Ok, here's the deal. My first year of burning was last year. It was a frigid, frigid winter and I learned a lot of what to do and a lot of what not to do. My wood storage is getting gooder and this year I should have decent wood to burn. I have a good working knowledge on how to season wood, but I really need someone to explain how to get a good overnight burn. I have done a lot of searches, but I must not have the keywords right or something because a surprisingly little amount of working theory comes up as a result. So, what do I need to know about this? I am a basement dweller who has a smoke dragon.
I know with my old smoke dragon wood furnace, i make sure i burn it most of the way down to a hot bed of coals a little while before bed. Then i rake the coals into a pile and load the stove up. Set the air so everything takes off and bring the temp up about halfway to what the stove normally burns at. Then shut the air almost all the way down and say goodnight. BUT, your stove probably acts totally different than mine. It takes time but you'll know your stove like the back of your hand eventually.
Good thread.... I think it really depends. How big is your firebox, how airtight can you make your stove, what fuel are you burning, do you have a pipe damper, etc.? I rarely get an overnight burn, but I'm only at 2 cubic feet. I think the size of splits probably makes a difference too, but I never really try and burn logs. Last winter was a tough one. January and February ate through fuel at a rate that left a lot of us very nervous as to whether we'd make it through. One thing that helps me is to have a layer of ash from keeping the coals from burning out too quickly.
When we were running our US Stove it was all about getting it down to coals and putting in the hardest wood. Once the fire takes off, give it 15 mins or so and damper it way down. Then pray.
Good info. I think one of the things that we didn't do well was we waited for the stove to get up to temp and then shut it down (after loading it). Well, that made it overfire every time. That caused for some moments of reflection. I'm not sure on the cubic size of my firebox, but its pretty good sized.. not huge, but not as small as some of the newer ones. I'm not able to shut it down completely without adding foil or something and it does have a pipe damper. (got the pipe above it red hot once and it really gave me time to pause for reflection). I understand the bed of coals and dampering down, but the part that I struggled with was burning the loaded box too quickly. I think this year I will try shutting down early and see how that goes.
So no damper on the intake? Ours was like that too-- made run away fires easy to get and tough to get rid of. So glad we bit the bullet and got the Drolet.
Not very good at burning the 30 yet, but the Ashley did best with a decent bed of coals pulled to the front with as much wood as I could fit loaded n/s. Get it up to temp, then shut down the air to almost nothing. I'm still learning the best method for the 30, and old habit s are breakable but not easy.
I rake all my coals to one side and then load up as full and tight as possible. Get it up to temp and then damp it way down. I added a baffle to mine so am curious to see if that helps. But like piney said what works for me might not for you. I also keep most of my splits on the bigger side.
I think you showed a pic of your stacks and you did have some pretty good sized splits. I like 'em a bit smaller mostly because my wood isn't perfectly seasoned.
@firecracker_77 yea that would be me. I used to split everything by hand and I guess old habits die hard.
Every stove I think is a little different but I'll give you the Fisher and Kodiak way and you can go from there.... have "no" flue damper so any adjustments are done from the stove front. As everyone has been saying, you need a good bed of hot coals. I don't do anything special with mine, just make sure they are even across the bottom. Then I take the biggest thing that will fit in my fire box and shove it in, then any space left I shove something in there too. Shut the doors, turn the damper valves down to 1/2 turn open and let her go. I usually have a small fire, and "good" pile of hot coals, The stove temp is usually 250 to 300. This works for me with the old Fishers, My old friends Kodiak is basicly a carbon copy and acts the same way.
Here's my old stove/insert...I would rake the hot coals toward the front, load n/s with preferably something like some locust or beech on the bottom. Give it about 10 minutes to catch then close the damper on top to 3/4 or a shade more and close the drafts down to a sliver. That was good for about 8 hrs. 3.0 firebox
