Now that it's getting colder I've been burning black birch, 15-20%MC on the meter after splitting. Compared to my lower BTU species (tulip, cherry, soft maple), it seems to take longer to get it going to where I can turn down the air and hit a higher stove top temp (like 700-750*F) during the subsequent off-gassing phase, even with the air all the way shut down. It lasts a good long time, but does seem to leave a lot more coals. Any advice on smoothing out the initial heat burst and/or how to deal with coaling up?
Black birch is high BTU wood - higher than red oak. With the dense woods, takes some time wide open to finally get the load burning well, and by that time, I find it near impossible to stop a full throttle burn for the rest of the cycle until coaling. Hard to stop heavy coaling with cold temps too - I open the air wide open once the flames are done and start raking the coals every 30 min or so if I'm home. After 2-3 hours they are usually burned down enough for the next load. I'll also shovel out ash more when temps are very cold - don't want a lot of ash insulating the coals when I'm trying to burn them down. A split of pine on top of the coals can also help burn them down faster. Trying to move a lot of wood through the stove when temps are real cold is a challenge for sure, and coupled with strong draft at low outside temps, harder to control the fire. Sounds like you are doing just fine with the burn, just need to get those coals down. Cheers!
Thank you!! This is basically what I've been playing around with. Sounds like I'm doing all I can. It's been a blast learning how this stove and different woods react. Just don't want to overfire.
I worried about over-firing my Hearthstone Mansfield for the first few years, but I've found it can handle a lot of heat - I don't worry anymore and let her roar! Love your stove! Cheers!
Yep heavy coal beds just seem inevitable & I do the same if I'm home. Rake and give it air, also do a split on top at times. I had to stay up an hour longer than I wanted to last night just so I could get some wood in the box.
Same here the last few nights - told the wife too open that air at about 2pm and she forgot - had to push my afternoon fire back and then push the night fire back to about midnight - not happy! Cheers!
I took this week off of work and it's been pretty cold, so I've had all sorts of of time to mess around with the stove.
No. For now I open the top (as in my avatar picture) and run a fan on it when it gets real hot. Definitely considering a blower for this reason.
I only leave the blower on till it calms down ,but when I pull the coals forward to burn em down I run the blower between low n med , it puts a quite a bit more heat into the house than not running it
Cleaning out the ashes definitely helps if you're getting a lot of coals. I think it's due to better air flow through the coals since they don't sink into the ash. I like to run a mix with softer woods, and ill adjust the blend if I want less heat or to move the reload time back. I've been running a lot of locust the past couple days; and I had to get up at 2AM last night for a reload because it was about 80 degrees in the house when I went to bed so I didn't want to reload then. Im running all ash this morning to try to compensate so I'm reloading around 4 and 11PM.
After 14 hr, I shoveled some ashes out and still had enough coals to light off a new load. That said, it was not really making much heat. I let the oil furnace kick on after 10 hours or so. I can definitely see how keeping up with the ashes will keep the coals burning instead of burying and insulating them.
Thats funny. BB doesnt leave any coals in my boiler. But only oak and locust does really. Any idea on MC? Mine is ready to go in 18 months.
Lots of heat. A little concerned of overfiring. I just brought down a 1/2 cord of red maple to mix with it. The great news is that I have a bunch of black birch in my woods.
Guess I'm spoiled then. I've had some (.5 cord) in a rack just outside the door for cold-emergencies for a couple years. Among other stacks, all down around 10/-%MC outdoors. Leave it stacked near the stoves for X days, and it's almost bone-dry. Lights quick on the coals, and I can close the draft real quick. Nothing noteworthy here about coaling or ash content. Beautiful stuff- I'll take all I can get.
