Reloading Wood

Does everyone open their damper all the way on reloads or do you leave the damper the way it was at 90% closed. I tried opening the damper all the way but the temp goes to over 600 in a few minutes How do u do it

 

What stove ?

I don't have a damper on my setup.

 

You really need a sig with your stove in there......I'm so confuzzled. (CRS, AKA, Sometimers has a pretty gooder hold on me)
Anyway, are you pulling coals to the front before loading?
If you don't, the whole load catches and starts outgassing, which creates the gates of heck in the stove.
Don't axe me how I know....I'm not tellin'.

 

Yeah, are you talking about a flue damper?
600 on the pipe or stove top?
Still confuzzled.
Details man, we need details.

 

I do rake all the coals to the front always. Its the stove with the 600 temp on the thermostat. Should I put a thermostat on the flue going thru the wall also ? Damper on the stove

 

Jotul f55

 

I open up the air intake all the way, let everything catch, knock down to half way when it hits around 400, knock down to 90% closed around 480-540. I rake coals towards front too, usually.

i have an Oslo.

 

I open mine (I call it an air control) on reloads, then once the stove gets back up to temp, close it back down for the long-ish haul.
dutch said it gooder.

 

Thanks pal

 

Thanks pal

 

I used to do it that way; on a hot coal bed, just pack the stove tight, and leave it alone. It'll burn, but you get a lot of smoke for a long time. The new fuel hasn't quite reached combustion temperature, and it smolders for a while. Like dutch said, you want to get everything to "catch" first before closing the draft. You get a much cleaner burn that way.

Now if you already have a really hot coal bed, preheating to that point might drive you out of the house. Try letting the old coal bed die down a little bit before reloading.

 

I'll try that with the coals die down then reload

 

Full blast for a minute or two, about half way for ten/fifteen minutes, by then I'm at 400ºF and then I can usually turn it down to about 90%. If its not up to 400ºF and the flames die too much when I choke it down to 90 I'll leave it open half way for another 5 or 10 minutes or so. If it doesn't get up to 400 it smokes and stinks kicked back too soon. Overnite burn I'll kick it down all the way after about an hour. I try not to have visible smoke. Just cuz I can with little effort.

I also try to resist the temptation to fill the stove again too soon and let the coals shrink down to just a few even thought the heat output is down.
If it is really really cold I'll throw some pine on the coals to have some quick heat. Might have a wisp of smoke when I do that, but it smells like pine burning ......

 

Hey pal.

 

Good coal bed can heat the house for hours. Open the draft as it dies down to squeeze a little more heat out.

 

I'm with dutch on this one, almost the same reload technique

 

Will try this on the next one in the morning. Thanks Dutch

 

Good stuff. I've been wondering the same thing. I think from what I'm reading, I don't let it coal down enough before I reload. My stove is small and I can't get much more than 5 or 6 hours out of it - maybe I'm just reloading too quick..