small loads in a big stove

[begreen]

The high flue temps that I see are only on startup, not once the stove and fire have settled down into crusing mode. This morning's load was started at 7am. It peaked at around 8am at about 750º briefly, then settled down to 650º and is now cruising at 500º probe flue temp now.

 

[30WCF]

Had a larger than needed non cat stove. All I could ever burn out if it was two splits at a time. Three would run you out and be over 600 STT on a large surface stove. Englander says 600 max in that stove.
It burned clean and hot. Was there way too much O2 in there without packing the box? I don’t know.

I miss spoke and said Englander. It was England’s stove works. Yes. Steel.

https://pdf.lowes.com/productdocuments/23c9092f-9266-47af-bf1d-361343b9584d/04625420.pdf?_gl=1*f5bca1*_gcl_au*MzgzMDM1Ny4xNzAxNjIyNDY5

Snippet from the manual.

 

[begreen]

Englands is Englander. Sounds overprotective. I think Highbeam runs his 30-NC at 650-700º all the time and that is not overfiring.

 

[begreen]

Maybe that was temporary for the Madison and Monroe models? It's not in the new docs for their stoves that I have but I didn't check them all. Anyway, it's super conservative.

 

[30WCF]

I always tried to keep it below that. That stove in my space was too much anyway, so that really makes it hard to judge. 400 degrees when the rocking chair is 4’ from it can be hard to take.

 

[danrclem]

I've only had experience with one wood stove for many years so my experience is limited. Why would there be a difference in the same size load in a big stove and a smaller stove with the same amount of air supply. I realize that the big stove probably won't run as hot because it has more metal and firebricks in it but does it really make a big difference? I'm not trying to imply that it doesn't but just asking.

 

[30WCF]

The bigger stove has more surface area to radiate out from and will throw more heat.

 

[weee123]

My flue temps on mine usually cruise around 450-540. Depending on how far into the burn and size of load in the firebox.

So on the englander 32 when the stove manual originally cane out it listed 650 as overfire temp but it has since gone back to the nc30 description of if it’s glowing your overfiring.

I’ve hit 700 on mine when I had a little too much air space in a 2/3 full load and didnt turn down the key damper soon enough after the stove damper was closed and the flue temps started rising again. 700 is way too much for my space unless its bitterly cold out. Usually I like to cruise around 570-630 at most.

 

[Ashful]

I've only had experience with one wood stove for many years so my experience is limited. Why would there be a difference in the same size load in a big stove and a smaller stove with the same amount of air supply. I realize that the big stove probably won't run as hot because it has more metal and firebricks in it but does it really make a big difference? I'm not trying to imply that it doesn't but just asking.

Compound effect of having less wood (less BTU/h) and also having that wood stacked farther down in the firebox away from the secondary burn system, seems to translate to a much longer time required to get the secondary burn system up to operating temperature.

 

[EbS-P]

Compound effect of having less wood (less BTU/h) and also having that wood stacked farther down in the firebox away from the secondary burn system, seems to translate to a much longer time required to get the secondary burn system up to operating temperature.

Kindling and short but fat splits address that.

 

[Ashful]

Kindling and short but fat splits address that.

Yep. When I'm doing a partial load, I try to grab more small splits, rather than fewer large ones. Best way to get light-off in a reasonable time. I'll also play the BTU/species game, picking more of the walnut usually found scattered in my stacks, and less of the oak.

 

[EbS-P]

Yep. When I'm doing a partial load, I try to grab more small splits, rather than fewer large ones. Best way to get light-off in a reasonable time. I'll also play the BTU/species game, picking more of the walnut usually found scattered in my stacks, and less of the oak.

This is why everyone should have some pine or poplar IMO. But you have a BKs. Kinda a moot point there if low setting is too much why bother with a fire.

I do think there is a point like 3.5+ cu ft stoves that you just don’t have enough fuel to get get the firebox up to temp for clean combustion but again I believe there are better heating methods when heating demands are this low.

 

[Ashful]

This is why everyone should have some pine or poplar IMO. But you have a BKs. Kinda a moot point there if low setting is too much why bother with a fire.

I've been running a lot of short loads in one of my BK's. The "why bother" is the situation where we have cold nights and sunny days, with one of our stoves being installed in a large room with a lot of glass, which cools at night but sees a lot of daytime solar gain. I want to load the stove at night, to have the space warm in the morning, but I want it to die out by noon to prevent overheating the space in afternoon, even on the lowest setting.

I've posted about this before, but this ability to provide a constant heat output for 30 hours (or 40 hours for King!) is not going to work in every space. It's ideal for the stone behemoth that makes up 70% of my living space, but fails on any sunny day in the more modern addition of glass and well-insulated 2x6 framing, due to the high solar gain of that space. Many people will find their heat demand during the day is so much lower than night, that they are also either short loading, or turning the knob to a much different setting for daytime versus night.

As a bit of an aside, I watch the cloud cover forecast at least as much as the temperature forecast, in picking my loads for that second stove. Whereas the stove in the main part of the house (all stone) can just be loaded full 2x per day every day, the stove in the newer addition sees lighter loads (by volume or species) anytime there's full sun forecast, even if it's cold out. I don't burn pine, we don't even really have much pine around here, but I do burn a lot of low-BTU black walnut in that stove.

 

[EbS-P]

I've been running a lot of short loads in one of my BK's. The "why bother" is the situation where we have cold nights and sunny days, with one of our stoves being installed in a large room with a lot of glass, which cools at night but sees a lot of daytime solar gain. I want to load the stove at night, to have the space warm in the morning, but I want it to die out by noon to prevent overheating the space in afternoon, even on the lowest setting.

I've posted about this before, but this ability to provide a constant heat output for 30 hours (or 40 hours for King!) is not going to work in every space. It's ideal for the stone behemoth that makes up 70% of my living space, but fails on any sunny day in the more modern addition of glass and well-insulated 2x6 framing, due to the high solar gain of that space. Many people will find their heat demand during the day is so much lower than night, that they are also either short loading, or turning the knob to a much different setting for daytime versus night.

As a bit of an aside, I watch the cloud cover forecast at least as much as the temperature forecast, in picking my loads for that second stove. Whereas the stove in the main part of the house (all stone) can just be loaded full 2x per day every day, the stove in the newer addition sees lighter loads (by volume or species) anytime there's full sun forecast, even if it's cold out. I don't burn pine, we don't even really have much pine around here, but I do burn a lot of low-BTU black walnut in that stove.

I’m watch a split and a half of line burn away now. Good secondary combustion. In general I think this size of and shape of stove 1.7 cu ft F400 does really well on partial loads. It will be 70 today. Heatpump is on. Sun is trying to peak out. I don’t get great solar gain during the day but if the brick gets warmed the house temp won’t drop as fast as night. 48 hours of cold am no sun and this place looses heat fast.

 

[Hoytman]

Unfortunately 90% of what I have is red/white oak, so quick cold start’s don’t really happen for me LOL.

Yes it will and can. All you have to do shrink the size of the oak from bottom to top. Keep making smaller and smaller splits to the top.

Get yourself a block plane and make some oak shavings, curly shavings, and add a few hand fulls to go on top. Light if off. If you did it right it will burn nice and hot. Be careful apso because it can go nuclear in a hurry depending on the size of the pile of wood inside and the sizes of the wood inside the stove.

I’m referring to successively smaller splits and the size of the stack of wood in the stove….which you have to learn which size to build…which size is good for a short, hot, and clean fire, and which size pile is too much wood (you’ll know if the pile is too big and/or the sizes of the wood are too small top to bottom when it goes nuclear LOL).

 

[danrclem]

You can have a perfect size stove for your house but if the temperature is not very cold you still won't be able to fill it up without getting things too warm.

In milder weather could a person have extra firebrick on hand and lay some of them down flat on each side to reduce the size of the firebox? Seventeen of them would reduce the firebox area by about 1/2 cubic foot.

 

[Ashful]

60F today, so I only did a partial load in the main stove today, and will probably let the second one go cold altogether. I'd have done a full load in the main stove, but last night's load kept us warm until noon today, and I don't want to wait until midnight to reload again. A half load will take me past dinner, when I can reload at a more convenient time in the evening.

 

[old greybeard]

My Osburn 2300 3.4cf has been fantastic at small loads. Warm stove with a hot bed of coals, 4-5 small splits take off and produce no smoke and quick secondaries. Run intake air and damper about 1/2 way open and I can run several small burns all day long, usually last about 2-3 hours. Overnight pack it full and shut her down for 10+ hours of heat.

 

[begreen]

Yes, that's the way my wife prefers to run the stove and I do too when the temps are in the 35-45º range, though usually it's more like 4-5 hrs between refills with 4-6" splits.

 

[Pinesmoke]

40s and raining. Cold started with Southern yellow pine. Stoves at 250-300 and cats running at half temp. No secondaries burning with the air at half.

An hour since I lit her up and I think it'll do until I can build in a few coals

 

[ozarkoak]

Our stove is too big for our home in October and the right size in February. We constantly burn small loads. IMO it way easier to put a small load in a large stove than to put a large load into a small stove. I am so happy we went with an over sized stove. Its obvious that manufactures list their specs in optimal 100% controlled conditions. Just like cordless tool manufactures and car manufactures. I have no idea how catalytic stoves work so take this all with a grain of salt.

 

[Newbie78]

Started a fire on hot coals this morning at about 7:30am. Put in about a 3/4 load of aspen and a bit of pine. Left for the city at 8am with the stove cruising at about 550 stove top and air almost as closed as it can get. I didn't have time to wait for a perfect burn...

Got back home at about 5:30pm to a cool-ish house, but certainly not cold. Stove still warm-ish. Stirred the coals, aired them for about a minute or less with a partially opened door, loaded it up, poof! It was going within a few seconds and back up to 450 and climbing in about 10 minutes or less. Ahhhh! Nice!

About -14c this morning and -11C when we got home.

3.3 ft firebox. Our 2 ft firebox cannot do that.

We rarely overheat the house on warm days (warm being at about freezing or a couple of degrees above).

No issues in this climate to moderate heat based on need. And then when it gets cold out, we have enough firebox to still get a nights sleep. Which couldn't be done in the little stove.

Now I know...

 

[begreen]

Can you add your stove make/model to your signature line?

 

[Newbie78]

Done, both of them.