My mountain of coals

[chutes]

So I've been burning for about 24 hours straight for the first time. I'm loading NS. For some reason - probably something that I'm doing wrong - the majority of the coals are at the back of the stove, so that each time I insert a new split the back end is high up near the roof of the stove and the end closest to the door is low. I'm guessing that now I should let the splits in there burn up to the point that I can get in there with the poker and smooth out the coals, making them flat? Is that right? How do I avoid this in the future (or do I need to)?

Also, is it okay that a couple of the splits are touch or nearly touching the top of the stove?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Most stoves burn front to back, so that the coals up front are burned up first. As you keep loading, reloading- they accumulate in the back. Pull them up front with a shovel, or your eyelids. It's OK for wood to be piled right up. Unless it's really f'ing cold- I'd pull coals up front and let it burn down a bit. That will use less wood.

 

[glacialhills]

You need to rake all those coals to the front each time you load. also if you need to decrease the coal load, after raking forward, just put a few softwood splits right on the coals you just scooted up front and burn and check again. after one or two burns with some light splits it should burn up those coals to a manageable level. But always rake the coals forward and leave the back bare to keep the coals at a manageable level.

 

[chutes]

Thank you both for the responses. The splits that were in there are now burnt down so that I have what I would call 5" or so of really nice coals. The coals themselves are coming up to about the bottom of the window of my door. Stove is still cranking out some good heat - my magnetic Rutland reads about 400F. Should I let these coals cook for awhile so that my coal bed is smaller, or should I level of the coals at this point and throw on new splits?

My thinking is that if I keep throwing on splits, won't I eventually have too thick of a coal bed?

 

[Adios Pantalones]

coals give out heat. Let them die back. You don't need to add wood to "burn them down"- they will burn down themselves. If you want more heat, pull them to the front and open the primary air a bit.

A bed of coals like that won't create creosote- that happens with newly introduced wood- so don't worry about a low thermometer reading right now. I can't imagine that you need so much heat today that you need to keep feeding, unless you just like the new toy LOL

 

[chutes]

Thanks. Not really needing more heat right now, but was thinking about the creosote issue that you addressed. Mostly just want to keep a nice bed of coals going so that it is easy to have the fire tonight when it dips down again.

Thanks AP

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Creosote is smoke and water condensing. Coals don't smoke. remember that and you're golden.

 

[Jags]

And to kind of reinforce a point above. If you DO get to thick of a bed of coals and need to burn them down (say the dead of winter when you are running it hard), its as simple as raking them to the front and opening the primary air. If you do that, and they are not producing enough heat output, just throw a couple of small splits on the coal bed and pour the air to it. (keep in mind that you are to always stay within the safe burn temp range for your stove).

That will burn down the coals, and keep your temp up.

 

[burntime]

+1 on what jags said. I usually add 2 small splits to burn it down, rarely do I have a lot of coals unless I let the stove really rip!

 

[gpcollen1]

Yeah - rake the coals forward into a pile and add a split on top. Close it back up and you get a decent burn while the coal bed burns down a bit. My stove top temps still stay in the 400 range when doing this = good heat still...