What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[NickW]

7 now going down to 2, but the winds have calmed some so only single digit below zero wind chill tonight. Same recipe of ash, beech & ironwood; but this load is nice and tight.

 

[MRD1985]

Very nice fire last night. Held well over 700 for about 90 minutes, and still was 69-70 in the main rooms despite the temps last night. Reloaded with mostly oak and a bit of maple. Another very hot fire . Currently 20 feels like 11. Might not look like it but STT is 700+ and I have it chocked way down, had to start chocking it down at 400 STT the temps started skyrocketing quickly. Case in point you need to be on top of a full load of oak before it runs away on you. This all happened in a matter of minutes.

 

[Dieselhead]

Very nice fire last night. Held well over 700 for about 90 minutes, and still was 69-70 in the main rooms despite the temps last night. Reloaded with mostly oak and a bit of maple. Another very hot fire . Currently 20 feels like 11. Might not look like it but STT is 700+ and I have it chocked way down, had to start chocking it down at 400 STT the temps started skyrocketing quickly. Case in point you need to be on top of a full load of oak before it runs away on you. This all happened in a matter of minutes.

How’s your draft? Any chance it could be excessive? Mine pulls very hard esp on reload so I have a damper inline.

 

[Todd]

Currently -12 and loaded up the stove with a 3/4 load of oak burning medium low. Cabin at 75. Looking forward to this short warm up, need to get outside and change a belt on my snowblower.

 

[Ashful]

After 10 years and roughly 100 cords thru my Ashford 30's, and burning almost exclusively oak for the first 7-8 years of that, I'm finally getting what I consider to be a pretty good feel for how other woods compare. We had a tornado whip thru in 2019 and take down maybe 100 cords of shagbark hickory on a neighboring property that I used to help manage, and so I brought a good fraction of that home and was burning a lot of hickory in 2023 - 2024. Now it's mostly ash (EAB) and black walnut (our most-prevalent tree), mixed with the last of the hickory and my usual oak.

SB Hickory heartwood is just insane, maybe only rivaled by white oak, in terms of dried density. After hauling two satchels filled with SBH heartwood up from the basement, carrying equivalent loads of black walnut or ash feels like styrofoam, it must be damn near 2:1 weight difference when dried 4+ years under roof.

But hickory is also the dirtiest wood I've ever handled, I guess it's probably powder post beetles, they just turn most of the sapwood straight to sawdust, and it's damn near impossible to shake it clean outside. What a mess.

Oak is still my favorite, with white outpacing red by a bit, but both being the highest-BTU "clean" woods I can access. They go into the stacks clean, they come out clean 4 years later, and don't leave any mess on the hearth when loading. The only down side is the tendency to get splinters from it.

Ash and walnut are both relatively low BTU, by comparison. I won't even use them for overnight loads if I can avoid it. But they're good for quick heat during the day, when the fast burn time (4 hours full 3 cu.ft. load) can help timing an evening reload a lot easier.

Walnut's big down-side seems to be ash accumulation. I don't know if there's any wood I burn that generates as much ash per BTU as black walnut. I can usually plan to empty the ash out of my stoves each Saturday, if I'm not burning a lot of black walnut, but I need to do a second emptying on Wednesday night or Thursday, if I'm running much walnut.

My burn rate is up to an average 5 loads per day this year, a combination of being home more than I used to be, and adding some square footage to the total heat load.

 

[NickW]

0 degrees with a light breeze, basement bedroom heaters kicked in because the Mrs let me sleep in a bit, ripping a full load of ash good and hot (for me - 800 flue 600+ stt). Warm up through Friday night, Saturday dropping again, Sunday - Tuesday expected to be coldest of the season so far.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Last night loaded the normal oak. 16 this morning and the house was still at 68. Pushing 3 big pine splits and nice and toasty now.

We have family stopped in on the way to Florida yesterday. This morn they can't believe the big blue rock is the only heat we are running. They both mentioned how warm they are in the bedrooms.

I just smiled and poured more coffee.

Stay warm y'all.

 

[Wildflush]

Been burning pretty much non stop but no overnight loads. I load before bed. Burning lower BTU wood like cherry if house gets too warm. Using up the old ex large cherry splits. Oak and cherry in the stove now. Trying to keep stove top in the 550-600 range during the day. 700 STT this morning to get house warmed up.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had 10.2 for an outside temp this morning, the basement temp started out at 73 with both temps up here 67. The first load of the day was five splits of beech.

We have a total of four inches of new sugar snow, it's almost time to plow some driveways along with some trails. I'll also take some ashes out today.

 

[MRD1985]

How’s your draft? Any chance it could be excessive? Mine pulls very hard esp on reload so I have a damper inline.

When it’s very cold it’s strong. Chimney is only 14 feet, straight up, but insulated. You really have to limit air intake quickly on a reload., though oak seems to want to run away the fastest. Or I could just do a small load, but don’t really want to do that yet, I’d have to load the stove much more often, plus fabricate a way to operate it through the fascia plates.

I may have to try to find a way to install a damper, but it won’t be easy on an insert. I’d have to redo some of the piping.

 

[stoveliker]

Last night's 8 pm load of maple oak and cherry is done after 15 hrs, well, some coals left (mostly from the maple, not the oak - but my stove burns different than most in my experience, center burns out first, then the sides, and no coaling in split form that slowly falls apart, instead they turn to ashes front to back, so coals are in left and right back corners and I had maple bottom tow left and right).
So adding a split of pine.

It's 27 out and very windy. Real feel 18.
It was 66 this morning, so I misestimated the need for BTUs.

 

[MRD1985]

Just reloaded with oak, cherry and a piece of 2 of maple. STT about 200. About 8 and a half hours out of the last load. Been cold and windy all day today. Currently 29 feels like 18. 70 inside.

 

[all night moe]

The dragon has indigestion. A monster pile of coals with blue dancing flames. Coals are 24'' wide, 24-30'' deep, and 20'' high.
Currently 19* with a real feel of 2. I brought more food and just need to toss it into the lair. Still about 4 cord down there.

 

[Pinesmoke]

I was out cutting all day and got back inside to a very cool stove. I took the opportunity to empty a bunch of ashes and by the time I was done had a bunch of very happy embers looking for food. A dozen pine limbs and it must be warming up, I hear it ticking

 

[NickW]

Yep, ticking is good. Just pulled some ash out myself and have a 3/4 load of shoulder season wood going. Hopefully will get some more ash & embers I have off to the side right now out before the overnight load. 22 degrees and sunny with a light breeze today was like a heat wave! 2 days in the 30's coming and then the bottom is going to drop out.

 

[thewoodlands]

We have three splits of beech with two splits of ironwood going in the Liberty, hopefully I can burn that down before the overnight fire.....push that air in!

 

[stoveliker]

Cleaned the cat and flue today. Some pine now to warm things up again.

 

[all night moe]

We have three splits of beech with two splits of ironwood going in the Liberty, hopefully I can burn that down before the overnight fire.....push that air in!

Me loves beech. Almost as much as shag bark. I don't run across much ironwood, even though it's around these areas.

 

[thewoodlands]

Me loves beech. Almost as much as shag bark. I don't run across much ironwood, even though it's around these areas.

Beech is nice firewood, I usually only burn it for the overnight fires. We have ironwood allover but like most of what we take, we look for the trees that are damaged.

 

[all night moe]

The coals have burned down to a regular bed and now burning 6 small and 2 large splits of sugar maple.

 

[stoveliker]

Red oak.
27 outside, real feel 20, low forecast of 24. Upstairs 71.

 

[thewoodlands]

It's 17.4 tonight with a forecast low of 7, the basement is starting out at 77 with both temps up here at 69. The overnight load has seven beech splits going, ashes will go out tomorrow morning.

 

[MRD1985]

All red oak plus one piece of cherry, 3 splits of the oak are big. 20 outside, feels like 15 currently. Currently 70 in the main rooms, a bit cooler in the bedrooms

 

[all night moe]

14* out with a RF of 6* Tossed on 3 smallish splits of black ash on top of the coal fest from last night's overnight load of red oak and sugar, with a couple splits of black cherry. Used the cherry as an igniter.

 

[Wildflush]

17 this morning. Stove still warm so did not need the hairdryer to reverse the draft stack effect. House furnace came on at 64 early this morning. Emptied some ash and top down with oak and maple with lumber scraps and a piece of fatwood and a pinecone for ignition. House 70 now with a 650 STT. I tell my wife the stove was our best home improvement.