What size splits do you use for overnight burns & what type of stove?

[jpl1nh]

Curious what the preferred size is and how it relates to your particular stove. Lat year I was using a Jotul Combifire #4, pre-epa and used 16" rounds and splits probably about 5" diam, packed tight for an extended burn with coals raked towards air intake. This year I'm running a Woodstock Keystone, completely different beast! and haven't really used large splits yet cause it hasn't been cold enough in our house set up. I think it will hold 4, maybe 5 splits about 6" diam but I'll find out.

 

[DriftWood]

Bigger splits are better.

I had a 7 1/2 hour burn on the night of 2/08/2007 in my New Hearthstone Heritage. At midnight room temp. was 72ºF. I loaded 1 huge split of 2yr seasoned oak and a 4/4 oak dunage piece to fill the fire box on 1/4 box full of hot hard wood coals. The stove surface temp was 400º F at reload.

I used full air, doors closed, until a secondary top down burn started, them only secondary air all night. At 7:30 AM room temp 64ºF outside temp 10º F all night, the stove surface temp was 275º F and a large bed of hot coals to help start the next load.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/3106/

 

[DiscoInferno]

I usually use mostly medium-size 18" splits (say 4-5" diam) because I can pack them more tightly east-west in my not-so-tall firebox. Or sometimes I'll load north-south with 14" splits; I can pack better but it takes more splits. Either way it burns faster than I would like, although I will have coals after 8 hours. I need to try some bigger stuff, but I haven't had enough quality seasoning time in the past to dry really big logs. I guess the ultimate would be a single 18"x14"x11" wood brick.

 

[Rick]

I tend to put the biggest split at the back of the stove, since that is the one that provides most of the coals for the morning. Then I cram the firebox with whatever else will fit around that one. I would have really awesome overnight burns if I could just convince myself that the night only last about 5 hours.

 

[treeman08]

Last night I loaded up with a large tamarack split at about 9:30. It was a pie shaped split of about 8 inch radius. The split was about 7 inches along the outer edge. I included a smaller split of tamarack along with a couple of small odd varieties to fill out the box.
At 10:00 I lowered the thermometer setting and went to bed. At 6:00 am there was still about 4 inches of chunks in the box that could have lasted 3 to 4 more hours. The temperature of the stove top was about 400 and the room was 82 with outside temp at about 32.

 

[adrpga498]

My routine is something like this:
I rake most of the coals towards the front of the firebox. Then I load 1 large oak or beech split in the back. Load two, maybe a third medium split in the front. Wait until all have chard, approximately 10-20 minutes. When stove top reads over 400 and secoundary kicks in I set air intake back to about 1/4 open, (max). I try to time this for a midnight setting which allows me a 6am warm stove , 250* and plenty of coals for restart. Its just a plan but it seems to work ok most of the time. I'm always willin gto try something new if you have any other ideas. TY

 

[laynes69]

In our wood furnace, around 8:30 to 9:00 pm I will load about 4 to 5 rounds in the furnace. I rake all the coals to the back of the firebox then I open up the damper. When it finally catches I keep a steady flame all night and it burns from back to front. When I wake up at 5:00 am the whole house is 75 to 76 and I have enough coals to throw in a few splits and go. I like to keep some rounds 6" to 10" in diameter for the night. When it drops down below 20 degrees and windy I will burn mostly locust.

 

[Lignums]

The biggest piece available that will fit in perfectly. Any room left over I will cram in what I can with out going overboard. I usually like to use the Locust at night. It seems to last longer for me that some of the Oaks an Ash. I have not tried any Mulberry yet, I don't have any seasoned out where I want it yet, nothing worse that trying to keep a fire going in the middle of the night...

 

[Highbeam]

A very related question for the East-west burners. When you folks pack the box full for the night, you start in the back as I do, and then load towards the front and up. Are you making double sure that no wood touches the class and than none can roll onto the glass? I am and what this does is leave me with a half full firebox since the wood must slope from the glass towards the rear.

 

[jpl1nh]

A very related question for the East-west burners. When you folks pack the box full for the night, you start in the back as I do, and then load towards the front and up. Are you making double sure that no wood touches the class and than none can roll onto the glass? I am and what this does is leave me with a half full firebox since the wood must slope from the glass towards the rear.

Highbeam, great question. In the Keystone, its very oriented to only an east-west load (unless your willing to use 10" splits) but there are andirons that protect the glass, so I can still load it full. What happens if you do have wood up against the glass for an overnight burn?

 

[seaken]

Bigger splits are better.

I don't think this is always the case. Sometimes bigger is not better. If your firebox is big enough and the wood is well seasoned the large splits will work good. But we have found better success with splits that are about 4 or 5 inches across, especially with a smaller firebox. With a 2" or 3" coal bed we cram as many splits as we can, some smaller than 3", to achieve the maximum poundage of fuel. This has given us longer burn times. But some species burn too fast if split too small. Also, if too dry the small splits will off-gas to quickly leading to too much smoke and back puffing. It takes some trial and error with your own wood pile.

 

[seaken]

A very related question for the East-west burners. When you folks pack the box full for the night, you start in the back as I do, and then load towards the front and up. Are you making double sure that no wood touches the class and than none can roll onto the glass? I am and what this does is leave me with a half full firebox since the wood must slope from the glass towards the rear.

Highbeam, great question. In the Keystone, its very oriented to only an east-west load (unless your willing to use 10" splits) but there are andirons that protect the glass, so I can still load it full. What happens if you do have wood up against the glass for an overnight burn?

We have had no issues over the years with the wood touching the glass in our wood stoves. Just be careful not to strike the glass.

 

[Todd]

Like others I like to rake the coals forward, then put a large split in the back, and fill up the rest of the box with whatever else I can fit. It seems the larger the splits the better for longer burns. Tightly packed splits means less air circulation and causes a dirty smouldering fire, so you have to make sure the wood is good and charred before engaging the cat or damping down.

 

[Lignums]

More towards the back for sure, better air 'roll'.

 

[DiscoInferno]

A very related question for the East-west burners. When you folks pack the box full for the night, you start in the back as I do, and then load towards the front and up. Are you making double sure that no wood touches the class and than none can roll onto the glass? I am and what this does is leave me with a half full firebox since the wood must slope from the glass towards the rear.

I'll start off by saying I hate trying to pack my fireplace full east-west. It's a pain to find just the right size/shape splits and maneuver them to fit together tightly. This year I have more 14-16" stuff so I can pack north-south for overnight instead. I wish the firebox was another 2-4" deep, but I make do.

Now, for classic east-west loading I have little mini andirons that bolt to the floor, but they are only 12" or so from the back of the stove. If I stop there, my 2cf firebox becomes at best a 1.5cf firebox. At first I tried to avoid any chance for a log to roll forward, but it's going to happen eventually no matter what you do. Luckily the ceramic "glass" is very strong (Elk has a post out there about glass testing). Now I'll load up right to the front; if I can close the door without hitting wood, I'm good to go. If a log falls against the glass it won't be moving very fast, and all that will happen is I'll have a pile of ash fall out in the morning and maybe some extra creosote on the window. (When such a load is first burning liquid creosote will run down the cooler window, but it mostly burns off once the temps rise.)

 

['bert]

Disco,

are you saying that you load your BIS up past the "metal posts" sticking out of the floor? I have never thought of this. I have just always added wood in the middle of the night or restarted in the morning. Have I been missing something for the last 3 years (other then hearth.com)?

 

[DiscoInferno]

Disco,

are you saying that you load your BIS up past the "metal posts" sticking out of the floor? I have never thought of this. I have just always added wood in the middle of the night or restarted in the morning. Have I been missing something for the last 3 years (other then hearth.com)?

I don't normally, say during the day or milder weather. But when it gets into the 20's and below and I want a good overnight burn, I pack that bad boy up to the tubes and forward to the glass. I'll often stack two splits right on top of the two small firebricks in front that sit on either side of the bottom air inlet. The area in front of the posts isn't under the baffle, so it's possible that wood put there doesn't burn quite as efficiently, but the holes in the last burn tube do point up to inject some air into the space above the baffle.

I've thought about removing those posts in the colder months, as they tend to get in the way a little. Their placement definitely suggests that Security doesn't expect you to fill the rest of the box, but I think they're more decorative than anything. The only way to get the advertised firebox volume is to use all that space, and I haven't noticed any problems with doing so except for ash and sometimes coals spilling out when I open the door.

 

[Lignums]

Same thing I do, but in my Cape Cod style house, I didn't really need to pack the wood in as compact as you do. The old lady likes the wood so be shorter, around 8''-10'' and pack them in length wise about 3-4 pieces across and then one long piece on top, that seems to last the best out of all the wood variations we have tried.

 

[eernest4]

bump up

 

[gpcollen1]

I usually use larger splits for the overnight burns but I do not seem to have an abundance of the larger ones this year as the wood I purchased was split relatively small. Regardless, I rake the coals forward and pack the firebox back to front with splits oriented east-west. You can choose to pack them tightly or loosely depending on how long a burn you want. I try and get the stove as hot as I can with a nice bed of coals and then pack it up between 9 and 10. I then close the air down as far as she will go for a long burn - or leave it open a hair for a 5 to 6 hour burn. I regularly get 7 to 8 hour burns with the stove top still at around 300 in the am.

 

[bcnu]

Last night was first really good overnight burn in my Homestead. 28 outside. Used some smaller oak and filled in around it(east/west). Stovetop at 430 degrees at 11:45 pm and house at 72. Up at 5 and had very little ash/coals left, stovetop under 200 and house at 66. I'm should be able to improve on that when I begin using my larger pieces of oak. Our colder weather should speed up my learning curve. Never thought I'd actually look forward to winter - but bring it on :coolgrin:

 

[Gibbonboy]

For overnight, I generally eye the pile for one or two splits that are as big as they can possibly be and still fit through the door of my furnace. I then fill in with 3-8" splits. Everything I cut is around 24" long. That being said, I had a good source for last year's wood, and it was all bigger stuff. Even in the dead of winter, burning 24x7, I still need a surprising amount of smaller splits and rounds for when I'm here during the day. This year's wood is mostly maple so far, so lots of smaller rounds to use up. I cut everything down to maybe wrist-sized limbs, I use so much smaller stuff in the fall for those "warm-up" fires.

Don't need much of the locust that I mainly have for a long overnight burn. Stuff is better than coal when it's properly seasoned.