What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[Pinesmoke]

Remnants of last night's fire burning out. Gonna be mid 50s today and going to have 20 people tonight for a Christmas party. Figure the HP is the way to go.

Y'all stay warm in the cold north.

 

[all night moe]

Remnants of last night's fire burning out. Gonna be mid 50s today and going to have 20 people tonight for a Christmas party. Figure the HP is the way to go.

Y'all stay warm in the cold north.

But, it's a Christmas party. In the north, it's not the same without.
How about a small fire. Little bit of coals, and small splits as needed....just enough to kill the chill and keep that HP off.
2 birds with one stone.

I know. If I was in Tenn I'd be called a half back.
Yunck, yunck, yunck.

 

[Pinesmoke]

But, it's a Christmas party. In the north, it's not the same without.
How about a small fire. Little bit of coals, and small splits as needed....just enough to kill the chill and keep that HP off.
2 birds with one stone.

I know. If I was in Tenn I'd be called a half back.
Yunck, yunck, yunck.

That was my original plan but we are in for a 60mph wind event tonight. A really cool fire may not keep a good draft going through that and I don't want to melt anyone lol.

 

[stoveliker]

With 20 people, and 50 F you may need the AC ;-)

 

[NickW]

Christmas at our house I would literally have a fire going in the basement for the kids and windows cracked upstairs from the adults and slow cookers.

I wimped out of hunting pretty early this morning and am now back inside with some pine, cherry and black ash in the Stratford 2.

 

[stoveliker]

It was thirteen hours. Gotta go to a basketball game if my son, so putting in more oak shorties now rather than waiting an hour.

This is how I smashed up the leftovers, raked them mostly to the front but left some spread out.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had 5.1 for a low this morning, the furnace kicked on so the house was 68. I finally started a fire around 10:15 from the coals leftover from the overnight burn, the first load is pine with 2 splits of maple. I did take some ashes out today.

 

[Pinesmoke]

With 20 people, and 50 F you may need the AC ;-)

My head has already been there lol.

 

[30WCF]

3 oak splits about filled her up. Could slide one more flat one in up top probably. Not today though.

 

[ctreitzell]

Leather welding gloves are your friend.
(Until you are trying to arrange shorties vertically in the back of a 19" firebox ...or leading E/W in a deep firebox.)

I have some leather yard gloves, I may bring home my welding gloves from work and use those, or pick up a second set

Yep, changed my life when I started doing this last year. I need a new pair as the left pinky has developed a hole

I was researching what to get on YT and was surprised by some of the silly behaviour

 

[30WCF]

What do you get for burn times on that little guy? Not on the monster splits you sometimes feed it, but say packed with good sized splits on a small coal bed?

Loaded at 11:30

3 oak splits about filled her up. Could slide one more flat one in up top probably. Not today though.

View attachment 333512

It’s 3:30
Right at 4 hrs now on this load.
43*F and breezy outside
70*F inside
Thermostat is set to 67*F, so it’s not been on.
280-290*F inside the flue
350-425*F STT depending on where you shoot it with the IR.

Secondaries fire up each time a coaled over log falls apart a little exposing a new surface, but this will soon be over once those logs crumble the rest of the way.

I’m going to go ahead and rake them and put on a bit more to keep it from dropping too much. I could ride it out another hour, but just in the time it’s taken me to write this up, I’ve seen the flue go 289-301-, and now down to 250. Couple more crumbles and this one’s done for. It would hold coals till tomorrow, but not be pushing any beneficial heat.

 

[Dajolu]

Burning red oak since 6 am. I’m too intimidated to load the stove full I dunno why. Probably have done three or four 1/3 till loads today so far.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 15.5 out at the moment, I have a load of cherry, birch with some maple going. It's 69 up here with the basement temp hitting 77 when I left.

 

[NickW]

6 smallish pieces of cherry on the coals from a small afternoon load to get to the overnight load later.

 

[all night moe]

Last load was in at 11:30ish this afternoon. All silver maple to burn down that coal pile and get some soft maple out of my way. It was still cold out the whole time and house felt warm with no winds pushing drafts. Reloaded half an hour ago. I removed some ash first then stirred up the remaining coals. Ash, sugar, and cherry splits.

 

[all night moe]

Loaded at 11:30


It’s 3:30
Right at 4 hrs now on this load.
43*F and breezy outside
70*F inside
Thermostat is set to 67*F, so it’s not been on.
280-290*F inside the flue
350-425*F STT depending on where you shoot it with the IR.

Secondaries fire up each time a coaled over log falls apart a little exposing a new surface, but this will soon be over once those logs crumble the rest of the way.

View attachment 333523

View attachment 333524

I’m going to go ahead and rake them and put on a bit more to keep it from dropping too much. I could ride it out another hour, but just in the time it’s taken me to write this up, I’ve seen the flue go 289-301-, and now down to 250. Couple more crumbles and this one’s done for. It would hold coals till tomorrow, but not be pushing any beneficial heat.

Sounds like this stove is just a bit to small for my need. Large kitchen and main source of heat. I'd need 6hr minimum consistent burns. Kitchen is frozen now most of the time.

 

[NickW]

Burning red oak since 6 am. I’m too intimidated to load the stove full I dunno why. Probably have done three or four 1/3 till loads today so far.

Work your way up slowly to larger loads to build your confidence in controlling it with the air. Try a 1/2 load and see how it goes, then a 3/4 load, etc. I bet you'll like the longer burns. Up to 3/4 loads are easy for me, full loads take off again about 1-1 1/2 hours in and require another air adjustment, then another after it settles down. I could probably control that better by charring the wood more at the start, but I hate seeing the BTU's going up the flue.