YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE CORRECT!!!! There were 2 variants of the 13 NC. Mine ingests all of it's air from near the OAK manifold. My 13 has the ash pan plug off center to the left (when looking into the stove) vs. in the center (in front of the dog house)!!! Mine pulls air from the OAK area. The other 13's pull secondary air via holes near the front legs.
When I was looking for a stove I looked for a square firebox so I would have the option of loading either way, well I have loaded east west of few times, I don't care for it I don't even try it anymore, loading north-south I can put the puzzle together and pack that bugger up nice and tight. The square firebox still does come in handy if I want to cross stack for a cold start
I'm really surprised why most stove makers don't put andiron in there to keep wood from falling onto the glass. Quite naturally our Fireview does have them and we've never had any wood on the glass to my knowledge and no problems loading E/W. But we also don't have a blowtorch effect and the fires last a lot longer even though the useable space in the firebox is about the same.
I just installed my IS HYBRID and have only run a few ns loads thru it so far. I've only had to use one layer of splits so it's tough to compare yet. It will take 18 ns and 22 ew. I've got a bunch of wood that's ready for this burning season cut to 16 for the old stove so I'll be doing a lot of ns loading. I've got a few cords cut to 20 for next year but I'm thinking I might want to cut to 18 because then I can load whichever way I want. I do like ns loading for the lack of splits hitting the door. My stove has andirons so it might not happen much but who knows yet.
I do not know. Small window and I have to lay on the cold floor to see fire. I just opened the door, too many ashes to see
How does one load a stove with "andirons" in place??? From a "side-loader" like yours Dennis, I can visualize!! But other stoves...............???????!!!!!!! Remember............I'm not arguing here..................just saying the OBVIOUS about my 13.!!! But anyone has hints that I've not tried in this "bad- boy", I'm all for it!!
I load E/W......for better or worse. I wish I had a hint for you, but I am not asking WWW to cut all the rounds/splits in half again. Its confining compared to previous stoves and needs babysitting.......BUT cheap heat, especially in power outages is awesome
The Woodstock IS very smartly has andirons that fold down (forward toward you) so you can load, then put them back up, and close door. Great design.
Most front loading stoves you can't have but if you had an Ideal Steel, you could have both. The andiron fold down when loading the stove. I suspect it could be done with some of the other stoves but might be difficult getting them made to fit right. Hopefully other stove makers will take the hint that Woodstock has given with the andirons. Sorry Machria, I had not seen your post before I typed the above. I just quoted Whitey to answer then came to your post after reading all the rest.
I have a front/top loader and it has andirons. Short ones but plenty adequate to keep the wood off the glass, usually. Nothing wrong with the wood touching the glass on occasion tho. The only time I've had wood on the glass is when I've gotten a bit sloppy loading.
