What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[Wisco Shepherd]

Woke up to snow on the ground and the house in the whole 60s with temps going down to single digits today. So Bob and I loaded up the stove with some Oak.

 

[ctreitzell]

Well, I was wrong, you guys were right!

3min with hairdryer to the front slot above the deflector and zero, then butane torch the super dry apple twigs I’m using and I get zero smoke on a cold start!

Tomorrow I’ll try 1 min with hairdryer

Inside the usual Chestnut/ Oak/ Elm
Poplar/Oak/Elm kindling and apple twigs to start…also, as usual it’s around 14C/57F in the house and no solar in the forcast
…next few days gonna be below 0C over night…RealFeel says -1C/30F

 

[Pinesmoke]

Well, I was wrong, you guys were right!

3min with hairdryer to the front slot above the deflector and zero, then butane torch the super dry apple twigs I’m using and I get zero smoke on a cold start!

Tomorrow I’ll try 1 min with hairdryer

Inside the usual Chestnut/ Oak/ Elm
Poplar/Oak/Elm kindling and apple twigs to start…also, as usual it’s around 14C/57F in the house and no solar in the forcast
…next few days gonna be below 0C over night…RealFeel says -1C/30F

View attachment 333362

That look seems to be a "been trying to tell you, now get it rocking dad" look.

 

[ctreitzell]

How much accu.ulation do you get after 2 or 4 weeks? I sweep twice per year. Once in January and once in the spring (or fall if I don't do it in the spring). I think keeping it clean is great. It is a good feeling to have a clean stack. Every system is different so if you need to do it that often, I am glad you are motivated to do it.

Yes, that is exactly what I’m assessing in so doing.

Well, my system is a long, long way from ideal…I’ve posted about it plenty on this forum…I only have class A from the adapter at the back of the stove, throughly the wall to a 90° ClassA elbow…then it is a homemade virtuous connector insulated and heat tape to a custom steel cleanout section with galvanized and a long galvanized section which is a bit of creo factory.

Yes, there is more creo at the base of the galvanized section, which I confirmed when sweeping yesterday.

This morning I am burning red elm. It really is a great firewood. It is not as dense as oak but seems to burn above its weight class; long burn with good heat output and lots of coals that continue to heat. It is easy to split by hand and often I can get the bark off before I stack it, making for nice clean splits when they eventually make it in the house. Very much underrated as a firewood in my opinion.

Siberian Elm I’m burning now from infested trees on my property is brutal to split…interweaved grain is so locked together. I will rip with a handsaw the difficult to split logs rather than injure myself with sledge and wedges.

You are right, I love the Elm fire…Elm and oak make a nice fire!

 

[ctreitzell]

That look seems to be a "been trying to tell you, now get it rocking dad" look.

Jupiter is a strange cat. He’s new at my place, showed up in April 2024 and seemed a jolly sort at first, yet I believe he’s got psychological issues. He doesn’t act like a normal cat. He’s not deaf (a large percentage of all white cats are deaf). He’s great with humans, but an absolute terror with other cats. I have 5 cats right now, and Jupe will attack our Black cat and Tabby and White on sight. We’ve been trying to integrate them, but it isn’t working.

When typical cats meet, the touch noses then sniff backsides. Jupe does entertain this handshake with the nose, nor the posterior ID. In fact, he recoils at this interaction and it creates instant animosity.

Thus, Jupiter remains fearful of other cats and will strike out…and he is huge cat at over 13lbs!

 

[NickW]

Slept in a bit so the house has a little chill. 24 degrees out, full load of shoulder season wood in, big chill coming tonight.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Fire's set. A couple of 4" beech limbs after the pine coaled out with pine on top and cruising at 450 stove temp and the stack at 500, cats happy at 1200.

Yesterday I replaced the stove adaptor with a piece of dvl I put a damper into. Even with the adaptor snugged up it was still pulling some air it seemed. Stack temp is 100 deg higher than before. Draw is solid and the smoke rollout is much better.

Voice Guaraldi trio Christmas in da house, coffee and snow covered world outside it doesn't get alot better. Gonna be hard to pry my butt of the couch in the near future.

 

[stoveliker]

Sixty freaking five today outside. 😧And rain and 60 mph winds.
A little minisplit time.
Tonight 35, tomorrow 42, tomorrow night 25.
Unfortunately tomorrow there's a contractor in my basement so I can't use my stove tonight or tomorrow during the day. It'd be 85 there, and that doesn't facilitate working....

 

[Pinesmoke]

Sixty freaking five today outside. 😧And rain and 60 mph winds.
A little minisplit time.
Tonight 35, tomorrow 42, tomorrow night 25.
Unfortunately tomorrow there's a contractor in my basement so I can't use my stove tonight or tomorrow during the day. It'd be 85 there, and that doesn't facilitate working....

That was us yesterday. Dropped hard early this morning and rain turned to snow.

 

[Wildflush]

Well, I was wrong, you guys were right!

3min with hairdryer to the front slot above the deflector and zero, then butane torch the super dry apple twigs I’m using and I get zero smoke on a cold start!

Tomorrow I’ll try 1 min with hairdryer

Inside the usual Chestnut/ Oak/ Elm
Poplar/Oak/Elm kindling and apple twigs to start…also, as usual it’s around 14C/57F in the house and no solar in the forcast
…next few days gonna be below 0C over night…RealFeel says -1C/30F

View attachment 333362

Glad you did it! No more going outside for you! I always do 2 min.

 

[Wildflush]

Like a little hurricane here. High winds, heavy rain, 60’s, no stove. Just mini split at times.

 

[thewoodlands]

Lots of rain up this way, not much snow left. Since I'm feeling better we have a shoulder season fire going, first one in a long time or it seems that way.

The high I saw today was 45 with a low of 39.1 this morning.

 

[webfish]

Load of oak here. Going to below 0 tonight with high of 7 tomorrow. Burning around the clock lately.

 

[ctreitzell]

I just put in a bunch of junk, 1-2” branches of various bug eaten sticks that will burn…I had a nice chunk of Elm earlier with some hazel that got very warm…after that, put on a split of some dry chestnut that will linger mingled with the little stuff and die out overnight…thing is, it’s early, so I’ll need to put something else too in the next hr or so

 

[NickW]

Just loaded my 3rd shoulder season load of the day. Failing at getting the coals under control. May have to go get an armful of bark later to burn them down for a full overnight load. Supposed to get down around 0 tonight and windy.

 

[NickW]

3 ash, 1 sugar maple, 2 beech, 2 ironwood and a sliver of oak (top right) on a beautiful bed of
coals. We'll be cranking BTU'S shortly on a cold and blustery night.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Coals are about set for tonight's load of beech and oak. Bag of pine in for the morning.
One last sour mash and it's time for bed. 25 tonight, stay warm y'all.

 

[MRD1985]

Monsoon rains and wind today. And very warm. No fire today (at work anyway) so mini splits as needed. 60 currently with a low of 35 by 6 am. Very cold in low 20s tomorrow night with only a high of 39 tomorrow

 

[Kodiak]

Well I’m impressed. I thought I was going to need to cold start. ( I glanced in the stove and saw no coals. ). Then put hand on the top and she’s still warm 14 hours later Wow. In the ashes were enough hot coals to relight from. I hit it with the propane torch trick for a minute or less and she’s burning already. Love not having to cold start.

Small splits of Hemlock, maple and a few splitz of well seasoned Doug fir. Will burn that until 11 pm or so , ( it’s 7 pm now here) and then put in the overnight load and sleep in, day off tomorrow. Sleep in being relative, I dont seem to make it past 7 am very often, even when I try to.

 

[MRD1985]

Well I’m impressed. I thought I was going to need to cold start. ( I glanced in the stove and saw no coals. ). Then put hand on the top and she’s still warm 14 hours later Wow. In the ashes were enough hot coals to relight from. I hit it with the propane torch trick for a minute or less and she’s burning already. Love not having to cold start.

Small splits of Hemlock, maple and a few splitz of well seasoned Doug fir. Will burn that until 11 pm or so , ( it’s 7 pm now here) and then put in the overnight load and sleep in, day off tomorrow. Sleep in being relative, I dont seem to make it past 7 am very often, even when I try to.

The torch on the coals from a “dormant” fire does work great! I do the same.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 31.4 out tonight, the basement temp started out at 77 with the temps up here 69 & 71. The overnight load has 6 splits of cherry with 3 splits of pine. I did have a small fire after 7 so I would have coals for the overnight fire.