i load my wood in my stove sideways..i c alot of people on here load longways.....is there an advantage?
load longways or sideways?
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I load east to west (sideways) during the shoulder season and during the day when I don't need a lot of heat. I load north to south when I want to pack as much in and get a lot of heat out of the stove during the coldest nights. You can see it burns differently and longer too.
Depends on the size of your stove. If you have an insert that only takes a 11" N/S Split, then probably , NO. But if you have a Larger Firebox, that is as wide as it is Deep/long, then it will be. The Englander 30's Primary Air, is the air Wash. This Air comes in from the front of the stove. So a N/S load makes sense (Burn from one end, to the other). I have yet to have a single Fire in mine (installing this weekend), but I have Cut my wood, and planned accordingly to do a N/S load.
Just seems easier that way. My fireplace I have loaded E/W (Of Course) for years. It must be loaded like that. Does not make sense to cut or split 8-12" splits....
So it all depends on if you can fit a larger log and the way the air is introduced/burning of wood.
Just seems easier that way. My fireplace I have loaded E/W (Of Course) for years. It must be loaded like that. Does not make sense to cut or split 8-12" splits....
So it all depends on if you can fit a larger log and the way the air is introduced/burning of wood.
Playing around with log positioning will very the burn times. With EPA stoves that have glass wash, the more "open" the log pile (more holes which secondary air can access) the more it can burn. In my stove, if I load E/W, I don't get a good burn. It's as if the fire is attempting to burn on the side of a log and I don't like the heat output. I always load N/S.
Andrew
Andrew
The other advantage to a N/S load is no log roll. I personally only load N/S but I got a big firebox in the Mansfield. I have heard some scary stories of logs rolling out with an E/W load but it all really depends on the stove design.
Shawn
Shawn
shawneyboy said:
Same here - N/S only unless I cut the splits too long by mistake. I find my Mansfield burns poorly E/W - the first bottom split seems to hinder the primary air from getting to the rear splits and it can take a longer time to get to good temp on the stove. Seems to always leave an unburned pile of coals in the rear of the stove. N/S is the way to go for my setup. Cheers!
Really only one way to load my stove since it's a side loader but I usually have some shorties about 10" I like to burn in the shoulder seasons and I can lay those in there N/S. What I find with my stove is those shorties burn up much quicker and hottoer since the air has an easier path to the back of the stove and circulate around the whole box. Burning E/W my stove will burn from split to split starting with the top front, bottom, then move on to the back splits. Much longer burns with an E/W burn in my stove.
Because the Jotul stoves (not all) have a wider design than a boxed design, we are forced to load E/W most of the time. As the Swedishchef mentioned, in the shoulder season I will load N/S with my shorty's and punks, I'm able to load those tight into the firebox and get a little more out of it.
I prefer NS when reloading the stove on coals. But in shoulder season and often when I'm starting a new fire I criss cross. Usually bottom row is NS then EW and maybe another EW on top. Does any one else criss cross?
I only load n/s and would never purchase a stove that didn't allow for n/s loading with normal length splits. I tried loading e/w once and placing the rear splits in a hot stove was no fun, I'll never do it again. With a side loading stove you load straight in so loading e/w wouldn't bother me in that situation.
steeltowninwv said:
We changed to burning north/south for safety reasons, less of a chance the split will hit our glass.
zap
My Oslo has a rectangular fire box so it's east-west loading for me most of the time unless I have some chunks . . . occasionally on a very rare occasion a split or round may roll up against the glass, but the glass is pretty tough stuff (most folks who report breaking "glass" seem to be in the "slammed the door shut and pushed the wood against the glass" camp) -- the worse that has happened to me is sooty glass as the wood pushed up against the glass affects the air flow.
I lay the bottom splits touching at the very rear of the firebox and spread apart in the front, so a diagonal N/S. Then the next splits on top of them are more of a diagonal E/W laying across the tops of the bottom splits.
I do this to allow for good airflow between logs. I don't ever lay my bottom splits E/W, as in my box at least it seems like they don't burn or catch well.
I do this to allow for good airflow between logs. I don't ever lay my bottom splits E/W, as in my box at least it seems like they don't burn or catch well.
I love N/S in both my stoves when I can fit the splits in there that way. But that is only by mistake. Both my stoves have small fire boxes and to cut for N/S would make them so short they are hard to stack.
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