Hot coals of little value?

[Constrictor]

I have a buddy that tells me his outdoor water heating wood furnace lives off coals and wont heat well until there are coals.
Ive found just the opposite in my wood stove the heat pretty much leaves after the wood is reduced to coals, even though there may be 6" deep coals. The stove puts out very little heat from coals alone, but if i open the door a ton of heat still comes off the coals. i find myself having to shovel out tons of nice hot coals so i have room for more solid wood. Is this normal for stoves?

 

[SnaykeByte]

I'd say you have a combustion air problem. There is a lot of heat fuel left after the wood is reduced to charcoal. Check your draft induction system and see if there is plenty of air that can get to those coals.

 

[beau5278]

Yes,it's normal but you don't have to shovel out hot coals to put more wood in,just put the new load right on top of those hot coals,your stove will be off and running again in a few seconds.Rake them around some to even them out or pull a few extra towards the door.

 

[jtb51b]

I have found that once I am to the full load of coals stage I can open the door and let all that pent up heat out safely.. There is little chance for an overfire once you are that for along in the burn cycle.. I usually let mine burn open for a half hour or so and that seems to be the best useage of the coal heat I have found.. After the coals seem to be reduced to the point of no return I shovel the ash and reload with the leftovers.. This, of course, is if I am home and downstairs for the duration, if not I just reload and let it go..

Jason

 

[Techstuf]

I'm burning hot to get the most out of the wood. When I get the big bed, which is rare as I usually burn each load completely, I too open the draft door all the way and stoke 'em good and they'll burn down fast. I also keep a 'cane torch' handy and a good supply of spring closeout bags of pellets handy. Since I burn cyclically, a few hours on, few off, I start fires more often than most, a small scoop of wood pellets in between a couple logs and a few seconds with the cane torch and I'm effectively stretching my wood supply considerably. But then, my stove's in the basement so I don't have to over heat a main floor room beyond the comfort zone to get these benefits.



TS

 

[Burd]

When this happen to me I move the coals around and then put soft wood on top of it to help redeuce the coals.Soft woods preduce less ash and will still keep the box hot. Use the heat the beast that you can. Dont throw It a way Burning hotter will allso help with less coal
Have fun and burn safe
BURD

 

[Todd]

Maybe your not burning hot enough, try giving the stove more air during the first stages of the burn cycle? Or it could be a draft/chimney problem?

 

[freddy]

Won't leaving the door open all the way emit carbon monoxide into the living area? If not I'm going to do that cause I have tons of coals too. I have a small 1.2 box though and burn a mix of hard and soft. I usually only burn hard for night time otherwise I would be overstuffed with coals.

 

[chipsoflyin]

try raking the coals to the front of the firebox and opening the draft air all the way, this works for me, if its cold in the house throw a split of soft wood or some kindling directly on the pile and leave the draft air wide open, this should help reduce your coal bed

 

[ansehnlich1]

I've shoveled the coals out of my oslo twice so far this year. I don't do it often, but when it's real cold, and I'm burning the stove real hard, I won't mess around with trying to burn the coals down, I'll just shovel 'em out of there.

 

[gpcollen1]

There should never really be a need to shovel hot coals out?? There are plenty of posts from last year about what to do with excessive coals/coaling. I think it just means you are running with too much air and need to get the air closes down a bit sooner. Pile the coals and lay one - or maybe two splits on top. In my stove, it can run for a good while at 400-500 with just one decent split. I may have to do this twice to reduce the coal bed to a point where I can load it up with wood again.

 

[BJ64]

I will get a heavy coal bed also and I have a way of getting them to produce good heat without having to shovel them out.

As the stove top temp starts to drop below 450 I adjust the air to wide open. With a good draft, this will push the stove top to over 500 for about 45 min. After that I rake them around a bit to sift the ash through the grate and reload.

 

[ControlFreak]

One of the best things to do with lots of coals is get some nice long sticks (easy to do now here in MA), grab the family and gather around the open stove to roast marshmallows. I have also been tempted to build a grill that I can set into the coals and grill burgers. Hey it's even vented like a Jenn-aire! Hey they use wood fired ovens to cook pizza, why can't I do burgers?

Seriously, you're correct that there's not a tremendous amount of heat produced from a deep coal bed. I don't think it's a sin to throw away some coals if you need to run the stove at max heat output. Sometimes if I get a deep bed, I'll pull them forward after separating and removing the ash, then when I put new wood in, I'll select some splits with sharp corners and push the corners deep into the coals. In this case, the coals are now filling the open space between the logs at the bottom and not keeping you from adding a full load.

 

[woodconvert]

Ive found just the opposite in my wood stove the heat pretty much leaves after the wood is reduced to coals, even though there may be 6" deep coals. The stove puts out very little heat from coals alone, but if i open the door a ton of heat still comes off the coals.

Too many coals, depending on the wood you are burning can restrict the air if it's a bottom feeder. Maple is bad that way for my setup. I try to maintain 1" - 4" of coals. Much more than that and it doesn't perform as well.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Many people burn wet wood in those outdoor boilers, and older styles are notorious for inefficiency. Maybe your friend's boiler doesn't start really cranking until well into the load when the water is dried out, and it maintains heat even when the system auto-dampers on him.

 

[karri0n]

I agree with AP on this one. Keep in mind that a boiler is an entirely different animal than a wood stove. Wood stoves reach those really high exterior temps from the secondary burn and the flames licking the top of the interior of the firebox, which, in reality, is just the underside of the stovetop. The boiler uses heat from the interior of the burn chamber.

 

[Techstuf]

Yes! Although it does run counterintuitive that one should open the stove and be blasted by all the radiation, despite the room cooling down, it goes to demonstrate how effective secondary burning truly is. The flame plasma excites the stove surface into producing more radiation that way. Now, imagine coaxing IR emissions nearing coal magnitude from a stove's black surface....wouldn't that be something!


TS

 

[eernest4]

I'm burning hot to get the most out of the wood. When I get the big bed, which is rare as I usually burn each load completely, I too open the draft door all the way and stoke 'em good and they'll burn down fast. I also keep a 'cane torch' handy and a good supply of spring closeout bags of pellets handy. Since I burn cyclically, a few hours on, few off, I start fires more often than most, a small scoop of wood pellets in between a couple logs and a few seconds with the cane torch and I'm effectively stretching my wood supply considerably. But then, my stove's in the basement so I don't have to over heat a main floor room beyond the comfort zone to get these benefits.



TS

I'm not sure I get it.
Do you use pellets on a hot cold bed as kindling to start burning the logs ??

What is a cane tourch & how is it used?
i never heard of a cane tourch before I read your post , today.