East/West and North/South loading.

My garage stove is long, north to south, so that's the way it's loaded.

My house stove allows me to cut 16 inches or under pieces and still load north to south and about 18 east to west. So I do north to south for full loads in the AM, or for overnight burns. If all I'm doing is throwing in a piece or 2, I don't really worry about how it's in there.

 

E/W for me. The Regency Hampton stove accepts 18" logs E/W and only 10" N/S. Not sure what the debate is really about. Burn your stove as it was designed. My stove burns very well E/W.

 

Debate? Thought it was a discussion.

 

#metoo

Started at the 9:18 mark to show what I was discussing.

 

A little confused on whether that qualifies as a debate.
Must be missing something.

 

Point was, it is a discussion on the subject, not debate.

 

I cant read very well this morning.

 

If your stove did not have a front door, which way would you be loading the stove ?

I like N/S loading because if you top off in the middle of a burn you don't get your hand quite so warm.

 

E/W.

If no front door, then I'd load via the side door, as I do now.

 

I've switched to burning N/S in the day (that's right, 8" chunks!) and loading E/W for nighttime. It just works for me, especially with a lot of bigger wood that was too knotty or whatever to make nice square logs for E/W

 

I prefer north/south loading because I can get more in. If I do east west, logs have a tendency to want to roll out the door. My sister has a napoleon insert in her fire place and the fire box it about 16x16 so it’s nice to go either way.


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My PE T5 only gets loaded N/S as that's how it's designed. The air in at the front and burns front to back. Once it's all settled in you can turn the air all the way down and it pretty much burns like a cigarette.

Occasionally I'll load some longer splits a bit diagonally but the only way E/W splits would fit in there is if they are about 14" or less.

 

This exactly for me as well.
If they are a little long I sometimes go NE to SW , you know sort of diagonal.

 

If it is possible I wonder how wood would burn if it was stacked straight up and down ?

 

Nuggets often end up in my stove that way.
I tossed some in last night on end before bed and when I woke up, they were gone, I didn't watch them, but they did burn.

 

Run a few test burns and let us know?

 

I like N/S loading the best, myself.. When I had a PE T5, that is how I loaded (as another poster just mentioned). I then moved to this house that I am currently in, and it had a VC WinterWarm ZC fireplace. That sucker was designed for E/W loading and I did not like it as much. We then finally got around to replacing that for the HS Montgomery and I believe it is "designed" for E/W loading, but I am trimming my 18 and 20in splits down to 16in so that I can load in a N/S orientation.

I've tried both ways in the short time I've gotten to burn in it and I feel that I can totally get more wood loaded with the N/S and better burns. I also have Andirons in the front of my stove which makes things a tad more difficult (thought of removing them, but then thought better ).

 

When I do some cutting I'll cut some to size.

 

NS all the way for packing it full to the tubes. I cut most of my wood 13" just so I can load NS.

 

That's exactly what I would have to do to avoid the andirons in my unit. I currently have a mix of 20" and 18" splits, stacked outside. 20" from the Winterwarm that I did not get to use and 18" splits for this new unit, that I also didn't get to use, since this project of installing it has been on hold for so long. I thought I was going to be ok because the manual stated that it would take 20" splits -- what I failed to realize was that the firebox tapers back from 20-18in and the only place a 20" split will fit is RIGHT behind the andirons, in the front, then they have to get smaller the further back I load!

So I started to process loads at 16" and that allows me to rest them up against the andirons or fit between if I turn them on their sides. 13" would allow me to fit them flat, right up against them. This was the very reason I was initially thinking of taking the andiron out.