I think I had my first legitimate burn tonight. I'd like some comments and criticism about it.
It's in the low 20s tonight, so around 6:00 I loaded up a cold stove (house was 57 -- I was out all day) with 4 or 5 splits of 6 year old red oak. Splits are good size (approximately 18" x 6" x 6"). I brought the stove up to about 600, and then cut the air to about half. Stove continued climbing towards 675, when I pulled the air control all the way out. I wasn't getting good secondaries at this point, so once the stove dropped to around 600, I opened it up to half again, and slowly starting closing the air control. I finally settled at around 1/4 open.
It was now about 7:30, and at this point I started seeing great secondaries, and the stove cruised at 600 for about an hour, with great secondaries almost the whole time! It was awesome! At 8:30 it started to drop below 600, and then by 9:45 it had dropped to 300, and it seemed ready to load up again. Good coals, and I loaded up another 4 splits. As I write this, let's see if I can repeat the process.
All-in-all a 4 hour burn cycle. I also had the blower on high the entire time. I assume that affected the burn time negatively.
So my MO going forward:
1) bring stove up to 600
2) dial air back to half
3) check secondaries
4) try to get the air control all the way out
5) when temp drops in the house, or stove hits around 300: wash, rinse, repeat
Does this sound right? Should I be able to get a longer burn? Like 5 or 6 hours?
It's in the low 20s tonight, so around 6:00 I loaded up a cold stove (house was 57 -- I was out all day) with 4 or 5 splits of 6 year old red oak. Splits are good size (approximately 18" x 6" x 6"). I brought the stove up to about 600, and then cut the air to about half. Stove continued climbing towards 675, when I pulled the air control all the way out. I wasn't getting good secondaries at this point, so once the stove dropped to around 600, I opened it up to half again, and slowly starting closing the air control. I finally settled at around 1/4 open.
It was now about 7:30, and at this point I started seeing great secondaries, and the stove cruised at 600 for about an hour, with great secondaries almost the whole time! It was awesome! At 8:30 it started to drop below 600, and then by 9:45 it had dropped to 300, and it seemed ready to load up again. Good coals, and I loaded up another 4 splits. As I write this, let's see if I can repeat the process.
All-in-all a 4 hour burn cycle. I also had the blower on high the entire time. I assume that affected the burn time negatively.
So my MO going forward:
1) bring stove up to 600
2) dial air back to half
3) check secondaries
4) try to get the air control all the way out
5) when temp drops in the house, or stove hits around 300: wash, rinse, repeat
Does this sound right? Should I be able to get a longer burn? Like 5 or 6 hours?