Fellow Rookies, Long overnight burn!

[DTrain]

Ok, I finally did it. 8 hr over night burn. Loaded to the gills and filled in cracks with small splits. E/W top to bottom. I burned from 11 pm to 7am reload. Stove top was still 250 and a great bad of coals left to start the morning fire. It took 40 min to get it from door close to air control shut down. This time I didn't check temps to determine when to adjust. Just flame. I made myself wait, it was not easy, thank goodness the fiesta bowl was on to distract me a bit. It was about 8-12 minutes for each 1/4 adjustment. I had to resist turning it down sooner while it was roaring, and also when it died out had to resist turning it back up. It came back strong. I had wild fantastic secondaries with air all the way down. Seemed like for an hour. Then went to bed. And house felt noticeably warmer than normal when the brats woke us. Anyway fellow rookies, it is possible! In my case more patience was the key.

Was all oak, and I think there were 8 splits in there. Only one real big piece. The stove takes 22" sticks, and theses puppies were all 21"

 

[FPX Dude]

yah brah, BTU's are BTU's, those burn's of 20+ hours or watever are because those fireboxes can get stuffed with 160 lbs. of fuel and go forever. Ok, lbs. overstated but you get the idea. Good job on your overnite's, thats the secrect...TTG (To The Gils)

 

[weatherguy]

Takes a little time to learn your stove, sounds like your getting the hang of it.

 

[Beer Belly]

After all these years, I'm still trying to figure ours out. Our main problem has been wood supply, and now that I have pretty decent wood (not the best)...Hickory burning tonight at 18% on a fresh split, I'm trying to dial it in as I type.....it also doesn't help that the splits are on the small side, and I don't "load it up", usually about 3 - 4, 4 inch splits, maybe 5 inches max. Small firebox at 1.8 cu ft.. I know if I go with a full load, it'll likely go at least 6 hours, but I never sleep more than 2 hours at a clip, so getting up and checking for a reload is no problem. There is definetly a learning curve, and it sounds like you're where you need to be.....good job

 

[corey21]

Glad to hear that your getting the hang of your stove.

 

[TradEddie]

Saturday night, fire was running low about 7pm, I wouldn't have time for two reloads, so I figured it was time to try for a long burn. I raked the coals forward, and loaded N/S, starting with a large cherry in the middle, then oak and hickory on top and the sides. I hadn't done a great job of choosing splits to pack it tight, so it was about 3/4 full with lots of air gaps, it took off like a rocket, I shut the air down quickly but within 30 minutes the stove top was at 700, air was fully closed, blower on. At 11pm, stovetop was about 600, I turned off blower and went to bed.
I don't get up until 8:30am Sunday, room was at 75, stovetop was below 200, but with several large coals, I put a split of cherry on top, cracked the door and it was in flames within seconds.
I don't know how Lopi determines its 12 hours burn time, but I just got 13 hours without completely filling the firebox, and with borderline MC on the oak and hickory. I'm sure with more careful split selection, I could have gone much longer, and with more moderate temperatures too.
TE

 

[bag of hammers]

and also when it died out had to resist turning it back up

That's been a part of the learning curve for me too. Now, the best long burn == a bit of patience, and staging the primary air right down to closed.

 

[Huntindog1]

You will find that how fast you can get the heat up in the stove and get the stove air shut back down in the over night low air setting , this will extend your over night burn.
I find having to wait along time for temps to come up from a reload just burns alot of the wood in the stove and leaves little wood left for a long over night burn.

If your wood is really dry and you can load big diameter pieces that take off really fast because they are so dry on a hot bed of coals so that temps get up in the stove quickly to like 400- 500 then cruise around 600 is the best type of situation. You will see once you get the air shut back down, thru the stove window, a load of big wood with just secondaries firing at the top of the wood. It will look almost like the wood below isnt burning. These type fires burn for a long time.

If your wood isnt the best then good kindling will accomplish this for you. Plus even if raking your coals forward and loading the kindling on the coals , you still can use a super cedar fire starter on top of the kindling so that the kindling is being heated from up on top and on the bottom from the hot coals. Adding the super cedar just speeds things up and the speed of getting the heat up in the stove is the key so you dont burn too much of the wood in the back of the stove.

 

[DTrain]

You will find that how fast you can get the heat up in the stove and get the stove air shut back down in the over night low air setting , this will extend your over night burn.
I find having to wait along time for temps to come up from a reload just burns alot of the wood in the stove and leaves little wood left for a long over night burn.

If your wood is really dry and you can load big diameter pieces that take off really fast because they are so dry on a hot bed of coals so that temps get up in the stove quickly to like 400- 500 then cruise around 600 is the best type of situation. You will see once you get the air shut back down, thru the stove window, a load of big wood with just secondaries firing at the top of the wood. It will look almost like the wood below isnt burning. These type fires burn for a long time.

If your wood isnt the best then good kindling will accomplish this for you. Plus even if raking your coals forward and loading the kindling on the coals , you still can use a super cedar fire starter on top of the kindling so that the kindling is being heated from up on top and on the bottom from the hot coals. Adding the super cedar just speeds things up and the speed of getting the heat up in the stove is the key so you dont burn too much of the wood in the back of the stove.

A friend of mine who has an open fire place has some super aged pine. Feels like styrofoam. He gave me a load. I've been making thin kindling with it and putting it on the pile of raked coals. This lights up right away. My Oak is not as dry as it could be. This helps. I've also started to rake coals forward with a valley running N/S infront of the doghouse. This usually makes a jet of air running thru and its not long gettting everything going. I had another good one last night. 10:30 to 5:30am. Great bed of coals and a shade above 250F. Can't wait to try this with proper seasoned wood. This is my first year so I have to do what I gots to do, eh. I will have to process double this year to stay a year a head. I'm going to be in great shape!

 

[bag of hammers]

You will see once you get the air shut back down, thru the stove window, a load of big wood with just secondaries firing at the top of the wood. It will look almost like the wood below isnt burning. These type fires burn for a long time.

Yes - that pretty much describes the start of some of my best long burns.

But I'm also into mostly yellow birch now than maple. I like it but it seems to change things up a bit (seems to need a bit more to get it rolling before shutting the primary air down). I'm trying the add-some-pine-to-the-mix as has been suggested here, and it does seem to help. Got tons of pine / fir from road clearing early last year. Scroungers rule.

i wonder if the dense yellow birch needs a bit more time on the stack (maybe kinda like oak?). These were some big heavy knarly splits from an old tree but they've been cut into lengths for 3 years and split / stacked for 1 - 1/2 to 2 years now. Although I have burned a couple of the huge stubborn uglies and they lasted the night, the YB just doesn't seem to be as eager to burn hot as the maple was. Just guessing but maybe needs another 6 months to hit prime? Anyway, we'll see what the wind / road crews / etc bring me next.

 

[DTrain]

Loading the stove has me working up an appetite.

 

[Huntindog1]

Yes - that pretty much describes the start of some of my best long burns.

But I'm also into mostly yellow birch now than maple. I like it but it seems to change things up a bit (seems to need a bit more to get it rolling before shutting the primary air down). I'm trying the add-some-pine-to-the-mix as has been suggested here, and it does seem to help. Got tons of pine / fir from road clearing early last year. Scroungers rule.

i wonder if the dense yellow birch needs a bit more time on the stack (maybe kinda like oak?). These were some big heavy knarly splits from an old tree but they've been cut into lengths for 3 years and split / stacked for 1 - 1/2 to 2 years now. Although I have burned a couple of the huge stubborn uglies and they lasted the night, the YB just doesn't seem to be as eager to burn hot as the maple was. Just guessing but maybe needs another 6 months to hit prime? Anyway, we'll see what the wind / road crews / etc bring me next.

Might get you a moisture meter to measure the moisture content, as I find the usual 20% recommendation isnt the most ideal but 18% or less is better.

 

[bag of hammers]

Might get you a moisture meter to measure the moisture content

It's on my to-do list - a very long list unfortunately....