Lots of charcoal after burn

[firebuckeye]

Hey everyone. My question is this. After i load up my stove, buck model 51 insert, with a full load in the morning I have a lot of charcoal, some coals and some ash. Majority of whats left is charcoal that is not red hot like coals. Thats how I would describe it, black coals. Does anyone know why this is? My stove did not do this in beginning of season. In fact I was impressed with how fine the ash was at first, but now its rediculous. I probably scoop out 2 gallons a day and 1/2 of that I would say is the charcoal stuff. I dont know if wet would would cause this or certain species. I purchased would for my stove this year, so I cant say for sure if its seasoned or what species.

 

[MrGriz]

If your burning method has not changed, I would suspect that it has to do with the wood. I have had the opposite happen over the season.

Early this season, I was getting a huge coal bed. I think I was adding wood too early. Also, I think the wood I was burning early this year was less seasoned than the oak that I have recently tapped into.

 

[firebuckeye]

I have been adding larger splits perhaps, and adding wood more often when I can. I am learning my stove is to small and really I am very disappointed with it... but thats another story.

 

[MrGriz]

What stove are you burning?

As I said, I figured out (with help) that I was adding wood too early. You may want to try adding after the coal bed has gone down a bit. In fact, at this moment, I'm letting the coals burn down in my insert. I rake the big pile to the front, where my air inlet is, open the air all the way and let them burn down to a managable level. Then I re-distribute them and re-load.

Antohter tip I picked up is to rake up the coals and put a split of pine, poplar, or some other fast, hot burning soft wood on top of the coal pile. Open the air up and let the hot fire take the coal bed down.

Just a couple of ideas.

 

[firebuckeye]

Im burning a buck model 51, its not keeping up with the cold temps here in ohio so I add wood as soon as I can and keep air wide open. Its a 2.6 cubic foot fire box and 40,000 btu. I have a 1400 square foot cape cod with poor insulation but new windows, and outside temps 10-20 degrees. It has a hard time keeping up. As soon as the wood starts to burn down the house cools off. I have to keep it burning hot to do any good at all. I really wish I watched the forums for a year and made a more educated investment.

 

[MrGriz]

Another thing that I have learned along the way is to not be afraid to shut the air down. If you wait for the stove temperature to get up and good secondary burn to start, closing off the air (not all the way but quite a bit, you have to experiment) will actually raise the temperature a bit. It also slows down the burn so that your load of wood lasts longer and burns more even.

It is definitely a learning curve. I know that I am doing much better now than I was at the beginning of the season but I am still learning and tweaking all the time.

Keep experimenting and asking questions when you're not sure what's going on. Also, keep us posted on what you learn, it helps everyone. Hopefull some of the other, more experienced, burners will chime in here.

 

[firebuckeye]

When I close air down to say 3/4 I get seconday burn but only for a few minutes and stove temps drop with in maybe 15-20 minutes. I just dont understand. Ive seemingly tried everything. I can only attribute it to the stove. Maybe there is a reason no one burns the Buck brand stove. Its definately not very popular. I will admit I do not have the liner, its vented into my masonary chimney with a surround kit. Mind you this is an excepted installation according to manual. No if not having a full length liner could cause all these problems I dont know. I'm just not interested in dropping another 1000.00 on this stove.

 

[Roospike]

The wood will make a difference. Take Elm for example , it will fire well and burn good but in the coal stage it wants to turn black "charcoal" on half the log . More air and stur the bed will help this but not everyone can be there to do so in coal stage.

Lets take about wood ............
What wood are your burning?
How long has it been seasoned ? (cut / split / stacked.)
Are you only burning hard wood? Soft wood? Mix ?

Where are you located ?

Home insulation is going to be another big topic your needing to look into.

 

[reaperman]

I've found that softer woods like poplar, leave a lot more ash than hard woods such as oak, elm, and maple. The ash from the softer wood, seems to be a finer more dusty ash than harder wood. I will have to empty the ash pan daily if burning softer wood compared to 4-5 days of burning hardwood.

 

[firebuckeye]

Lets take about wood ............
What wood are your burning?
How long has it been seasoned ? (cut / split / stacked.)
Are you only burning hard wood? Soft wood? Mix ?

Where are you located ?

Home insulation is going to be another big topic your needing to look into.

I am not sure about the wood. I purchased it as mixed wood. I believe though the stuff I am burning now is mostly honey locust and was told to of been seasoned and stacked for 1-2 years. And my home is brick and insulation i think is going to be very expensive if i choose to do it. I was hoping a wood stove could over come the insulation but when it goes out it gets cold in the home quick!

 

[wg_bent]

When I close air down to say 3/4 I get seconday burn but only for a few minutes and stove temps drop with in maybe 15-20 minutes. I just dont understand. Ive seemingly tried everything. I can only attribute it to the stove. Maybe there is a reason no one burns the Buck brand stove. Its definately not very popular. I will admit I do not have the liner, its vented into my masonary chimney with a surround kit. Mind you this is an excepted installation according to manual. No if not having a full length liner could cause all these problems I dont know. I'm just not interested in dropping another 1000.00 on this stove.

That sounds like wood that's not seasoned properly. It can be a real bear to keep things running good with 1/2 way seasoned wood. Your loading technique can play a big part also. Before a reload, scrape all the coals into a front to back pile and load logs on either side, then place 2 or 3 more cross wise on top of them You'll create a little tunnel with coals in it and a very hot fire on top. This will burn down the coals.

Unless seasoned some hardwoods, as Spike suggests, will not burn completely. Also having a stove your trying to run too hard will build up coals. I have this problem this time of year also, as my stove is undersized. In reality I should be running a large stove like the Summit for days like this.

It's 1 here with a nasty wind chill. Stove is falling behind today.

 

[JayY]

My stove behaves like this as well. I am burning a mix of maple, oak, and beech. In the morning I have a large bed of mostly black coals but after I stir them around and maybe use the the bellows it quickly converts to a large bed of red coals. When I was burning Elm I had much smaller coal beds.

 

[wg_bent]

My stove behaves like this as well. I am burning a mix of maple, oak, and beech. In the morning I have a large bed of mostly black coals but after I stir them around and maybe use the the bellows it quickly converts to a large bed of red coals. When I was burning Elm I had much smaller coal beds.

I get bigger coal beds with Oak and Apple, smaller with Elm. Smallest with Pine. This has been stated a few times before, but another way to burn down the bed is to put a couple splits of Pine on the coal bed of a hard wood. While the softwood burns it draws in Oxygen to burn the coal bed, while providing good heat from the wood gas in the pine. When the pine is done burning it's gas load, the coal bed is usually pretty well burned down, and pine doesn't have much of a coal stage so that's burns down to nothing during the next good hardwood load. Sumac and poplar work good like this too.

 

[treeman08]

You stated that it did not burn like this at the beginning of the season.
Have you checked the chimney? A loss of draw due to build up can change the burn characteristics.

 

[firebuckeye]

I let it burn down longer between loads and thats what it was. The only problem is that I need more heat! So I was loading it up before it burned all the way down. I cant get enough heat from it when letting it go through the whole burn cycle.

 

[MrGriz]

Where are you located and what are the temps there now? Also, can you give us a better idea of the layout of your home and what you are doing to move the air (if anything).

Now that it sounds like we've got the coal bed thing figured out, lets work on getting that heat distributed more effectively if we can.

 

[firebuckeye]

I live in ohio. 5 degrees right now. I have a smal cape cod home. I have the upstairs blocked off so al I am attempting to heat is 900 square foot. My main area is all open and a small hallway to bedroom. The thermostat is digital and only 20' feet from the insert. I have been burning it hard since this morning and its now 66 degrees. I started out at 7 am with it at 60 degrees. My home is poorly inuated if any at all. I keep stove temps around 500 degrees. This stove is rated for twice my square footage so not sure what the deal is. Also I never get secondary burn for more than a coupe minutes.... thats a whole new problem though. Im going to get in my sauna to warm up some I guess lol. I have gas heat if I need it but I am trying to go as much with out. I load the stove up at midnight and by 7 am my furnace ran 1 hour to keep above 60 degrees. So that shows you how quick my home cools off and how short my stove burn time is. Any comments/ideas.