Sill learning my stove, and having a challenge with all nightburns. How do you folks load your stoves prior to retiring so that you burn all night without over-firing your stove? If I load any more than 4 splits, the temp gauge located on the top of my insert goes into the "Too Hot" zone (over 650F). If I load any less, then the fire dies well before wake up time. Am I not closing down the air soon enough? During the evening, I shut down the air gradually once the fire gets blazing...so should I re-open the air prior to loading up for overnight? Thanks!
I think you're on the right track. Not a lot of talk about it yet on this forum because most of us are experienced burners. Secondary tube burners (I'm not) usually shut the draft down in stages. Early on is key as you stated. I think min temp while maintaining secondaries is key. I believe you'll need to open the draft on any reload to get a clean burn going, just start backing it down as early as possible. Some non cat burners will be along with more detailed advice. You may also want to do a dollar bill test of your door gaskets even on a new stove, ask if you need details on that. What height/size is your chimney?
I have found that closing the front air almost all the way down and opening the rear air about 1/3 will result in a longer hotter fire and keep the heat in the box more than going up the flue. Last year I did just the opposite and this year is definitely better.
The cross section of you splits will play a part here also. 6-8" cross section vs/3-4 will make a big difference. You can also play with east/west vs north/south orientation to see if that helps. Of course type of wood used plays a major part in the mix.
Ok, non-cat stove here..... I will explain what is typical for me from a cold start to the coaling stage, and then a reload for overnight. 1.) When I cold start, I use a quarter of a super cedar topped with only a few pieces of pine kindling. I top that with splits, which are from 4-6 inches due to having a smaller stove. The fire will build (seasoned wood) and gradually get bigger. When a fire begins to just start consuming the fire box, I typically close it to just over to half open. Visualize the air being similar to a choke on an ATV in the cold) Now, the fire has gone down a bit and in a little bit of time, the air/wood gasses will be at a perfect mix to close the air down even more. You should be seeing the burn tubes doing there job since the smoke is igniting up top. The flue temp is around 420 (probe;dbl wall) and my stove top is around 400, every stove is different (make/model, chimney length, etc.) Visually, the wood should be starting to char- so there's a visual way to know when to turn it down. Continue to close in stages. The final product should be that the air is turned down enough where the flue temps and stovetop temps have stabilized and should stay put for quite some time. You should get secondary combustion for a couple hours until it slowly approaches coal stage. 2.) When the coal stage begins and the fire is dying out, this is the time to open the air up in increments, just the opposite of what I explained above. Opening the air will help the coals along, while keeping your stove temps from going down too quickly. When it is really cold out, and you need that stove to really pump out heat, you can add a split or two to help the coals burn down even faster. 3.) Overnight heating when a coal bed is in place- You want to accomplish a loooong burn? Typically when you have a coal bed, you want to rake those things forward. When I do this, I will then typically bring in an actual round with a circumference of about 5" inches or a larger split and lay that on the floor, in the back. I then fill the rest of the fire box with splits and repeat the steps I gave you above on how to start turning the stove down in increments both visually and also by gauging both the flue and stove top temps. The large split or round you put into the back on the floor of the firebox will be the last to ignite thus creating a longer burn, and a nice amount of coals to start off with the next morning. Note: All of this really depends on seasoned wood, with a moisture content of 20% or less. This really makes things easier, more consistent, and SAFER! Good Luck! Edit: I added that I have a double wall stove pipe, and measuring temperature with a probe.
I will mention that, when the night temperatures are expected to get real low, like 10 and below, and there is wind too, there is some nights that I will actually get up and reload. This keeps the temps from dropping and having the oil heat kick on, which I absolutely HATE!
Good post, and well said One thing that can be misunderstood is the flu temperature ,if it is not specified whether it is a probe thermometer or a surface mount on a single wall pipe
I find that at least on my stove, Englander NC30 its all about the wood. I can easily get an overnight burn when i load the stove with 4 nice pieces of locust or oak or cherry mixed with 2 pieces maple. I place the harder woods E/W and the softer wood N/S. I normally load the stove at 10pm and let it get nice and hot or until all of the splits are on fire and darkened then i gradually lower the air and by 11pm the air is about 97% shut. I get up at 7 and at that time I have a really hot bed of coals. Again, its all about the wood, it needs to be properly seasoned. It took me a few seasons to learn my stove, and im sure there is more i can learn. hope this helps. Franklin
Thanks fox! I did the dollar bill test upon installation last summer; I will try it again to be sure. My chimney/liner is just over 16 feet tall.
Well, I could not find that post so will just wing it as I usually do. First, you have an insert so there could be some differences. You'll be able to pick them out and easily make the switch to your stove. When we are just reloading the stove in the daytime, we just spread the coals. For the overnight burns, then we like to push the coals to the front of the stove. I really like to get the back part of the stove with very few or no coals at all. Then the first log we put in goes in that back spot and it is a large piece. Either a large split or a round. If we have a small amount of coals then we will put a quick starting and hot burning split in the front bottom. This will help the rest of the wood get started quickly. It all depends upon the outside temperature as to what we put in the stove. If it is sort of a tranquil night, then we'll load pretty easy but you want some long burn times. So let's say we have a night where it is maybe 10-15 degrees as we are stocking the stove and it is expected to be a low of zero to -10 or thereabouts. We know we need lots of heat and a good long burn. Therefore, that bottom rear log will most likely be oak. In fact, most of the load will be oak. But what if the temperature is maybe 25-30 and the overnight is expected to be maybe 10-15. Once again, that rear bottom one will be big, but this time maybe not oak but rather a large ash round or split. The rest will be ash, elm or maple in our case. The difference between the two is that with the oak load, there will be lots more coals; big coals in the morning while the other will have good coals but will no doubt need wood right away. One thing for certain that we do and I highly recommend is to look at the weather forecast. Also, make sure the forecast you read has came out after 6:00 pm because that one will be the most accurate and many times will be a lot different from what was forecast at noon that day. We do this daily and that is how we judge how to load the stove. Take last night for example. Our forecast was for a low of 23 with rising temperatures. Well, it was 21 at the time they came out with the forecast so this tells you that what the forecast is; it is a guide, not an absolute. But, with the temperature that high, I did not put a large load in the stove. I think there were a total of 4 splits in the stove and that was around 8:00 pm (stove needed wood then). This morning I added wood around 9:00. The house temperature was still well into the 70's and there was just a light bed of coals. I put 3 splits on the coals and left the stove door ajar for maybe 3 or 4 minutes. It did not take long to get the house to 80 degrees; just the way we like it. Hope this helps.
