What to do at end of burn?

[nola mike]

So I'm getting a lot of coals at the end of my burn, to the point that it's limiting my ability to load more wood unless I let it burn off. Which takes a while, and isn't putting out much heat. I'm getting a great secondary burn, hot fire, at least for a while when I choke it down. Should I open it back up when the flames die down, or not shut down the air as much to begin with?

 

[pen]

I open mine up when it starts to die back if I am in need of extra heat rather than a long time period between loads.

pen

 

[maxed_out]

we 90% close the air if we dont need the heat. usually wake up to hot coals-or dig out coals...makes for easy restart. Never could do this with my defiant encore.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Open the air all the way open when getting down to coals only will help get extra heat and use the coals up faster.

 

[dafattkidd]

When you say "opening up the air" you mean the draft? I thought opening the draft means the heat is going up the chimney? I'm still learning. I have been keeping the draft closed and loosening the door a bit to get the coals red and burning. I also break up all the big chunks into smaller pieces.

Sounds like I'm doing it wrong.

 

[soupy1957]

It depends on what you want to do with your embers.........

If you want to have more "hot" ember potential the next morning, you are better off to close the damper, minimizing the amount of loss (resulting in less embers that are useable for a hot start the next morning).

If you want to have cooler, less available embers for the morning restart, open the damper all the way, allowing as much heat as possible to escape up the chimney.

I will close the damper down before I go to bed, to increase my "hot start" potential the next morning (don't even have to use a MATCH).
I will open the damper up before I go to bed, if I want a cooler bed of ash for cleaning, the next morning.

-Soupy1957

 

[ansehnlich1]

Different stoves/chimneys react differently in terms of how they burn. On my stove, I rake the coals into a pile in front and add a smaller, really dry, split on top, leave the air wide open, and let that split burn, then add another if needed. This gives out some decent heat while burning the coals down.

And if I have a situation where it's real cold, and I'm full of coals, and I want heat, I have a nice lidded bucket and I just shovel those coals out into that bucket so I can get a raging fire going. I don't really do this but maybe 2 or 3 times a season, if that.

 

[Dune]

So I'm getting a lot of coals at the end of my burn, to the point that it's limiting my ability to load more wood unless I let it burn off. Which takes a while, and isn't putting out much heat. I'm getting a great secondary burn, hot fire, at least for a while when I choke it down. Should I open it back up when the flames die down, or not shut down the air as much to begin with?

Just learned this from BeGreen. Only happens a few times a year in this house, where it is so cold out that I burn so much wood in so little time that the coals build up too much. Put a couple splits of pine in the stove, use a little more air. Pine kicks more heat than oak, and allows the coals to burn down, plus pine doesn't leave coals.
A nice trick to balance things out a bit.

Other than that, more inlet air helps burn down the coals.

 

[davidmc]

I usually just open the damper and then open the door and if the stove has a lot of coals you will get and hour or so of strong radiant heat from the door being open.

I can raise the temp in the area 5 or 6 degrees by doing this in the mornings. Just let it burn down until you have the desired coal bed.

 

[jharkin]

When you say "opening up the air" you mean the draft? I thought opening the draft means the heat is going up the chimney? I'm still learning. I have been keeping the draft closed and loosening the door a bit to get the coals red and burning. I also break up all the big chunks into smaller pieces.

Sounds like I'm doing it wrong.

We mean opening up the primary air control. I do this too. If yo are running hot and hard as soon as the flames die off and the temp starts to fall open the air all the way - coals burn off and maintain the temp longer.


I think a lot of guys get confused because every stove company uses different terminology for the controls. What some companies call a primary air control, others call a draft control. But in either case its actually the air intake.

the bypass is another confusing one. Blaze king (and woodstock?) call the catalyst bypass a bypass, vermont castings and some others call it a damper. And some people have a stove pipe damper which is a totally different thing....

Maybe we need a terminology guide....

 

[firefighterjake]

Different stoves/chimneys react differently in terms of how they burn. On my stove, I rake the coals into a pile in front and add a smaller, really dry, split on top, leave the air wide open, and let that split burn, then add another if needed. This gives out some decent heat while burning the coals down.
. . . .

This is what I do when necessary . . . usually with a softwood slab or softwood split.

When I find myself with lots of coals left I try to do better at managing the reloading since often too many coals means I've added wood too soon . . . the exception being when it is wicked cold out and I'm feeding the beast more regularly to keep the heat output high.

 

[raiderfan]

I always had this question too. I always was told to rake the coals to the front and open the air wide open, to let it burn down. But that was with my old Jotul 602.

With my new stove I do the same thing, but was confused as opening the air would let the heat go up the chimney. Is it a trade off of sorts? Meaning, if you want to burn the coals down, you have to sacrifice the heat of the coals up the chimney, by opening up the air full? Or does heat from the coaling stage work differently than in the middle stages of the burn?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We do nothing to the coals but just about the time or just before all is burned down to nothing but coals, we open the draft fully. At this point, don't worry about sending heat up the chimney as it won't affect the flue temperature much but you will get the coals burned down before the stove gets too cool. Then when reloading, we either rake the coals to the front or simply smooth them out evenly. It works if you have good fuel.

Less than great fuel, then you may have to add a few pieces of kindling or a split of fast hot burning wood. Pine can work great for this.