What’s the best way to load your wood stove. stacking or packing it tight. With little bit of air can get to the wood.Which one gives you better heat.
Question on loading stove
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It depends what you want. Loosely staked will generally give you more heat faster while tightly packed will give you the longest burn
Thank you, I been loading pack this whole time, and I noticed it just maintain the temperature, but when I load loosely that’s when It gives me the most heat
Do you know why it gives you more heat faster, is that because more air can get in between the stack ?
More air and more surface area burning. But it will be a considerably shorter burn
And a potentially higher risk of overfiring the stove, especially if the draft is strong.
As far as is possible without smoldering the fire. The air control is not linear, most of the fine control is in the last 25%. On our stove which has the same firebox as yours, the air control is typically closed down to about 5-10% open once the fire is burning strong, or maybe 1/4" from fully closed. If the draft or fire is very strong it gets closed down all the way. The fire still burns well in that case. As long as the flame does not go out and/or the fire starts to smolder, the air can be reduced quite far. There is still air being fed to the fire via the boost air, air wash, and secondary air.
That will vary from setup to setup but I would bet you are wasting much of your heat up the chimney. What pipe temps are you running at
I have a Pacific Energy summit le.
My wood is 20 percent and when I turn down the air control, down to 20 percent close the stove top temperature goes to 750-800. But no signs of over firing.. the flue temperature is in 400’s the stove top and flue is not glowing red. my question is will this damage anything? The manufacturer...
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Reread the thread. I suggested trying to keep the flue temp at or below 350º regardless of the stovetop temp.
The flue temperature varies. It is going to be high when starting up the fire, but as the air is closed down to cruising level, it will drop. Each stove and each fire is going to vary a bit depending on the fuel, draft strength, how it is loaded, and how the stove's air control is run. With the air mostly closed, or close to it, our stove settles in typically with a 600-650º stove top temperature and a similar flue temperature.
That is flue temp of 600 to 650 internal. So 300 or so surface. I shoot for 250 surface for best efficency
Okay I’m aiming for that right now, this is how my fire is burning right now. This is how it’s supposed to burn ?
The fire looks ok. What is the air control position?
The wood in this fire has a ton of air circulating around it. That's the way I might burn it in late spring when I just want a short morning or evening fire. It's not representative of a full-load winter fire.
Okay, when it goes down I’m going to load it pack and tight, the “ air control was under “L”
Under "L" doesn't translate well. Our stove has no markings. How close to closed is/was the air control?
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