Secondary eye candy

[begreen]

I had a nice thick split of wild cherry on top of the doug fire splits in a reload last night. Once the fire got burning we were rewarded with a very nice secondary display. This lasted almost two hours. It was better than what was on TV.

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Folks have asked about the PE secondary burn so hopefully this will illustrate what it looks like when the stars are aligned and the wood is right.

 

[Enplater]

Up here in New England we have hard wood and if you even mention burning soft wood “you’ll burn your house down with cree -o-soot”. People just don’t get it, but the white pine we have here has a lot of pitch in it.
Where I’m trying to go with this is, to get that nice secondary burn with hardwoods it NEEDS to be well seasoned wood, or you’re going to have a hard time. For example I was burning some oak that’s been seasoning (css) since Nov, 2021. It didn’t burn well and not easy to get secondaries but a different species of oak of the same age worked great the past 2 years. Oak can be tough to work with.

 

[stoveliker]

I agree.
I'm burning oak now that's either 4 or 5 years old. I tested a few splits earlier and it's between 14 and 16%.
It's very easy to get nice blue orange flames at the top (even without secondary air...)

The annoying thing is that it takes off before I'm done reloading, making for interesting testing of my gloves and sleeves. Especially when trying to pack the most in the box.

 

[begreen]

We're normally burning Doug fir. Our hardwood stash is from various yard projects and is seasoned for 3+ yrs. I gave my splitter to a friend in need last year, so there won't be a lot of hardwood in our stove once this stash is gone unless I buy it.

 

[SkidKid]

I had a nice thick split of wild cherry on top of the doug fire splits in a reload last night. Once the fire got burning we were rewarded with a very nice secondary display. This lasted almost two hours. It was better than what was on TV.

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Folks have asked about the PE secondary burn so hopefully this will illustrate what it looks like when the stars are aligned and the wood is right.

When you achieve secondary burn like this, is your air control lever all the way closed down? If so, do you ever have to let a little air in after a while to prevent it from going out or getting a back puff type flame that comes on with lack of oxygen?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I usually run with the air slid to off. It’s outside temp and wood dependent as the stove needs to be drafting well.

 

[SkidKid]

I usually run with the air slid to off. It’s outside temp and wood dependent as the stove needs to be drafting well.

Ok gotcha. I am still trying to learn how to run this stove.

 

[begreen]

When you achieve secondary burn like this, is your air control lever all the way closed down? If so, do you ever have to let a little air in after a while to prevent it from going out or getting a back puff type flame that comes on with lack of oxygen?

Yes, the primary air control was all the way closed. However, the air control never closes off completely. That is by design so that the fire can't smolder. There also is unrestricted seconday air still being fed through the baffle.

Note, that I mainly get this kind of display when burning hardwood. I rarely see it burning doug fir.