What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Struggled to get the overnight fire to catch, even after I switch backed to my original fuel source (BL). I left the stove door wide open for ~45min, but the stove stalled as soon as I closed the door.

This tends to happen when I get ash build up near the primary air intake... looks like a stove clean up is in order as soon as the weather warms up a bit.
Yeah this hard burning isn't leaving any cool down time for ash clean out. I can do a hot dump cleanout with the ashpan but that's not really my preference.
 
howling wind and torrential rain in the west Mayenne today

there will surely be trees down

I put a 6" diam log of apple in after the ash+oak+elm load this mornin...it's gettin close to needing a reload
outside is about 10C/ 50F...it's a very cozy 19C/67F in the Salon
 
Struggled to get the overnight fire to catch, even after I switch backed to my original fuel source (BL). I left the stove door wide open for ~45min, but the stove stalled as soon as I closed the door.

This tends to happen when I get ash build up near the primary air intake... looks like a stove clean up is in order as soon as the weather warms up a bit.
I clear my ash in front of my primary air if I have build up. Seems to help.
 
19 oak house 64 this morning. Mix of oak, ash, maple and a pair of biobricks.

Load heading to 650. Main floor heating up nicely.
 
Last edited:
This is the crude drawing of my primary air intake. It sits at front of the stove on somewhat of an angle. When coal / ash build up, ash will inevitably start to block the intake, and the motion of raking coal forward worsens the issue.

I the the cleaning done this morning, back to running normal. Burning locust and ash.

[Hearth.com] What Is In Your Stove Right Now?


PS: stove components expand when hot! I couldn't get a few pieces of brick back in until I let it cool down a little.
 
Hmmm I think my stove has a similar "doghouse" style primary air. It's just if you are in front of the stove looking down into the box a small rectangular piece of metal protruding into the stove. The air comes in underneath that. It gets buried in ash all the time and seems to work fine. I don't really shovel it out until it's basically fully buried. I don't notice a big a difference when the stove is full of ash or clean other than the front logs getting more of the air wash air.

This piece right here I put a red dot on it:

[Hearth.com] What Is In Your Stove Right Now?
 
Freezing rain and 30 here right now. Everyone on the pasture is slipping and sliding. House is 76 off this mornings red, white oak reload. Today is the end of this cold snap and we will be in the 30-50's for at least the next 10 days. Hallelujah! I can finally get some stuff done. Truck needs work, fencing needs doing.
 
Warm here now at 36. Inside temp 74. Did a smaller reload of oak and maple earlier on a hot 350 coal bed. STT almost hit 600. These smaller loads are nice bringing quick heat without a lot of wood being used. Letting the stove die out after this since will hit 40 later.
 
We ran the pellet stove last night, this morning the basement started out at 75, the living area 68 & 69 but the sleeper never gained in temperature, it was still 66 this morning. The outside temp this morning was a touch over 20.

I shut the pellet stove off and then loaded up the wood stove with ten splits of ash. I'm pretty sure the wife loaded up another five splits of ash just before I came in from moving snow.
 
mercury outside sez 6C/43F
salon is 19.5C/67F

keeping the stove going to refrain from using much electricity
been burning shorts of a species I haven't yet figured out (probably some type of elm which burns beautifully)
and poplar oddities on low air intake ...adding misc hardwood chips too when it needs a little kick
 
Last edited:
Hmmm I think my stove has a similar "doghouse" style primary air. It's just if you are in front of the stove looking down into the box a small rectangular piece of metal protruding into the stove. The air comes in underneath that. It gets buried in ash all the time and seems to work fine. I don't really shovel it out until it's basically fully buried. I don't notice a big a difference when the stove is full of ash or clean other than the front logs getting more of the air wash air.

This piece right here I put a red dot on it:

Interesting you mention the air wash air. This intake is in front of the andiron for my stove, and inevitably it's also completely submersed in a thick layer of ash that I can't easily clean while running hard (so thick, in fact, that andiron can't sit stably in their sockets if I nudge them out of position).

I think this intake provides a far greater % of primary oxygen than I previously thought.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NickW
Interesting you mention the air wash air. This intake is in front of the andiron for my stove, and inevitably it's also completely submersed in a thick layer of ash that I can't easily clean while running hard (so thick, in fact, that andiron can't sit stably in their sockets if I nudge them out of position).

I think this intake provides a far greater % of primary oxygen than I previously thought.
Yeah I think the air wash air inevitably adds to combustion and explains why, in my stove in particular, if I put more wood in it takes off faster. That extra wood ends up being closer to the door and gets more air. If the stove is fully cleaned out there's more room for air to get under any logs sitting on that doghouse. I'm also putting in more wood than it's really meant to be loaded with sometimes, I'm sure it's not designed for wash air to do my as much. I'm able to keep the temps in check though so I don't worry about it. It functions normally.

Every stove is different so your design could be primarily relying on that one spot like you suspect. Mine might just not get clogged as easily. Hard to say but I'm not surprised at all they are different.
 
32 and rain. All the ice has melted. Not to many people would think of these conditions as moral boosting but OMG is its glorious. I will take this any day over 0 degrees and -40 windchill. Threw a few super dry pieces of something I don't even know what it is in E/W just to keep the coals, still 73 inside. Things are looking up here boys.
 
Well I'm pretty sure I figured out the furnace issue.

When it get really cold, think when I need the furnace, the drain line freezes up.

What a PITA the HVAC guys down here don't know cold.
Can you get a condensate pump and dump it in a 5 gallon bucket or the like. Then just dump it out in the yard, toilet. Just till things warm back up.
 
Can you get a condensate pump and dump it in a 5 gallon bucket or the like. Then just dump it out in the yard, toilet. Just till things warm back up.
I'm thinking I have a drain vent from a bathroom about 20 feet from the furnace and may drill into it and set a barb fitting to pump it into. It only seems to freeze in single digit weather and eventually we may travel south during the cold month. Hitting the drain will run it into the septic system so I don't have to worry about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ozarkoak
I try to run my heat pump even in the bitter cold every so often to keep the basement temps above 40. I don't want anything freezing. Good luck man!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ozarkoak
I try to run my heat pump even in the bitter cold every so often to keep the basement temps above 40. I don't want anything freezing. Good luck man!
I have my basement zone set to 60 in cold weather. Don’t mind the furnace running for piece of mind.
 
I try to run my heat pump even in the bitter cold every so often to keep the basement temps above 40. I don't want anything freezing. Good luck man!
ATM my heat pump is inoperable and due to be replaced by Trane with a new one. That coupled with this furnace drain has me a bit jacked up. We moved in last June and it's never been right.
 
I'm thinking I have a drain vent from a bathroom about 20 feet from the furnace and may drill into it and set a barb fitting to pump it into. It only seems to freeze in single digit weather and eventually we may travel south during the cold month. Hitting the drain will run it into the septic system so I don't have to worry about it.
Yeah my utah place has the condensate pump up to the ceiling with vinyl tube and run 3/4 of the way across the house and down into a dedicated 1 1/2 abs pipe with a trap that then dumps right into the main 3" drain line to the septic.