What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[Wildflush]

Got home from dinner with the family. Some coals left. House 73. 31 outside 30’s with wind overnight. Loaded with and oak split and oddball chunks and uglies.

 

[weee123]

Mix of oak and aspen for the overnight load. I must say with the new stovepipe setup makes the stove operate completely different. Far more controlled and predictable now even with such a minor change.

 

[MRD1985]

Pretty good load of ash for the night. Drafting hard with these colder temps. Wants to run away unless you stay on top of air control. Currently sitting at 700 STT blower on medium, air control closed down.

 

[Burnin Since 1989]

If you can read, thank a teacher. If you can read in English, Thank a Veteran.
USAF 95-97
Happy 250th Birthday United States Marine Corps!

Amen!
US Army 1978-1991, USAFR 1991-2002 Retired

31/71 Maple, and some ugly oak into the firebox on a bed of overnight coals!

 

[Crab]

If you can read, thank a teacher. If you can read in English, Thank a Veteran.
USAF 95-97

Nice well said. Thank you for your service. USN 69-72 here...

 

[Wildflush]

36 outside. House was 64 downstairs and 63 upstairs. Loaded with splits on red oak, Burch and cherry. Filled with smaller uglies and when it got going added a large flat maple ugly. STT got hot at 750. House 69 downstairs now and climbing.

 

[Dieselhead]

5 spruce pieces on top of last nights leftover coals. No pic, the spruce takes off fast and if I don’t work quick the smoke starts to back up quick with my tall flue. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[Turbo89]

For @MRD1985 - clean glass before the afternoon light:

Burning some punky maple for the day. Might keep it lit overnight, depending on how far I get on my wood project.

 

[Wildflush]

For @MRD1985 - clean glass before the afternoon light:
View attachment 342092

Burning some punky maple for the day. Might keep it lit overnight, depending on how far I get on my wood project.

Just followed your lead. Have a pallet with punky pieces on it. Just loaded on some coals. 725 STT.

 

[burning VC]

in the nw. NC foothills...

it's mid 50F's...still winds over 15mph steady...
trying to warm the structure, might have mentioned there is a month's worth of limbs/branches...(mix of Hickory, White Oak, White Pine, Yellow Pine)

they burn hot and quick...... plumed flames

 

[Turbo89]

A couple of small maple pieces to hold over for a few hrs.

I have a really nice bed of coals going, may have to keep her going all night.

 

[Turbo89]

Finished up my wood project, need the finish to dry overnight, so I stuffed the encore with a big piece of ash at the bottom; the rest is maple.

 

[MRD1985]

Never got to post this mornings fire before work. Another 700+ STT hot one. Gonna have to be careful when it’s below 20 outside. Going to be almost guaranteed to be pushing limits. Seems like just this is how this stove runs, unless I add a damper. May prove challenging with an insert. Surprised because it’s only a 14-15 foot chimney.

No fire tonight, at work until tomorrow.

 

[weee123]

That thing looks screaming. You might want to try packing it tighter.

 

[MRD1985]

That thing looks screaming. You might want to try packing it tighter.

It was. Flames were lazy though. I didn’t think it was that full…only 8 splits 🤷🏻‍♂️. When I first started splitting wood for this I split them too small in hind sight, which is not helping my cause. A couple years down the road I will have bigger splits, which should also help. The wood I am using is also pretty dry. But, when it gets colder, I may not have a choice but to pack it lighter

 

[MRD1985]

Got home from work, kids on the bus and lit the stove. A couple pieces of oak, and some ash this morning. Cold starts are FAR more controllable than reloads, even on a small bed of coals. A bit odd.

 

[NickW]

Got home from work, kids on the bus and lit the stove. A couple pieces of oak, and some ash this morning. Cold starts are FAR more controllable than reloads, even on a small bed of coals. A bit odd.

22 this morning going up to 50. Full load of pine and aspen.

I absolutely hate cold starts in the Stratford 2. Even light coals is a challenge if I'm loading hardwood. Still fighting my impatience with charring. Smoke the left side every time I do an e/w load. Did the dollar bill test, all tight. Air feed for the secondary tubes comes from the right side so the left just doesn't seem to get enough air.

This is what I have after last night's fire.

 

[MRD1985]

22 this morning going up to 50. Full load of pine and aspen.

I absolutely hate cold starts in the Stratford 2. Even light coals is a challenge if I'm loading hardwood. Still fighting my impatience with charring. Smoke the left side every time I do an e/w load. Did the dollar bill test, all tight. Air feed for the secondary tubes comes from the right side so the left just doesn't seem to get enough air.

This is what I have after last night's fire.
View attachment 342133

That’s efficient on wood! I’d take a cold start every day if I could. Super easy to control and I could walk away from it without thinking it would get too hot. One of these days ill
Do the dollar bill test on the gasket, but it doesn’t look too bad. Only the 3rd season of use. I do have one here in case. Not sure what it is, could be that once the chimney is warm it just drafts hard and fast. I can slow it down and stall it but at a certain point it just takes off, usually when the stove is at 600 STT or higher.

 

[Turbo89]

Last nights reload left me with some coals after a little over 13hrs. I tossed some dry maple splits to bring it back up to temp this morning.

I’m back to burning off some punky maple. I just tossed in a buggy crotch piece from the outside stack… it was a little wet, but those bugs are popping good.

CAT is at 766 on the reload and climbing, shops sitting at 70… so this is going to be a low and slow burn.

 

[Wildflush]

That’s efficient on wood! I’d take a cold start every day if I could. Super easy to control and I could walk away from it without thinking it would get too hot. One of these days ill
Do the dollar bill test on the gasket, but it doesn’t look too bad. Only the 3rd season of use. I do have one here in case. Not sure what it is, could be that once the chimney is warm it just drafts hard and fast. I can slow it down and stall it but at a certain point it just takes off, usually when the stove is at 600 STT or higher.

I have a high chimney and even with the bends it can draft hard when really cold out. The PE stoves are easy breathers. When it gets going over 600 STT with a strong draft I shut the air completely and secondaries take over. It also depends how I load my reloads. I try to keep STT 600-650. Few times this year I was at 725-750 but off gasing smaller splits.

 

[MRD1985]

I have a high chimney and even with the bends it can draft hard when really cold out. The PE stoves are easy breathers. When it gets going over 600 STT with a strong draft I shut the air completely and secondaries take over. It also depends how I load my reloads. I try to keep STT 600-650. Few times this year I was at 725-750 but off gasing smaller splits.

yup. I usually have my air shut all the way when it hits 600-625 STT. I adjust the blower speed from there based on STT. I don’t try to reload until 150-200 STT but sometimes it doesn’t matter it will still run warm

 

[NickW]

Just to clarify my earlier post...

That was what the glass looked like after last night's load of cherry and black ash, not what was left inside for wood. That's the load of aspen and pine I had put in. A good hot n/s load will burn some of the crap off the glass on the left side. I can't wait to have all the 16" burned up and be making all n/s loads with the 11-12" splits.

 

[MRD1985]

Just to clarify my earlier post...

That was what the glass looked like after last night's load of cherry and black ash, not what was left inside for wood. That's the load of aspen and pine I had put in. A good hot n/s load will burn some of the crap off the glass on the left side. I can't wait to have all the 16" burned up and be making all n/s loads with the 11-12" splits.

I see what you mean now. 👍

 

[Turbo89]

Final reload for the night, I think the big piece in the bottom front is oak, 1 medium piece of ash and the remaining 3 pieces are that maple I’ve been burning (not punky this time).

 

[MRD1985]

7 good size splits of ash for the night. Currently sitting at 725 STT. Last Photo is around 600ish STT.