Just curious why? I've seen this process referenced here many times but I don't think I've heard the explanation. I grew up burning wood in an air tight wood stove and although I don't currently burn wood at home, I do burn wood at two different hunt camps as well as at my cottage. We have always just spread the coals out evenly to burn down or before reloading. What is the advantage to raking the coals forward first?
Coals that get pushed up against the back wall of the firebox dont get air and dont burn up. Pulling them forward does two things, stirs up and loosens the coals so that they get some oxygen and creates a flat floor of coals to put new wood on. Nothing worse than trying to stick a large split in that has lots of clearance near the door, but there is no room to put it all the way in due to built up coals at the back. Usually by the time you get it in to the back, the bark has already began to catch (birch) causing much swearing
In addition to the points Scooby referenced I'll add that many of our stoves have a certain amount of primary air entering right at the lower front portion of the firebox which helps to burn down the coals as well as heat them up to reignite the new wood being introduced. In my case I like to have them raked thoroughly forward to allow room for a LARGE split or round at the back of the firebox. Placing it back there usually results in many coals being left behind after 8 hours or so. Rinse and repeat.
I had the same question but have a follow-on question: My wood furnace has two 1" holes in the bottom of the firebox where air flows from the ash pan cavity up into the fire. I have noticed that when clogged with coals, the fire slows greatly and can die out if the ashes don't drop through the holes. I have not been raking forward because I don't want to starve it of air. I can try pulling the coals forward for a more complete burn, but I think I'll have to open the damper on the door a bit to ensure airflow. The damper has two 1.5" holes in the door that varies from full open to closed. Should I be raking forward and keeping the damper open? David
I think me and you have been over this before. For some reason my burn time seems to be betterer if I put all the hot coals to one side. Could it be I'm not burning the coals down enough?
Great advice. I have a smallish caste iron burner and it doesn't take much for the coals to collect at the back.
North/south If it helps any it's an old all nighter big moe. I usually rake them forward and burn them down then push everything to one side when I load. Wonder if maybe I'm not pushing coals back with the splits I'm loading and they just light off more.
What kinda stove you got? You gotta take into consideration too that this is only my third year with it. Wood is pretty dry. No sizzling or water coming out this year at least. I also split on the big side. Please try during the day. I wouldn't want to be the blame for waking up to a cold house. Like many have said each stove is different.
I planned on doing it when I could keep a eye on the stove, I was just wondering what it would do, dont think it will work that well but I am curious. I have a Drolet but a pre EPA stove in the shop I could try there also as I am always in the shop when the stove is running. I remember another guy raking the coals to the middle of the stove and using them like a piece of wood.
I guess you could kind of look at it that way. I do kinda use them like a piece of wood. I put the biggest piece the furthest from them and stack as many big pieces as I can in the stove before going to smaller pieces. Sometimes the big piece touches them, but I try to use a "blocker" piece to burn first.
u wanna rake coals to get good airflow in the coal bed. The coals burning are charcoal and are burning much hotter than a( open flame on a log burning) per say. Coals are much hotter and the more thick a bed the hotter ur stove gets. Thats where u really generate heat.
All good stuff here, but the bottom line is, you have to figure out what works in "your stove" Says the old timer
What I do- rake forward and put a split of softer hard wood on top - air control wide open dog house creates a jet that blasts at the coals burning them down under the split on top, split on top burning creates more draw for the blast effect after a a couple shots of that time to reload, so I center the bulk of the coals down the middle and load up. I try to leave a bit of a channel to the back for the dog house air which of course is blowing over/ through the heap of coals in the middle seems to work ok for me. If I were to put a big split in front of the dog house it will just drill a hole through it and it takes a lot longer to get things hot enough to off gas and fire the secondaries . I must be doing ok as my utility bill (NG and E combined) was $107 for the period of roughly Jan 17th till the end of Feb. ( coldest stretch of weather we had this season). ( bad part is almost half of that is distribution and meter rental charges)
