We're already at -6 tonight heading to -12 according to NOAA, I loaded the wood stove up with some nice rounds of ironwood on top of some nice coals and shut the air down.
What Is In Your Stove Right Now?
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So, the 4-5 yr old oak I have now was not cut by me, but was a gift of someone with too much for his firepit. It all fits nicely N-S.
Except for the first stick (4" dia) for the overnight load. I put it in E-W but it still didn't fit. As I still had quite a lot of coals from the ash uglies earlier today, and the oak is really dry, it was ablaze within 5 seconds.
So now I have a diagonal burning piece in there. I put two smaller pieces behind it, added the second and third (thinner) layer on top, and an oak wedge in the front.
Too much space left... Curious if I will still have a fire tomorrow morning. Set the Tstat lower to stretch the small load, and may need to use some oil in the morning to get comfortable as the basement stove is good at maintaining temp, but slow in bringing it up...
We'll see...
Except for the first stick (4" dia) for the overnight load. I put it in E-W but it still didn't fit. As I still had quite a lot of coals from the ash uglies earlier today, and the oak is really dry, it was ablaze within 5 seconds.
So now I have a diagonal burning piece in there. I put two smaller pieces behind it, added the second and third (thinner) layer on top, and an oak wedge in the front.
Too much space left... Curious if I will still have a fire tomorrow morning. Set the Tstat lower to stretch the small load, and may need to use some oil in the morning to get comfortable as the basement stove is good at maintaining temp, but slow in bringing it up...
We'll see...
Lows headed for 10 ish, tonight is odd/end pieces of juniper mahogany and pine
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Caw
Minister of Fire
1 
this morning. Dog woke me up briefly and I peeked at the thermostat and it was 59 in here....the heat had just come on for the first time this year. I knew it was gonna happen because I reloaded/went to bed early. Not bad work by my little 1600 tho, made it to Jan 31st and it too basically a 0 degree night before needing help!
Loaded with maple now. Getting the box temp up.
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this morning. Dog woke me up briefly and I peeked at the thermostat and it was 59 in here....the heat had just come on for the first time this year. I knew it was gonna happen because I reloaded/went to bed early. Not bad work by my little 1600 tho, made it to Jan 31st and it too basically a 0 degree night before needing help!Loaded with maple now. Getting the box temp up.
Was 3f when I went to bed. Loaded the isle Royale with Sugar Maple and Locust. Nice coals this morning. House was 60...warming up nicely now!
We had a low of -13 this morning before the temp started to rise, we're at -10 . This morning we had some nice coals from the overnight fire so I loaded up some Ash and Maple which took off nice.
Cherry at night, pine during the day, looks like I’ll stick to this schedule until around Thursday/Friday when I need to bring more wood inside.
Grizzerbear
Minister of Fire
It was 30 out when I got up this morning but the thermostat read 74 so I've let the 74 sit idle this morning. I went ahead and took some ashes out about a hour ago and pulled the coals left up front. I will reload with some hickory and post oak here in just a bit. We got a high of 34 here expected today but it is windy with gusts of 35.
MoDoug
Minister of Fire
You live near that I44 corridor that gets some goofy weather. We're basically on the same weather pattern, so far it's been an amazingly mild winter. I left for my winter trout fishing trip to Taneycomo almost a couple weeks ago, took 73 Camdenton to Buffalo. MoDot was clearing trees just west of Macs Creek, looked like cedar and some hardwoods. We had a good trip.
I've been running oak and elm through the stove. The dog days of winter!
14 F our, house is 74 just burning down some coals from last night for now
Grizzerbear
Minister of Fire
Yea the weather here is odd. We had tornado warnings yesterday evening by Cassville and today it's in the 30s with 35 mph gusts. It has been very mild this winter and very gloomy. Seems like the sun hasn't poked out of the clouds much this winter. Did you have any luck on taneycomo?
heavy hammer
Minister of Fire
Both stoves have been running with locust and ash. My basement stove has not been getting up to the temps I would hope. Once the cat is engaged I can barely get temps over 700. I'm not sure if the cat is dying or what. The same wood is being burned in the summit and it has been roaring great all my wood is 2.5 to 4+ years old.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
I was getting some funky outputs and thought my cat was dying to, turns out I had a partially clogged cap, brushed her off and back to normal cruising, fyi the cap didnt look to bad when I was looking at it from the ground
4+ inches of snow outside, cherry and hickory in the stove. Sure smelling good around here and everyone is enjoying a quiet afternoon after sledding and snowball fights outside.
MoDoug
Minister of Fire
We did, caught some decent size trout and spent time with friends!
heavy hammer
Minister of Fire
[B]kennyp2339[/B] I appreciate it. I went up this afternoon just to clean the cap and inspect the flue. We will see if that helps. I have been having a hard time getting the temps over 800. Does this sound normal? Do some cat stove owners run at lower temps? I know every setup and situation is different but it seems like I used to be able to get the stove probe to 1000+ when burning good hardwood.
MEngineer24
Burning Hunk
Red oak and locust has been the trend here this weekend. Had a winter storm come through with mid 20s and 35mph wind. House has been holding at 75F.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
The thing is, is that cats do have a lifespan on them, I think its between 10,000 and 15,000 hrs depending on how you burn, its also known that you can depreciate the cats ability to absorb and reburn the smoke / violets once you get above 1500 deg f (measured directly in the cat itself via probe) Now I think this is your 3rd season w/ the kuma, and you generally burn about 5 months a year continuously - So Mid Nov thru mid April, and your main wood is BL which has a much higher / longer shelf life of btu's available, so 3,650 hrs or so X 2.5yr is almost 9,200hrs, your just about in the general time of cat replacement (due to higher temp heat output).
I had an excellent voice conversation with a stove manufacturer the other day, he kind of brought me back to earth with two things, #1 - he said I have to try stop sweating the small stuff, you and myself, with our line of work and training, its almost impossible to not think of the small stuff, thats just our nature and we're both held accountable if the small stuff is missed and someone gets hurt. #2 is the great analogy of buying new tires, you but brand new tires for your pickup truck and for the first 10k miles whether its wet pavement, dry pavement or snow, when starting off at a traffic like you wont ever spin your tires, after 10k you start noticing small spin outs, but the tread depth left on the tires tells you that your still in them for another 20k's worth of mileage. So it is what it is, the analogy got me thinking that my cat wasnt bad, something else changed, found my partially clogged cap and cleaned it, performance returned, I'm not saying thats your case, but rule out the other stuff, then take into account, your burning habits, temperatures and to cat life to advertised life span (many stove co's offer a warrantee on cat life, some do a complete no questions asked replacement, others do a depreciated replacement based on years used.
heavy hammer
Minister of Fire
kennyp2339 I cleaned the chimney cap and inspected the flue both looked good. I did have a fire this afternoon and the temps stayed at 700- 800 for about 8+ hours. My burn season is about 6 months. The cat was replaced May of 2019. This is the second burning season with this cat. I do agree with you it is the little things that you pick out. I have been talking with Begreen as well he said try some 2x4's. If the cat is on its way out it's not the end of the world, just replace it. I was not sure if others with cat stoves have had lower burn temps, or if any of this sounds normal. Many members on here seem to have very high burn temps with their cat stoves, but like I said earlier every setup and situation is a little differnt. Appreciate the advise.
At the moment it's 1.8 with NOAA calling for a low of -7, I'll go with the pellet stove tonight and then switch back to firewood in the Lopi in the morning.
Caw
Minister of Fire
I think @thewoodlands must work for NOAA.
Random question for you, having both pellet and wood; which do you prefer? Do you find applicability in certain situations for one over the other? For example pellet tonight but wood tomorrow etc. Why both why not 2 pellet stoves or 2 wood stoves etc
As I have a lot to learn in regards to how fast the BK chews through a load, I have a bunch of glowing chunks laying in there now. 1/4 of the box (filled about half full around noon) is still full despite running it on high for the last 3 hrs.
So I am resorting to filling it with shorties tonight to make most use of the space. It's only 26 now so not too cold. Snowing.
Shorties of maple and cherry it is.
So I am resorting to filling it with shorties tonight to make most use of the space. It's only 26 now so not too cold. Snowing.
Shorties of maple and cherry it is.
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Burning down coals also at the moment lows tonight in the teens. Another load of pine for tonight. I think I’ll rake coals to the side this time instead of the front and try that. Why you ask? I don’t know, why not I’d reply 
If I think that we need the constant heat overnight to heat the upstairs (we heat from the basement) I'll run the pellet stove. We usually burn between 50 - 55 bags per year.
This year I've been burning wood during the day and the pellet stove at night more often. Before we were offered the property I do must of my cutting on we had the pellet stove so we continue to use it.
