Rake the coals forward

[CheaperthanYou]

I see a lot of posts that say to take the coals forward before reloading. How necessary is this?

Can I reload on a level set of coals. I have a rather small firebox. And when I try to take them forward they tend to fall out. I have a inch or so of ash on the bottom and about 3 inches of coals.


Am I reloading my stove too soon? I usually wait till it gets down to about 300 or so and there is no more flame

 

[Bster13]

My coals tend to collect at the rear of the stove, as the stove burns front to back. I just rake the coals to level them throughout the firebox and expose them from the ash so they can light off the wood I put in after. GL.

 

[firefighterjake]

I typically level them out.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

If you have good heat then let them burn down and reload. When I need as much heat as I can get quick I load on flat or large bed of coals and cut the air very shortly after. This gets the secondaries going like mad for a good long time. It can be dangerous though as the off gassing can make temps sky rocket quickly. I found this out very early and NEVER turn my back on the stove when doing this.

 

[weatherguy]

I always load on a level bed of coals, seems to work better in my stove, for overnight burns I rake them a little forward and lay a split E/W in the back and lay the new splits N/S over that.

 

[DTrain]

I got fast hot burns on level coal reloads, and longer slower building fires when raked forward. Just learned the rake forward tip. I've been stuffing the back of the stove with large splits, and piling smaller stuff on top of the coals at the front. Flames start quick enough and it's not time to shutting down the air. I know that I didn't like how fast loading on a level bed took off. But perhaps I should have let them burn down a bit more.

 

[BrotherBart]

Apples and oranges. weatherguy is burning in a cat stove and DTrain in a non-cat.

 

[Sprinter]

Non cat here. Sometimes I'll rake the coals forward if there aren't too many just to gather them up for a quicker start and put some small splits on it with a larger load in back. My stove does burn from the front and has an air manifold along the front.

But if the coal bed is large enough, I'll just level it out.

 

[velvetfoot]

Level. An advantage of splitting small is being able to get them in there with big coal bed.

 

[billb3]

Another small stove - rake the larger ones forward from the rear . They usually fall apart doing so and I have a - level bed to lay a new set of splits on.

 

[Seanm]

I like to rake them forward so that my stove temps don't go to the moon. I burn soft woods namely Lodgepole Pine and Larch. If I loaded the stove on a full bottom of coals my stove gets hot to quick. Everyone is different I guess depending on wood species and stove size and design, cat and non cat.

 

[eclecticcottage]

For the first two years we had not fully seasoned (mostly) hardwood and would level them, it helped get things dried out quicker and caught easier. Now, we are burning seasoned wood so we rake to one side for a longer more controlled burn (burning mostly pine). I don't like raking to the front, the pine would be caught before I would finish loading since I load n/s. With raking to the side, I can load the side away from the coals first then work over to them.

 

[CheaperthanYou]

So when you rake the coals the idea is to not put fresh wood on the coals( or not put all of it in the coals?) because when my stove gets down to 300 I have a huge bed of coals. And when it gets down to 200. There is still a lot of coals. Making it hard to get a lot of wood in there. Should I be emptying some coals In my metal ash pan ( I know ash and coal safety )

I always assumed to leave all the coals because its heat and fuel in the stove.

Thanks

 

[velvetfoot]

It's tough managing the coals situation when trying to keep cranking out the heat on the cold days.

 

[Dieselhead]

ill throw a monkey wrench into the conversation. I rake them east or west! thats how I load my stove and i find it burns the wood slower, from one end to the other. all depends on the stoves firebox i guess.

 

[velvetfoot]

I did that this morning. For me it's about reducing the coals, but I don't know if this helps or not.

 

[CheaperthanYou]

so is it to keep the coals off of the wood? I am new at this and trying to get longer burns, when I fill her up. I seem to get all of the wood abaze and get a 2-3 hour burn, with maple @20% MC. full choked air control at about 450 deg

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

It doesn't matter, it will all depend on your particular stove, I have to rake them back because I have air holes in the front that should not be covered. I think the main thing is just to rake the coals so that they will burn up more and set your new split onto immediate fire....

 

[velvetfoot]

For me, the coal bed gets high and you can't squeeze much wood in there. This is for cold days.

 

[raiderfan]

I always assumed raking the coals forward was to get a longer, more efficient burn when reloading (or to burn a large bed of coals down in order for you to load more wood in, when the time comes). I don't even care much about efficiency, in my case (mainly a night/weekend warrior type of burner), but I still tend to do this as it works well.

 

[billb3]

Yeah, I want them spread out to maximize contact with new wood to get past the initial char phase ASAP.
Plus room for another split or two in really cold weather.
If my "coals" are so high I can't load more splits these same very 'coals' look suspiciously like the logs I just put in two hours ago or so.
Too soon. I come back. They are still making heat even if there are no flames.

 

[Bster13]

May differ with each stove, but with my CAT stove, I'm like billb3, I flatten the coals to maximize contact with new splits and get them lit off ASAP. The faster the wood gets charred, the faster I can neck down the air/bi-metal thermostat and let my CAT stove chug along chewing on smoke.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

for me raking them forward extends the burn when load my stove. it burns like a cigarette from front to back. but when i need heat to stay at a level when in demand. i load on a bed of hot coals say at 4-500 F BUT it will off gas quickly and the secondaries go crazy! so if load on a monster bed of coals be mindful and ready to close the draft waaaaay soon.

 

[rideau]

If you have ton of coals, try raking them to at least expose more surfaces to air, putting a small split in, and opening the air half way or more for an hour or two. You should get some active fire from the new split, lots of combustion and heat from the coals, and more room in your firebox two hours later for setting a new load in place. At that point, for a slower fire rake the coals to one area and load the smaller wood there, preferably the area that burns best in your stove, and load the bigger spits where there aren't so many coals. For a faster fire, even the coals out and put a few mall splits spread over them, then larger on top.