East to West Loading - Englander 30

[gangsplatt]

Anyone have any luck with the E-W loading in your Englander 30? I can't seem to get the pieces in the back to burn well they mostly just get blackened and I'm afraid I'll be putting out a lot of smoke out the chimney. While I know your are supposed to get cooler, longer burns with this method it just seems like my stove temp doesn't get above 300 and there isn't any secondary combustion occurring appears more like a smoldering fire especially if i close the damper down. N-S no problems, can close the damper down after a good fire is established and get good secondary combustion and nice warm fire.

 

[cmonSTART]

I almost never load exclusively EW for that very reason. At least with my setup, tightly packed EW loading means cool dirty burning. Black firebrick, dirty glass etc. My stove does very well packed NS for long burns and a log cabin type stack is good for quick and hot fires.

 

[gangsplatt]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the cool, dirty burn. Well it's nice to know it wasn't just me and something I was doing wrong. Guess, I'll continue to work on mastering the stove using N-S loading.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yep. N/S burns are a lot easier in the hoss. E/W can be done but I have found I need a good coal bed and a two or so inch channel through it front to back in the stove. Then when I have it loaded I put a small really dry piece on the coals right across the front of the load and it seems to work.

Most of the time though I just load it N/S and let'er run.

 

[fibes]

New to this, so when you say north to south you mean front to back or side to side

 

[stanb999]

I'll tell you the key, load the stove to the heat you wish to have. Period.
If you want less heat put in less wood. The damper is only to slow a really hot fire, not make a cool one.

East/west or north/south is a little different burn but not so much..
What I've found is that if you are leaving unburned in the back if you went the other way you would leave unburned on the sides.
I like the E/W as it seems to maintain the second burn better without over heating.
Here are a few tips.

If your using "small" loads of wood. Here is what I found helps for clean burns.
keep the wood to the front.
keep the draft well open more than 3/4.
Let her rip.

 

[stanb999]

New to this, so when you say north to south you mean front to back or side to side

N/S is front to back.
E/W is side to side.

 

[gangsplatt]

I'll tell you the key, load the stove to the heat you wish to have. Period.
If you want less heat put in less wood. The damper is only to slow a really hot fire, not make a cool one.

East/west or north/south is a little different burn but not so much..
What I've found is that if you are leaving unburned in the back if you went the other way you would leave unburned on the sides.
I like the E/W as it seems to maintain the second burn better without over heating.
Here are a few tips.

If your using "small" loads of wood. Here is what I found helps for clean burns.
keep the wood to the front.
keep the draft well open more than 3/4.
Let her rip.

Do you leave the draft open 3/4 for the whole burn cycle (i.e. from loading of fresh wood to just coals).

 

[SlyFerret]

My experiece with my 30 matches BB's. To burn E/W, I have to have a good coal bed established.

I tend to use the log cabin type stack, always with the bottom two splits running N/S.

The 30 seems to do best when there is a clear path for the doghouse in center of the front of the stove to jet air back to the back.

-SF

 

[gangsplatt]

I'm not familiar with the term log cabin stack, is that something like the bottom piece are N/S then everything is E/W on top of that?

 

[SlyFerret]

Yeah... alternating N/S, E/W, N/S, etc... Sort of like a "#" sign.

Seems to work well for me when lighting up a cold stove. Once I get a coal bed established, I can just throw stuff in N/S.

-SF

 

[cmonSTART]

Gangsplatt, yes. I do this when I want a hot fire of for the first burn if the stove is cold. The bottom layer is 2 small splits N/S, then next layer is 2 slightly larger splits E/W, then the top is larger splits, as many as I can fit on top again N/S. All my coals/charcoal is piled between the bottom 2 splits right in front of the doghouse with any kindling in there too. That's how I do my log cabin fires and I've found it works very well.

 

[SlyFerret]

For my cold starts, do mine a little differently.

I put my biggest splits on the bottom, and each layer gets smaller as I go up. I put my smallest kindling on top. I pack some crumpled paper in between the splits in the top few layers. For me, this top down method works well.

I've switched from news paper to phonebook pages. I don't get the paper at the house, and phonebook pages are neatly bound together untill I tear them out. Phone book pages light easily and burn fast, so I have to crumple them a little tighter than newspaper.

-SF

 

[cmonSTART]

I never got the hang of the top down thing. Maybe I'll try again sometime this winter.

 

[SlyFerret]

I was skeptical at first, but it's been working for me. Putting the bigger stuff on the bottom helps keep the fire from shifting and needing tended as things burn and collapse down.

The biggest thing I've had to learn with my stove is to get the load setup right in the first place, and then DON'T MESS WITH IT! I tend to cause myself more problems by trying to mess with things.

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

I never got the hang of the top down thing. Maybe I'll try again sometime this winter.

The single biggest secret to top down is small dry kindling on top.

 

[cmonSTART]

That's probably most of my problem. Maybe I'll try again sometime soon.

 

[stanb999]

I'll tell you the key, load the stove to the heat you wish to have. Period.
If you want less heat put in less wood. The damper is only to slow a really hot fire, not make a cool one.

East/west or north/south is a little different burn but not so much..
What I've found is that if you are leaving unburned in the back if you went the other way you would leave unburned on the sides.
I like the E/W as it seems to maintain the second burn better without over heating.
Here are a few tips.

If your using "small" loads of wood. Here is what I found helps for clean burns.
keep the wood to the front.
keep the draft well open more than 3/4.
Let her rip.

Do you leave the draft open 3/4 for the whole burn cycle (i.e. from loading of fresh wood to just coals).

Yes, I do it only when the stove is not full. I've found it hard to get the stove up to full temp if you try to burn a small amount of wood slowly..... I know this sounds shocking.

 

[jjhof0306]

I tried one of each over the weekend in my Napoleon and had the same issue with the E-W fire. The logs in the back just didn't burn well.