envious of north-south loaders

[iron]

i had a dozen or so splits that were too long for the fireplace box (about 24" wide by 13.5" deep). cut them on the miter saw and did my first N/S load. man, that fire sure started nicely. it was cool to see all the air and flames rush along the splits into the back of the fireplace box.

any ways to replicate this with E/W loading? right now, i've been doing 2 splits E/W on the bottom, 2 diagonal for level 2, then 2 more E/W on top. my wood isn't super well seasoned (25% MC), so i've been putting the super cedar between row 1/2 to get more direct flame contact on the wood vs. a true top down approach. it works fine enough, but nothing like the N/S loading using the same MC wood.

 

[Highbeam]

I have a coworker with a smaller Lennox stove. He could load 16" sideways but cuts all his wood to 12" so that he can load N/S since it is so much better.

The last stove that I owned which required chucking wood in sideways was a Lopi Freedom four stoves ago. Ever since, all stoves (can or non-cat)have been built to allow the N/S (or straight in) loading. So much more pleasant to start fires, load splits, and watch.

 

[BigFir]

If you plan on keeping the stove, start cutting all your wood shorter. I have a century stove in the shop that will only take 14" N/S. I cut all my wood at 13" so I can load that way, I also have a NC30 in the house that these work well in too. I can put one large piece E/W at the back of the stove then fill N/S at the front. Works great!

 

[revdocjim]

We are in our third season of heating with wood, using a Napoleon 1400 that was given to us. About a year after we installed that stove in our home we installed a used Jotul F500 in our cabin because our son is living there full time at the moment. While the Jotul is a wonderful stove in many ways, I have really come to appreciate the Napoleon because the inner dimensions of the firebox are 18" X 18". The freedom to load either way is really nice, especially when starting fires! That Hearthstone Mansfield sitting on the showroom floor of my local store is looking more and more attractive every day!

 

[prezes13]

I can put 24" logs EW in my stove and most of the time I do because I don't cut my own wood. But if I do cut it I always cut it 13"-14" so I could load it NS. I feel like I can fit more wood and I don't have to worry about logs rolling on to the glass.

 

[spirilis]

I love N/S, the ESW Madison will take roughly ~16" splits north/south so I cut all my wood to somewhere around 15" or so. Shorter rounds should split easier I reckon and maybe season faster(?)... but obviously only practical if you are cutting your own wood.

 

[begreen]

For a quick start in an E/W loader place two 10-14" long, 2" thick splits loaded N/S in the center of the firebox about 3-4" apart. Then place a piece of a SuperCedar in the front between these two sleeper sticks and stack the splits E/W on top. Light the SuperCedar.

The sleepers will elevate the wood a little which allows air to get under the E/W loaded wood on top. It's how I loaded the Castine and made a big difference in getting a hot fire started quickly. I split a bunch of 2x4 cutoffs in half for this purpose, but a 1.5" to 2" thick branch cut up in foot long segments would also work.

 

[iron]

i'm a scrounger, so i get what i find in terms of round length. so, if i wanted to resaw, would it be better to saw the round in half and split and stack 2x, or just split and stack in the full round length, the miter saw the pieces as they come into the house?

both sound like a lot of work and more than i'd like to do on a regular basis.

 

[Highbeam]

i'm a scrounger, so i get what i find in terms of round length. so, if i wanted to resaw, would it be better to saw the round in half and split and stack 2x, or just split and stack in the full round length, the miter saw the pieces as they come into the house?

both sound like a lot of work and more than i'd like to do on a regular basis.

If you can set up a chop saw station near your wood storage and cut the 10 splits as you load them into the basket for the stove it would go pretty fast.

I've done it both ways and cutting rounds in half with the chainsaw is very unfun, dangerous, and usually end up with the chain in the dirt. If the rounds are big I pinch them in the horizontal splitter and saw them down before splitting.

I now have a stove that requires less than 16" splits and another that can take really long stuff so I simply set aside the really long ones for the big stove.

 

[blacktail]

I cut a lot of my wood 12-13" for NS loading. It makes for a little more handling but it's well worth it to me. The wood dries a little faster too.

 

[mminor]

Hi Iron,

I had a hunch the Northstar would would work great with the N/S loading - thanks for testing it out.

Now you have me wanting to cut all my 18-inch splits into two 9-inch pieces - do you think it's worth it?

Matt

 

[iron]

i think the N/S is a nice-to-have thing rather than a must-have.

since i just scrounge, i doubt i'll go through the effort to reduce the length of the wood.

also, since our climate is moderate (rarely do we see the 20s), i find after 3/4 season's use that we basically get the fire going (from a cold/medium temp box), then just add on 1-2 pieces at a time, all day long, about 2-3 hours apart. my wife is currently a stay at home mom with our 10 week old baby, so she's in charge of that. i like to load it up with maybe 6-8 splits, E/W, but then that roasts us out of the house. by doing the 1-2 splits at a time, we can keep the house around 72 degrees, which feels about right. once i finish up with my basement remodel/insulation/seismic retrofit project, we'll use the HVAC to circulate the warm air to the basement and see if our wood usage increases.