Last night the wife and I were getting ready to turn in for the night, when I decided to take advantage of some coals. So I threw a pine split in the box, closed the door and went to bed. Note: the pine is well seasoned, and I don't recall what my air setting was at the time. About an hour later I went to look at the stove, and the was no flame coming from the pine split. I opened the door, and there was black tar oozing from the ends of the split, and the bark. Creosote I would imagine? Anyway after about 15 seconds of having the door open, the log flamed up and started burning with good heat. What should I have done differently? When throwing splits on top of coals, do you folks always leave the door open until the log flames? Guess it might depend on the coal temperature and the type of wood being added? Also, did I do any damage to the liner from this event? Thanks...
Depends on the amount of coals I have. If its a good hot bed of coals the splits are usually burning before I finish loading. If not and I just have a few coals I will leave the door cracked until I see good flames then close the door. If I just have one or two splits I leave the air more open. If its a full load I will leave it open to get it going then turn it down to the needed setting and let it go.
It is critical that you have the air setting on high when you reload the stove like that. You want the log to start to burn quick and hot to get rid of any moisture. It's not the best idea to load a stove and go to bed right away either, but with just one log you might get away with it, you definitely don't want to fully load up the stove and go to bed. I rarely leave the door open when starting a fire and if I do it's barely open. Don't feel bad we all made mistakes when we started and that's why we have this website.....keep on burning
I don't use pine, for that reason! "No dis respect" In the morning or evening, I open the door to my stove and chuck two or three pieces in. Leave your air settings alone, although I don't know how the Napoleon you have works with coals, it shouldn't be much different than most stoves. It takes time for pine to get burning, even when it's dry, not like a hard wood. Try the same thing some time with a piece of Oak or Maple
Dave it might be a difference in stove types too. Our EPA only takes one split east west on the coals in the front and with the door shut it lights almost immediately. Once it starts up we add the load on top shut the door and that's about all it takes to get it going from a small coal bed.
If the coals are faint, I throw some lumber scraps on top of them. Those take off quickly and I put my splits on top of those.
Sounds like the coals weren't hot enough for the piece to ignite so it smoldered instead creating a condition where your fire was oxygen starved. Once you opened the door it got some more air and was able to ignite. My stove will do that also especially with just one piece of wood in it. So my answer is multiple pieces and make sure it starts burning.
"It takes time for pine to get burning, even when it's dry, not like a hard wood" Dave....Um, what? Not my experience, at all. Just put a piece of pine in the stove today that I found mixed in with my Oak (not sure how that happened), on top of a bed of coals and it caught very quickly. Maybe you have defective pine.
I always wait for a good fire to start on hot coal starts. Get the draft working then adjust the stove. Split was full of pitch, a lot of heat BTU in that split, I wish I could get lots of the pitch filled pine (spruce here) . Primo BTUs Split into kindling, it's a super fast way to get the stove up to temperature.
Yes, always make sure the wood lights up. If loading on coals mine is usually in flames before I can get it loaded and the door closed. Every stove is a little different but the new stoves like to burn in full cycles. Pick out your load, put it in the stove, start it up and get it dialed in, and leave it be for 4-12+ hours. Then repeat. Unless you have a ton of coals one split usually never burns good. My stove likes at least three, and four or five pieces minimum per load is better. I usually have to be on my toes to load pine on coals. I set the splits out, take a deep breath, open the door, rake the coals forward, and stuff it in as fast as possible before my face and arms melt off.
Note what is highlighted in red..... any wood that is oozing any type of moisture is not seasoned properly. Of course if your stove is closed down, it will take a bit longer to get going. Pine should go up pretty fast, because after all its pine. How long ago was the wood split AND stacked? I'm glad you posted this question, as it can help you out, and others in the future. Lots of great comments above!!
Our stove needs at least three splits to maintain fire. Never had good results with only a single split, even on a serious bed of coals. Your pine loner didn' t have a chance to launch or burn against others.
Hi WS...the pine came from a stack where I sampled some splits at 18%. I try to keep my wood segregated by type and approximate split date, but I guess some newer stuff could have been mixed in. Do you think the root cause was the MC of the wood, or the fact that I only used a single split on a marginally warm coal bed without allowing it to catch before closing the door? I agree about the responses on this thread...love this forum!
Definitely the single split. Your oozing was the natural sap coming out. If you had multiple pieces they would have ignited against each other.
Well, the fact that it was oozing means it is still somewhat wet. And it happens, stuff gets mixed in on occasion. I'm not familiar with your particular stove, but I can say, wood that IS seasoned doesn't need to have the door left open. Opening the air should be enough. Using one split should make no difference in the matter. Yes, 1 split is 1 split, and will produce less flame/heat than compared to many splits. If I put 1 split on even alittle bit of coals, it would go right up into flames. My first year of burning was a different story. Black glass, had to leave the door open, etc, and I was using standing dead, which still wasn't ideal. If you do have more wood that may be a bit green, yet mixed in, check your chimney every 2 weeks to a month.
I do not burn a lot of pine, but the type I have, I have not noticed any oozing. Is there a particular kind that does this often? A sappier softwood?
