Rake Coals Forward and Stove Start-up Pictures

[Oldhippie]

Not sure about your situation but most of these front loading firebrick lined burn tubes in the top epa certified stoves, its basically getting part of your load of wood off hot coals so you can load all the way to the bottom of the stove. Loading all the way to the bottom I can get 3 medium sized splits instead of just 2 splits if they were raised up on the coals. Plus by the wood not being on hot coals that wood wont be burning for a while , your basically getting the front of the stove burning then it will burn its way back to the back of the stove but that will take some time and this will increase your burn times. Plus some people are worried about the stove getting too hot as if you load all the wood on hot coals the thing takes off and can be burning much more wood all at one time and could possible create an over fire condition.

Got it! I'm going to give that a try, my airflow is different, so it might not work the same, but.. I might even look in the manual and see what they say.

 

[corey21]

Also if you rake the coals forward you can achieve a cigar burn. With all the wood on the coal the wood will out gas all at once this is good if you need quick heat. But if you want long burn rake the coals forward this really slows things down a lot. Sometimes i dont rake the coals forward just all depends on what suits one user to the next.

 

[RIJEEP]

Thanks to the OP in sharing this technique. Very well documented. I'm looking forward to trying it!

 

[robertjp]

OK so basically by raking the coals forward and putting the wood on the brick itself, it slows everything down so the wood can burn longer?

 

[Wood Duck]

OK so basically by raking the coals forward and putting the wood on the brick itself, it slows everything down so the wood can burn longer?

Yes, by raking the coals forward some of the wood is not placed on hot coals so it doesn't light right away. That gives a somewhat slower burn. although in this case it sure wasn't very slow! I am going to make some oak kindling and give it a try.

 

[corey21]

Yes, by raking the coals forward some of the wood is not placed on hot coals so it doesn't light right away. That gives a somewhat slower burn. although in this case it sure wasn't very slow! I am going to make some oak kindling and give it a try.

Another thing that helps is to close the air sooner.

 

[MnDave]

This is definitely bumpworthy. Nice job Huntindog1.

MnDave

 

[Mackj]

I am getting far better burns now with this technique. Just tried it the first time about 2 weeks ago. Go to bed at 10 up at 5 nice bed of coals. I have been experimenting every night with different wood combos, sizes, and shapes. 1 of several tricks I learned directly from this site!

 

[Mitch Newton]

Here is a pictorial of Raking coals forward and loading stove.

Move your pointer over pic for pic name which is a description.

Nice load!!