Ok I am sure this has come up many times before but I just have to say why did I not try this 20 years ago. Just bought a new Jotul F500 V3 stove watched all the videos about lighting top down. How could I not have tried this years ago. This was today in the old Harman TL300. Can’t wait for the Jotul to get here.
It’s an option. Personally I just fill the stove with normal splits, no kindling and stick a few “fat sticks” in a hole and light em up.
One of several ways to start a fire… I just put a 1/4 round of Super Cedar in and let it do it’s thing. Beautiful set up… a very nice center piece…
gboutdoors , what do you like better with the top down? Does the top down help if a person has draft issues, since the starting fire is closer to the pipe/chimney?
That’s it exactly I find the stove heats up faster. I don’t use paper just three fat sticks six pine kindling all stacked on top of my large splits.
I've tried top down multiple times over the years, in multiple different stoves...not a big fan...but if it works for you, and gets your wood toasted, do it!
What do you mean fat sticks, is the same as what we call fat pine or lighter pine? Do you scrounge it from the woods or buy it? Fat/lighter pine is excellent. I think it's mostly obtained from the center of old pine stumps. Heavy with resin, which is super flammable..
I will stay with my bottom up. I can get the stove up to temps in nothing flat. Why change what works good. Maybe some have not figured out how to do a bottom-up fire.
Top down, bottom up, whatever floats your boat. I follow the "It's cold enough now that my fire will stay running 24-7 for the next 4-6 weeks til I sweep the chimney" method.
What I found impressive is how clean the whole woodstove area is. looks like something out of a magazine. I'm old and still burn from the bottom up like I've done every winter for over 40 years.
Same here. Top down will work but I seem to get a quicker fire the other way around. I will say I do things a bit different. With cold stove I like to lay 2 splits on bottom with a slight Vee. Lay a small piece of super cedar and light it. Then put small stuff followed by a medium split or 2.
Ive never tried top down. But that may be because I really dont keep a healthy supply of kindling splits. Normally, I use whatever coal is in the bottom of the stove. Quick hit with the torch and the ash door open and I essentially have a forge within 3 minutes. This morning there wasnt much coal, so it was splitter trash then the splits on top of it.
