n/s loading longer burn than e/w???

[ckarotka]

The quad in my sig is the stove I'm talking about here. I've been loading it e/w for the last four years. This week after knowledge from hearth.com I got off my lazy *** and cut some splits to 8" (don't laugh) and loaded her up n/s. Fire box size is 16"w 8"d 8"to top of fire brick, I know it's small.

Everything I've read says n/s hot and fast. For me n/s it producing the best burns I've every hard and worth the extra cutting.
Seems to burn the wood all the way through and hold a higher cruising temp for a longer time frame. I've extended my short burn cycles by over and hour by doing this.

Is it because n/s I can fill it more or perhaps this is just what she likes?

 

[snowtime]

My T6 also likes n/s. I can get longer burns because I can put more wood in it. It all depends on the air system on your stove. So n/s is usually faster burns but not always.

 

[fossil]

I've done a few N-S burns in my Liberty recently...don't have to re-cut, but I gotta look for splits that are a bit shorter than average. I've had good luck with it, and I believe it's because I put more wood in the box than when I'm tossing in splits E-W. Loading E-W, I rarely load more than 3 or 4 splits at a time (my splits are generally 5" or 6" across). Loading N-S, I can easily slide 5 or 6 in there, if I can find that many "shorties" in the shed. So I'm actually loading in about 30% more fuel or so. Rick

 

[rdust]

There are lot of threads on this and everyone has their preference, I typically load n/s in my endeavor. The endeavor will load 18" n/s or e/w, I like the n/s since I can just toss them straight in. I have loaded e/w on occasion but it doesn't happen too often.

 

[BrotherBart]

I absolutely love N/S burning with big splits. Drag a six inch or so coal bed to the front of the 30, lay three big splits N/S with the front four or five inches on the coal bed and lay two smaller splits over the gap between the middle and the side splits and in thirty minutes it is settled in for ten to twelve hours of cruising. Trying to get it going with a load for the night E/W I have to fiddle with it for over an hour. And some times just give up and turn then around. That can be exciting when they are burning.

Maybe it is just me. The little Jotuls seem to be designed for E/W and aren't any problem to burn that way.

 

[cycloxer]

I think this really depends on the dimensions of your firebox. Won't you go crazy trying to cut your wood to 8" length? Anything below 16" length starts to become qestionable in my mind. I'd have to have 12" max splits to burn N-S in my Jotul. If I had a stove like a larger Quad where it is really designed for N-S burning, then yeah, I'd do it. I guess it depends how much time you like to spend cutting wood. I've burnt both ways in my stove. I can't really say one way burns any better than the other. How I pack the stove and what wood I use does make a difference.

 

[fossil]

The little CFM in my shop is real shallow, so I never burn N-S in it, but it does what it's supposed to do just fine. Loading it is easy since it's not very deep. The big Lopi's a different story. The depth of the box makes really packing in E-W kind of dicey, but just isn't quite deep enough for me to routinely burn N-S unless I take about 1" off all my firewood. I'd like a box about 24" wide x 18" deep...that'd be the bee's knees. Rick

 

[westkywood]

I had a small stove before getting this one. The firebox was 1.5 cubic ft. I had a friend give me a bunch of wood. He had cut alot of it 20-25 inches, so I had to either cut off the ends or cut it in half and have 2 - 10 inch pieces. I found I really liked the 6 to 8 inch pieces for the small stove. The air was able to get to all the wood easier. I pretty much had to place them NS or it didnt burn right. Now I even like the small pieces with my big stove. They're great for the daytime burns.

 

[ckarotka]

I think this really depends on the dimensions of your firebox. Won't you go crazy trying to cut your wood to 8" length? Anything below 16" length starts to become qestionable in my mind. I'd have to have 12" max splits to burn N-S in my Jotul. If I had a stove like a larger Quad where it is really designed for N-S burning, then yeah, I'd do it. I guess it depends how much time you like to spend cutting wood. I've burnt both ways in my stove. I can't really say one way burns any better than the other. How I pack the stove and what wood I use does make a difference.

That's what I originally thought when I was about to try this. BUT now that I have WOW. The difference in stove operation is really worth re-cutting what I have. Easier to start from reload, gets up to temp faster, stays hotter longer and provides heat longer.
I have a 12" chop saw set up in the garage with a cutting table built for doing trim work that makes the job easy. In 15min today I had cut enough wood to last all day and part of tomorrow.

My problem is with the house layout (very odd ranch, not an open floor plan at all but about 2200ft) I have, one big stove would roast you out of the front of the house while the back would be comfortable. So I run two small stoves which gives me a good balance. Quad during the day and night if the outside temp is around 30f, below that quad during the day and both stoves at night. After xmas I will be watching the price of a summer's heat nc13 from Lowes very closely. I plan on picking one up if I can catch one on clearance. If not I will still get one in spring. On my Quad the glass stays very clean and I like that. How's the glass wash on the 13?

This site has really got me back to burning, last year I was almost sick of it, now that I know (kinda) what I'm doing and can apply what I've learned with great results, I've cut, split and stacked more wood this year for next year than I ever have

 

[pen]

Maybe it is just me. The little Jotuls seem to be designed for E/W and aren't any problem to burn that way.

It's not just you, I think that the firebox on the 30 is just too deep for a decent burn E-W in these things. I just don't think they are designed to be burned that way.

I tried 1 EW fire in this stove and I'll never do that again. Usually the testing nerd in my comes out and wants me to try things over and over, looking for what I may be doing wrong or trying to perfect the technique. (i.e. top down fire starting) In general, never is usually not in my vocab. However, in this circumstance it was just plain miserable and brutal and made the stove run like crap doing injustice to my good wood. Never again

BTW, my comments here are not to discourage others, especially w/ other stoves. But if you have a 30 and want to try it EW, I wouldn't do it right before you have to leave for the church covered dish supper or the Mrs. is going to be on you like stink on that artichoke dip cause you ain't going to be leaving that stove for a while.

pen

 

[RIDGERUNNER30]

I'am still learning to burn with my stove, but from what experience i have gained n/s loading is alot better than east/west, my stove was setup for east/west loading it will hold a 22in log, but only hold a 15in log north /south. I had cut all my firewood a year before i purchased my stove and everthing i have is about 20in long, I wish i had understood the benefits of how loading your wood can determine the heat output, i recently cut some wood down to were i could load north south and i can get my stove up to 800 degrees if i wanted to, but with east / west load getting a temp over 400 degrees is a task, next year I'am to cut my future wood to burn north /south. I wish i would have purchased a stove with a big deep firebox, that is design to burn wood north/ south , what stove brand out there has this kind of fire box? are they any that will that a 20in split north/south?

 

[SolarAndWood]

I thought I was going to miss the top load in the old stove. Burning NS made me forget it in a week. Easy to load to the top, burn, rake and makes the stove a lot simpler. One thing that would make it better is if the bottom of the firebox was round so that the fuel ended up there as the burn cycle went on. I have to pull the fuel in from the sides and the corners 4 hours or so before a reload.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

Everything I've read says n/s hot and fast. For me n/s it producing the best burns I've every hard and worth the extra cutting.
Seems to burn the wood all the way through and hold a higher cruising temp for a longer time frame. I've extended my short burn cycles by over and hour by doing this.

Is it because n/s I can fill it more or perhaps this is just what she likes?

I hear you. I also gave N/S burning on our stove, but it also required us to cut our wood lengths
down to about 8". Wow!! What a difference!! I also believe not only do we get longer burns,
but the quality is much better, with longer "coaling" times.