EKO fire restart news

[barnartist]

This may be really old news, but I just figured it out for myself today.

I needed to restart again a fire in my Eko this morning. It has been so mild this November it has been tough to keep a good routine.

Anyway, with a minimum of coals in the firebox, I tried something different. I loaded some slightly less than average splits on the bottom of the chamber, then average splits, and then I threw in my usual recipe of fine splits, a little bark, and then paper on top. Lighted it up (like a top down fire maybe?) and shut the door, started the fans and closed the damper. FASTEST RESTART EVER. WOW. Up to temp in under an hour, and WAY less smoke out the stack. I did top off the load after a while as my staorage temp was a bit behind.

I only have done this one time, but i sure hope it works this well again.

Again, this may be old news and something I missed somehow on the forum. It seems so obvious when you think about it, the way down draft fires work. I feel so stupid for lighting up like you would for a campfire all of these years.

Can anyone else confirm?

 

[taxidermist]

This may be really old news, but I just figured it out for myself today.

I needed to restart again a fire in my Eko this morning. It has been so mild this November it has been tough to keep a good routine.

Anyway, with a minimum of coals in the firebox, I tried something different. I loaded some slightly less than average splits on the bottom of the chamber, then average splits, and then I threw in my usual recipe of fine splits, a little bark, and then paper on top. Lighted it up (like a top down fire maybe?) and shut the door, started the fans and closed the damper. FASTEST RESTART EVER. WOW. Up to temp in under an hour, and WAY less smoke out the stack. I did top off the load after a while as my staorage temp was a bit behind.

I only have done this one time, but i sure hope it works this well again.

Again, this may be old news and something I missed somehow on the forum. It seems so obvious when you think about it, the way down draft fires work. I feel so stupid for lighting up like you would for a campfire all of these years.

Can anyone else confirm?

Yep it has been talked about here and yep we all have been doing it the "old way" cause thats what our fathers did and so on ha ha!!

I still want to ram the fire box full like my old wood burner thinking OMG the fire is going to burn out OH WAIT!! I better see what my storage temps are at. LOL!!

 

[barnartist]

Crap, how in the $#@ did I miss that?!

Do you remember the name of the thread?

I think I always had nofossils pics stuck in my mind and have been doing it that way forever. Nofo, if you are lerking here, do you still light that way?

 

[muncybob]

The Wood Gun web site says to start a fire one way and the manual says to start it another way(one the "old" way and the other "top down"). With the way the draft is induced downward from the loading chamber it seemed to me the top down way made much more sense. I also use less kindling/paper going top down in combination with my gas torch.

 

[Nofossil]

Crap, how in the $#@ did I miss that?!

Do you remember the name of the thread?

I think I always had nofossils pics stuck in my mind and have been doing it that way forever. Nofo, if you are lerking here, do you still light that way?

I still light it from the bottom, wait about 4 minutes, then close the bypass and start the fan. I never got a top-down start to work. I might try it again.

 

[Fred61]

I was expressing in another thread that my old Wood Gun would not re-ignite after idle especially with pine, however it wasn't difficult to re-light as long as there was carbonized wood in the firebox. I would just start the fan, open the door, light a wadded up piece of newspaper and throw it in and walked away. I presume as long as is carbonized wood or charcoal in the firebox it should work with any downdraft boiler, however I say that tongue-in-cheek because the Wood Gun moves more air than most of the other gassers and it has induced draft.

 

[barnartist]

Crap, how in the $#@ did I miss that?!

Do you remember the name of the thread?

I think I always had nofossils pics stuck in my mind and have been doing it that way forever. Nofo, if you are lerking here, do you still light that way?

I still light it from the bottom, wait about 4 minutes, then close the bypass and start the fan. I never got a top-down start to work. I might try it again.

I did have a slight amount of sprinkled but small coals before I loaded the wood. Remember also I only did this one time, and I will try it again tonight.
I just never had such a quick restart, meaning getting up to 180 in the boiler loop so quickly.

 

[barnartist]

My second round at firing up as said aboave went well again. I also think I have gained more heat per load.

2 loads starting up this way and everything is better. Wish I had been doing this for the last 4 years.

 

[verne]

This only works with some coals left ,right? I have only started a fire with coals left a couple times.I tried the top down method last night with a cold boiler . no go

 

[barnartist]

I had very little coals left, but im sure what was there helped. I had to really stir up the ashbed to find some glowing pea sized coals.

I am thinking 1 row of small splits (4-5" thick) then everage splits, then build for starting a traditional fire. Once you light your paper and then the starter mix takes off, start the fans and close it all up. Maybe 20 min later top it all off.

Or, try to keep all the smallest splits overtop of the nozzils, and when you top it off put your regular and larges there. I always put the biggest on top so that the weight of those peices will push the others down as it burns and falls.

I hope I did not ruin anyones regular rutine, but for me the last two burns have been splendid.

 

[muncybob]

Here is something about top down that I stumbled upon:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/3678/

 

[barnartist]

Thanks Muncy. The video link is dried up though and not really any info written about a top down. I should keep looking harder.

 

[muncybob]

Sorry 'bout that. I was at work and assumed the video would not load due to our firewall.

 

[Nofossil]

I totally believe that top-down is the way to go if you have any coals. I usually don't have coals, though.

 

[barnartist]

This morning I had zero coals cause my timer failed to kill my fans. My restart has been shaky this time. I think your right Nofo.

 

[NNYorker]

Restarted 3-4 fires this way since reading this post. I've used empty cardboard food boxes(Pop-Tarts, rice, etc) stuffed with a handful of wood scraps , 1 piece of newspaper with great results. Sometimes it's hard to see the obvious, huh? Thanks for resurrecting this Barnartist. I'm a convert.....

 

[barnartist]

Restarted 3-4 fires this way since reading this post. I've used empty cardboard food boxes(Pop-Tarts, rice, etc) stuffed with a handful of wood scraps , 1 piece of newspaper with great results. Sometimes it's hard to see the obvious, huh? Thanks for resurrecting this Barnartist. I'm a convert.....

So have you had good restarts with zero coals from previous fire, or start from scratch? I am going to assume with no storage you catch your fire before it is completely bone dry.

It still seems to me I have also gained more btu's per load, because my tanks get recharged to the limit, and when I check the boiler soon after the burn cycle has ended, I have wood left over. Maybe another week of this experiment will tell the complete story better, but again for the most part its been nice.
Thanks for chimin in NNYorker. Now I know Im not just seeing things.

 

[NNYorker]

Both, with almost no coals and none. With this weather I'm playing the guessing game as far as load quantity.........I'm doing pretty well so far. My guesstimation method is 1 split = a 1 hr. burn. End of the split surface area is approximately the size of a 40 oz. Skippy peanut butter jar. All of a sudden you're roarin' in no time. Once the weather stays cold(it looks like starting tonight) my burning methods/loads will change some.

 

[muncybob]

I totally believe that top-down is the way to go if you have any coals. I usually don't have coals, though.

If you have coals you are only adding new wood to the coals right? You don't have to relight the new fuel from top do you?