What does your burn cycle look like?

[Bigg_Redd]

After adding a new full load, when do you shut off the secondary air and how do you do it?

5-10 minutes, but it depends. If the coals are good and hot I leave to air shut down. If my wood is wet I might let it go for 20 minutes.

 

[Jags]

Maybe a middle way would be for me to aim for my old style of operating but just tweak slightly in favour of turning down sooner,

Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner.
600F stove top ain't hurting that stove.
There has been much discussion about burn tube gap from fuel. Basically two schools of thought with the first having some backing from some of the MFG manuals:

Don't load above the firebrick if it has that...or...leave xx gap from fuel to tubes.
Second school is:
Even loaded to the burn tubes, by the time a fire is established it will have shrank enough to give an appropriate gap.

I lean towards the second method - but that is me. By the time I hit 550-600F stove top, my fuel has shrank enough to allow for more than an adequate gap, but that is partly due to my method. I will use one small stick under the whole fuel load going N-S to make a triangle under the fuel. This stick generally is burnt out of the way by 600F allowing the fuel to settle a bit, giving me a proper gap.

 

[russb]

Interesting. I don't seem to be able to turn the air down before 500F (stovetop temp for small load) to 600F (larger load, and I'm still learning the stove). Sometimes I need to let it burn for a bit at 600 before I can turn it down. Maybe burning off a little moisture is necessary in my situation (wood is better this year, will be even better next year). But I know for a fact I've seen plenty of the longer-term members here mention regularly hitting 600, and some much higher, before shutting down primary air (I won't call them out by linking to threads). So, I'd say there are a lot of variables at play. I'm having fun messing around with my new (to me) stove, and got my first 7-8 hour burn out of it last night.

 

[FionaD]

Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner.
600F stove top ain't hurting that stove.
There has been much discussion about burn tube gap from fuel. Basically two schools of thought with the first having some backing from some of the MFG manuals:

Don't load above the firebrick if it has that...or...leave xx gap from fuel to tubes.
Second school is:
Even loaded to the burn tubes, by the time a fire is established it will have shrank enough to give an appropriate gap.

I lean towards the second method - but that is me.

That all sounds like music to my ears Jags!. I think I too am of the second school, albeit it's early days yet in my learning curve. I always tended to leave about an inch gap between the wood and the tubes when loading.

What's an MFG manual? Nothing in my Jotul manual about how high to load. Although they did have one of the YouTube videos of 'Tim the Woodstove Guy' from VT on their website for a while! and he sure loads his Jotul to the rooftop.

Interesting. I don't seem to be able to turn the air down before 500F (stovetop temp for small load) to 600F (larger load, and I'm still learning the stove).

It sure looks that way for me and my stove too. I've been fiddling with various alternative temps and gradual shutdowns again today - albeit in a more moderate way than my obsession of yesterday.. And I still can't get anything that looks like a definite secondary burn if I begin to shut down in stages much before 600 stove top temp. Even shutting down 1/4 of the way at 550 produces flames that aren't anything like slow and billowy. If I shut down further the flames die right back.... I've tried leaving it for all kinds of different gaps of time before shutting back further and nothing produces secondary burn for anything more than 2-3 mins, after which the wood just smoulders... Then I turn up a little and there's flames again...but wood burning ones, not secondaries.

As I've already said more times than others here will want to read again, the problem is compounded for me because I can't help but believe I am still driving the same stove as I have been all year... What I really need to get into my head is that since all the issues with my installation have been fixed I'm actually back at square one in my learning, because to all intents and purposes I do have a stove that is entirley new - at least in terms of how it behaves..

 

[Jags]

MFG = Manufacturer. In other words, some manuals do state specific heights of the fuel loads. Some will state "No higher than the firebrick". Other will state something to the effect of xx inches below the burn tubes, etc.

 

[FionaD]

Ah right... Thanks

 

[bsruther]

Kind of like this.

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[FionaD]

Ok... Now I think my issue is not with the stove... Nor is it with my trying out new burn cycles.. I am starting to think it might be my wood. I am starting a different topic though, becuase ive been getting way off the topic of this thread - so I feel I should move away from here, even though I started it I'm starting a new topic called 'Advice on burning Oak.'