When to reload

[jotul8e2]

Since questions about handling coals and burn times and maximum heat output keep coming up from time to time, I took a look at my own experience and thought I'd pass it on.

First, I have a Jotul Oslo, a nearly perfect draft set-up, and plenty of seasoned and dry oak and hickory. My experience may not translate directly to your situation.

I have found that for the best heat output, while not accumulating excess coals, I need to reload when I have a bed of coals to more or less cover the entire bottom about two inches thick. At that point the fresh load will take off and be producing secondaries within 10 minutes or so, without touching the air control. A fresh load will then burn maybe four hours, depending upon just how full I load it, leaving me with another two inch bed of coals.

If, as often happens around here, it is too warm to keep a fresh load going I can just leave the coals alone for maybe four more hours and still restart. However, I will have to treat it like a new fire with the air fully open, getting the stove up to temperature, slowly shutting down the air, etc. This is what I do of a morning after burning overnight, of course.

I thought perhaps others might want to append their experiences with their stoves.

 

[Osagebndr]

I will generally throw a few poplar splits in mine to burn down my coals as I have learned that too many coals will cause an over fire quickly ( not that I have ) . I can also put 9-10 splits in my stove on a full load depending on size. Then rake coals to the front put a piece of poplar in top and load full with the air open. I usually am shut back down in 20-30 min

 

[Grisu]

Just 4 hours between reloads with oak and hickory sounds awfully short. I get that with pine in a similar sized stove. Not sure if I would recommend adding fresh wood without opening the air. At 20% moisture content, wood still has 1 lb of water for every 5 lbs of wood and that needs to be driven out. With the air fully closed draft may not be strong enough to get that through the chimney.
My reload procedure is as follows:

With still a good amount of coals usually in the back of the stove and stove temp about 300 F, I rake all the coals forward. I drop 2 to 3 splits E-W behind the coals, then fill the firebox almost to the baffle with more splits N-S. With the door slightly ajar I let the wood catch fire, then close the door. For a few minutes I let the moisture boil off with the air fully open, then I start closing the air in stages over the next 5 to 10 minutes. Pretty quickly I can see strong secondaries from the baffle. Usually I have the air fully closed after 10 to 15 minutes. With a full load of dry ash the stove will stay above 350 F for at least 6 to 7 hours before I bother with a reload. I have come back 12 hours later (e. g. in the morning) and found the stove still somewhat warm and enough coals for an easy restart.

If I need to keep the stove cranking, I will use pine that burns quick and hot with little ash. Reloads are then about every 4 hours but the stove temp pretty much never drops below 400 F.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like the difference between "pedal to the metal" burning and shoulder season cruising.

 

[jotul8e2]

To clarify, when I said "best heat output" I was talking about maximum sustained btu production for the stove. The question that seems to come up again and again is how to reload without accumulating excess coals while generating high output.

Sure, I can run the stove five, six, eight hours overnight or while at work, but at a much lower output level. I thought it might be worthwhile to get this information from different people with different stoves and different fuels.

 

[NJ_Burner08002]

Just came across this thread. Wasn't really sure when to reload. Wasn't sure if it was a temp thing or a coal thing. I think 400 is a nice number to stay above. With my insert it's 2-3 hours though. 2-3 splits and it's full. Lol.