I do very similar, I was told by stove manufacturer I have crazy draft in chimney. since everyone stove, chimney and house are different. I say do what works best in your situation.
I'm sure this technique is fully functional, but.. I don't WANT the bottom logs burning. I want the top layer ripping hot but it's better for longer, cleaner burns to have the fire centered at the actual combustion chamber peak. That said, I bet that a lot of differing opinions in here are because of stove btu capability, vs house size, vs r-value, etc. Like there is at least 2 types of people: - Lives off-grid like a hobo, runs a TSC steel stove and jams 12 cords a winter through it. - Massive 600lb soapstone hybrid in a LEED CERTIFIED Energy Star* home, barely needs a heat source to begin with. ..and that is gonna probably determine a lot of how you run a fire. I still stand by my stance on airflow and velocity though.
Ok, in the interest of science, I documented tonight's fire lighting of a top-down burn. Outside air temp: 56F. Obviously bad conditions for a quick light. I'm running redcedar here. 1 fatwood and a handful of random cedar and osage tinder seen up top. I am going to start the stopwatch BEFORE even pre-heating the flue.: Time: 4:21 Immediately off to the races. Hold the door a little bit closed to amplify the air velocity, and then.. Very lit! Time to close the door now and start building airflow: Perfect. Secondaries lighting off. It's now 4:26. It's been _five_ minutes and secondaries are already lighting off, and it's almost time to start cutting air down.
cezar, that looks good. It seems top down might be good for smaller fireboxes with secondaries above. That may be the difference in opinion and experience here. I have a big firebox (5 cu ft and no air tubes) in my cook stove, and I know other members here have big fire boxes as well. I have been thinking about adding air tubes, but have been too busy to actually do it.
Well, my stove has secondary burn tubes and a runty firebox, and top down is nothing special, at least in my stove.
I've run both types, secondary burn, and non...no love for top down starting. It obviously works well for some though! In the end, potato, potato, it's all wood heat
I guess we better add this to the list then............. Vertical vs horizontal Husky vs stihl Covered vs uncovered Ford vs Chevy vs Ram Stacked vs piles Bottom up vs top down Did I forget any?
Laying splits east/west (across the firebox) or north/south (perpendicular to the door). FWIW I always light fires top down. Big splits at the bottom. Medium splits in the middle. Small splits and kindling on top. With a good lattice of dry kindling a fire gets going really quickly.
Back when I had an indoor burner my go-to was a self igniting torch for lighting the stove. No paper, not matches, just hit a little bit of kindling with the torch for 30ish seconds....heated up the chimney in the process.
The hair dryer trick works better for chimneys in the basement that are especially resistant to pushing a "cold plug" out...its heat, and positive air pressure pushing the cold air out.
LOL! I’m somewhere in the middle. Jotul Castine in the finished lower level of our weekend place. Goes from a 6” outlet with 2 90 degree bends to an 8” external chimney. Takes a little finesse to get going; especially after the house has been empty for a few days and is a bit cool!
Every setup is different. And every fire is different. I spent an hour and a half trying to get a burn going the other night. Nothing worse than walking away from a roaring fire and coming back 20 mins later to a completely dark stove.
Allow me to introduce the inside-out fire. It's both top-down and bottom-up. A thin layer of E-W splits on the bottom, a N-S split on either side, then topped off with another thin layer of E-W pieces. Think Jenga. Put your fire starter and kindling material in the void in the center. Any takers?
