What Is In Your Stove Right Now?

[all night moe]

9* with areal feel of 5 and a low of 6* on the way. 10:40 and the first load of red oak is in on top of a nice coal bed.
Overnight load of more oak, pignut, and maybe some locust will be delivered in an hour or so.

 

[NickW]

4 ash, 3 beech and 1 ironwood...

 

[MRD1985]

11 degrees currently, loaded up with mostly oak for the night, with a couple pieces of cherry.

 

[NickW]

Ain't no damned heaters on this morning and the house is still pretty warm! 😁🎉 Between it being 10 degrees warmer outside (still pretty windy though), starting with a warmer house, my air experiments being pretty successful, and 8 hours between loads instead of 9 1/2-10 I think things are close to being kosher again.

3 smallish pieces of ash are on an absolutely massive pile of coals. If I can get some solar gains today I might be able to really burn down the coals and get some ash out.

 

[Todd]

-3 this morning, single digit highs today then warms up this weekend. Been going through the Oak. Just passed 1.5 cords for the season.

Years ago I had access to Black Locust for my Woodstock Keystone. Once I tried packing it with 4 perfect sized splits and had a 20 hour burn. Pretty good for a little 1.3 cuft firebox.

 

[MRD1985]

Got up this morning and was surprised I did not have as big of coals as I have been having. My coal bed is too big and limiting how much wood I can fit. I had to scoop out almost an ash pails worth out of hot coals to fit more wood than last night. Still have a huge coal bed. After it warms up I’ll have to clean a lot more out.

Loaded up with all red oak this morning at 7. House temps were down to 67 in the main rooms, coolest it has been since the cold snap started 700+ STT to warm things up.

 

[Crab]

Hmm, maybe someone else has some luck? It plays for me if I click on it

Using an android tablet, I had to download it then open it....nice hickory burn, I've been putting a split or 2 in each reload with red or white oak. Hickory is 14% MC, burns hot. 8.1 deg was our low here this morning, too much snow still on the ground from the foot + we got a week and a half ago. Maybe melt some this weekend but it'll be slow. Need big rain and 50s to clear out the snow and wash away all the road salt. No rain in the 10 day guess/forecast. 530a startup load winding down, good load of red, white and 1 hickory in the ready position.

 

[Dieselhead]

Ah yes, coal management. One benefit to a deep belly. I’m doing some as we speak as seen in the pic below. My trick, rake forward to the front, so just the floor is left in the back. Plop down a couple short pieces on the floor and build up on top of them. This way the new load catches and the coals have unobstructed initial first dibs at the incoming air. I am aware that stoves with the loading floor flush with the door opening makes this much more challenging. I used to have that issue with a Napoleon ZC stove I ran for a few years before ripping it all out and replacing it with my current stove.
Last night was 8 and calm out. Today I believe we are in the low 20s forecast. Coffee is on and all is well. Have a great day all!

 

[MRD1985]

Ah yes, coal management. One benefit to a deep belly. I’m doing some as we speak as seen in the pic below. My trick, rake forward to the front, so just the floor is left in the back. Plop down a couple short pieces on the floor and build up on top of them. This way the new load catches and the coals have unobstructed initial first dibs at the incoming air. I am aware that stoves with the loading floor flush with the door opening makes this much more challenging. I used to have that issue with a Napoleon ZC stove I ran for a few years before ripping it all out and replacing it with my current stove.
Last night was 8 and calm out. Today I believe we are in the low 20s forecast. Coffee is on and all is well. Have a great day all!

View attachment 335683



View attachment 335684

My coal bed was about 6” deep before I shoveled some out I wouldn’t be able to see the floor of the stove 🤣

 

[Pinesmoke]

Ah yes, coal management. One benefit to a deep belly. I’m doing some as we speak as seen in the pic below. My trick, rake forward to the front, so just the floor is left in the back. Plop down a couple short pieces on the floor and build up on top of them. This way the new load catches and the coals have unobstructed initial first dibs at the incoming air. I am aware that stoves with the loading floor flush with the door opening makes this much more challenging. I used to have that issue with a Napoleon ZC stove I ran for a few years before ripping it all out and replacing it with my current stove.
Last night was 8 and calm out. Today I believe we are in the low 20s forecast. Coffee is on and all is well. Have a great day all!





View attachment 335684

That's not the only tool that shrinks in the cold.

 

[Crab]

Ah yes, coal management. One benefit to a deep belly. I’m doing some as we speak as seen in the pic below. My trick, rake forward to the front, so just the floor is left in the back. Plop down a couple short pieces on the floor and build up on top of them. This way the new load catches and the coals have unobstructed initial first dibs at the incoming air. I am aware that stoves with the loading floor flush with the door opening makes this much more challenging. I used to have that issue with a Napoleon ZC stove I ran for a few years before ripping it all out and replacing it with my current stove.
Last night was 8 and calm out. Today I believe we are in the low 20s forecast. Coffee is on and all is well. Have a great day all!





View attachment 335684

Woke up at 3am to 58 deg in the MBR, got up to #$% and had a hard time finding my "screwdriver"....had forgotten to open MBR door to allow the woodstove heat in.

 

[Dieselhead]

My coal bed was about 6” deep before I shoveled some out I wouldn’t be able to see the floor of the stove 🤣

A few pieces of softwood on top of the coals will help your ailment. Continuous heat output while burning down coals and not creating more. Possibly by the time the softwood is burnt out the coal bed would be at a manageable level and ready for next hardwood load.

Woke up at 3am to 58 deg in the MBR, got up to #$% and had a hard time finding my "screwdriver"....had forgotten to open MBR door to allow the woodstove heat in.

The family is usually up before me so I get the MBR door closed as well. It’s funny how fast the temp drops off you notice it when walking out and getting hit with a wall of heat.

 

[MRD1985]

3.5 hour reload to get the temp up. 300 STT. 2 big chunks of oak. Coals definitely an issue right now. I have some pine in the backyard that is seasoned I might throw a few pieces in to see if it will help some.

 

[thewoodlands]

We had 10 degrees this morning, the basement temp started off at 73 with both temps up here at 65. The first load had maple with some beech in it, the second load has five splits of beech.

 

[begreen]

Had some wild cherry to add to the fire last night. The results were delightful.

Thread 'Secondary eye candy'

Thursday at 3:01 PM

I had a nice thick split of wild cherry on top of the doug fire splits in a reload last night. Once the fire got burning we were rewarded with a very nice secondary display. This lasted almost two hours. It was better than what was on TV.

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Folks have asked about the PE secondary burn so hopefully this will illustrate what it looks like when the stars are aligned and the wood is right.

• begreen
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Pacific Energy

• 

 

[Wildflush]

Taking some time off from burning. I noticed some soot in the snow below my chimney. Called my sweep and scheduled a cleaning and inspection. I burned 1 2/3 cords between last season and now and did not have it swept last year. Sweep thought I could go every other year. For piece of mind worth having done. Thinking about going back to having it swept every year. Will see what he finds. He will use a camera also for inspection. He also installed the stove and pipe in 2022.

 

[MRD1985]

Taking some time off from burning. I noticed some soot in the snow below my chimney. Called my sweep and scheduled a cleaning and inspection. I burned 1 2/3 cords between last season and now and did not have it swept last year. Sweep thought I could go every other year. For piece of mind worth having done. Thinking about going back to having it swept every year. Will see what he finds. He will use a camera also for inspection. He also installed the stove and pipe in 2022.

Do you use a damper with your set up?

 

[Wildflush]

Do you use a damper with your set up?

No. 23’ chimney great draft even with the bends 30’s to clear roof gutters, outside 90 T with clean out and 90 elbow to wall thimble which is very short run. I burn hot. Start turning stove down at 400 STT in stages. One think I might change is giving it more air in the later stages of the burn. Re-split my thicker red oak today that has been indoors for 3 days and MC was 16. My sweep said powder soot is common especially if very windy. Still having things checked. Using the mini split now.

 

[bigealta]

3.5 hour reload to get the temp up. 300 STT. 2 big chunks of oak. Coals definitely an issue right now. I have some pine in the backyard that is seasoned I might throw a few pieces in to see if it will help some.

Why don't you just run your overnight a bit hotter so the coals burn themselves out by the time you wake up?

 

[MRD1985]

No. 23’ chimney great draft even with the bends 30’s to clear roof gutters, outside 90 T with clean out and 90 elbow to wall thimble which is very short run. I burn hot. Start turning stove down at 400 STT in stages. One think I might change is giving it more air in the later stages of the burn. Re-split my thicker red oak today that has been indoors for 3 days and MC was 16. My sweep said powder soot is common especially if very windy. Still having things checked. Using the mini split now.

Is your chimney insulated?

 

[MRD1985]

Why don't you just run your overnight a bit hotter so the coals burn themselves out by the time you wake up?

I do burnt hot. I don’t go to bed until it starts to cool after peak temperature. It’s usually at the point where if I give it any more air it’d be too hot before I go to bed.

Coals only start to be an issue after several days of very cold temperatures

 

[bigealta]

Coals burnt down to almost nothing today. Wahoo!
Did a restart with n/s bottom load and kindling, with e/w row loose on top. Fired right up. Lots of air space so burnt well.

Just reloaded with large sassafras and a piece of ash.

Got to go turn the draft down 1 minute in.

 

[Wildflush]

Is your chimney insulated?

Pipe is in my signature. Yes top line Excel.

 

[Dieselhead]

The remnants of my morning shorty/coal control load are starting to simmer out. I’ve had this cool blue flame in the back left corner for about 45 min now. In person it looks like I have a little sterno can lit back there 😂

 

[NickW]

Buttload of ashes out, full shoulder season load in about an hour and a half ago. Letting it rip snort to get ready for the overnight load and stop the indoor upstairs temperature freefall that started as the sun went down...