Even though the prospects of lighting my first fire of the season are dim at the moment, I am getting fired up mentally for fall and the glorious feel of a wood fire! I hate when the season ends and it seems all I do is count the days until burning season returns - it is getting closer and I have the anticipation of a little kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa Claus!
This post is more geared towards the folks who have top loading stoves and the amazing benefits of being able to vertical load (up/down). We hear a lot on this site about north/south and east /west horizontal methods, but there is a third method that should not be overlooked, the up/down vertical method.
I am embarking on my fifth season of wood burning with a top loader, but until last season, had not fully embraced up/down loading. For one, I was cutting my splits too small, about 18" long, so vertical stacking with them seemed to leave a lot of empty space in the stove - requiring me to load it more frequently, thus not a great solution. Then I was given a 1/2 cord or so of split Oak by me neighbor, this stuff was well seasoned - maybe too well, but my stove is not picky so I decided to burn it. The splits were 24" long and did not fit well in my stove, so already having an coal bed established, packed them in vertically. 8 hours went by and a beautiful heat was being emitted, 12 hours came around - still pure heaven. I decided to just let the stove go overnight - come morning, now we are pushing 20 hours I opened the top to re-load and to my surprise there were still good size chunks baking away on a very strong bed of coals. From that day forward, I cut all my splits 24" and pack as tight as I can vertically. The tighter the pack the better, mainly due to the fact that tightly packed splits tend to get hung up on the sides of the stove - delaying there eventual decent into the coals - making your burn time even longer. But gravity always wins and whether by natural forces or a poke from the stove tender - all good wood finds the coal bed eventually. If you have the opportunity to burn rounds vertically - then look for an additional 20% burn time.
From my observations - vertical loading provides the following benefits:
- Longer burn times
- hotter coal bed in the am
- less cutting with chainsaw
- a good way to use up gnarly hunks that cannot be split
This post is more geared towards the folks who have top loading stoves and the amazing benefits of being able to vertical load (up/down). We hear a lot on this site about north/south and east /west horizontal methods, but there is a third method that should not be overlooked, the up/down vertical method.
I am embarking on my fifth season of wood burning with a top loader, but until last season, had not fully embraced up/down loading. For one, I was cutting my splits too small, about 18" long, so vertical stacking with them seemed to leave a lot of empty space in the stove - requiring me to load it more frequently, thus not a great solution. Then I was given a 1/2 cord or so of split Oak by me neighbor, this stuff was well seasoned - maybe too well, but my stove is not picky so I decided to burn it. The splits were 24" long and did not fit well in my stove, so already having an coal bed established, packed them in vertically. 8 hours went by and a beautiful heat was being emitted, 12 hours came around - still pure heaven. I decided to just let the stove go overnight - come morning, now we are pushing 20 hours I opened the top to re-load and to my surprise there were still good size chunks baking away on a very strong bed of coals. From that day forward, I cut all my splits 24" and pack as tight as I can vertically. The tighter the pack the better, mainly due to the fact that tightly packed splits tend to get hung up on the sides of the stove - delaying there eventual decent into the coals - making your burn time even longer. But gravity always wins and whether by natural forces or a poke from the stove tender - all good wood finds the coal bed eventually. If you have the opportunity to burn rounds vertically - then look for an additional 20% burn time.
From my observations - vertical loading provides the following benefits:
- Longer burn times
- hotter coal bed in the am
- less cutting with chainsaw
- a good way to use up gnarly hunks that cannot be split
