What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[Todd]

-4/68 Loaded 4 splits of Maple this morning. A little snow today then bitterly cold tonight and tomorrow. Doesn’t look like it will get above zero. Going to be feeding the stove a lot of fuel this week!

 

[Turbo89]

About 12 hrs after my reload, STT 160 and inside temp 54, with plenty of coals for instant relight with splitter slash.

Tossed two small pieces of pine on to get her hot with, 1 ash and 2 maple splits. STT 400, about to engage the CAT.

 

[begreen]

Cherry, white ash and a stick of hickory tonight. Currently 11 going down to 0. Tomorrow night is forecast to be -8 and Monday night -16. Friday is calling for -20, but that's too far out for me to believe the weather guessers... Won't break 20 for the foreseeable future, Monday won't get above 0.

It's likely to get very cold as the week goes on. Keep the wood bin stocked.

 

[bigealta]

Longer burn times......

You guys with the N/S loaders really can fit so much more fuel than us E/W guys. Well except for Turbo89's stove with the top load and andirons.
I probably can only get 2/3 to 1/2 as many splits in my f400 as you guys are showing in your stoves. I could get a bit more in but then those splits would have to be perfectly sized and dimensioned.

My buddy, for his jotul f400, splits his that way (Pretty perfect squares and rectangles), with his 4 way splitter off the PTO on his tractor and then palletizes them to season in his large open barn sheds.

He ends up with 4 white oak splits, 2 in front and 2 in the back, that almost completely fill his f400's box.

But as a hand splitter with varying branch, dead fallen, yard tree trunk wood that's not really an option. I try to split into squares/rectangles when i can, but it ends up being only about 10-15%, and those may still be to large or small to stack just right into the f400.

I've drawn grid patterns on large oak rounds, but i'm definitely not nearly as accurate as a splitter that you get right onto the lines.

Oh well guess it's time to up my maul accuracy game. (Another reason for using the light maul i prefer)

 

[Turbo89]

Longer burn times......

You guys with the N/S loaders really can fit so much more fuel than us E/W guys. Well except for Turbo69's stove with the top load and andirons.
I probably can only get 2/3 to 1/2 as many splits in my f400 as you guys are showing in your stoves. I could get a bit more in but then those splits would have to be perfectly sized and dimensioned.

My buddy, for his jotul f400, splits his that way (Pretty perfect squares and rectangles), with his 4 way splitter off the PTO on his tractor and then palletizes them to season in his large open barn sheds.

He ends up with 4 white oak splits, 2 in front and 2 in the back, that almost completely fill his f400's box.

But as a hand splitter with varying branch, dead fallen, yard tree trunk wood that's not really an option. I try to split into squares/rectangles when i can, but it ends up being only about 10-15%, and those may still be to large or small to stack just right into the f400.

I've drawn grid patterns on large oak rounds, but i'm definitely not nearly as accurate as a splitter that you get right onto the lines.

Oh well guess it's time to up my maul accuracy game. (Another reason for using the light maul i prefer)

I work hard for those long burns! I’m not sure 10+ hrs would be sustainable if this encore was in my house. A 2.3 cu-ft firebox just isn’t big enough for extremely long burns.

 

[begreen]

Longer burn times......

You guys with the N/S loaders really can fit so much more fuel than us E/W guys. Well except for Turbo89's stove with the top load and andirons.
I probably can only get 2/3 to 1/2 as many splits in my f400 as you guys are showing in your stoves. I could get a bit more in but then those splits would have to be perfectly sized and dimensioned.

Yes, I'm able to stuff the T6 with twice the wood in the F400. I didn't have enough shorties for N/S loading in theF400 on a regular basis.

 

[Dieselhead]

I used to have a e/w stove, n/s is a game changer for loading. I remember having to fight to get logs from rolling out when trying to load to capacity, and splits always ending up against the doors as the lower logs would burn out.

 

[NickW]

It's likely to get very cold as the week goes on. Keep the wood bin stocked.

4 degrees and breezy. Third load of aspen, pine and black ash today is already down to coals, but finally have the inside temperature up a bit.

Since this morning, Thursday nights forecast has been dropped to -25 and Friday night to -30 (actual temperatures...🙄🥶). I don't even want to know what @Todd is going to see if it turns out to be true. He's usually 5-10 degrees colder than here.

I will need to restock my indoor stores again this week. They are getting low and I'm trying to conserve the better wood I brought from the old house. I have plenty of seasoned aspen, cherry, birch and black ash outside; but the black ash isn't tarped and has a foot and a half of snow on it. The plan was for the pole shed to be up by now (actually a month ago) so I could move some of the outside stores into the attached garage, but alas "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry...". We will survive on NG if necessary as long as I can get the generator running in case of a power outage. If that happens in the bitter cold I could potentially need to bring the generator inside to warm the oil up enough to get it running 😜.

 

[Turbo89]

Snowing outside, just tossed 2 maple and 1 ash split in to get me to tonight.


This should give me a nice bed of coals for the overnight burn. 32 outside, 71 inside, STT 450, CAT 1130 and ramping.

 

[stoveliker]

Today was gray, snow, slush, rain, freezing rain, fog.
31-35 F. Precipitation since 6 am or so, now 33 and still snowing/sleeting.

Upstairs is 68. Last night's 10 pm load is almost done after 20.5 hrs, but I need a bit more heat, so now a sassafras split on the coals.

 

[stoveliker]

33 outside, 70 upstairs.
The idea was to put this sugar maple "non-split" in the center, and red oak left and right.
But the maple, being 18" long would not fit in the middle because of the metal retainer holding the front bricks.
So I had cut off a piece so I could drop it down there.
Unfortunately it was 1/10th of an inch too tall to fit it through the door with that notch facing down.
So I had to put it on its side, with a gap below it because it didn't fit below the door.
Oak next to it. Didn't have enough small splits on hand to fill those gaps properly.

Bummer

It was 18" long, 9" wide and 8" tall (orientation as it is in the stove).
Started out at 41 lbs, took 4 years to go down to 29 (I believe the last 2 years it only dropped 2 lbs), and then it went into my stove room for 3 weeks, so maybe 28 now. If that.

 

[bigealta]

33 outside, 70 upstairs.
The idea was to put this sugar maple "non-split" in the center, and red oak left and right.
But the maple, being 18" long would not fit in the middle because of the metal retainer holding the front bricks.
So I had cut off a piece so I could drop it down there.
Unfortunately it was 1/10th of an inch too tall to fit it through the door with that notch facing down.
So I had to put it on its side, with a gap below it because it didn't fit below the door.
Oak next to it. Didn't have enough small splits on hand to fill those gaps properly.

Bummer

It was 18" long, 9" wide and 8" tall (orientation as it is in the stove).
Started out at 41 lbs, before 3 weeks in the stove room it was 29 lbs.

Looks good to me,
And that's a crazy diet that sugar momma piece was on, i would never believe that much moisture would be released in that short a time after my moisture tests showed not that much difference.

Gonna have to do some retesting and this time with a scale, not just the meter.

 

[stoveliker]

Looks good to me,
And that's a crazy diet that sugar momma piece was on, i would never believe that much moisture would be released in that short a time after my moisture tests showed not that much difference.

Gonna have to do some retesting and this time with a scale, not just the meter.

I.mistyped.
It was 4 years from 41 lbs to 29, but after that it was 3 weeks in the stove room so maybe 28 now. I'll edit the post.

 

[bigealta]

I.mistyped.
It was 4 years from 41 lbs to 29, but after that it was 3 weeks in the stove room so maybe 28 now. I'll edit the post.

Oh that makes sense now.
29lbs to 28lbs. - that is much more inline with what i tested.

 

[stoveliker]

Oh that makes sense now.
29lbs to 28lbs. - that is much more inline with what i tested.

No way a 8x9" piece (low surface to bulk ratio) would loose that much indeed in weeks. I was surprised by the fact that in the last two years (covered shed) I didn't loose much beyond what I lost in the first two years.
I had thought a big piece like this would keep loosing a bit more - that it wouldn't reach equilibrium in two years.

Ah well it's burning well.

 

[Todd]

4 degrees and breezy. Third load of aspen, pine and black ash today is already down to coals, but finally have the inside temperature up a bit.

Since this morning, Thursday nights forecast has been dropped to -25 and Friday night to -30 (actual temperatures...🙄🥶). I don't even want to know what @Todd is going to see if it turns out to be true. He's usually 5-10 degrees colder than here.

I will need to restock my indoor stores again this week. They are getting low and I'm trying to conserve the better wood I brought from the old house. I have plenty of seasoned aspen, cherry, birch and black ash outside; but the black ash isn't tarped and has a foot and a half of snow on it. The plan was for the pole shed to be up by now (actually a month ago) so I could move some of the outside stores into the attached garage, but alas "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry...". We will survive on NG if necessary as long as I can get the generator running in case of a power outage. If that happens in the bitter cold I could potentially need to bring the generator inside to warm the oil up enough to get it running 😜.

Yeah Friday looks brutal! High of -12 low of -34 according to AccuWeather. It’s a ways out so hopefully that will moderate. It’ll be too cold anyways.

I have a good mix of Maple and Red Oak for this cold spell so we should be good.

 

[NickW]

1 above with a real feel of -14. Inside temps are 71 in the Great Room and 68 in the back hall. Just loaded up and it's stuffed to the gills with cherry, white ash, sugar maple and beech tonight.

 

[Turbo89]

31 outside, 71 inside, STT 350, CAT 1270 and air turned down a crack past full closed. Reloaded with a mix of hickory, ash and 1 piece of maple.

 

[Todd]

-13/69 loaded mix of Maple and Red Oak. Will be burning hot today since temps aren’t supposed to be above zero.

 

[Crab]

-13/69 loaded mix of Maple and Red Oak. Will be burning hot today since temps aren’t supposed to be above zero.

Accuweather guesses -30 for your low Friday night, would that be the lowest you ever measured?

 

[Turbo89]

28 outside, 65 inside so the overnight burn did Its job. Back up and running with a few small pine splits and maple.

Plenty of snow out there, guess i should get snow blowing.

 

[NickW]

Slept in. -6 with a real feel of -32. 11 hours after loading still have a good coal bed in the Stratford 2. House is down to thermostat setting, Load of 2 aspen runners with what looks like 2 elm and 1 black ash e/w. Great room and loft should warm up quick, but the back hall will probably take a couple loads to get up.

 

[Todd]

Accuweather guesses -30 for your low Friday night, would that be the lowest you ever measured?

I saw -45 a few years ago and usually see a couple -30’s every Winter.

I watch a couple YouTuber’s in Alaska and they recently hit -60! They went 30 days without it being above zero!

 

[ctreitzell]

Wow, y’all have cold weather!

It’s not cold here…but rain queued up for the whole week. We had exactly zero solar today. Mid 40s coming overnight. Again, just lighting the little Panadero to leverage electric.

The usual fare inside. Yesterday, I spent a few hours cutting kindling and starter at my oldest firewood pile. Probably 80% hazel and 15% oak.

 

[stoveliker]

So, that block for of maple had cracked in half (cutting the 18" into two (less than) 9" sections overnight.
Both were still significant in size and were still glowing but somehow the cat was near falling out of the active regime, the flue was nearing 200, and when I opened the thermostat completely I did see more glowing but no (blue) flame appeared.

So I raked them (disintegrated) forward and put a split of spruce on.