Once I tried the top down method.....I was hooked. That's the way I roll. Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
Now I'm intrigued. I have never heard of a fireback but would love to push more heat into my living room. I've experimented with a fan nearby but it doesn't seem to help. Did this make a big difference in heating your room? Now I'm shopping for a new toy!!
Outside was like 25. That's with NO heat on indoors other than the fireplace! It works and everyone I've convinced to get it (again, no affiliation) can't believe how much heat it throws into the house. Now obviously you have to be very aggressive with feeding the fire if you want to max it out like that. Surprisingly that day it felt great and was not stuffy or uncomfortable at all. But we typically keep it at about 75-78 or so. Building the fire upside down works well with this grate. Fires start super fast and all the heat hits the bigger splits on top since heat rises.
I do a cross cross applesauce dealie with the kindling, then lay the normal splits on the well going kindling. Stopped using any paper or cardboard 2-3 years ago, Way too much smoke.
Put what ever is in reach in the woodpile without having to get dressed, in the stove. Grab MAPP gas torch Depress trigger....
Thanks for posting the link Geoff C . It's all about getting that massive bed of embers. That's what's hot and with the reflective back it holds the heat in the firebox longer, allowing it to reflect back into the room. Coupled with the gentle pull of the Ecofan it's pretty darn effective and costs $0 in electricity to run as it is a thermal electric generator and runs on the heat differential between the bottom plate and the cooling fins of the fan.
Awesome, thanks! Gonna show this to my boss, maybe he can get some more heat from his fireplace. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Kind of rack some ash in the ash pan. Pull coals forward and if there are a few throw some wood in and close the door. Tends to take off after a few minutes. Adjust as needed. The IS seems to be pretty easy to get going.
This time of year to start a fire = toss kindling on coals, try to add splits before kindling takes off, close door, come back 15 minutes and close damper.
But why is it smoking? The wood is really dry. It was cut way back in September, and the tree only had half its leaves.
This is really how I start a fire.......by splitting some pin oak in January 2022 for winter 2023/2024. Last pin oak in front, the 7 rounds in the back are Ash.
My house stove always has enough coals to fire in the morning. My shop stove just the opposite, I have to restart daily. I put 1 split in the back horizontal then 1 Firestarter square then another split toward the front, I light the square and then put 2 pieces of thin splitter scrap vertical over the 2 splits. I then put a small preferably super dry or junk split on top resting on the 2 scrap pieces leaving air gaps. I leave the damper and door open and have a raging fire quickly. After 10 minutes or so I close the door then when it's going good I close the damper.
Thanks guys.....looks like you owe me $500. I bought the grate and back reflector yesterday . Can't wait for it to get here. Do you cut your splits to the size of your grate or go shorter?
Typically the fireplaces I've seen are all wider towards the front of the firebox (i.e.closer to you) than they are at the rear.....So the grate should only be as wide as the back wall. But because of the flare, it can accommodate splits wider than the grate.......Which is one reason why I don't like shorties too...because I'd have to go two wide to maximize wood stuffication and then stuff starts wobbling all over the place. And so to answer your question, you can buck/trim your rounds slightly *wider* than the length of your grate. That said, I like to go 16" splits because they stack nicely and my grate is a bit wider than that. Glad you made the choice - you will see that there is nothing you can do that's more bang for the buck if you have an open fireplace than what you just did (minus getting an Ecofan but at $85-$100 it doesn't make too much sense financially if you are on a budget but does make a nice difference in getting more heat out of the fireplace).
