Time to Heat Production

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Mark N MO

Member
Feb 22, 2016
76
SW MO
I've read a couple of posts in other threads that talk about how long it takes for a stove to start producing heat.
In my case, how long it takes till I can close the bypass on the Buck 91 and get the CAT lit. We've had 4 days of 65+ temps, so no fire. Temps in the mid 40s now. Need. Heat. Now. Had a little time this AM working on the computer and thought, just for giggles, I'd time the process with a stone cold stove. This is my usual starting method. With a clean firebox, 2 red oak splits are placed N-S, a couple of wads of newspaper are placed between them. A hand full of kindling is bridged between the splits. Three more red oak splits are placed on the kindling bridge. At straight up 8 I lit the match. All the air controls were wide open. After about 5 minutes I started closing the shotgun air. The T-stat kicked the fan on at 8:15, CAT temp was about 300, at which time the shotgun air was totally closed. It took 17 minutes to bring the temp up to 500, and the bypass was closed. By 8:50 the CAT was cruising @ 1000, and the primary air is 1/2 closed. This is with the original 5 red oak splits, size about as big as your fist. Start to finish, the Buck took under an 1 hour to go from ambient temp to CAT temp of 1000. I have no doubt it would have taken less time, had the initial loading been more. More smaller splits will get it up to temp quicker.

Thought it might be kinda interesting to hear others times/methods.
 
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Creating a hotter fire will get the stove up to temperature quicker, but you really don't want to turn it into a competition. I once heard a legend about a college having a contest to see who could bring a BBQ grill up to temperature the fastest. It had it had to be brought to an end after the discovery that liquid oxygen really gets a grill up to temperature fast:

http://www.bkinzel.de/misc/ghg/
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A nice load of dry pine will get you going in a hurry.

If I need instant cat, I can lay a little piece of pine e/w on top of my load and light that on fire. It will get the cat going instantly (the cat is right there in the top front) while the rest of the load is working up a fire down below. By the time that little 1"-3" pine split is burned out, the cat has plenty of food from down below.

I usually take new fires slow and easy though; my stove only goes out a few times a year (a couple sweepings, and end of season). :)
 
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