First Time poster.
I have read several posts on how people use and like the top down burn as a way to start a fire in a high tech non-cat stove.
I havent seen this listed as a reason for the top down burn but I noticed this from using my stove.
The top down burn works much better as if you fill the bottom of the stove up with larger pieces and then maybe a second layer before adding a top 3rd layer of very dry small kindling then maybe a small piece of fire starter to get the kindling going that this works very good at getting a fire started and temps up quickly in the flue and in the stove. As I tried several times using the bottom up method and the stove was hard to get going from a cold start in a timely manner.
What I found is that these stoves are designed to let small amounts in at the bottom of the stove so as to keep the wood burning slowly then there is much larger amounts of air up at the top of the stove so as too get the smoke to re-burn once the stove gets up to temp. So the top down burn works much better as there is much more air up at the top of the stove around those secondary burn tubes plus add to that if the kindling is burning at the top with no wood to impeded its exposure to the air and no wood to impeed the kindling fire from heating the top of the stove and flue and those secondary burn tubes , makes for a rapid start. Much more rapid and easier than the other method. One more angle on this is that the air coming in thru those tubes with all the holes drilled in them is mixing into the fire and flames and smoke of the kindling on top at a much better way to increase the temp of the starter fire. Makes for Quicker starts for sure. So much easier in my opinion.
I might add as you put wood in for the bottom layer and wood in for the second layer keep some space in between each piece of wood to allow max air circulation during start up mode in these high tech stoves.
I have read several posts on how people use and like the top down burn as a way to start a fire in a high tech non-cat stove.
I havent seen this listed as a reason for the top down burn but I noticed this from using my stove.
The top down burn works much better as if you fill the bottom of the stove up with larger pieces and then maybe a second layer before adding a top 3rd layer of very dry small kindling then maybe a small piece of fire starter to get the kindling going that this works very good at getting a fire started and temps up quickly in the flue and in the stove. As I tried several times using the bottom up method and the stove was hard to get going from a cold start in a timely manner.
What I found is that these stoves are designed to let small amounts in at the bottom of the stove so as to keep the wood burning slowly then there is much larger amounts of air up at the top of the stove so as too get the smoke to re-burn once the stove gets up to temp. So the top down burn works much better as there is much more air up at the top of the stove around those secondary burn tubes plus add to that if the kindling is burning at the top with no wood to impeded its exposure to the air and no wood to impeed the kindling fire from heating the top of the stove and flue and those secondary burn tubes , makes for a rapid start. Much more rapid and easier than the other method. One more angle on this is that the air coming in thru those tubes with all the holes drilled in them is mixing into the fire and flames and smoke of the kindling on top at a much better way to increase the temp of the starter fire. Makes for Quicker starts for sure. So much easier in my opinion.
I might add as you put wood in for the bottom layer and wood in for the second layer keep some space in between each piece of wood to allow max air circulation during start up mode in these high tech stoves.
