Why not burn down the coals?

Appearently Im missing the obvious. For those with excessive coaling, Why not burn at a higher draft setting through the duration of the load, to burn the coals down? Excessive STT? Room temps mid burn?

 

If the stove is undersized for your needs, the stove does not provide enough heat during this coaling stage of the burn.

What is an STT? Stove top temps? If so, then yes. Using the 30 as an example, I can have the air "closed" with a stove top of 750. Opening up the air could lead to an overfire. Or, at the very least, beating up a stove that is staying at temps of 850+ way too often.

Opening the air more as the stove progresses will only get you to the coaling stage sooner. Your stove temps will maintain a higher temp during the burn, but your burn time will not be extended much, if at all.

During really cold temps, the Heritage would give me 4-ish hours of heat. After that the stove top would sit at 250-350 for several hours. But those temps were not high enough for comfort during cold periods. I would have a huge bed of coals with a stove unable to give me the temps I needed to keep the house warm. So I would reload with a big bed of coals. This would continue until I had a huge bed of coals and would either be forced to burn down the coals as the house grew cool, or shovel out the coals.

Usually you will see that people with coaling issues, that aren't using wet wood, need their stoves to stay at, or above the 450-500 degree range during cold temps.

 

At 300, I could be happy for several hours. It all depends on the space and insulation. I get cold at less than 200 which about what I'm down to after 6 hours or so.

 

Depends on what burn down means, down to what heat output, cold stove?
OAT is another factor.

If I'm home, I rake & put a couple split on top, run on high.
If I need longer heat output, load as much in as fits, burn on a high setting.
Burn down if needed when time & temps allow.

 

I think size of splits play a roll as well. I bet a lot of people figure the colder it is outside the larger the splits they should use. I find the opposite is true, smaller splits burn hotter and don't coal up as bad. You may lose some burn time but if you need the heat you need to sacrifice burn times.

With this record cold I've been burning 2 or 3 loads hot with smaller splits then save some bigger splits for the longer overnight load.

 

I agree when my wife is home and the outdoor temps are really low she will burn 4-5 split loads hot which keeps the btu output of the stove up and the coals down!

We only have to do this in sustained low temps below 10 degrees due to the fact as my basement temps drop my heatload on the house goes up exponentially!

 

Dave lets discuss your coaling. You are one of the few that has coaling problems with a cat stove (I think). I'm sure it's due to the extreme OAT that you are facing. So, for example, if you have and OAT of -20F for the overnight low, and you typically set the draft at 1 for these conditions, and burn down the coals in the morning to maintain the coal bed-- What would happen if you set the draft to 2 (for example)? Surely you would have fewer coals to deal with in the morning.? What is the downside for you, at higher draft setting to control coaling?

 

To explain my lack of understanding a little further, I've had wood heat most of my 39 years, but I've never had an undersized stove/coaling problem. We have subtropic winters also.

 

Another thing I was going to say that you hit on is you don't always need to stuff the stove full, 3/4 loads can give a good hot burn with less coaling.

 

You kinda have to experience a BKK to grasp it. The thing holds a ton of wood, and it is really wide, but only 18" or so front to back. It is also 6-8" below the door. So, the load burns from the middle out to the sides, but only an inch or two below the door opening, because of the way the 'airwash' works. I cleaned out most of the ashes the other day, so I end up with a coal bed 4-6" deep, across the entire bottom of the stove, doesn't really matter what the thermostat is set at. 'Slotta coals.

It tried to take a pic of what I have left this morning. I couldn't really get a good one with this phone, but I got this super cool shot of an oak sparky shower at the right time

 

If I turn down the air for a long burn I will get too big of a coal base. If I give it more air the temps are too high on the stove top. When I get home I will open the door wide to put heat into the room and burn down the coals. After Certified106 posted his thread about his damper, burn times and coaling I will add one since it has warmed up.

I have had this hanging on the wall for two years now. Might as well put it to use.

 

You may or may not need it........ with the warmup we have had I am back to not using it and its burning great.

 

How great it is to have this warm-up!!!

 

"If I turn down the air for a long burn I will get too big of a coal base. If I give it more air the temps are too high on the stove top"
Exactly, the non cat (and cats can do it) are known for doing the coaling thing and if your house wont stay warm during the coaling stage you will end up with even more coals with the wood added.
Of course not so dry wood will make the problem even worse.
Read a lot of info on this and it seems like the people who live where it is warmer and or have a smaller house don't have the issue as much.

 

My stove kept me nice and warm during the cold snap we had but I had to work around the coal base issue. I will install the damper so it is there for the next cold snap, also I will see if it will change any of the characteristics of my stove in the mild temps.

I have had my stove for several years now and have talked myself down from a Jotul 600 and now everyone is posting about the Ideal Steel stove. If I don't keep myself occupied tweaking the T6 my mind will wander and I will start looking at different stoves.

 

The new regulations are going to turn the stove buying thing upside down are they not?
The Jotul 600 might have been a better option for me, more radiant heat for a quicker heat output and I guess they are conservative with the BTU ratings.

 

Awoke this morn after an 8 hour burn to a 70° house, and lots of coals. Dry wood, and the stove isn't undersized unless we get below zero, and that usually doesn't last more than a week or so.
Put 2 small splits on e/w after raking some to the front.
A couple hours later, most of the leftover coals were gone. I did it again, and now I'll need to get some ashes out of there.
Coaling isn't always a "problem".

 

I like coals, they extend my burn without overheating the house like a bigger load of wood would. I tune the coal bed with the depth of ashes in the firebox. The more insulating ash, the more the coals build because they don't burn down as fast. If the ash gets too deep, I get more coals than I want. If there isn't enough ash, the coals burn out before the house temp calls for more wood- so it's either add more wood and be overly warm or build a fire later when it's out.

I control the ash depth with a poker/ash pan. If I don't agitate the ash on reload, it builds in the FB. If I overly agitate, it all goes to the ash pan. The colder the weather, the less ash I leave in the FB=the faster the coals burn down=the more heat I ultimately produce.

WS ash pans are awesome, have we beat that horse already?

 

A dead horse can be rode a lot.

 

Awesome!!!!!! Loaded a 3/4 load at 7:30 last night and it was 72 in the house at 7am...... My wife reloaded at 10:30 by pulling the coals forward and put 4 small- medium splits in which will get us through until tonight! So glad to see the wood consumption going back down!