What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[NickW]

When burning down coals with shoulder season wood I use a bunch of small splits and don't fill it up but still aim for normal temperature. Aspen and pine are better than silver maple for this, but silver maple is better than small hardwood. I always keep a bunch of bark on hand. 5 pieces of bark can get the flue really hot and will raise stt somewhat.

My first load of the day went in about an hour ago. 3/4 load of shoulder season wood with ash & small embers off to one side.

 

[Dieselhead]

One of the old members passed that trick along, great heat output from the coals and then the additional heat from the softwood burning down. Once there about gone it’s time for a full load of hardwoods. Timing is crucial with that method.

 

[30WCF]

It likes to breathe on the colder days.
One spilt of an oak crotch awkwardly placed in.

 

[Pinesmoke]

I let her smolder today, it was near 50. Some pine and cherry bringing her back up to a coal bed.

 

[weee123]

Currently 11 out feels like 0. My ridiculous pile of coals. Stove will cool off tomorrow since I’ll be at work so I’ll clean it out on Tuesday. You can see the depth by how high against the fire brick in the back. A big chunk of ash, beech and some hickory for this load. Won’t be surprised if this one hits 800 before I go to bed.

Wow 800? Id be crapping myself if my stove ever got near that

 

[MongoMongoson]

We are in the UP for Christmas. One big maple round kept the cabin warm, and it was 66 in here when we got back tonight. Now I have 3 small sugar maple splits in the stove. We sleep in the loft so I don't want the upstairs to be too warm for us to sleep.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Wow 800? Id be crapping myself if my stove ever got near that

At home with the Summit 800 makes me uncomfortable. The Quaker we have at our cabin likes to run hot, and I am OK with that. We have an uninsulated masonry chimney that is 8" square and the stove collar is 6"... so I know the setup is not right and I am happy running it a little hotter to keep the slow moving flue gases hot all the way to the top of the chimney.

 

[all night moe]

Still burning silver. I guess it can be worth it's weight. That's if the fire can be tended to. I did add one ash ugly.
17* and feels like 9.
Comfy in this old house, save the kitchen.

 

[MRD1985]

Wow 800? Id be crapping myself if my stove ever got near that

That’s my limit. Once it start to “smell” hot, that’s hot enough for me. Opening the door cools things down. I also believe 800-850 is considered over fire for the stove .

 

[ozarkoak]

Only 48 outside no fire today made it to 50 outside and house kept 70. Just lit a nighttime fire. We have a little bit of wild cherry thought I would try it as some medium sized kindling. Holy cow that stuff snaps and cracks like crazy, pretty used to a silent fire box and that stuff sounded like firecrackers.

 

[stoveliker]

The few shorties and sawdust bricks I put in at 11.30 am are gone. A reload with... Red oak shorties.

I'm not impressed with the sawdust bricks. Redstone, claims to be hardwood, which most likely is true; so two might have produced a lot less ashes.
They claim they produce less ash than cordwood. That is in my case (comparing to red oak) absolutely not the case. I have at least twice as much sawdust as my red oak produces. Mountains of fluffy "snow".

20 F outside but slowly increasing it appears. 71 upstairs.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

You need some softwood in your stacks to burn them coals down.

If you don't have softwoods bark can work good for this as well

 

[all night moe]

Spread the coals out for 5 splits of hardwoods. Sugar, ash, and cherry. I raked a bunch of the silver coals to the door for consumption.
I also place two good sized pieces of bark on top of them. Transferring the coalbed to hardwood now as I might be headed out to plow snow tonight.

 

[weee123]

Loaded up some more splits of red oak for the overnight. It really is a beautiful thing how easily properly seasoned oak takes off on even a small amount of coals

 

[MRD1985]

Cold stove, reluctantly, today. Work day. I can tell my wife has been jacking up the heat. And yet she can’t understand why I use the wood stove so much and why I like it so much. She usually says “ we have a boiler and a heat pump why do we need that”. Well the evidence is pretty easy to see in my opinion 🤷🏻‍♂️

Saturday thru early this morning I was home running the stove. Today I was at work so just the boiler today. I lit a fire at 630 before I left for work. Nothing since then. You can see the difference between stove days and not stove days. Each room is labeled. Granted it was super cold Saturday and Sunday and fairly cold today. Did not get out of the mid 20s.

Can’t wait to see how much gas I burned tomorrow..

 

[weee123]

That’s my limit. Once it start to “smell” hot, that’s hot enough for me. Opening the door cools things down. I also believe 800-850 is considered over fire for the stove .

If 800 was overfire id make the max 750 at least but that’s just me. I still fondly remember my osburn with bad glass gasket that would quickly chug to 800 after being completely shut down. Now THAT was sketchy

 

[MRD1985]

If 800 was overfire id make the max 750 at least but that’s just me. I still fondly remember my osburn with bad glass gasket that would quickly chug to 800 after being completely shut down. Now THAT was sketchy

I’d have to re read the manual but I think it’s closer to 850.

I don’t aim for 800. My target STT is usually 650-700 depending on ambient temperature.

The stove is tight. No leaks. When it’s single digits it drafts hard with the insulated liner, even though it’s only 14 feet tall. It’s an insert, so installing a damper is more challenging than a free standing stove.

 

[thewoodlands]

The outside temp is 21.6 tonight, the basement temp started out at 75, the two temps up here are 68 & 69.

The wood stove is loaded with beech and some ironwood.

 

[NickW]

House is still pretty warm from all the baking but going down to 18 by morning, so 3/4 hardwood load going in. 4 ash & 1 beech.

 

[burning VC]

in nwNC foothills....

It was a solid cold day.
At 7a EST outside was 19F.
Jack Frost stayed late into the morning, the entire yard was coated in a crisp blue layer of ice frost, soil, blades, leaves etc...Squirrels were frisky in the cold, but the Red Cardinal birds were stand out contrasts on the blue.

At 9a Grandpa Bear was 300F when i gave him some silver maple as i had my coffee, and debated todays burning menu.
Time being short, I went with a White Pin Oak crotch which i split into threes, and a small hickory split.
Opening the draft a bit as i left to drop gifts and gather food for days..STT was 475F and climbing...
We hit a high of 40F today, but hovered in mid 30s 90% of the day.

at 6p for dinner I gave Grandpa some Spanish Swamp Oak in one chunk the size of a shoebox size 13, an 8" log 20" length unknown, and a small Hickory split.
Temp outside was 30F, STT was 490F.

Midnight came and i reloaded Grandpa with another 1/4 round 10x12x23 of Red Oak(Spanish Swamp), and White Pin Oak log 9x21 with a split of unknown hardwood....suspect Red Oak, but it was a odd piece.
Outside 24F, STT 550F

The cold lingered but it wouldn't bother the Bear in the least,
you know, down by the river between two falls in the trees...

 

[30WCF]

 

[MRD1985]

Got home, cleaned out the stove to find it still very warm, 150 degrees. TONS of hot coals still in the stove. Well over 24 hours since the last fire. Closer to 27 hours. Shoveled some out with leaving a good bed for the next fire. Sifted a lot of the ash out, and loaded up with beech, hickory and ash.

$ 10.56 for natural gas yesterday to keep the house at 68. 😳

Edit: fire is much more controllable with a reasonable coal bed. Also not as cold, so could be a combination of the two.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had an outside temp of 23.6 this morning, the basement temp started out at 73 with both temps up here at 68. The first load this morning was some soft maple on some very nice coals from the overnight fire.

We had some new snow overnight, looks like another seven inches.

 

[Wildflush]

Loaded the stove late this morning. Cleaned out ash. Ran the mini split for a bit. Snowing here. Small split hot load to bring downstairs up to temp quickly.

 

[NickW]

3/4 mixed load of hardwood and softwood to get up to cruising quickly before going out hunting this morning. Back in already and may just call it quits for the season. We'll see if my stubborn inability to give up kicks back in this afternoon if I can get my chores done or before the season ends.