reloading a woodstock fireview

[cstrail]

Hi all fellow woodstockers...(haha) anyway, I had a quick question to see how everyone else does it...
When you reload your fireview do you move all your coals towards the glass? or away from the glass? or pile up in the center and stack on both front and back sides?

I always run a poker through the coals to bring them to the top and move coals to the back, scoop ash out of the front side, move coals to opposite side, scoop out ash on opposite side again, then move as many coals as I can towards the glass. Then I throw the bigger splits opposite the coals in the back then pile on more splits.

I am just wondering how everyone else does it.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

cstrail, I hope you aren't getting ashes out every time you reload the stove!

Just before the stove is down to all coals we open the draft completely and let the coals burn down. Then we move most of the coals to the front (towards the glass) of the stove. In the back on bottom I'll put the largest piece and it is usually one of the better pieces. Front bottom I put a soft maple which allows for quick start up and hot fire.

From there, it all depends upon the weather. If above 25 degrees during the daytime, I'll only put one other piece in but also will not put a really good hardwood on the bottom back. If below 25 daytime, I'll have that good one in back but will usually put in 4 splits total. Colder and nights, I just load that thing up. The colder gets all good hardwood except for that one piece of soft maple front bottom.

 

[pinewoodburner]

Cstrail, I am still learning with this stove also, but I move them to the front near the glass and throw some small pieces on the coals and put the big pieces at the back. I have just tried what Dennis said, just a couple of splits in there when you don't need that much heat. Todd has also given some good advice and maybe he will tell us what he does. One thing he said that I never really gave a chance untill yesterday was cutting down the air supply. When I would cut it down to 1, the flames would quit. I never let that go. It was warm yester day and I did what Dennis said, rake what coals I had to the front, two small splits on that and one medium one in the rear. After 10 minutes of flame, engaged the cat with the air at 1. Looked at it 15 minutes later, no flames and stove at 270. I just left it since it was warm. Came back 1 hour later, it was getting hot in the room, no flame but stove was 450. 4 hours later, wood still smoldering away and stove still 450. All on 3 pieces of wood. I remove ash about every 3rd day, but I don't remove all of it.

 

[Todd]

Same as you guys, I rake the coals forward, put largest split in back, small one in front and fill in from there. I usually scoop out some ash every 3 or 4 days, but like to keep 1/2"- 1" in there.

I cleaned out the cat the other day. There was some fly ash in there so I took it outside and just put my lips together and blew the ash right out. Pipe, chimney and cap look good, hardly any build up. Burned up a cord so far.

I has been very cold and windy the last couple days and you can really notice a difference in the draft and burn times. I've been burning at 1/2, anything higher and she really likes to climb into the 600-700 temp range. Also tweaking the pipe damper at times.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Cstrail, I am still learning with this stove also, but I move them to the front near the glass and throw some small pieces on the coals and put the big pieces at the back. I have just tried what Dennis said, just a couple of splits in there when you don't need that much heat. Todd has also given some good advice and maybe he will tell us what he does. One thing he said that I never really gave a chance untill yesterday was cutting down the air supply. When I would cut it down to 1, the flames would quit. I never let that go. It was warm yester day and I did what Dennis said, rake what coals I had to the front, two small splits on that and one medium one in the rear. After 10 minutes of flame, engaged the cat with the air at 1. Looked at it 15 minutes later, no flames and stove at 270. I just left it since it was warm. Came back 1 hour later, it was getting hot in the room, no flame but stove was 450. 4 hours later, wood still smoldering away and stove still 450. All on 3 pieces of wood. I remove ash about every 3rd day, but I don't remove all of it.

This is a great example of the cat. doing its work! This is why you will burn much less wood, thereby, saving you dollars.

I well remember the first time I got up in the middle of the night, house was plenty warm but I naturally checked the stove while I was up. But going into the room, I could see no sign of a fire. Looking through the glass, I couldn't even see a red coal, but the stove top was somewhere around 450-500 degrees. I was amazed and still am to this day.

But in the weather we are having now, during the day we're putting in 3 or 4 pieces and leaving the draft set on 1. This produces a flame for our enjoyment and plenty of heat.

 

[cstrail]

Thanks for all the replies...I basically do the same thing as you guys then. I don't scoop out all the ash, just about 1 or 2 shovel fulls on a reload. Removing that ash is only done once daily. I don't remove close to all of it, I leave it in for insualtion. I do remove it all when it warms up a little bit and i have to clean the cat. I will say one thing, I have never tried to let the stove run with NO flames. I was kind of scared that it was "smoldering" and thought that was bad. If I don't see a flame I turn it up a little to get a small flame. I may try doing that tonight and see what happens.

These stoves are great though arent they

 

[Malatesta]

You guys that have the Fireview, how big is thee area your heating with the stove if you dont mind me asking. Ive looked at the fireview alot but iam just wanting something a little larger then 55,000 btu's per hour. Do you have any trouble with the heat getting up-stairs to the bedroom areas ? Thks

 

[cstrail]

My house is about 1700 square feet. It is shaped like a T and if I was to describe it for you the stove is where the Top of the T intersects the vertical....the bedroom at then far end of the house is cooler than anywhere else, but definitely comfortable. I don't have an upstairs. I do heat the whole house with this stove 24/7. Gas furnace is set on 58 for a backup...very rarely kicks on. This is an old drafty house with HUGE single pane windows and a LOT of them. On days like the past few (highs in the teens, 0 or so at night) my furnace will kick on about 4am or so if I don't reload. But the top of my stove is still about 300 or so. Just so drafty it won't keep up with all the cold air coming in. You can't go wrong with these stoves. My opinion, if you want more heat, buy 2!

 

[sgcsalsero]

and move coals to the back

I am just wondering how everyone else does it.

Hey Gingi, nice stove, think moving coals to the back is not recommended...I watched a couple Canadian videos somebody put a link out last year on effective wood stove burning, I've since changed a couple things as well

probably has to do with the similar engineering of EPA stoves which involves air washing over the top & down the front

 

[HearthKB]

You guys that have the Fireview, how big is thee area your heating with the stove if you dont mind me asking. Ive looked at the fireview alot but iam just wanting something a little larger then 55,000 btu's per hour. Do you have any trouble with the heat getting up-stairs to the bedroom areas ? Thks

I'm heating a 1900 sq.ft. two story house with my fireview. BUT.... I cannot get the heat upstairs at all Luckily I have a separate zone for oil heat up there!

The room that the stove is located in has a cathedral ceiling. I use a ceiling fan to push the air down and a regular fan blowing across the stove out a 5' opening to the rest of the house. Its the only way to get the hot air out of there. Its still feels extremely warm in that room though.

 

[Todd]

You guys that have the Fireview, how big is thee area your heating with the stove if you dont mind me asking. Ive looked at the fireview alot but iam just wanting something a little larger then 55,000 btu's per hour. Do you have any trouble with the heat getting up-stairs to the bedroom areas ? Thks

I'm heating a well insulated 1800 sq ft home from a basement installed Fireview. I have no problem keeping the upstairs livingroom 70 or more even when it's below zero with a little help from fans. There are many people heating over 2000 sq ft with good insulated homes. Just remember that woodstoves are space heaters and you will have hot and cold spots throughout the house, there's just no way around this, but you can be comfy and keep the furnace from kicking on. Little electric space heaters work good for those cold bedrooms in the evening, my daughters room has one of those oil filled radiator looking heaters and it works great.

 

[Todd]

You guys that have the Fireview, how big is thee area your heating with the stove if you dont mind me asking. Ive looked at the fireview alot but iam just wanting something a little larger then 55,000 btu's per hour. Do you have any trouble with the heat getting up-stairs to the bedroom areas ? Thks

I'm heating a 1900 sq.ft. two story house with my fireview. BUT.... I cannot get the heat upstairs at all Luckily I have a separate zone for oil heat up there!

The room that the stove is located in has a cathedral ceiling. I use a ceiling fan to push the air down and a regular fan blowing across the stove out a 5' opening to the rest of the house. Its the only way to get the hot air out of there. Its still feels extremely warm in that room though.

Have you tried that ceiling fan on the other direction? It may work better by pulling the heat up and pushing it back down the side walls. Many here swear by it.

 

[HearthKB]

You guys that have the Fireview, how big is thee area your heating with the stove if you dont mind me asking. Ive looked at the fireview alot but iam just wanting something a little larger then 55,000 btu's per hour. Do you have any trouble with the heat getting up-stairs to the bedroom areas ? Thks

I'm heating a 1900 sq.ft. two story house with my fireview. BUT.... I cannot get the heat upstairs at all Luckily I have a separate zone for oil heat up there!

The room that the stove is located in has a cathedral ceiling. I use a ceiling fan to push the air down and a regular fan blowing across the stove out a 5' opening to the rest of the house. Its the only way to get the hot air out of there. Its still feels extremely warm in that room though.

Have you tried that ceiling fan on the other direction? It may work better by pulling the heat up and pushing it back down the side walls. Many here swear by it.

I've tried EVERYTHING Blow air Up....Blow air Down.... blow air into the room.... blow air out of the room.... across the stove.... at the stove.... above the stove.... So far, the best way to get the air out is blowing down and the regular fan blowing across the front of the stove out the room. But I still can't get the heat to the kids play room and upstairs to the bedrooms. I don't want to hijack this thread with my circulation problems so I started a new thread. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/31246/

 

[Rich L]

My house is about 1700 square feet. It is shaped like a T and if I was to describe it for you the stove is where the Top of the T intersects the vertical....the bedroom at then far end of the house is cooler than anywhere else, but definitely comfortable. I don't have an upstairs. I do heat the whole house with this stove 24/7. Gas furnace is set on 58 for a backup...very rarely kicks on. This is an old drafty house with HUGE single pane windows and a LOT of them. On days like the past few (highs in the teens, 0 or so at night) my furnace will kick on about 4am or so if I don't reload. But the top of my stove is still about 300 or so. Just so drafty it won't keep up with all the cold air coming in. You can't go wrong with these stoves. My opinion, if you want more heat, buy 2!

Yo,if you want more heat from the stove seal up the drafts.I did and it works out fine.

 

[KevinG]

You guys that have the Fireview, how big is thee area your heating with the stove if you dont mind me asking. Ive looked at the fireview alot but iam just wanting something a little larger then 55,000 btu's per hour. Do you have any trouble with the heat getting up-stairs to the bedroom areas?

We're heating a little over 2,000 sq ft 2 story brick walls with new windows. The upstairs is pretty chilly because there is no insulation in the attic. Insulators scheduled for Dec 28 so we'll see how it goes after that.

Before hanging a blanket at the bottom of the stairs, I had no problem getting heat upstairs. :-( Of course, it went right through the ceilings and roof into the outdoors. I'd love to see a heat pic of our house roof!