Question for anyone that owns one of these models - what stove top temperature (under trivet if it applies) do you need to bring the stove up to for the secondary burn to get going? Thanks!
Summit LE, Summit Classic LE, T6 LE Secondaries
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It's not the stove top temp, but the temperature in the firebox that matters. Likewise, the species of wood, stage of the fire, air feed, etc. will affect secondary combustion. The T6 is a big hunk of steel and iron. On a cold start it can take 20-30 minutes before the firebox is producing secondaries. This starts to occur if the air has been turned down to the point where the draft is primarily pulling air through the secondary holes in the baffle. At that time, on a cold start the stovetop is still warming up, so it may only be at around 400º.
FWIW, I get better secondaries with hardwood than with softwood burning. Note that a stove pipe thermometer is a better guide for how the stove is operating than stovetop temp.
FWIW, I get better secondaries with hardwood than with softwood burning. Note that a stove pipe thermometer is a better guide for how the stove is operating than stovetop temp.
With this question You took one variable out of the previous answer with a long and incomplete list of variables. The list is everything as before minus stove design...
I run a T5, but the stoves are really similar.
I can run my stove cold start, for an entire clean burn, with a STT 300-350 on my magnetic gauge. How accurate the gauge is, I don’t know.
My T5 is in a ~500 sq ft cabin. It needs to be oversized for when you walk into the cabin at -?F and want heat in a reasonable period of time. But that ability means the stove is really oversized above 20F. I’ve done an awful lot of playing to figure out how to cleanly run the stove at 30+F and not cook myself out of the cabin.
Things you can do to get secondaries on a cold stove… the easiest thing is to make the firebox smaller so there’s less volume to warm up. I have extra firebricks that I put on the bottom of the stove to raise the fire up. Fire lapping the baffle is the key to getting it hot enough for secondaries to occur. Get the fire to the top of the firebox. You can do this with a top down fire too. With something like pine that throws its heat fast I can get secondaries quickly. Secondaries are important to me for the clean burn.
STT is completely different and can be manipulated. We know that the firebox has to be a certain temp for the secondary action to occur. That heat then travels to the metal of the stove. A smaller fire puts fewer btus into the skin of the stove. The stove has a lot of mass. The T6 more than the T5. It takes time for the heat to warm the entire stove. Secondaries can be going on for a long time before cold areas of the stove are no longer pulling heat from the stove top. On top of that, you can physically remove heat from the top with fans, tubs of water, etc.
Reloads have the stove already warmed up, so the stove runs warmer, but the temp can still be manipulated if that’s the only thing important to you.
When only one metric is important, a test can easily be devised to give you whatever result you want.
The key is knowing your stove and that comes with experience.
I bet I could get secondaries without the STT even measuring a difference in temperature on my gauge.
Small firebox. Load with newspaper, light it and close the door.
Do it again. Maybe even a 3rd time if you want secondaries really fast with a cold STT.
The firebox is pretty well warmed up now. The STT has not changed. Any heat being transferred up through the top of the stove is being dissipated through the other steel in the stove.
Load with dry pine kindling. Space between the pieces is preferred as you want the quick hot burn.
This should give you secondaries pretty quick with no change in STT.
Small firebox. Load with newspaper, light it and close the door.
Do it again. Maybe even a 3rd time if you want secondaries really fast with a cold STT.
The firebox is pretty well warmed up now. The STT has not changed. Any heat being transferred up through the top of the stove is being dissipated through the other steel in the stove.
Load with dry pine kindling. Space between the pieces is preferred as you want the quick hot burn.
This should give you secondaries pretty quick with no change in STT.
