cycle.
I almost gave up on burning wood with my Fireview until a wise former Hearth.com member pointed out properly seasoned wood is a necessity.
After I got three years ahead I never had another coaling problem
After I got three years ahead I never had another coaling problem
NW Pa Burner
Member
Yeah fire_man that is where I am at, just moved into house in May and started collecting firewood in June so definitely starting behind, burned some of my dads well seasoned firewood and it was a different stove, i have next years and probably the year after that bucked and stacked off the ground, getting there, properly swan ones firewood is where it's at
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