After dealing with coaling. I have also learned that the best way to operate a stove in my humble opinion is too load on the coals with big sized dry splits but you have to leave some room up front on a east/west load to lay some nice high quality kindling made from like oak. This takes up room you could load another row of large or medium splits but I have come to the opinion from doing this night after night and day after day that getting the firebox heat up to operational levels as quick as possible is key to higher performance from the stove. I have just loaded large splits totally and left the door cracked and waited for the stove to get up to operational temps that way but it takes too long and seems the extra time burns up alot of the larger splits. Its works but not as good for me as using kindling. The kindling will ignite and burn fast and get temps up quick and lets you more quickly get the stove primary air shut back down for your over night long burn. I want to highlight that using kindling split from a high btu wood like oak heats things up quicker than say pine kindling.
I have pretty much been doing the same thing by putting small splits what's left of the space in front of the stove when I load it up. The small stuff in front catches pretty quick and gets things going for a quick shut down to cruising speed.
"but I have come to the opinion from doing this night after night and day after day that getting the firebox heat up to operational levels as quick as possible is key to higher performance from the stove." With this last cold spell and keeping the stove hot with a ton of coals I am in total agreement, stove works so much better at the higher temps.
Yea Just have to pick a day to deal with the charcoal. Keep it hot & burning as long as there's room to add a decent night load. A big pile of coals burns down pretty hot when on high.
With my little stove in these cold temps I shy away from the larger splits over 6" diameter or so. They may burn longer but they don't seem to burn as hot and they also tend to build up a larger coal bed. I like to fill my fire box with 5-7 smaller 3-5" diameter splits verses 3-4 larger splits.
A good coal bed shouldn't need any kindling. Keep air open 100% to get things going, then after a few minutes, shut it down. The kindling is taking up valuable space that would otherwise hold a large split or two. As the burn goes into the cooling stage, open air more to keep the heat pumping and further burn the coals. Last night's load and what it looked like 10 minutes into burn. Air shut almost all the way (1/2" open) and secondaries raging. The 30-NC is a secondary beast. Doesn't take much time to get her up to temp and burning clean and proper. Especially with a decent bed of coals.
Dexter I think my problem is my wood is on the upper end of acceptable moisture range like 21%. Your wood looks really drie the cracks in the ends look pretty good and dry.
That would definitely lead to some trouble. Although 21% isn't terrible. This Ash is 3 yrs old, as is the OAK that's about to be up next. Catches quick, burns nice and doesn't coal a lot (depending on how hard I run it and when I open the air more in the burn cycle).
I agree with Dexter. However, many times I'll put one split of red or soft maple in the bottom front. This maple lights off super fast and burn hot which gets the rest of the load going quickly.
