burn time

[SummerTyme]

Yeah, I'd say that at the 10 minute mark I've shut the primary air down from full to 1/2 in 1 step (with the stovetop around 350 at that point), and within 5 minutes of that I'm know I'm gonna shut it down at least another 25% if I want to keep nice lazy flames going in the box...... the last 25% of shutting down the air is the tricky part for me; I seem to have to do this in very tiny increments so that I don't kill the nice lazy flame entirely (I usually have nice floating secondaries shooting off by this time)... so I guess that last 25% reduction stretch lasts approx 15 or 20 minutes to the final shutdown point.

This is exactly my experience too. I start shutting down draft at 350 degrees stove top and then in increments until at low. This normally takes close to half an hour with a full load of wood. I have also noticed that the last 25% of shutting down the draft has to be done slowly or the flames will start to die too early. I have avoided any over fire problems by doing it this way. But my beef is that it takes so long to get to the point where you don't have to babysit the stove and can either go back to bed if at night or go about your business if during the day. Doesn't anyone else get irritated by having to babysit the stove for such a long time before you can go about your business?

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Doesn't anyone else get irritated by having to babysit the stove for such a long time before you can go about your business?

Well if I had to get outta bed in the middle of the night to do this.... yeah, I wouldn't be overly happy. But I don't mind getting up at 5:30 in the a.m. and having a nice lazy hour to load the stove and babysit it while I offer up a short prayer of thanks, sip on a cuppa and generally mull over my plans for the coming day. In fact I look at it as a sort of luxury that most poor slobs don't get to enjoy because they're laying in bed snoring, or moaning and groaning about having to get up, while I'm revelling, in my mind and in my warm, cozy little cave.....

 

[Cockshutt]

This is exactly my experience too. I start shutting down draft at 350 degrees stove top and then in increments until at low. This normally takes close to half an hour with a full load of wood. I have also noticed that the last 25% of shutting down the draft has to be done slowly or the flames will start to die too early. I have avoided any over fire problems by doing it this way. But my beef is that it takes so long to get to the point where you don't have to babysit the stove and can either go back to bed if at night or go about your business if during the day. Doesn't anyone else get irritated by having to babysit the stove for such a long time before you can go about your business?

I suppose that's the trade off of heating with wood. There are easier, safer, and more efficient ways to heat a home. We all have our reasons for choosing this. The best any of us can do, is tell others what our own experiences are, and try to figure out what works best for ourselves. If convenience and inefficiency means buying a new stove or using a supplemental heat source, that is a decision that could be explored. In my home, the woodstove backs up baseboard heaters. And there is a heat pump on its way too.

 

[rdust]

Doesn't anyone else get irritated by having to babysit the stove for such a long time before you can go about your business?

The joys of a non cat stove. My non cat(lopi endeavor) took a lot of time to dial in, my cat stove(BK Princess) is a treat to run in comparison.

 

[Cockshutt]

You know, this thread is like a play by play for the development of modern heating systems.

 

[nyny]

If it only went by flames my Blaze King burn time would have been under an hour, but 12 hours later it was still throwing heat. If the stove isn't keeping up heating your house in the coaling stage your stove is either undersized or your house needs insulation.

do you open the air back up after the flames die ?

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

The joys of a non cat stove.

I look at the time tending my stove as my "Walden" time; time when I can gaze peacefully upon the fire whilst contemplating the vagaries of life and love: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in....."
I love every minute I spend tending the stove, and I wouldn't give it up for anything, not even for a cat stove....

Cheers Ya'll

​

 

[SummerTyme]

I think I made a mistake getting one of these EPA stoves, if it is normal to have to fiddle with it to get it to the stage where it can burn on its on. I didn't have to do that with my old stove. All I had to do was throw wood in, close the door and go about my business. The reason I replaced the old stove was because it was small and required frequent reloads which was a pain in the butt at night. But it did heat the house just fine with no other heat source even in the dead of winter. Also, my sister has an air tight stove and she doesn't have to babysit her stove on reloads either. I wish they still made air tights instead of these EPA stoves. When I first started looking to replace my stove I wasn't familiar with the EPA stoves and how they operated. But that's what's available these days. I may either put my old stove back in or look for a used air tight with a larger box. I'm not a happy camper with these EPA stoves. Ok, I'm done venting. lol

I have a suggestion though - instead of referring to burn times maybe we should refer to heat time. How long does your stove actually put out enough heat on a full load to keep your house in a comfortable range. So a burn time may be 8 to 10 hours, but how long does it actually put out enough heat in the dead of winter? I think burn times are meaningless if its not generating enough heat over the same period of time.

 

[bsruther]

What is this stove tending you folks speak of? With my pre-EPA stove I felt like I did nothing but tend it.
With the new stove, I set it and forget it. Maybe a total of 30 minutes or so, but I don't need to sit in front of it while it's coming up to temp.
I guess I'm still learning.

 

[Sully]

I run my stove like this. 350 to 400 shut half way. 550 shut down. Sometimes the flames die to quickly so I will open again half way for a few min. Usually though it's just two steps. I do nothing else until it's time to reload. I'm working right now checking my nest thermostat I see the house is 69 degrees. I'm good with that. I loaded at 1030 am and it's 9 pm now. So that's a good burn time and I bet when ever I get home I can get a fire going with out a match , which will probably be around midnight. That's what I consider burn time. I also have 3.2 box which is awesome

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

Likewise, I don't see the stove top temperature climbing into the danger zone, north of 750, so much anymore, but then I'm pretty happy running between 550-650.

is that stove top temp or stove pipe temp? Hottest my Australs been is 500 stove top and 400 18 inches up the pipe. I'd freak out if i ever saw 750 anywhere. wow.
As far as burn times go, i'd classify it from start up to having enough hot coals left over to start a new fire without paper and matches.

 

[branchburner]

After 5 hours I have a deep bed of coals - maybe 5 to 6 inches. If I did not reload after 5 hours these coals would continue to burn down and give off heat. I have still had hot coals under the gray ash 10 hours after the burn if I didn't reload.

The stove is not located in an ideal place, as its in the utility room at the back portion of the house.

I would call your burn time definitely longer than 5 hours from the coal bed you describe... but would not call it ten hours. The stove sound like its working well, but too small for the setup.

I think your problem is a combo of stove location and drafty old house. The fan setup is good but can't work miracles. Consider, if the stove was in the center of the house, in addition to just warming the circulating air and providing convective heat, the radiant heat would be warming interior walls, floors, furniture, etc. Though all that "stuff" is not a real heat sink like tons of masonry, it still absorbs and re-radiates enough heat that it might help keep the living space a little warmer for a little longer.

As it is, in the back room, you are probably using some BTUs to help radiantly heat a few exterior walls that give off heat to the great outdoors.

I bet your old stove held a lot more wood. The newer 2 cu ft box might work if it was in the center of the house, but for the current location it does sound like you need a bigger one.

One question: do you have a single stairwell to the upstairs, with a door that's kept shut? I have a stove of similar size, easily heating a drafty downstairs space of similar size ( but doing so from a center-chimney fireplace). I open the upstairs door only for an hour or two at a time at most... if I left it open 24/7 I could never heat this house as is, without being tighter -- the heat gets sucked up and leaked out like the stairwell was a chimney. If your downstairs isn't sealed off, that would be a problem.

 

[Sully]

is that stove top temp or stove pipe temp? Hottest my Australs been is 500 stove top and 400 18 inches up the pipe. I'd freak out if i ever saw 750 anywhere. wow.
As far as burn times go, i'd classify it from start up to having enough hot coals left over to start a new fire without paper and matches.

I try to keep away from 750, when it happens it happens. I don't freak. Only time I freak is when I pinned out the gauge lol. That I don't do anymore

 

[rdust]

I think I made a mistake getting one of these EPA stoves, if it is normal to have to fiddle with it to get it to the stage where it can burn on its on. I didn't have to do that with my old stove. All I had to do was throw wood in, close the door and go about my business. The reason I replaced the old stove was because it was small and required frequent reloads which was a pain in the butt at night. But it did heat the house just fine with no other heat source even in the dead of winter. Also, my sister has an air tight stove and she doesn't have to babysit her stove on reloads either. I wish they still made air tights instead of these EPA stoves. When I first started looking to replace my stove I wasn't familiar with the EPA stoves and how they operated. But that's what's available these days. I may either put my old stove back in or look for a used air tight with a larger box. I'm not a happy camper with these EPA stoves. Ok, I'm done venting. lol

I have a suggestion though - instead of referring to burn times maybe we should refer to heat time. How long does your stove actually put out enough heat on a full load to keep your house in a comfortable range. So a burn time may be 8 to 10 hours, but how long does it actually put out enough heat in the dead of winter? I think burn times are meaningless if its not generating enough heat over the same period of time.

We see this posted ever year, you will soon get used to your new EPA stove and be happy just like all the others who have typed those words.

Heat time doesn't work either, what heats my house may not heat your house. Heating a house in Washington state is different than heating a house in Michigan. This is not even getting into insulation values, house layout, stove location etc.

 

[rdust]

I look at the time tending my stove as my "Walden" time; time when I can gaze peacefully upon the fire whilst contemplating the vagaries of life and love: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in....."
I love every minute I spend tending the stove, and I wouldn't give it up for anything, not even for a cat stove....

Cheers Ya'll

​

You sound retired and without children in the home. There is no time to "gaze peacefully" into anything around here!

 

[bsruther]

You sound retired and without children in the home. There is no time to "gaze peacefully" into anything around here!

Or maybe he has 5 kids and goes into the stove zone when he wants to escape.

 

[SummerTyme]

I would call your burn time definitely longer than 5 hours from the coal bed you describe... but would not call it ten hours. The stove sound like its working well, but too small for the setup.

I think your problem is a combo of stove location and drafty old house. The fan setup is good but can't work miracles. Consider, if the stove was in the center of the house, in addition to just warming the circulating air and providing convective heat, the radiant heat would be warming interior walls, floors, furniture, etc. Though all that "stuff" is not a real heat sink like tons of masonry, it still absorbs and re-radiates enough heat that it might help keep the living space a little warmer for a little longer.

As it is, in the back room, you are probably using some BTUs to help radiantly heat a few exterior walls that give off heat to the great outdoors.

I bet your old stove held a lot more wood. The newer 2 cu ft box might work if it was in the center of the house, but for the current location it does sound like you need a bigger one.

One question: do you have a single stairwell to the upstairs, with a door that's kept shut? I have a stove of similar size, easily heating a drafty downstairs space of similar size ( but doing so from a center-chimney fireplace). I open the upstairs door only for an hour or two at a time at most... if I left it open 24/7 I could never heat this house as is, without being tighter -- the heat gets sucked up and leaked out like the stairwell was a chimney. If your downstairs isn't sealed off, that would be a problem.

I only heat the downstairs of the house and stairwell has door that is sealed off, so no heat escapes up the stairwell. The lower part of the house is not all that drafty because of blown in insulation and plastic over windows, plus caulking and sealing of any air leaks. I do agree that I may be loosing some heat to the outside walls of the room where the stove is located. But that room registers temps over 100 degrees so a small amount of heat loss to outside walls isn't a big deal.

The old stove had a smaller firebox and held less wood than this new stove. I went with a bigger firebox so that I wouldn't have to reload so often. I'm only heating approx. 1000 sq ft so I would think a 2.25 cubic ft firebox could handle that with ease. And it does a good job - right now its 82 degrees in the living room which is the farthest room away from the stove and the outside temp is at 32 degrees.

My problem is that I was expecting the stove to heat the house all night for 8 hours and that I would not have to do a reload in the middle of the night to keep the temps up to at least 70 degrees. I naively interpreted burn time as heat time. I now understand that the two are not the same. Burn time is from start up to still having live coals to facilitate a reload without paper and matches. But heat time is much shorter. Its my bad for being stupid about how EPA stoves operate and believing what the manufacturer and stove dealer said.

Bottom line is that I do believe the stove is big enough to heat the house just fine, but not for 8 hours on one load which is what I was hoping to achieve. A bigger stove would probably heat me out of the house.

(I heat with wood because the wood is free, otherwise I would have to heat with propane which is very expensive and unaffordable on my fixed income.)

 

[branchburner]

The old stove had a smaller firebox and held less wood than this new stove. I went with a bigger firebox so that I wouldn't have to reload so often.

I forgot what you said about reloading every two hours with the old stove! But I think if I was in your shoes (slippers) I wouldn't bother getting up to reload at 5 hours if you still have deep coals... I'd sleep for 7 or 8, let the house get cold, and fire it back up in the morning. 70f is still pretty warm by my sleeping standards. (So is 60f, for that matter.)

How cold does the house get if you DON'T feed the stove at 5 hrs, assuming its around 20f outside? I guess having the stove at one end of the house makes a big diff, because mine never cools off too much if I've got the house up to 80f before the bedtime loading.

 

[weatherguy]

do you open the air back up after the flames die ?

I only have flames in the first 20 minutes at start up. BKs, are boring to look at but heat a long time. I would open the air up when I got up in the morning and if it was a frigid day I would turn it up after a few hours for the last few hours of the burn. If I could have put a King in my house I probably wouldn't have to do that.

 

[BradleyW]

I wouldn't even try to keep my house at 70 degrees all winter long. If it's 60 degrees in the house when I get up I'm happy. I went from about a 2.0 to 3.0 firebox this year hoping not to have to get up in the middle of the night. Not sure if that will happen or not.
To be honest, I think some people make up their stories of double digit hour burn times. Either their fire is smoky as hell or they just aren't producing that much heat over most of that time.

 

[weatherguy]

I only heat the downstairs of the house and stairwell has door that is sealed off, so no heat escapes up the stairwell. The lower part of the house is not all that drafty because of blown in insulation and plastic over windows, plus caulking and sealing of any air leaks. I do agree that I may be loosing some heat to the outside walls of the room where the stove is located. But that room registers temps over 100 degrees so a small amount of heat loss to outside walls isn't a big deal.

The old stove had a smaller firebox and held less wood than this new stove. I went with a bigger firebox so that I wouldn't have to reload so often. I'm only heating approx. 1000 sq ft so I would think a 2.25 cubic ft firebox could handle that with ease. And it does a good job - right now its 82 degrees in the living room which is the farthest room away from the stove and the outside temp is at 32 degrees.

My problem is that I was expecting the stove to heat the house all night for 8 hours and that I would not have to do a reload in the middle of the night to keep the temps up to at least 70 degrees. I naively interpreted burn time as heat time. I now understand that the two are not the same. Burn time is from start up to still having live coals to facilitate a reload without paper and matches. But heat time is much shorter. Its my bad for being stupid about how EPA stoves operate and believing what the manufacturer and stove dealer said.

Bottom line is that I do believe the stove is big enough to heat the house just fine, but not for 8 hours on one load which is what I was hoping to achieve. A bigger stove would probably heat me out of the house.

(I heat with wood because the wood is free, otherwise I would have to heat with propane which is very expensive and unaffordable on my fixed income.)

You might have been better off with a Blaze King Princess, you could load it and sleep 12 hours and your house would probably be at the same temp is was when you went to bed.

 

[weatherguy]

I wouldn't even try to keep my house at 70 degrees all winter long. If it's 60 degrees in the house when I get up I'm happy. I went from about a 2.0 to 3.0 firebox this year hoping not to have to get up in the middle of the night. Not sure if that will happen or not.
To be honest, I think some people make up their stories of double digit hour burn times. Either their fire is smoky as hell or they just aren't producing that much heat over most of that time.

Or their stove is sized right for the house so the temp doesn't drop down so low that the stove needs to be reloaded. Or they have a Blaze King.

 

[BrotherBart]

You might have been better off with a Blaze King Princess, you could load it and sleep 12 hours and your house would probably be at the same temp is was when you went to bed.

All depending on how much heat it takes to keep the place warm. Just like with your Progress, if ya have to keep it cranking to heat the joint the "burn times" go down. Sometimes low and slow just don't get it done.

 

[BrotherBart]

I wouldn't even try to keep my house at 70 degrees all winter long. If it's 60 degrees in the house when I get up I'm happy. I went from about a 2.0 to 3.0 firebox this year hoping not to have to get up in the middle of the night. Not sure if that will happen or not.
To be honest, I think some people make up their stories of double digit hour burn times. Either their fire is smoky as hell or they just aren't producing that much heat over most of that time.

If this house is 60 when I get up, I screwed up that night load big time.

 

[Wildo]

sleep for 7 or 8, let the house get cold, and fire it back up in the morning. 70f is still pretty warm by my sleeping standards. (So is 60f, for that matter.)

That is what we like and that's about how we do it. BUT
If you have the time to play with your stove you can get every bit out of it.
I'm sure there are a buncha threads on tricks to extend burns out on most stoves if you search around this forum.