Re-load on hot cat

[Cburke]

Hello. First winter with my ashford 30 and so far love it still learning. Question about hot reloading. Is it ok to add wood to the stove to extend the burn while I’m at work so I don’t have to come home and re start from cold? When I wake up I’m at around 40 percent wood left and by the time I’m home the fire is complete and no coals left. I worry about damaging opening the door to throw a few splits in while the cats still active with a half load or less in it. Thanks so much

 

[Tron]

You can certainly do that. However, you should open the bypass for a few minutes before opening the door to let the cat cool down (depending on how hot it is, if barely above active zone, probably not all that long).
That sends the gasses directly into the flue and the exothermal reaction in the cat ceases, allowing it to cool down a bit. Not to room temperature, of course, but lower than the active state.

After the reload, open the thermostat wide with the bypass still open, wait for the wood to catch on fire (couple minutes) and then close the bypass and dial down.

 

[Cburke]

You can certainly do that. However, you should open the bypass for a few minutes before opening the door to let the cat cool down (depending on how hot it is, if barely above active zone, probably not all that long).
That sends the gasses directly into the flue and the exothermal reaction in the cat ceases, allowing it to cool down a bit. Not to room temperature, of course, but lower than the active state.

After the reload, open the thermostat wide with the bypass still open, wait for the wood to catch on fire (couple minutes) and then close the bypass and dial down.

Awesome that’s re-assuring I was afraid of thermal shock to the cat. I’m burning insanely dry American beech this year and it doesn’t burn quite as long as the white and red oak I primarily burn.

 

[Highbeam]

Hello. First winter with my ashford 30 and so far love it still learning. Question about hot reloading. Is it ok to add wood to the stove to extend the burn while I’m at work so I don’t have to come home and re start from cold? When I wake up I’m at around 40 percent wood left and by the time I’m home the fire is complete and no coals left. I worry about damaging opening the door to throw a few splits in while the cats still active with a half load or less in it. Thanks so much

Yep, there are people that just keep topping off their BKs all winter long. Never using a second match.

I reload my princess every 24 hours and rather like to let the house cool off a bit before a full reload since starting up that fresh load releases a little burst of extra heat.

 

[Cburke]

Yep, there are people that just keep topping off their BKs all winter long. Never using a second match.

I reload my princess every 24 hours and rather like to let the house cool off a bit before a full reload since starting up that fresh load releases a little burst of extra heat.

Yea it’s quite a different experience than my last stove which was an epa tube stove. That stove had to be run in cycles. I really love that I can have the ashford run 24/7. With little effort. My old stove was 4 loads a day to keep the house comfortable in the dead of winter this has been 1 load a day so far we hit a chilly stretch here so burning a bit warmer than we were last month. I’d imagine come January and February it’ll eat up some wood. But for now this is a nice change! And not a melt your face off heat to which I like.

 

[Highbeam]

Yea it’s quite a different experience than my last stove which was an epa tube stove. That stove had to be run in cycles. I really love that I can have the ashford run 24/7. With little effort. My old stove was 4 loads a day to keep the house comfortable in the dead of winter this has been 1 load a day so far we hit a chilly stretch here so burning a bit warmer than we were last month. I’d imagine come January and February it’ll eat up some wood. But for now this is a nice change! And not a melt your face off heat to which I like.

If you need more heat you can almost crank through 4 loads a day. The ability to slow it down and match your home’s needs is very nice.