What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[PAbeech]

Stratford II in the Northwoods is way happier n/s. I also started cutting short for up there...12"+/-. Stacking is not nearly as friendly as 16" though. Cribs at the end are tough and 4' high stacks aren't very stable.

Yah I was thinking about the stacking situation. I'm going to setup pallets as dividers to stack up against. I'm planning on building some sort of shelter for my wood out of free pallets as well

 

[thewoodlands]

The temp didn't change much from last night, it was just over 26 and this morning we were just over 24. The wood stove received another load of ash this morning.

The basement temp started out at 70 and the temps up here were 67 & 68.

 

[ArtBaldoni]

Do you prefer burning coal or wood? Do you have the strong yellowish sulfur smoke with bituminous coal? Super curious as grew up burning coal in stoves as a kid, and more than one morning I'll wake up to a freezing cold house and a smoke filled living room with parents trying to relight.

Anthracite coal and wood are my usual. With ant coal at $400 a ton, I went back to wood this year. Coal is easier, but I can't justify the cost now. I should be able to heat all season with a $500 triaxle load of logs from my neighbor. I stumbled on 3700 pounds of bit for a good price so I thought I'd try it. Burns like wood, but does smoke and smell for a bit (pun intended) until it gets going. I won't get any more.

 

[Tar12]

Oak,locust and ash for this evenings overnight fire..

 

[Vg3200p]

Think I've got cherry,ash,silver maple ,1 maybe Norway maple split? Bradford pear and some small pine limbs for overnight. Really feeling like I have the new stove figured out and after about a month of learning and modifying it it's become a solid performer for what it is

 

[VirginiaIron]

Mix of white/red oak and pine.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 27.9 out tonight, the basement temp started out at 73 and the temps up here are 69 to 71. Another load of ash is going in the wood stove for the overnight load.

 

[Stove Cricket]

Not a

Loaded up with ash and sugar maple about 10:30. Air currently fully closed and ripping along. Will be up awhile yet to let it settle down so I can get to 1/4 open or I'll smoke the glass and have charcoal left instead of coals in the morning. Currently 22 outside, basement was down to 70 but is back up to 74, upstairs was down to 64 and will be getting warmer shortly...

Thinking about changing my stovepipe come spring. Currently have 3 1/2' up, then 3 1/2' horizontal, then 20' insulated liner. I lose draft pretty bad at some point during the overnight. Considering changing to about 2 1/2'+/- up, then have an angled run (guessing about 30 degree), then about 1 1/2' horizontal before the liner. Any of our chimney experts have any comments?
View attachment 308206

Not a chimney expert, but would an outside air connection be beneficial for improved draft? It would keep the rest of the house out of negative pressure - at least until your clothes dryer, kitchen hood or bathroom fan comes on.

 

[VirginiaIron]

Just put in a load of mystery meat.

 

[ArtBaldoni]

Just put in a load of mystery HEAT.

Fixed it for ya...

 

[NickW]

Not a

Not a chimney expert, but would an outside air connection be beneficial for improved draft? It would keep the rest of the house out of negative pressure - at least until your clothes dryer, kitchen hood or bathroom fan comes on.

Not that kind of draft issue. Don't get much smoke rollout except over 30 degrees and calm on weak coals or cold startup, and then it's usually not much.

Yes, it's dry wood. 3 year old sugar maple and 2 year old ash & crap wood stored indoors. Sampling of splits showed mostly 16-17% back in fall. There have been a couple of sizzlers here and there, but few.

Fully loaded I usually have to go down to air shut all the way to avoid a meltdown, but if I leave it there overnight I don't have hardly any coals but lots of charcoal and smoked glass. If I go up to 1/8 open after fully closed (for about an hour) it's better... half and half coals and charcoal, still slightly dirty glass. If after the 1/8 open (for about 1/2 hour) I go to 1/4 open I have clean glass and mostly coals and ash. Problem is starting so early to get to the 1/4 open I am not getting much heat by morning and the house temps are really dropping.

During that cold windy snap I couldn't hardly control it even fully shut. Hit 1000 flue temps once which is higher than I like to go.

My theory is that the longish horizontal run hurts my draft as it cools with the air shut down so far and changing it might help that, but I'm not sure if it will make it more likely for a runaway on startup.

 

[Gearhead660]

More elm for Myra... Cat seems to approve. Got the insert going as well. Allows me to not run Myra as hard to keep house comfy.

 

[zmender]

High of 37, low of 33... very wet and muddy outside.

A E/W full load of locust kept living room overnight, reloaded with biobricks + oak shorts N/S. Cruising at ~470F STT and 66F living room.

 

[Stove Cricket]

Not that kind of draft issue. Don't get much smoke rollout except over 30 degrees and calm on weak coals or cold startup, and then it's usually not much.

Yes, it's dry wood. 3 year old sugar maple and 2 year old ash & crap wood stored indoors. Sampling of splits showed mostly 16-17% back in fall. There have been a couple of sizzlers here and there, but few.

Fully loaded I usually have to go down to air shut all the way to avoid a meltdown, but if I leave it there overnight I don't have hardly any coals but lots of charcoal and smoked glass. If I go up to 1/8 open after fully closed (for about an hour) it's better... half and half coals and charcoal, still slightly dirty glass. If after the 1/8 open (for about 1/2 hour) I go to 1/4 open I have clean glass and mostly coals and ash. Problem is starting so early to get to the 1/4 open I am not getting much heat by morning and the house temps are really dropping.

During that cold windy snap I couldn't hardly control it even fully shut. Hit 1000 flue temps once which is higher than I like to go.

My theory is that the longish horizontal run hurts my draft as it cools with the air shut down so far and changing it might help that, but I'm not sure if it will make it more likely for a runaway on startup.

Same here. If you find a good control algorithm, like inverse proportional combustion air or something, let me know.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had 26.2 outside this morning with the basement starting out at 70 and the temps up here 66 & 67.

Instead of ash this morning we did a full load of pine.

 

[clancey]

Now I have a question with such cold temperatures 26.2 why would you burn pine instead of something else like oak which I think has higher BTU"s or something for more heat...Don't know much here and could be wrong but I am just curious. Also Gearheads dog is "worthless" enjoying that wonderful heat in the picture--lol...clancey

 

[thewoodlands]

Now I have a question with such cold temperatures 26.2 why would you burn pine instead of something else like oak which I think has higher BTU"s or something for more heat...Don't know much here and could be wrong but I am just curious. Also Gearheads dog is "worthless" enjoying that wonderful heat in the picture--lol...clancey

26.2 in January in our neck of the woods isn't considered cold and pine will give you some quick heat. The real reason is the temps will be getting colder at the end of January and the month of February so we have some pine left in a rack we stack in, we want that rack open so we can stack beech in it.

We've been putting in beech before the cold weather gets here and we could be in for 6 to 10 inches of snow by the end of Thursday with some good winds.

We also don't have any oak, the Red Oak is working it's way towards our lot but the only Oak on our property is some smaller stuff I planted years ago.

Our best btu firewood is Ironwood, Sugar Maple and Beech from out property.

 

[NickW]

26.2 in January in our neck of the woods isn't considered cold and pine will give you some quick heat. The real reason is the temps will be getting colder at the end of January and the month of February so we have some pine left in a rack we stack in, we want that rack open so we can stack beech in it.

We've been putting in beech before the cold weather gets here and we could be in for 6 to 10 inches of snow by the end of Thursday with some good winds.

We also don't have any oak, the Red Oak is working it's way towards our lot but the only Oak on our property is some smaller stuff I planted years ago.

Our best btu firewood is Ironwood, Sugar Maple and Beech from out property.

The "lesser woods" (pine, aspen, etc) also don't coal as much as the good hardwoods. They give hot bursts for shorter duration and burn down to nothing.

That cold snap a few weeks back I'd burn hardwood overnight then several mid size "crap wood" fires during the day to get the coals burned down, bursts of heat, and remove some ash; then be ready for a big hardwood fire again for the overnight. I can have 8" of hot coals during cold snaps and not be getting anywhere near enough heat.

 

[thewoodlands]

The "lesser woods" (pine, aspen, etc) also don't coal as much as the good hardwoods. They give hot bursts for shorter duration and burn down to nothing.

That cold snap a few weeks back I'd burn hardwood overnight then several mid size "crap wood" fires during the day to get the coals burned down, bursts of heat, and remove some ash; then be ready for a big hardwood fire again for the overnight. I can have 8" of hot coals during cold snaps and not be getting anywhere near enough heat.

We have some pails of pine cookies, we burned some this week but we'll save the rest for the beech we'll be burning, we should have plenty of coals once we're just burning beech.

 

[Wildflush]

Snow here in New England. 31 out. 20’s tonight. My recipe on my reload is 1x large cherry split, 1x small maple split on the forward coals for ignition, 1x small red oak split and 1x red stone compressed wood brick and we are off!

 

[MMH]

Been a while it’s been busy the last few weeks. Got another couple systems since then have had to plow several times. Temps last night were -15f with the wind chill, tonight’s headed for -10 and will warm up to 0-15 for rest of week into next week. I’ll do another hardwood load tonight and then begin burning down Mount Coals starting tomorrow. Happy new year everyone.

 

[Toasty-Yote]

Right around freezing in NY. Found some dead apple limbs nearby about 5" diameter so I did one split through most of it. Super hard and dense stuff and it burns hot but also seems to burn pretty fast. Is this an apple thing?

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 25.9 out tonight, the basement temp started out at 73 with the temps up here between 68 to 70.

Another load of ash went in the wood stove for our overnight heat.

 

[Stove Cricket]

It's 25.9 out tonight, the basement temp started out at 73 with the temps up here between 68 to 70.

Another load of ash went in the wood stove for our overnight heat.

A lot of ash talk on this thread. So I found a downed ash tree by the creek and am working it up for next year. New experience for me. Images below from this morning, 30*F outside.

 

[thewoodlands]

It was 27.9 out this morning, the basement temp started out at 72 and the temps up here were 68 & 69.

I loaded up the stove with ash and white pine this morning.