What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[NickW]

At least you guys have a game to watch! Long time before my Pats are back in it. Probably watched the best 20 years of football in my lifetime.

I'll try to not hold being a Pats fan against you...😂

 

[Wildflush]

The last time I did that with the pellet stove in the other corner, the basement temp hit 86, that's when I left. I had a ton of coals too so I'll be burning those down until later tonight.

80 has been the top end on my main floor where the stove is located. 86 wow like Florida in the Summer.

 

[Wildflush]

I'll try to not hold being a Pats fan against you...😂

😜

 

[Wildflush]

Have a nice evening fellow wood burners! Wife wants to watch a movie with me and told me to say good night 😂

 

[thewoodlands]

At least you guys have a game to watch! Long time before my Pats are back in it. Probably watched the best 20 years of football in my lifetime.

I'm a Vikings fan, not much watching going, usually we just watch the Super Bow.

 

[thewoodlands]

Have a nice evening fellow wood burners! Wife wants to watch a movie with me and told me to say good night 😂

👍

 

[Ashful]

I’ve written many times that I won’t even waste the time on splitting and stacking any softwoods, but when they literally fall right next the wood shed...



So, now I have something like 1/20th of a cord of pretty red cedar in a stack that's otherwise mostly ash with some oak.

In related news, I bucked and split just shy of a cord this afternoon. Most of the morning was spent excavating logs from under snow, or compacting snow in the work area, so I had nice hard-pack for rolling and bucking logs.

Sorry, Caw... but all bark, crotches, ends less than a perfect 18", and any pieces not straight and clean went straight into the burn pit. No sense in stacking anything that's not maximizing BTU per cubic foot.

 

[Caw]

Sorry, Caw... but all bark, crotches, ends less than a perfect 18", and any pieces not straight and clean went straight into the burn pit. No sense in stacking anything that's not maximizing BTU per cubic foot.

Why apologize, I'd have done the same! Only beautiful perfect length wood in the wood stove racks

 

[Caw]

I'll try to not hold being a Pats fan against you...😂

Hey man, lol. I'm 39 years old. I was 17 when Brady took over. You can't fault me for perfect timing. They were sooooo bad beforehand but I was so young it hardly counts. We were very spoiled for half my lifetime. Crazy to think back on.

Now. Hmm. Bark and ash in the stove now. I'm power burning trying to get ready for a mammoth overnight load. It's cold AF out.

 

[Riff]

Oak and locust stacked up deep next to the stove. House is currently holding at 60F and I figure I'll get up a couple of times tonight to reload.
Well short update. The company that installed the furnace came out Friday morning and essentially said they wouldn't touch it with a temporary tank system hooked up, call them when the new tank is installed and they'll make sure everything looks okay on their end.
Tank did not get installed today due to the cold. The tank company did send out a tech who replaced the filter, nozzle, and cleaned out as best he could. Old nozzle was clogged. Furnace ran for a couple of hours but now shuts down with a flame out signal. New day to install the tank is Tues before the rain but also a day with temps in the 40's. Wife and kiddos are at a hotel tonight so they can get a decent nights sleep and so that everyone can get a hot shower or bath.

 

[zmender]

I'm in the same situation here and feel the same way. I'm not going to be tired and cranky all day just to save a couple bucks. The heat pump kicked in at 6 am ish the last few days where it's been 10-15 degrees at night. I keep the thermostat at 63 overnight. Then I reload around 7:30 and the stove will maintain the rest of the day between 65-67. I can't get it much hotter than 67-68 in here when it's 15 or below outside unless I sat here and fed it kindling all day.

Amen and 100%.

I think we all enjoy fire as a hobby - acquiring the fuel, prepping the fuel, and finally loading & burning the fuel. But it's also healthy to draw a boundary between hobby and obsession.

 

[zmender]

I got my hand on a cord of honey locust today. It was CSS'ed 2020, but unfortunately not top covered.

So for the overnight fire, I got about 70% black locust and 30% honey locust. First time I burn this wood, let's see how it goes!

 

[all night moe]

I got my hand on a cord of honey locust today. It was CSS'ed 2020, but unfortunately not top covered.

So for the overnight fire, I got about 70% black locust and 30% honey locust. First time I burn this wood, let's see how it goes!

It's good wood. Not like BL though. BL has tighter growth rings. First I've burned honey this year too. Flames more, but does burn hot.

 

[Riff]

Amen and 100%.

I think we all enjoy fire as a hobby - acquiring the fuel, prepping the fuel, and finally loading & burning the fuel. But it's also healthy to draw a boundary between hobby and obsession.

Completely agree. I enjoy going out into the woods, working with a saw, splitting by hand, and sitting back while it burns. It's great stress relief for me and I really do save money with oil prices where they are at right now. That said, I am looking forward to a morning sometime soon waking up warm and enjoying my first cup of coffee before contemplating lighting a fire.

 

[stoveliker]

Reloaded at 10 pm with with black locust and two half rounds of 8" dia white oak I found in my stack.

19 f now, windy, 18 forecast low. 88-90 in the basement, 70 upstairs.

 

[Ashful]

Why apologize, I'd have done the same! Only beautiful perfect length wood in the wood stove racks

Maybe I got mixed up, but I thought you were telling me the other day to keep bark for burning down coals?

I do keep a pallet of uglies, used for camp fires, but they don’t take up valuable shed space. My camp fire wood doesn’t need 3 years to dry!

 

[Caw]

Maybe I got mixed up, but I thought you were telling me the other day to keep bark for burning down coals?

I do keep a pallet of uglies, used for camp fires, but they don’t take up valuable shed space. My camp fire wood doesn’t need 3 years to dry!

I do keep the bark for coals, yes. Just not in my wood stacks. I've got a couple bins out back for uglies and fire pit wood then I keep some bark in the shed too. I give most of my uglies away to friends for their fire pits as I have plenty but I keep most of my bark.

 

[Dieselhead]

Off topic, read along if you like;

I feel for you 2-3 times a night guys, I was there once. It only lasted a few years. I built our house in 08, and without a ton of research went with a ZC woodstove. It had the look I wanted and fit the space. It also pumped out some great heat when it was burning. It was on a tall stack and air control was not the best. It wasn’t a cat, but had secondary tubes. I used it for 3 burn seasons and realized if I was going to do the wood lifestyle I had to make changes. Getting up during the night was getting old. Coming home from work to a cold stove wore me down. The stove was still in great shape so resale was decent. It was a somewhat top of the line so the initial purchase price was steep, which led to getting some on the backside. After joining here around 2011 I started doing research and stumbled across the BK Performance thread. After several PM’s, days of reading, I knew what I had to do. Fast forward to summer of 2014 I ripped out the ZC fireplace, and opened up the interior chase. I made the former ZCs home a alcove and put in the Blaze King. Some rework of the flue and I was in business. We’re now in the 10th year and I don’t miss those nights at all. I loaded last night at 830 and sit here and type at 8am and still have about 5 hours of coals to be able to heat 3k sqft consistently to 70 degrees. It’s low teens out.

I see people give up on wood burning due to undersized stoves and poor performance due to wet wood. Fix both those problems and heating your home with wood becomes a (warm) breeze. It’s tough to justify financially what I did up front but it’s what I wanted to do and knew the R.O.I. Would come along, and I’d have a lot less grey hairs, sleepless nights and rollercoaster indoor temperatures to show for it. If financially possible look into options guys, if not just set the thermostat or grab some extra blankets and get sleep. It’s important!

Research up front would of saved me some work and unnecessary expenses, that’s on me. Thanks to the current and past members of hearth.com for the assistance along the journey!

 

[Caw]

Reloaded with a bunch of maple and ash. She'll be purring along nicely all day. I didn't mind paying for a little electricity last night. I had too much to drink and fell asleep on the couch until 3 am...whoops! Wasn't going to risk reloading and falling asleep that is dangerous.

And by too much I mean 2 cocktails because I'm not 24 anymore lol.

 

[thewoodlands]

I went with just the pellet stove overnight, the low this morning was minus 0.9. The basement started out at 76, the living area 68 & 69 with the sleeper at 67.

I shut the pellet stove off and then took some ashes out of the wood stove to the outdoor fireplace. The wood stove has three splits of ash and two splits of beech going in it. We did have enough coals left from the last fire that two small pieces of kindling took off.

 

[NickW]

-2 & fairly calm. Stove room 70, LR 65, bedroom 64. Huge pile of coals, small load of pine & aspen that won't last long... Flue's at 740, stt at 450 and rising.

 

[all night moe]

Woke up to 2* this am. House felt like mid 60s. Loaded in 2 red oak, 3 ash, 2 smaller red oak uglies, a small hickory split, 3 twisty "sticks'' of hickory (3'' dia), and 2 splits of silver maple to get her up to temp. Once burning for 30mins or so, I added 2 med sized BL splits.
House hit upper 60s in an hour or so. No noticeable winds. If there was it would be more like 2 hours and another load to top off the enferno.

 

[Gearhead660]

Getting into some oak in the wood shed. A nice change from the elm. Got the insert and Myra packed and cruising.

 

[zmender]

Overnight was low teens with gusty wind.

I overslept this morning and the stove is almost completely out save some slivers of coal, and living room at 58F... which is in line with past few days. Got a few pieces of kindling + reloaded stove full with honey and black locust.

 

[Wildflush]

Off topic, read along if you like;

I feel for you 2-3 times a night guys, I was there once. It only lasted a few years. I built our house in 08, and without a ton of research went with a ZC woodstove. It had the look I wanted and fit the space. It also pumped out some great heat when it was burning. It was on a tall stack and air control was not the best. It wasn’t a cat, but had secondary tubes. I used it for 3 burn seasons and realized if I was going to do the wood lifestyle I had to make changes. Getting up during the night was getting old. Coming home from work to a cold stove wore me down. The stove was still in great shape so resale was decent. It was a somewhat top of the line so the initial purchase price was steep, which led to getting some on the backside. After joining here around 2011 I started doing research and stumbled across the BK Performance thread. After several PM’s, days of reading, I knew what I had to do. Fast forward to summer of 2014 I ripped out the ZC fireplace, and opened up the interior chase. I made the former ZCs home a alcove and put in the Blaze King. Some rework of the flue and I was in business. We’re now in the 10th year and I don’t miss those nights at all. I loaded last night at 830 and sit here and type at 8am and still have about 5 hours of coals to be able to heat 3k sqft consistently to 70 degrees. It’s low teens out.

I see people give up on wood burning due to undersized stoves and poor performance due to wet wood. Fix both those problems and heating your home with wood becomes a (warm) breeze. It’s tough to justify financially what I did up front but it’s what I wanted to do and knew the R.O.I. Would come along, and I’d have a lot less grey hairs, sleepless nights and rollercoaster indoor temperatures to show for it. If financially possible look into options guys, if not just set the thermostat or grab some extra blankets and get sleep. It’s important!

Research up front would have saved me some work and unnecessary expenses, that’s on me. Thanks to the current and past members of hearth.com for the assistance along the journey!

It all depends on your house size and how insulated it is. My house is also smaller at 1,900 sq ft not counting the finished basement which is not heated by the stove. If I load my small 1.6 Vista at 11pm house already 75 it’s still in the high 60’s when my wife gets up at 5 am with teens outside. Thermostat set to 64. My PE was also $2,300 which is less money than a BK.

Best investment IMO before buying a stove is insulating your home and replacing inefficient windows and sliders.

Yesterday it was in the teens. We had to go out for the afternoon. Had house to 73 with stove going from a fresh reload at 1:30. Back at 6:30 pm and STT was just over 200 had coals for reload. House was 71.

Never have I felt I bought an undersized stove. We knew we would get 4-6 hours burn time when we bought it. Also seeing the YouTube video of a guy in BC using a Vista to heat his home. Much colder there. If I had your house yes BK or PE Alderlea. I work from home so don’t mind the more frequent loading or going to the wood stacks more often. Part of the lifestyle for me.