Loading a Lopi

[tpenny67]

Hi All, still relatively new to the forums and have learned more in the past month or so than I have in the previous 20 or so years of weekend wood burning.

One thing that's becoming apparent is that I'm not putting enough wood into my Liberty. It's easy to load the back half of the stove, but the front half is trickier. The secondary tubes usually get in the way of trying to go "up and over" a piece that's already loaded, and a big round right in front of the "dog house" blocks the airflow and doesn't make for a great fire. For reasons I can't explain I've never really tried to put wood *on* the doghouse.

Of course, the real solution appears to be loading it north-south but most of my current wood supply is in the 18-20" range so for the time being it looks like I'll be stuffing more in east-west.

I did a trial load this morning while the stove was stone cold so I could move things around and put wood in and out of the stove without flames and coals complicating things. With the right shaped pieces and sliding the edges behind the steel front of the stove, it's possible to build a wall of wood right up against, but not quite touching the front window, like this:



Is there any problem with doing this in practice? From reading other threads it seems my worries about breaking the window are largely unfounded (assuming I'm not closing the door on the wood). Are there any benefits to leaving more air space between the wood and the door?

Also, I measured the inside of the stove at about 24" x 16" x 12", which works out to about 2.7 cubic feet and not the 3.1 specified. I suspect the stated capacity goes all the way up to the baffle, and not to the bottom of the air tubes as I measured. Sort of makes sense since the liberty didn't have the air tubes in pre EPA days if I understand correctly.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I would hate to load that stove east/west. I have a similar stove, the Republic 1750 and I load 100% north/south. One, there's nothing to prevent a piece from rolling onto the glass and two I wouldn't want to go shoulder deep to load the back on a bed of coals.

 

[Woody Stover]

Until you can get the length you need to go N-S, you can use the 'tunnel of love' method. Make a trench N-S in the coals and load E-W on that. Then air will be able to get back into the load through the tunnel.

 

[prezes13]

Only time you will break glass is if your wood is sticking out and you slam a door on it. Log rolling off while burning won't cause any damage other than dirty glass.

 

[lopiliberty]

For reasons I can't explain I've never really tried to put wood *on* the doghouse.

I put wood on it all the time and so far no problems

Until you can get the length you need to go N-S, you can use the 'tunnel of love' method. Make a trench N-S in the coals and load E-W on that. Then air will be able to get back into the load through the tunnel.

I find this is a must for E/W loads. If I don't the wood in the back just lays there and smolders. With the tunnel of love method I find it works better if I leave a small space between the back of the firebox and the first piece of wood

 

[tpenny67]

Thanks for the replies! I had discovered the "tunnel of love" method and found it must be used with care as you can have too much of a good thing, especially if there's a lot of coals when reloading. It also makes a difference if you're using the blower or not, as the blower can take a lot of heat off the back of the stove and make it hard to burn the logs way in the back.

Strange, it didn't occur to me until I typed that, but it does seem the wood should be loaded differently depending on whether the goal is high heat with blower, or low heat long burn. I'm pretty good at loading for high heat and short burns (or so I think), this question was more about stuffing the stove full for a long overnight burn. So far I've had no luck having more than a coal or two left in the morning if that, and usually wake up to a cold draft coming down the chimney and an icy cold stove.

 

[Woody Stover]

it didn't occur to me until I typed that, but it does seem the wood should be loaded differently depending on whether the goal is high heat with blower, or low heat long burn.

For the high-heat blower burn, maybe load some faster-burning wood like soft Maple in the back of the box...maybe it would keep going better with the fan cooling the box, I don't know.

 

[Shmudda]

I never load my Liberty N/S unless I have chunk wood that fits, other than that it's always E/W loading, which is much more efficient in my opinion. The tunnel is required or your fire will just smolder.

Now, for how full. It all depends on a daytime burn where I tend to it every 1 1/2 hours or an overnight burn where I'm looking for 8-10 hours. As I load for a daytime burn I only throw in enough wood for it to burn 1 1/2 hours tops. This does two things, first it allows me to conserve wood and second it allows the wood to have good air circulation around to get a complete burn. If I have a very good bed of coals one log of about 4" in diameter and 20" in length will usually get me that 1 1/2 hour burn time, with the fan running, again with a good bed of coals. The overnight burn is somewhat different. I usually load it up with TWO large unspilt rounds that will take up the whole firebox almost right up to the window, and just under the secondary tubes. Once the fire is going I shut the blower off and pull out the air intake to where there is only about 1/16 to 1/8" of the air slot showing. This will give me a good hot fire, around the 500 degree range on the stove, and just over 300 degree going out the stack. I then go get a good nights sleep, awaking in the morning to a dusty glass and enough hot coals to easily get me going again in the morning.

Most people don't realize that stoves are like kids. They each have their own unique personality and traits that you must learn to deal with to get the most out of them.

Craig

 

[tpenny67]

Update: I've had two successful overnight burns this weekend with the draft still going up the chimney and a handful of coals left in the morning. It's not a lot of coals, but enough to rake towards the intake and light up some kindling with. Starting with a warm stove and not having to fight to get a draft going is the big win.

By simply not being afraid of loading wood too close to the door, the effective capacity of the stove is increased by 50% which makes a huge difference

I did try one N-S load yesterday morning with poor results, but that was the wood's fault. Well, okay, it was my fault for waiting a few years after downing some small trees before cutting them to log length. When the cover blew off the firewood pile during a snow storm, which then changed to rain, it didn't help the situation either.