Coals to the front or back?

[fireview2788]

The instructions for my Fireview say to push the coals to the front of the stove when reloading but I have found that they ash out much better when pushed to the back. I am sure it has to do with draft/air circulation.

What has everyone else found?

fv

 

[ScotO]

I ALWAYS pull the coals to the front. That's where they can stoke with the incoming air (from the primary air and the airwash for the glass), and that also helps with the 'cigar burn'. Thats the ONLY way I do it....

 

[velvetfoot]

I don't have your stove but I find somewhat more coals in back, but fairly even. Since I load N/S, I find that if the coal bed is higher in back, I'm hitting the secondary tubes more when I'm reloading. If I put more in front it seems to work better because it gets spread out when sliding the splits in. As if any of that made sense.

 

[Ashful]

If I can have a full coal bed on the floor, that is by far the best option for my stove. If I rake them to the front, the logs placed on dead ash in the back take forever to "toast", putting serious delay in my ability to engage the cat.

If I don't have enough coals for a full bed, I do rake forward, and then just try to put something that doesn't require much "toasting" (eg. Poplar) in the lower rear. I did experiment with raking the coals to the rear, in an attempt to solve this problem, but then the air wash couldn't adequately flush them with fresh air to get things going.

 

[rideau]

If I can have a full coal bed on the floor, that is by far the best option for my stove. If I rake them to the front, the logs placed on dead ash in the back take forever to "toast", putting serious delay in my ability to engage the cat.

If I don't have enough coals for a full bed, I do rake forward, and then just try to put something that doesn't require much "toasting" (eg. Poplar) in the lower rear. I did experiment with raking the coals to the rear, in an attempt to solve this problem, but then the air wash couldn't adequately flush them with fresh air to get things going.

I don't worry about the logs in the back. Figure they will start burning later, which is relly what I want for a long burn. Just make sure the forward logs are charred, then engage cat.

 

[Valhalla]

Coals should be closer to the primary air, in your case front. Leaving enough room not to block it.

 

[TheBaron]

I try to spread them out fairly evenly, however move some more to the front. As my stove has a 'doghouse' design where the air comes in from the middle in a concentrated area, I leave a bit of a valley front to back and that seems to help distribute the air to the coals near the back and helps it to get going. That seems to be working well for me with my stove.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Front.
Having the fire burning from front to back keeps the glass cleaner and insures a better burn. On my stove the exhaust air exits near the top front of the stove, right in front of the glass. If the actual fire is burning at the rear of the stove it allows a lot of un-burned smoke to exit up the flue without getting burned properly.

 

[Ashful]

On my stove the exhaust air exits near the top front of the stove, right in front of the glass. If the actual fire is burning at the rear of the stove it allows a lot of un-burned smoke to exit up the flue without getting burned properly.

That makes sense, but keep in mind that a lot of (most?) stoves have their exhaust at the rear if the firebox. Your reasoning seems to suggest those folks should all rake back.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

That makes sense, but keep in mind that a lot of (most?) stoves have their exhaust at the rear if the firebox. Your reasoning seems to suggest those folks should all rake back.

Maybe they should.
I can only speak for how my stove works, that's why I included the part about where the air intakes and exhaust on "my" stove are.
Although, I think most stoves are only going to be similar in design in that they have their glass air wash intakes at the front of the stove.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

The instructions for my Fireview say to push the coals to the front of the stove when reloading but I have found that they ash out much better when pushed to the back. I am sure it has to do with draft/air circulation.

What has everyone else found?

fv

fireview, during the daytime we simply level out the coals and add the wood. For nights, we do then push most of the coals toward the front. I like to put that large split or round in the bottom rear of the stove with no hot coals or very few of them under that log. It just seems to make the fire last longer.

If anyone has less than dry wood, then I would recommend leveling out the coals rather than moving them to the front simply because it will help that wood get started burning quicker.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

After reading Dennis's post I just wanted to add that normally I'll just throw wood on top of my coals too, the only time I'll bother to rake coals anywhere is to the front for the reasons I posted, and for getting a longer (though not necessarily hotter) burn.
And I agree with Dennis that it would be better to have a nice bed of hot coals under your wood if you were using less then optimally dry wood.