To fully open the draft before opening the door is right. However, it is not to just prevent that smoke or heat coming into your face but the draft should be fully open when you reload the stove. This quickly gets the fire established and also evaporates much of that remaining moisture in the wood.
The main reason for putting the coals in front is that most stoves are designed for air to come in the front! So, get the coals there to burn them down and to quickly light the next fire. In addition, when fully loading the stove for an overnight burn, we rake the coals to the front then place a large split or round in the bottom rear of the stove. This piece is one of the keys to building a fire that will hold longer. So if we can get all the hot coals in front so that large piece sits on ash rather than coals, we get a longer burn time.
Not to engage quicker with a hotter fire. Remember that the first thing which happens is the wood heats. As this happens, the moisture evaporates. You want that moisture out and up the flue rather than through the catalyst. Moisture is not the friend of a catalyst! So, don't try to engage the cat quicker, get the fire established and most of the moisture out.
Thanks Certified. I intended to comment on the temperature but forgot. I would hesitate to reload a stove with it in excess of 350.
Not much difference between the two types. They work the same way. We used to have a stove we loaded with the splits vertical. Worked great.
Those temperatures were stove-top temperatures. The cat temperature will be a lot hotter than the stovetop! I have no idea what the combuster temperature is when we reload. I pay no attention to that at all. However, when we reload, we then watch the stove top temperature, the flue temperature and also watch the fire. One sort of gets a feel for what the fire should look like and the temperature gauges confirm it. But for us, the biggie is that flue temperature. You don't want that flue getting too hot. I've never understood people who open the draft fully then leave it full open until the stove top gets up. That is wrong! Usually the flue gets too how but even if it is not too hot, you will be wasting a lot heat. Turn the draft down after the fire gets established. That will keep the heat in the house rather than sending it up the chimney.
Because my Buck is an insert I have no idea what the stovetop or the flue temps are. I do have a stovetop thermometer but the only place it will go is on the front just above the door and to the left of the by-pass handle about 4" so its accuracy is doubtful at best. But I've picked up a couple of good tips here.
I still can't fill my insert full without causing the cat to go thermonuclear. Shoot, sometimes I can put two splits of oak in it and in a short time the cat is near or even in the "too hot" zone on the thermometer. 2.5 years with this unit and I still have trouble getting it right.
I still have my dad's . Would also burn coal, had the shaker grates in the bottom. Two winters when I was a kid I fed that thing pine, cedar and cherry because that's all we had. I dreaded the cherry being gone.
Yeah , I should have made it clear, the draft should be fully open when you reload the stove , it is a given to me, but to new burners it may not, be
Wish I had advice for ya but I have no experience with a cat stove , but different kinds of wood my require different settings
I have tried pulling the coals to the front and it does not seem to work as well for me. Putting the coals to the side and loading the other side heavy with wood gives me longer burn times. I guess like its been stated before every stove is different. It may have to do with the amount of coals i have at reload time also. When i pile them up i have a pile about the size of a medium split. Might do a little more experimenting. Are most of you guys refering to a modern stove and pulling the coals forward, because mines an old smoke dragon?
I get quite a bit of air from the door glass air wash, so pulling the coals to the air wash stream for restart works best.
I never bothered to rake the coals this way or that on my old, 8 cubic foot firebox stove, I just threw everything in on top of the coals
I read that on here before. Maybe I am reloading to soon, I don't know, may try it some more. I am pretty happy with the burn times I have been getting lately though.
I have my next lot of splits sitting 6 inches from the stove on the hearth lined up together. If you put warm wood on your fire instead of cold/room temp wood it lights up like you have thrown diesel on it. I get the house up to temp and just throw a couple in every so often and then load it up well before bed.
