Green Energy said:mikepinto65 said:Green Energy said:use 22" rather than shorter in order to fill out the firebox
That might be best for you, however I would highly recommend staying in the 18"-20" length range. At 22" you seriously run the risk of logs not fitting properly when you have a nice coal bed. Also, not sure what others are doing, but I like my splits at 3.5"-4.5" thick. They load and burn the burn the best for me, and they tend to season the best in 12 months.
Mike and Jake,
Yes, you're right about the 18"-20" v 22". Ash and coals build up can make it difficult to get the full length splits in. My point is that is it important to pack the firebox.
On the burn time issue, last night while I was thinking about this thread, I refilled the stove about an hour before I turned in, and then topped it off so that it was pretty packed right before I went to bed, all red oak. Seven hours latter, when I got up, I had a healthy bed of coals with some chunks of coaled splits still left, with the stove top temp 250 F. On the morning load, I had it flaming so well that I could turn the air down to 1/2 after 10 minutes, and temp was up to 450 F within 20 minutes.
I certainly could of had plenty of coals after 8 hrs if I had left it go another hour. One caveat is that loading the stove when its real hot like I did to pack the stove mid cycle, one has to be careful not to hit the secondary air tubes cuz they dent/bend/tweek very easy when they are real hot. On my old stove, the cat sat in a cast iron chamber. I can't believe I used to use splits to hammer in splits so I could get the door closed. That's another reason for the longer burns, I had a different definition on "packed" with my old stove. I never force splits into the Oslo that do not easily fit.
With the Olso and non-cat stove, you have to get used to the cycles more than the even output that you get from a cat stove. However, the cast iron weight of the Oslo provides some thermal inertia that keeps the cycle from being more dramatic.
Sean
True . . . both on the point being that you do want to use the firebox space and not put in all 14 inchers if you're looking for a long burn.
Also true about the cast iron allowing you to have less of a thermal swing in temps once you're up and running . . . I noticed that in the first year when folks were talking about the dip in temps as you went through the cycles . . . I rarely see much of a difference in temps (once the stove is going) . . . most likely due to the thermal mass.