Fire bricks: How to arrange bricks in wood stove?

HDRock, I have been checking with the laser thermometer. When the charge of wood is burning well, the cast iron sides average about 550 and the flue starts at about 250 right out of the stove and is about 200 by the time it goes out of the upstairs bedroom ceiling into the attic. If I were to damp it, I think the stove would be up at 600 or more -and that might be too hot, no? Right now, the room is about 80 deg.f. and the upstairs bedroom seems about the same. I don't stuff the stove. I charge it with about 4 pieces of wood at a time. So I think we are good.

 

Do you check the top of the stove if the sides are 550 the tops definitely hotter than that..
250 straight out of the stoves actually kind of cool, I run mine with the pipe about 350 when it's going no less than 300.
When it actually starts getting cold you going to have to put more wood in there

 

HDRock, When the charge is burning well, the bottom halves of the sides are running around 550; the upper halves of the sides are about 400; and the top of the stove is around 350. The flue is from the upper back of the stove, offset. Flue usually is around 250 with the afore-mentioned temps. I am also surprised that the top of the stove is always cooler than the bottom. /// At this moment, it is 39 deg. outside. Before I fired up the stove, it was 60 indoors. An initial charge of 4 pieces and then 3 additionals added at one per hour, brought the indoor temp to 80. Of course, as it gets colder outside, I will be adding more pieces to get my preferred temp of 80. (BTW, I am burning crappy white birch -something I will not do when it is really winter and cold!)

 

HDRock, so, for comparison, this morning I lit up a charge of seasoned maple and oak. Bottom half of stove reached 780; upper half 550; top plate 400; and flue 250. As you already likely know, the difference between burning white birch and burning maple/oak/ash is like the difference between driving a '60s era Volkswagen Beetle and a new BMW!

 

Alden, here in interior Alaska, Birch is the best firewood we have! Second is White Spruce, third is Black Spruce, then we have Aspen and finally Cottonwood. I assume our wood species are somewhat similar to at least part of Maine. With the White Birch, also assuming we are speaking of the same tree, I like to strip as much of the bark off as possible after splitting and before stacking, that way it dries better.

Nice job on your stove, too!

 

Alden, here in interior Alaska, Birch is the best firewood we have! Second is White Spruce, third is Black Spruce, then we have Aspen and finally Cottonwood. I assume our wood species are somewhat similar to at least part of Maine. With the White Birch, also assuming we are speaking of the same tree, I like to strip as much of the bark off as possible after splitting and before stacking, that way it dries better.

Nice job on your stove, too!

 

Jhummel73, Well, hello Alaska! Growing up, I dreamed of living in Alaska. I was like obsessed about Alaska. I would take out every book from the library about Alaska. Kids in school used to say my hobby is Alaska. I remember, when I was about 12 or 13, I tried to get a pen pal in Alaska (I give away my age here!) but somehow I never did. Anyway, I did not know that Alaska does not have plenty of oaks, maples, etc. Well, you use what you have, as they say. I originally did not intend on having a wood stove for heat. I wanted to build a Russian stove -and I may yet get to do that. Birch would be fine in such a stove. That is, in a furnace type firebox. But I find that it simply does not give off nearly as much heat as oak, maple, ash, and others in a cast iron stove. I found myself with four white birch logs and, of course, I wouldn't just toss them aside to rot. I bucked them and split them (too lazy to remove the bark) and find that they are ok for the chilly nights of October in Maine, but after that, I think I have to burn the higher calorie stuff. Three or four pieces of seasoned oak heat up my small house. With the birch, I need about double that. And I love the snap, crackle, and pop from the other wood. I always thought cottonwood is a great stovewood, but you seem to have it in last place. Do you have yellow birch? That is much better than the white birch.

 

Well I've got a little experience with this because 3 years ago I bought my house and it came with a small cast iron stove in the den. I went online to learn how to use it and Google brought me to two forums. Of the 2 I'm only still active here because the other site is kind of up tight and snarky. There's lots of information but this place seems to fit with my personality a bit better.

Anyway. After a few hours reading I knew I wanted a new stove but I ran that cast iron stove for the first winter. I played with all sorts of fire brick set ups with many different out comes. I used my angle grinder and a masonry wheel to cut the bricks.

My best outcome was bricks on the floor and 1 row a along the sides and back. I cut them and wedged them in. I got only a little less heat from the stove but a much cleaner burn. The hearth below was cooler as well. There was more ash and less chunks when the fire went out. Hard to put a number to it but it probably burned 40% cleaner. The room took only slightly longer to heat up but the stove also held the heat longer after the fire was out. Until the brick was installed I never had coals to restart from. That was also a big plus in my opinion. With the brick installed the coaling stage of the burn lasted much longer as well. That will be beneficial if you are only going to light a fire in the am and the pm. The heat will stick around longer.

I'd play with different configurations of the brick but my suggestion and vote is brick on the floor and 1 level on the sides.

My second suggestion is to save up and get a more modern stove. Outside of out laying the money a newer more modern stove is all plusses and no minuses. More heat from the same wood. Longer burn cycle, cleaner burn cycle, better clearances. It's pretty much a win win.

I went with a woodstock ideal steel and I love it.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Hey, Babaganoosh, your 2 cents is always welcome. BTW, every weekend or so I make babaganoosh. Love it. I toast the eggplant over coals. Anyone who has tasted my babaganoosh talks about it forever. /// As for the bricks. Yes, I took nearly all of them out. I left the layer on the floor and one level on the back wall. I am now quite satisfied with the heat output. I have a thermal battery behind the stove and it heats up to about 190 and stays warm for a long time after the stove is out. As for a new stove, well I am not sure about that. I am 61 now. None of my kids will take over this place when I go to the happy hunting grounds. And on a very tight budget for the next couple years. So I think I will have to make do with what I have in place. If I change anything, it will be to build a Russian fireplace. That is what I really wanted but had no time this year to do it. I put it on the future projects list, lol.

 

Well no Alden, we do not have yellow birch, but wish we did!
I first came to Alaska first in 1987 and left in 1994 as a member of the Air Force. I returned again in 2001 and retired from it in 2004. I continue to work full time though I am nearing retirement. Attached is a picture of the old Earth Stove in the house I bought in 2003 (also my Newfoundland puppy Beauty, who lived 8 years, sigh!) I used that old stove for about 12 years. It was a smoke dragon as they say but produced a lot of heat. I finally replaced it a couple of years ago with a higher efficiency one which cost me about $1200. I still have an earth stove I use in my detached garage as supplemental heat in there.
My experience with the fire brick is it lines the bottom and extends up about as high as the wood is stacked. It protects the metal and refracts the heat for hotter fires. In fact, in my current stove, the manufacturer does not recommend stacking the wood above the level of the fire brick.

 

Jhummel73, My brother also served in the air force and lived in Alaska for a while, years ago. I think the place he mentioned was Ketchikan. I think that, had he stayed and settled up there, I probably would have made my way to Alaska and I would have escaped the city a lot sooner in my life. But I am very happy here in Maine. The people of northern Maine are like no other I have ever met in my life anywhere. Plus, I think the cost of living here is much less than that in Alaska. And I am only about a twelve-hour drive from family in New York. /// So, no yellow birch Well, though I diss white birch, I have been burning it for several days now and it is doing well enough for me. Actually, even though it cannot compare to oak and maple, I see that it is still a decent stovewood. It is not, in fact, "crappy," as I had described it. /// Regarding sizing of the wood charge for a cast iron stove, with bricks just on the floor and one layer at the rear, the wood will, of course, be above the bricks. But my temperature readings indicate that the cast iron is not going above 800 deg.f. long enough that I would concern myself about the metal. And the wood is in the center of the stove -not against the walls. And I am very happy with the storage I am obtaining in the thermal battery barrier that I have behind the stove. I think she will be just fine. Even when I burn the oak and maple and she goes up past 900, I am not worried. I do not overstuff the stove and I do not have it running full blast for long periods. I start out with about four pieces, typically 16" x 6" x 4" and I add a piece about every forty minutes or so, as necessary. Whether burning the birch or the oak, the rooms are very comfortable. Of course, I know that a lot of heat is going out of the chimney. My temps taken where the flue enters the chimney (at the ceiling of the upstairs bedroom, about 150, tell me that there is some loss. But that is the nature of the beast with stoves. I think I will be removing even the one layer of bricks that I have at the back wall of the stove. That should give me a tad more heat going into the barrier and hopefully a tad less going into the chimney.