How to burn slow without melting my stove?

I went out and got some nice one year old ash off the outdoor piles. 6"x6", 7"x4" barkless splits, that sort of thing. It was rained on last night, so perhaps it's too wet for tonight, but it should dry quickly enough in the stove room overnight and I can try it tomorrow. Or maybe just one of them in the back of the stove tonight.

I do have some honey locust that was cut a few years ago but just split in January. That's probably still too wet.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions.

 

Totally agree with you on how you fill the stove. Brian K's example was a good one, when he used the blocks and recorded the epic burn.
I try to do the same when I reload too, fitting everything in just so.
That was a good tip

 

As BDF had mentioned, a decent coal bed vs a small one makes alot of difference before the overnight reload too. Sometimes I get caught up in
other things and by the time I get back to stove duty my coal bed is smaller sized (cooler) coals. Unfortunately, in order for that stove to get back up to temp
again I have to burn down more of the fresh reload until it can be set for the night.

I hadn't thought of using an odd "less dry" split before, this is the first time I've heard of that. However, my overnight burn is only 8 hrs so I'm not sure this would
make a difference to me. I generally get up to a large bed of coals that are sometimes very tall, I will then reload and knock it down quick for the daytime burn.

I get approx. 11 hrs for the daytime burn and by the time I get back to it in the afternoon, the coal bed is smaller but not so cool that it takes awhile to heat up again.

 

Last night seemed to go better. One piece of wood was a bit too long and got stuck crooked so I didn't get as much in as I wanted too. There was a nice coal bed and it was starting to burn before I finished loading At most it was 80% full. One piece was a damp one from outside. It took a while to get up to temp, but then I turned it down to the first big notch. After 2 hours, the flue was working up above 550 and the cat was around 1400. I moved the air about half-way between the first big notch and all the way closed. The temps began declining, but the cat seemed to be staying up above 1300 after 1/2 hour so I went to bed.

This morning, 11 hours in, the box was still about 1/3 full of charcoal, flue showed 230 and the cat showed about 550. I opened back up to just above the first big notch and the flue climbed to 300 and the cat to 650. 12 hours in it's still going good

I would consider that a very successful burn cycle. It's going to be warmer for a couple days so I'll let the fire die out and check the cat sled to see how things look.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Dry wood is generally good and we beat it into ourselves so much that the idea of anything less than bone dry is bad. I actually think wood can be too dry to make good firewood, and I know kiln dried pine lumber is WAY to dry to burn if you are looking for any length to the burn.

My splits live outside, uncovered, and rains and snows on them. They do get a little time on the porch and mostly dry on the outside but I doubt any of the splits have any less than 20% moisture in them. Just my opinion but, say, 8% moisture in the same wood would be too dry, burn too fast and hot and not give long, overnight burns. So if someone has three year old, covered firewood that has managed to get down to maybe 15% or a little less, I think mixing in a couple of 25% or even 30% moisture splits will serve to slow the entire burn and even it out quite a bit. Certainly there is some heat cost in driving off the moisture but to me that would be entirely offset by having a stove put out almost all of its heat between 10:00 PM and 3:00 AM in the morning, leaving very little heat for what is usually the coldest part of the day.

Brian

 

Yes, that sounds like a great burn.

It takes a while to get to know how the stove reacts, and info. from others is only worth so much because we do not have your wood (Easy Boys!), or your draft. Each install is unique when you get to the finer points. Anyone who knows how to burn firewood could use your stove but it would take anyone a significant amount of time to learn just how to tweak it for best performance. It sounds like you are doing great and pretty soon, you will be able to predict how the stove will react to different conditions; for example, when really cold, a chimney usually drafts harder and the stove may need a notch or two less draft opening. That sounds backwards but it is often the case.

I think if you have the right attitude in that there is a learning curve, it can be quite interesting to learn how it all works together IMO.

Brian

 

I agree with everything Brian just said. Even after a few years now we are still finding ways to tweak a little more heat and burn time out of these stoves.
I like that the IS community has a strong following here and we share information. I don't think I would burn as well as I do today without
other IS folks bringing their quirks, improvements, catalyst data, hiccups and anything else that happens for everyone else to see.

 

Yep, I agree with that (not about you agreeing with me ) but rather this is a collective basket of knowledge. I have only been a member here since 2014 or maybe 2013 but the collective knowledge already here was really impressive. I have learned a lot from following threads on this (as well as others but this is the only one I visit regularly and the only one I contribute to) forum.

Woodstock does have a strong following here but it is not alone, which is a great thing because how would we Woodstock owners ever learn of other ways to do things? And besides that, it is a very civil, actually friendly bunch, so I find information is shared freely without the brand nonsense that can so often take over forums and make them biased at best, and downright nasty and useless at worst. There is more than enough room in the world for several, even many, brands and types of excellent wood stoves without any one having to be the ultimate. As I have said many times, three different stoves came right down to the wire before I bought the I.S. I own now, and neither of the other two were ever discarded as no good, or of lousy quality, or anything like that. There were certain features and aspects to the one I did finally choose that no doubt do not matter or are not very important to others and so a different stove would be a better choice for that person.

On a different note, I am for the first time this year burning oak again, after burning a LOT of silver maple (pest maple, virtually a softwood with little density and lousy firewood IMO) and I have to say, this is like sex, only good! Slow burns, much more even burns and a nice layer of coals left a dozen or more hours later. Now to try and order a truck full of log- length oak for the next couple of years....

Brian

 

This is a pic of how my catalyst probe is positioned. In a black box when I load it I see temps of 1500° with stove top at 600° or less. I have seen and recorded cat temps over 1600° a few times. Not on purpose and my draft was set low woth those temps, and no sign of cat damage at all. I usually have my draft one or two notches under the first big one. 2-3 yr dry ash and maple is all I use.

 

This is how I load my stove. Fill halfway to the frt and all the way to the secondary plate, light 1/4 piece of a super cedar and fill the remaining space.

 

Pretty much every night the magnetic thermometer demagnatizes and falls to where it is in this pic. It starts out with the center hole even with the catalyst probe hole.

 

See Coyoterun... I am not that smart but I know who is..

 

Because they knew that when people saw 1500 degrees they'd get nervous...
They were right