Post your Tip or Trick

[xman23]

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it after 16 years using my Jotul Oslo. This year I discovered a better way to light a cold stove.

I side load, placing a few splits on the floor, east, west, then criss cross a few smaller splits on top of that. Place a fire starter in the middle and light with the side door open. Yea it rips with the side door open. But when the door is closed, the stoves normal air supply path, dog house is blocked from supplying air between the splits. It needs to supply air to light off a new area of wood, as the previous burning area goes out. All this leads to a long cold start up's. And occasionally it goes out.

So here's the trick for other Oslo owners, and other stoves that have the same setup. The Oslo has a sunken floor. It's about 2 inches below the front door and dog house. The dog house has 3 holes that supply the normal air, The problem is the splits on the floor, east, west block the air from getting between the splits. So now I place a piece of kindling, north, south from the front lip to the rear of the stove. I put the east west splits on top of the kindling. There's a 1 inch air feed right in front of the air holes going under the splits. I still light with the side door open, But when I close the side door the fire erupts up through the middle of the splits.

So you have a tip or trick. Help your brothers out and post it here.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I've got a Jotul F600, which is similar, but larger than the Oslo. Another tip, similar to what you described works once you have a decent bed of ashes. I use my poker to create a channel from the dog house to the back of the stove before doing a reload. The splits will then be supported by the ash on the sides of the stove allowing the air from the dog house to pass under the wood like the op described. If the ash isn't quite thick enough to support the splits I'll prop up the door end of the logs with a piece of kindling to make sure the channel is open for the air to reach the back of the stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

When I lite my BK I throw a large split e-w in the back, then (2) smaller splits n-s on each side, load the center up with crumpled news paper, then kindling and some larger pieces in a weaving cris cross pattern, I lite the news paper and leave the door unlatched, works like a dream for me every time.

 

[begreen]

When I had the Castine I would always load two shorter ~2" diameter by 10" or 12" long splits N/S about 3-4" apart with some newspaper balled between them or a chunk of SuperCedar. (A 2x4 cutoff split in half works perfect.) Then I would place a couple 4" splits E/W on top of them with a gap between them to allow the flame some passage. Add some more wood on top trying to keep a flame gap between. Ignite and the boost air will flow under the stack and light it off quickly.

 

[heavy hammer]

I do about the same as you xman23. I also try to pull as many coals to the center of the stove if there are any right in front of the air holes. Then a couple cedar splits north south to funnel that air in to the coals the small pieces east west on top and she is usually good to go. If no coals I do the same just put some paper inside the channel then li

 

[DUMF]

Searching here awhile ago, someone had drilled a 3rd or 4th hole along the Oslo doghouse vents for extra air when the air control is wide open.
It works without the side door open....just a thought that does no harm to the Oslos.

 

[Woody Stover]

Top-down start, baby! I load E-W and put a couple kindling on the front/top of the load, with of a couple small chunks of SC mixed with the kindling, and medium-small splits under the kindling. The air wash will feed plenty of air to the front/top of the load, and it heats up the top of the stove (the re-burn area) pretty quickly. And with a top-down start there's almost no smoke coming out of the stack from the get-go.

 

[drewmo]

This might not work for everyone, but I've had no problems with it this winter. On a cold start and with no kindling, load to the gills as if you were loading for the overnight and had a perfectly hot bed of embers. Break off about 1/8th of a Super Cedar and wedge between some splits nearer the bottom. Touch flame to SC, close door, open air wide and set timer to 10 mins. I've been amazed at how quickly the fire gets going. I suppose the trick is good wood and good draft.

 

[Heatsource]

not what you were looking for, but I always take a small piece of paper and put it on top of the baffle, lighting it first before I light the paper under my kindling. This starts the draft

 

[heavy hammer]

I think the key is DRY splits kindling what ever you use to get it going. Then I'm sure everyone has their little twists but give it air let it get going then turn it down. Just my thoughts.

 

[St. Coemgen]

Top-down start, baby! .

I fully and completely agree. Top down it idea.

My blog post how I do it.

https://stcoemgen.com/2015/02/01/start-at-the-top-or-how-to-build-the-perfect-winter-fire/

 

[xman23]

How about some other tips you want to share. wood storage, ash cleaning, etc.

 

[DUMF]

From this or another site:
A wood storage shed attached to the house with an insulated door, so that you can access enough firewood for a week or less without going out to the main wood shed. This triples as storage for spring/summer gardening stuff, snow shovels, and skiis/snowshoes. Handy in winter snow storms.
This is common in Norway where some stoves are loaded from the outside.

 

[begreen]

We have a large wood box on the covered porch. It holds 3-5 days worth of firewood depending on outside temps and how hard the stove is being pushed. This lets me go out in my slippers and bathrobe for wood in the morning.

 

[Slimjim]

I have a box built into the wall near the stove holds enough for 3 or 4 reloads, plus on the deck a rack that holds a face cord, covered with a tarp.

As for cold starts I do like the top down method when i have enough kindling. Usually not the case though, so I use half a super cedar chunk then smaller splits north/south then east west on top, then north south again.

Ash removal on my oslo is every two weeks. I Use a shop vac with a hepa filter to get the spillage. Ash always falls behind the pan.

 

[begreen]

Tip - Never assume that your ashes are not hot and that coals in them can't start a fire. Always put the ashes in a non-combustible container and set that container on a completely non-combustible surface when done.

 

[Slimjim]

Agree with begreen on that one, ashes always go right outside into the outdoor firepit. Not worth the risk.

 

[FTG-05]

Tip - Never assume that your ashes are not hot and that coals in them can't start a fire. Always put the ashes in a non-combustible container and set that container on a completely non-combustible surface when done.

I dump my ashes, cold or hot, into my tractor's FEL, then half fill the bucket to completely cover the ashes with cold water. After letting it sit a couple minutes to make sure it gets to all the ashes and any coals, I take it up and dump it all on my compost pile.

 

[pen]

Tip - Never assume that your ashes are not hot and that coals in them can't start a fire. Always put the ashes in a non-combustible container and set that container on a completely non-combustible surface when done.

I'm a guy who who made this assumption.....

So there I was,,,, 2 days after a fire (or maybe 3,,, it's been a while),,,,, looking at the forecast and seeing the end of the season.......

I got to business and cleaned the chimney, connector pipes, shoveled the vast majority of the contents of the stove out,,,, and vacuumed what remained.

It was close to me finishing the job when I noticed our very aged cat run up the steps next to the stove at a pace that was far above any average she regularly maintained....

My first instinct of course was to blame her for something,,,, but about that same time I wafted a scent that was very wrong,,,, it was a fraction of a second later that I noticed my shop vac sent a flame out the back that I would estimate to be between 4 and 5 feet!

I obviously f-ed this deal up in a bad way by sucking up a hot coal that I didn't think should exist yet and putting it into a supercharged situation with all sorts of good fuel in the vac.

To summarize,,,, lots of things suck up stuff, there is a reason why some are called "ash vacs".

Don't make the same mistake I did!

 

[BrotherBart]

Ask the guy ten miles south of me that dumped his "cold" ashes in the woods ten years ago. The fire covered acres and days before it was out. And the county sent him the bill for fighting it.

 

[pen]

Ask the guy ten miles south of me that dumped his "cold" ashes in the woods ten years ago. The fire covered acres and days before it was out. And the county sent him the bill for fighting it.

I got lucky and was able to stamp out my embarrassment in the front yard!

Put the shop vac back together,,, and it squealed like hell on first startup for a long while after,, but got over it!

I think it just wanted to make sure I remembered the lesson

 

[sportbikerider78]

No worries about setting fires here. I'm usually dumping my ash into a 5' snow bank!

 

[BrotherBart]

Just don't sit the bucket on the snow.

 

[David.Ervin]

I rake my coals into a U shape in my Northstar before loading up again. Put the middle of the U right at the front air intake, let the arms go to the back corners. The effect is that the line of charcoal gets burning pretty quickly, and leaves a good air gap under the splits laid across it in the back, so the whole load takes off pretty quickly.

 

[Slocketman]

I will sometimes toss some of that hardwood charcoal that comes in bags for BBQ grills into the kindling mix when starting a new fire if I don't have enough kindling....

It seems to work very well, and I didn't have much luck using it for the BBQ (hard to ignite) so this way it's at least getting used.