Optimum log lengths for the PE T6??

[jwscarab]

Just reading a few posts and it got me pondering...... I have a PE T6 on order. But, I have 2 years or so of firewood already cut to 20", which worked out well for my old stove. I noticed one summit owner said he likes 16". I assume this is for NS burning, which is best.

1) You guys think I am screwed? I hate to have to cut 2" - 4" off of all my wood!!

2) What is your thoughts of the best length??

Thanks in advance!!

 

[BrotherBart]

You are in the same boat I was the first year with my NC-30 which has a 20" X 20" firebox like the T6 and Summits. All winter it was get up in the morning and trim wood. And it snowed a LOT that year. I had seven cords twenty inches and over that was cut for my old stove.

That is me and Hogwildz that like the sixteen inch stuff. 18" would be just about perfect but 20" is hard to try to jackhammer into the firebox E/W and N/S it will blacken the class in a heartbeat because of the outgassing from the ends of the slits. It will be right up against the glass. The 16" gives ya a lot of options for filling the firebox.

Ironic. I just walked back in the door from cutting the ends of of a bunch of splits from last year where I must have had one beer too many while I was cutting and they were too long.

 

[begreen]

I'm in the same boat with wood left over cut for the Castine. Fortunately I have a lot more 18" wood and just a couple cart loads of the longer stuff. I've been putting the 20's at a diagonal, on top of the coal bed or bottom splits. That's worked out pretty well, especially in milder weather burning when I don't need to stuff the firebox full. In the future, I'll try harder to stay with 16" sticks.

 

[snowtime]

I had a similar problem. Namely 10 or so cords for the house at 24" and 5 cords at 20". Well my answer was to cut all the 24" to 17 for NS in the T6 and leave the 20" alone for this year. I am burning full time now and the 20" work fine for adding EW to the fire. I tell you that I got tired of cutting the 24" down but it was a 1 time thing and had to be done. I think its good to have a length for NE and one for EW. It gives you flexibility in fire sizes read heat output.
I have found that it takes very little effort to get the T6 above 700. The EW gives you an option that is not quite as aggressive as NS so you can keep wood in the stove without overheating on a day that NS would be to aggressive.

 

[fossil]

My big Lopi wil take (supposedly) 24". My little CFM will barely swallow a 17". During the season, I'm burning both stoves all day every day. I don't want to have to have "house wood" and "shop wood" stacked/stored seperately, so I try to stick with ~16" for everything, and that seems to work out just fine. I've found that if I have a pile of overlength splits/rounds that I need to trim, I can do that to good effect by using my splitter as a vise. Load the wood sideways across the beam, run the wedge in to secure it, and cut the 2" or whatever off the end with a chain saw. If you have a bunch to do and you get in the rhythm, it goes pretty quickly. All the "pancakes" get tossed in a bucket for use as kindling/fuel. Rick

 

[jwscarab]

Well, this all bites......lol. I was hoping everybody would say the 20's would work great......lol. Oh well, I guess I have my work cut out for me once my leg heals (installing stove and shortening all my wood). One plus I guess - I havent split it yet - its all still rounds - sitting for 2 years - so I guess thats a little plus. Thanks all for the input!!

 

[crazy_dan]

I cut mine 18" for my summit unless I just got done cutting for my father-in-law who has a little Lopi answer and it takes about 14". then it takes me a little bit to get back to length.

 

[snowtime]

It might be useful for some to make a cutting stand like I did. 2pairs of 2by4s nailed in middle to make X. Then nail support connectors that keep the distance between the Xs just right for your cutting. I found that i could cut and average 3 pieces of round each time. Made the 10 cords go much faster and I got perfect lengths every time.