What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

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25F and heading to teens in windchill, topped off oak and locust with biobrick in nooks. This baby is burning hot! Primary air completely closed and the running on secondary.

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60F and reload with oak and locust. 20F outside.

Turns out one of my sliding doors in living room was not closing properly - I could see the morning light through the crack and there was an inch of frost indoors next to the crack. Bet that'll help with my living room draft problem.
 
Right now Ash and some left over coals. Need to clean out the Ash so figured I let things die down. Going to try to make a perforated shovel so I can sift out the coals from the ash.
 
Our temp bottomed out at 5.9 last night, this morning was 13.4. The temp in the basement was 73 with the temps up here between 66 - 68.

I set the pellet stove on the lowest setting in the high range, the next time I'll turn the feed rate up higher.

We're back to burning in the wood stove.
 
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Right now Ash and some left over coals. Need to clean out the Ash so figured I let things die down. Going to try to make a perforated shovel so I can sift out the coals from the ash.
FYI - my purchased coal sifter has diamond shaped holes 3/8x7/8. I am going to try a 3/8" hole first, then go up from there if necessary for one for up north.
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Last night's oak is done. 39 F for a max today. Home was 70-71 all day. The sunroom (single pane, no insulation) even got up to 70 for an hour or 3 or so, so I worked a bit from there with the sliding doors open. Stove simmered.

I put one misshapen pine split in there, and two small ash uglies to get me to the night reload later this evening.
 
Burning down a load of walnut to get coals for the night load. Replaced the door gasket today. Gasket near the hinges wasn’t sealing at all anymore.

It’s like a new stove and burns way better now can’t wait to see what kind of burn times I get now
 
Couple rollers on my sliding door stuck - now that I pay attention to it, I can see a crack about 3-5mm running along length of the glass door.

Short term I put duct tape length of door both inside and outside. I’ll have to replace both rollers once it warms up outside bit more.

For now I’ve done a hot clean of coal and ashes and running a warm “refire” with 50/50 split of bio bricks and cord wood. Finger crossed for 65F living room tmr morning.
 
Mix of non-ideally shaped ed oak and pine. 33 F for a low tonight, and tomorrow sunny and 48. So it'll be a simmering day; I'll keep the stove warm for a night fire tomorrow night.
 
As i had said, we simmered today. Last night's load is almost done. Pic shows what's left. 20 hrs.

I could have gone for another hour or two simmering, but scheduling requires me to reload for the night (and tomorrow's simmering) now. So oak and pine again. 85 pct full load. 42 now, min of 35 overnight.

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We had 19.2 this morning, we ran the pellet stove last night so the house was between 68 - 70 this morning.

The morning load was pine and then some cookies after supper, the overnight load will be some ash and pine.
 
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Getting actual burn times and a controllable stove now with the new gasket. No more runaways.

Burning black walnut, catalpa, and sassafras. I absolutely hate black walnut. It ashes so much it’ll actually choke itself off. Oh well not much more left.

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There's a reason walnut is used for gun stocks... We burned some one year and it was not great.

I just put a load of oak in for overnight. Teens and single digits tonight. Just had the dog out and it was pretty nippy.

I wish we could see the fire inside the stove. I'm thinking more and more about putting a window in the door and relocating the air intake. It's a summer project of course, but I still think about it. How far can secondary tubes be from the wood and still work?
 
I’m definitely less than happy with it. Only reason I even have the walnut in my supply is a buddy took one down and offered me the wood so I grabbed it.
 
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I like black walnut. A big one was growing in the meadow, the creek had undermined the roots and it fell over. No rot. I got 5 truckloads from that tree. 22 million BTU/cord. Easy to split and has that funky smell. Not as good as oak, but pretty good.
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There's a reason walnut is used for gun stocks...
Can you explain that to my ignorance? I thought it was nice looking and tough (not cracking easily).

I read your remark as a response to "ash --> it smothers itself" but can't relate that to other uses...
 
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Can you explain that to my ignorance? I thought it was nice looking and tough (not cracking easily).

I read your remark as a response to "ash --> it smothers itself" but can't relate that to other uses...
It is beautiful but it splits just looking at it. Its a dream to split and dries quick and I honestly feel bad burning such a pretty wood.

My biggest gripe with it is how much ash it produces. It’s honestly a ridiculous amount to where I’m shoveling ash out every few days and will smother itself out. A walnut split will cover the walnut split underneath it with ash and hamper it’s ability to burn