New to wood heat - a few questions (and a lot of background info)

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I tried a top down fire for the first time last week and it was not working for me. The kindling fire on top went out before anything below it caught fire. I'll have to search the forums to find out how to do the top down fire and give it another shot. What do you like best about the top-down method?

What did you use for fire starter?
I use a few pieces of fatwood wrapped in newspaper, I light the newspaper with a match, it never fails me, others use super cedars which work very well. If you only used newspaper, that is probably your problem. These fire starters keep a continuous flame for several minutes which is enough time to set your kindling ablaze which inturn gets your smaller splits going, it becomes a domino effect......

 

[Dave K]

What did you use for fire starter?
I use a few pieces of fatwood wrapped in newspaper, I light the newspaper with a match, it never fails me, others use super cedars which work very well. If you only used newspaper, that is probably your problem. These fire starters keep a continuous flame for several minutes which is enough time to set your kindling ablaze which inturn gets your smaller splits going, it becomes a domino effect......

Yes, I was just using newspaper and small pieces of wood that had cracked off of some splits.

Here is a question: I My stove is an old air-tight Fisher stove, so there are no burn tubes or cat. Does that mean that a top-down method isn't really going to benefit me?

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

It will benefit you by not having to add splits very soon after starting, which is what made your fire go out in the first place, when I did bottom up start ups, I would have to do my first reload after 20 minutes, now with doing top down start ups, I go over an hour and have an established coal bed waiting for my first reload. You can buy fire starter in the supermarket next to the duraflame logs. They sell small boxes of fatwood, start with that. Wrap 2-3 pieces in newspaper and tuck that under your kindling, light the newspaper and you should be good to go, just don't close the door too soon. Then you can search online for fire starters. Super cedars are very good too.

 

[McKeznak]

I tried a top down fire for the first time last week and it was not working for me. The kindling fire on top went out before anything below it caught fire. I'll have to search the forums to find out how to do the top down fire and give it another shot. What do you like best about the top-down method?

You're sure your using <25% MC eh? I've had top down fail before but it was always when I was trying to sneak in some +30%

Sorry I didn't realize it was a pre-EPA. Sorry haven't been around long enough to know much about them maybe it won't work?

 

[oldspark]

This has been posted before but its been a while.

 

[Dave K]

This has been posted before but its been a while.

Quite a cheesy quality video, but a lot of good info there. Especially about the N/S as opposed to E/W burning. Thanks for posting.