Raking coals.

[Dillier23]

Is there any advantage to raking coals to the front or back of a front loading stove? I've been taking forward because of what I read on the forum, but did the opposite this morning to determine if there would be a difference. What I noticed immediately was that the heat was not as bad when loading, meaning I could orient the wood a little better since the first split covered the hot coals preventing the heat from radiating onto my hands. My firebox is tapered on the top, making it not as tall in the back as the front. Raking coals back allowed me to fill the back of the box and move forward allowing more wood to be squeezed in. So, what are your thoughts on this ?

Stove is an Ideal Steel, not that it would make a difference.

 

[gzecc]

Only you will know what works for you. Mine has air intakes at the bottom front. I rake mine forward and the air then reignites the hole pile.

 

[davo]

I was wondering this as well. If I rake the coals to the back of the stove, would I get a longer more stable burn? The air comes from the front and wouldnt it burn through the wood much quicker? My thought is that if I rake them towards the back, the air from the front will go around the wood and feed the fire indirectly and not burn the wood directly as it would if I rake the coals to the front. I haven't tried that yet.

 

[BobUrban]

X2 on what has been said. It's up to you. The reason most rake forward is to heat them up w air. If it's hot enough to get the job done otherwise it makes little difference. I rake forward most of the time but push them to the back other times and often just evenly distribute s coal bed to load onto.

One side or the other can be used as well to throw another option in there for ya.

 

[DougA]

Stove is an Ideal Steel, not that it would make a difference.

Actually, IMHO that makes all the difference! I read the same info and on my old VC, it did not make any sense. On my Equinox, the air supply is dead center at the front and the advice makes perfect sense. You want the air to blow on the coals to get them to ignite the new wood and it makes a world of difference.

 

[velvetfoot]

I use a machete to push coals to the side and load north south. Not often though, only when it's really cold out.

 

[iamlucky13]

I've started playing around with raking a bit. Currently I'm raking forward (east-west loading), with two goals:

1.) Get the coals close to my primary air so they get hot and do a better job of catching the new load. Also, I think this would work best with the way air circulates forward around my stove's baffle - any smoke, plus the secondary air passes forward over those hotter coals, theoretically increasing the chances the smoke will burn. I'd expect raking backwards to result in the flame that starts in the back hitting cold secondary air, plus cold wood, and generating lots of extra smoke.

2.) Igniting the load progressively. The idea here is to try to get the front of the load to go through its peak burn before the back, to get a slightly more drawn out, less intense peak heat than if I leave the coals spread out. I'm burning mostly softwood, so controlling the peak and getting a longer burn is fairly important.

So far, the differences between loading on top of even coal bed seem small at best. I seem to be getting a bit of improvement in reduced smouldering, but it's not been dramatic.

I'll have to play around with raking backwards or to the side a little, too. Once or twice I tried raking to the side and I think I got poor initial circulation and more smoke, because the primary air vent is in the front-center of my stove.

 

[Squisher]

If the heat of the stove is burning your hands on a reload imp you're probably reloading to early, but sometimes you have to for timing or whatnot. The solution is getting a pair of welding gloves and leaving them by the stove.

 

[Dillier23]

Yea, I agree with loading the stove too soon but when it's time for bed I don't want to wait for the stove.

 

[Squisher]

You bet, me either. Welding gloves, and you can gently place your splits wherever you like them.

 

[Slacker]

How about an even bed of coals covering the whole bottom?

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

How about an even bed of coals covering the whole bottom?

That's what I do. I use my first piece of wood to quickly smudge the coals around the entire bottom of the stove and then load it.

 

[CenterTree]

If the heat of the stove is burning your hands on a reload imp you're probably reloading to early, but sometimes you have to for timing or whatnot. The solution is getting a pair of welding gloves and leaving them by the stove.

I would guess that the gloves would work better if they were worn on the hands instead.

 

[pelletpiglet]

with welding gloves you could deliver a baby in there

 

[Seasoned Oak]

All depends on the stove, in my NC-30 only the wood in front actively burns ,pulling coals to the front will burn em up faster. In my harman it makes no difference ,all wood burns to a fine powder no matter where in the stove it is.

 

[English BoB]

I like to rake mine forward, one to level the bed and two to bring the coals to the front air intake so they light quickly.

bob

 

[BobUrban]

Iim a welder and blacksmith. Welding gloves will work and are great when needed in the fab shop but I like these much better around the stove. Just another option.

 

[heavy hammer]

Heavy buckskin lineman gloves work great.

 

[Squisher]

View attachment 172767Iim a welder and blacksmith. Welding gloves will work and are great when needed in the fab shop but I like these much better around the stove. Just another option.

I've used gloves that look just like that most of my life for saw work. If they are the same they sort of feel/look like cotton but are 100%nylon. I would think they don't offer much in the form of protection from heat and being nylon if they did in fact get to hot, the first way you'd know is by them starting to melt. If those are the same gloves as I'm thinking I buy them by the dozen at the saw shop and literally have probably 20 pairs kicking around between house, trucks, shop, and barns. But the one place I don't have a pair is beside my stove.

 

[BobUrban]

Nope. Kevlar I believe and I can hold a softball size red orange coal without any sign of heat either to the glove or my hand. Just picked up a red coal off the tile while raking my coals around to get the night fire going. They don't melt

 

[Statefan86]

I rake mine forward...works great. On that topic, I reload at about 300-350 degrees. Those of you saying if you can't stand having your hand in there it's too hot to reload...I'm assuming you mean a gloved hand? Because there's no way I can reload with my bare hand at that temp...I would have some pretty terrible blisters. That puppy is HOT.

 

[Sconnie Burner]

Nope. Kevlar I believe and I can hold a softball size red orange coal without any sign of heat either to the glove or my hand. Just picked up a red coal off the tile while raking my coals around to get the night fire going. They don't melt

The look of them reminds me of the "ove glove" a kevlar/nomex mix! Fire resistant suits for firefighters and race car drivers are made the same way!

 

[BobUrban]

That is correct. Ov glove type glove. Kevlar/nomex and they are burn proof. Or damn close

 

[Squisher]

So those gloves obviously aren't like 1.90 a pair like these ones that I've been using for the last 24 years?

 

[BobUrban]

No. Not at all. But I do like gloves similar to yours that are dipped in rubber on the fingers and palms for working w the saws, splitter and stacking. They are cheap and seem to last a relatively long time