I have an MF fire Nova (single burn rate cat EPA stove), and this is our 2nd winter heating with it. I like the stove a lot in general but we have a relatively strong draft and with no airflow control it burns down to ashes (and maybe some tiny embers) overnight and I need to restart.
I've done a lot of top-down fires for these cold restarts, but recently figured out a way to light the stove with just brown paper grocery bags and splits of wood, no kindling needed. The stove loads from the front (but the long firebox direction is E-W not N-S). To lay the fire I do the following:
1) Put two short splits in N-S on the floor of the stove, at about 1/4 and 3/4 of the width of the firebox
2) Crumple in 3 paper bags, one to the left side, one in the middle, one on the right
3) Lay 2-3 splits E-W on top of the bottom splits and paper
4) Light the 3 pieces of paper from the front, leave the door cracked until the bottom splits catch decently, then close the door and engage the cat once the stovetop temp is high enough
This will nearly max out the stovetop temperature gauge, and burn hot and fast down to a great coal base in 2-3 hours, then I'll do hot reloads for the rest of the day (with no airflow control and a strong draft, the stove eats through wood really fast and it is hard to get as much heat as I want out of it without fairly frequent reloads -- it's undersized for whole-house heating but that was necessary given install location details, etc etc...).
I've seen others talk about methods like this, but usually using kindling in the bottom middle of the stove. There is something about this approach that is borderline magical -- it catches the splits directly, even though I'm not using particularly amazing wood (have heard sizzling and seen some steam bubbling from parts of splits and this has still worked). The use of brown paper bags rather than newspaper is obviously helpful -- they are heavy and have considerably more heat content in them than newspaper, but still light with a match. In terms of wood: we're burning mostly a seasoned but not perfectly dry mix of ash, norway and sugar maples, with some pine, cherry, spruce, and oak mixed in.
Does anyone else use a method like this with other stoves? If so, any thoughts about what makes it work so well? My observation is that the parts of splits bordering the bottom center passage from front to back of the stove seem to ignite very effectively and drive most of the start of the burn. Radiant heat from initial combustion here is certainly almost all going into the wood and not heating the stove or being lost up the chimney.
I've done a lot of top-down fires for these cold restarts, but recently figured out a way to light the stove with just brown paper grocery bags and splits of wood, no kindling needed. The stove loads from the front (but the long firebox direction is E-W not N-S). To lay the fire I do the following:
1) Put two short splits in N-S on the floor of the stove, at about 1/4 and 3/4 of the width of the firebox
2) Crumple in 3 paper bags, one to the left side, one in the middle, one on the right
3) Lay 2-3 splits E-W on top of the bottom splits and paper
4) Light the 3 pieces of paper from the front, leave the door cracked until the bottom splits catch decently, then close the door and engage the cat once the stovetop temp is high enough
This will nearly max out the stovetop temperature gauge, and burn hot and fast down to a great coal base in 2-3 hours, then I'll do hot reloads for the rest of the day (with no airflow control and a strong draft, the stove eats through wood really fast and it is hard to get as much heat as I want out of it without fairly frequent reloads -- it's undersized for whole-house heating but that was necessary given install location details, etc etc...).
I've seen others talk about methods like this, but usually using kindling in the bottom middle of the stove. There is something about this approach that is borderline magical -- it catches the splits directly, even though I'm not using particularly amazing wood (have heard sizzling and seen some steam bubbling from parts of splits and this has still worked). The use of brown paper bags rather than newspaper is obviously helpful -- they are heavy and have considerably more heat content in them than newspaper, but still light with a match. In terms of wood: we're burning mostly a seasoned but not perfectly dry mix of ash, norway and sugar maples, with some pine, cherry, spruce, and oak mixed in.
Does anyone else use a method like this with other stoves? If so, any thoughts about what makes it work so well? My observation is that the parts of splits bordering the bottom center passage from front to back of the stove seem to ignite very effectively and drive most of the start of the burn. Radiant heat from initial combustion here is certainly almost all going into the wood and not heating the stove or being lost up the chimney.
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