Cold Start Ups

[jadm]

After a year of trying I have finally figured out how to do the raking-the-coals-forward reload trick with a full load in the firebox successfully - getting 6-8 hour burn times. :coolsmile:

My question now is 'how do you get a full load started in a cold stove with no hot coals? '

My thinking is simply starting with a small really hot fire and then using those coals but that seems a bit time consuming and I know some of you don't have the time to hang around tending a stove.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Dry, thin split kindling.

I actually don't use kindling any more. I load up the stove, put a few pieces of birch bark in the front bottom, and leave the door open a bit. if the load of wood includes pine, then just an ordinary reading lamp somewhere in the room will provide enough zap to light it up. Seriously: cardboard + kerosene = birch bark.

 

[SlyFerret]

I load it up like I would with coals (usually pack it pretty full), and stick a quarter of a super cedar fire starter between a couple of the splits down low.

It's been working like a charm for me for the last month or so. It's so nice to just come home from work and just load up the stove instead of messing around with a kindling fire first.

-SF

 

[jadm]

Thanks for the replies - good to know a full load can be done from a cold start.

This morning I tried the small hot method - got impatient - raked what was there forward and loaded the back. Used a piece of pine up front on the bottom with fire starter pieces and it is slowly catching as I type. Gonna have to experiment a bit here but now I know it can be done. ;-)

 

[Custerstove]

I find it helps to have various sizes of wood. If you have lots of 1", 2" and 3" diameter pieces of wood, generating hot coals can be quick - perhaps 20-25 minutes until I can load up with larger splits.

Sometimes, when I have a lot of kindling I wil just fill the stove up with 1" diameter pieces and criss-cross the wood to maximize the air spaces - this gets the stove's surface temp up to 500 F very quickly and produces good coals quickly.

The draw back is that I spend a lot of time chopping up logs into piles of kindling - one of these summers I'm going to get a ahead and stack a cord of kindling since I usually start a lot of fires in a cold stove.

 

[karri0n]

^ That's all I do, when I have good dry wood. Load it up, put kindling in front and off she goes. Works even better if you are loading n/s.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

with epa stove, ure supposed to be able to fill the stove, set up kindling in front, light, & let er rip wide open until fire gets going & then close down primary in stages...JON GULLAND has video per such which i cant find. pm BEGREEN for site address.

Jon Gullans's videos can be found here. (broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/videos.htm)
He is an advocate of top/down fire. They don't seem to work as well for me though, I have better success starting with kindling at the front of the stove and bigger pieces at the back.
Still, I think he produced some informative videos.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

With the door open a little, the draft sucks air in past the kindling/firestarter in front so that the fire is directed at the fuel load. Very efficient.

 

[carp]

I cris-cross my load perpendicular to each other. Two on bottom arranged so air flows freely to back of the stove. Three on top of and perpendicular to those, leaving space for air to move up between them. Sometimes one more on top. Either a firestarter, paper + 3 small pieces of pine, or pellets + firestarter in the channel. Flue temp of 400+ degrees in 5-10 minutes. Back off air in 50% increments until fire is stable. Good for 6-8 hours depending on outside temp. My split are 4-6 inches on each face.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've tried the top-down fire method but did not find that it works as well as the old method.

Like building a fire outdoors, start with little stuff and work your way up still works best for me.

With a cold stove, I usually crumble up a few sheets of newspaper (no colored paper either). On that, we put some very fine kindling followed by the approximately 1" square pieces of kindling. On top of that we put some very small splits, preferably soft maple (but others would work. It's just that soft maple burns fast and hot). That is followed by some larger splits. Open the draft full, touch a match to the paper, leave the firebox door open just a crack and in just a very short period of time close that firebox door.

Using the above method on our soapstone stove that people say "takes so much longer to heat up," we can have our stove throwing lots of heat in very little time. Certainly no hour like some say it takes. The last time I had to do this (a long time ago it seems), within 30 minutes the stove top was 450 degrees.

 

[egghead2004]

For a complete cold start, I found sort of a hybrid way to get the fire going without baby sitting.

It starts like the top down method, I add two half rounders to make a level "table" across the entire bottom of the stove.
Next, I add a good size split and push it all the way back on top of the rear half round.
I then cut a similar size split in half, not spliting it, but cutting the length in half.
I put these two halves on top of the front half rounder, with about 6" of space between them, this makes a cavity with the bottom, left, right, and rear all flammable material. Just be sure to leave enough room above to add another full length skinny split, now you have a flammable ceiling for you cavity.
I add 1 piece of newspaper and one broken up cedar shingle into the cavity. light it up, and then add small bits of splits and bark.
Once the small split bits and shingle catch on fire I close the door just enough for the air to really get pulled into the small fire.

Go crack a cold one open, and come back in 5 minutes to fire, plenty of it too. By now you can slide those two 1/2 length splits apart some more and add a third half length split of similiar size in between them.

That should do it.

 

[chutes]

I do what Dennis said above, though it sounds like he builds his all at once. I build mine as I go. In other words, three pieces of newspaper tied into knots covered by small kindling (this morning I just tossed a couple big handfuls of bark). Once that gets going (five minutes or so), I add some 1" splits, crisscross like the campfire method. Then get gradually larger until I'm burning good. As Dennis said, it also takes me about 30 minutes, but I just sit in front of it doing Sudoku from the calendar my wife gave me for xmas. It's 6:00 AM, nice and quiet, kids are sleeping and I'm in no rush...

Oh, and like AP said, I do pretty much all of that with the door open. Once the small splits start taking off, I close the door nearly all the way, then once the bigger splits are tossed in I shut and lock and begin to damper down.

 

[Chettt]

Cold stove no coals - and you want it hot and now? Lay 3 or four splits on the bottom, cover those with lots and I mean lots of kindling, Light it on top and enjoy. Once the scrap wood is gone, the stove will be hot and the bottom splits will be fully involved. Now open the door slowly and pack it fuller than a South African taxi.

 

[Corey]

I've never had much luck with the top-down method. It seems to require a good supply of at least 4 different sized pieces...kindling on top, then ~1" sticks, some ~2" small splits, then the actual wood on the bottom. I usually wind up chucking a big log in back, slightly smaller log up front, fill the space in between with newspaper, cardboard, small wood scraps, etc, then throw a couple of small splits on top of that in a diagonal direction so as the pile of kindling burns, they are still supported on the back and front logs. That usually lights up pretty quick...room temp to 700F+ in ~30 minutes.

 

[Martin Strand III]

WHEN YOU'RE HOT YOU'RE HOT. WHEN YOU'RE NOT, YOU'RE NOT.

Let's face it. A cold start is a cold start. Pay the dues and start the fire. Shortly, you'll be a'blaze and the cold will disappear.

Like in a relationship, letting things go cold has a price.

It's your choice. If you want to stay warm, mind the fire.

Aye,
Marty

 

[ansehnlich1]

Best way for my Oslo so far is a N/S piece shoved in the side door all the way to the far side, balled up newspaper on stove bottom, split 2x4's on top, then small splits and then a larger splits on top of that and resting on the far end on top of the N/S piece. This keeps the bigger stuff resting above the kindling and paper, and results in a good burn pretty quick.

 

[bluefrier]

room temp to 700F+ in ~30 minutes.

Wow! that's a hot room.. :coolsmirk:

 

[myzamboni]

^ That's all I do, when I have good dry wood. Load it up, put kindling in front and off she goes. Works even better if you are loading n/s.

A tip for you N/S burners. Save your empty toilet paper rolls. Set these between your N/S splits and as it catches fire is really shoots the flame toward the rear of the stove (I get you could save paper towel rolls as well, but I use more TP tha PT).

 

[Valhalla]

Good idea!

Paper towel rolls could also work, but they are longer for those East-West burns.

Tubular Start-ups... now put that in the East-West, Top-Down and North-South lexicon of the wood burner! ;>)

 

[Corey]

room temp to 700F+ in ~30 minutes.

Wow! that's a hot room.. :coolsmirk:

Yes...I guess if you look at it that way! What I meant to communicate was that the stovetop goes from room temp (generally about 60F) to full fired running (generally ~700F) in about 30 minutes.