What is the longest you can go without reloading?

[PapaDave]

Longest I have gone is 5 1/2 months. Last load went in in the spring and didn't have to fill it up again until the fall. Super dry hardwoods. ;-)

Geez, last year, we were still burning the first week of June. Started up again the end of Sept., shortest summer I can remember. Of course, with the sometimers and all, ...............
No really, last nite loaded about 11:15, got up this am about 6. Enough coals to restart w/o assistance from any other incendiary devices. Living room was still 67 deg., and 15 outside. Of course, the living room was probably about 120 deg. an hr. after I went to bed. :cheese:

 

[ihookem]

I can go for many years before reloading if I'm hunting. Actually I think I could have filled up the box and could have gone ten years .

 

[Highbeam]

Last night we loaded the heritage with three medium to large splits on top of a feew inches of coals at 10PM, this morning (Sunday) we stirred the coals and rekindled the fire with no aid from incendiary devices at 8:30 AM. Those three splits were cottonwood, one of the worst woods available. Yes, the stove was below 200 degrees but the fire was alive.

 

[DBoon]

With a Lopi Answer (1.6 cu ft) I can go overnight - never really timed it out exactly, but if load it at 11pm, in bed by midnight, by 7am I can still get coals for a relight. I'm guessing it goes about 5 hours until it's below 300 degrees.

 

[Todd]

Last night we loaded the heritage with three medium to large splits on top of a feew inches of coals at 10PM, this morning (Sunday) we stirred the coals and rekindled the fire with no aid from incendiary devices at 8:30 AM. Those three splits were cottonwood, one of the worst woods available. Yes, the stove was below 200 degrees but the fire was alive.

Wow! That's impressive especially with Cottonwood, and I bet it wasn't complicated at all. ;-P

 

[rickw]

If its cold ( like 10 and below) and I want the heat then under 8 hours. If its not real cold then 12+, max to date is 18 hours. I never use kindling except when it gets cleaned out (2 weeks when burning heavy, 3 weeks now). Never once got up to feed it.

 

[techieguy]

Maybe 14 hours max... Average 8-10 depending on outside temp... The house is no colder than 70 when I wake up, sometime warm as 76.

 

[doglady]

I have a Hampton Regency (medium size). I burn Red Maple, seasoned 1 year. To keep it in the "burn" range at around 300F, I need to add wood every 4 hours. That's with the damper and air control lowered.

I also have a Craftsbury (Hearthstone) which goes for about the same length of time. I added a damper to the stovepipe and modified the air control with the "fix" I got from Hearthstone, but both stoves nowhere get to the 5-7 hours as advertised.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Wednesday Morning about (9:00) "filled " my Taylor 750 (600 gallons water was up to temp, i keep it at 160 degrees) small firebox (iwould guess about 3 foot square). i always rake my coals to the front before filling it. i am mixing about 2/3 well seasoned unsplit oak logs about 10" diameter on the bottom of the pile and 1/3 green oak split on the top of the pile.
During the day Wed it proably averaged 35 degrees and dropped to high twenties wed nite (no wind). I am heating a 65 x28 well insulated 3 year old modular home (2 furnaces) plus an inside swimming pool (85 degrees) and spa(101 degrees). The pool is 12 X 16 5000 gallons and the spa is 450 gallons .
I opened the firebox and checked it at 7:00 Thursday morning and to my amazement it was nearly 2/3 full !! I filled it again Thursday afternoon and it still had three half burned pieces in the box and a nice bed of coals'
I

What does a unit like this cost ?Does it burn the smoke or does it smolder? a 3 Ft. square firebox would be 27Square Ft, thats a lot of wood for 1 filling.

 

[begreen]

I can officially say that I've just gone 2 days without loading. Woke up and it was 50 outside, looks like this will be day 3. ;-P

Actually, with the right packing of soft maple I can get about 12 hrs and still have coals to relight. Stove will be just warm to the touch. But mix in pine and fir and it goes down to about 8-10 hrs. For normal stove operation I go about 6 hrs between refills to keep the stove in heating range (300-650).

 

[10-cc]

When it is below zero outside, with the T6 heating a whole 3000 sq f, I get a max of 4 hours with fully loader hard dry Maple. Not that to get more heat when it is below zero outside you have no choice but opening for more air otherwise, not enough heat output. Top temps on stove top has to be above 700 F.

 

[begreen]

10cc, you have my utmost sympathy. I've never experienced below zero here. With all the glass we have in this house I'm sure we would be stoking it at least as frequently or even more if stuck with softwood. The only solution is to reduce heat loss or throw on more fuel.

 

[madison]

When it is below zero outside, with the T6 heating a whole 3000 sq f, I get a max of 4 hours with fully loader hard dry Maple. Not that to get more heat when it is below zero outside you have no choice but opening for more air otherwise, not enough heat output. Top temps on stove top has to be above 700 F.

10ml, How do you deal with coal buildup during the periods with frequent reloading? I probably load 5 AM, 3 PM, 10 PM and have stovetop temps up to 650 and down to 300 at the end of the cycle. I typically open the primary and stir things around an hr or so before reload to decrease the pile of coals. Cleanouts with the "koal keeper" is probably ~ 1/week.

It most likely is my not totally seasoned wood, but if were to reload as frequently as you do, I would have a massive coal mound. Though lately I am impressed with the locust that I am burning, it maintains its log shape for hours, burns hot, then turns to fluff. And I can reload on top of the locust coals and not have buildup. Unlike the black cherry which seems to go to chunk coals very quickly in the burn cycle.

 

[10-cc]

Thank Bgreen,

When coal is builds up, I have no choice but to let it burn with the air inlet fully open after moving the most of the coals to the front and put in few small splits burning at high, also shovelling few out of the front stove once in a while helps.

I have to say the this T6 stove is NOT our main heat source for the house but a supplement heater.

The main heat source comes from our dual energy furnace; electric 20KW and Oil 90,000BTU/HR. Since electricity if fairly cheap here (cheapest in N. America I believe). The dual energy furnace is set to run on electricity up to or down to 10.5 F, below this the oil mode will kicks in automatically (as then the electricity will be 40% higher than when above 10.5 F) so this is when I will blast the T6 to its max heat output as I want to reduce oil consumption, (heating oil is expensive here).

So the T6 is used:
1. Always 24 hrs when below 10.5 F
2. When we want to feel cosy
3. Tacking the humidity out of the basement (spring and autumn)

 

[ManiacPD]

5 rounds during deer season, 3 rounds during bird season, 25 rounds at the range with the 10/22...and about 6 hours with the Memco.

 

[jpl1nh]

The other night I loaded at 6:30 pm, returned at 2 PM the next day. There were enough embers left to start up again with birch bark etc. No my house was not still 73, it was 61 and the back up furnace had kicked on but I was impresssed with a 1.5' firebox to still be able to relight 19 1/2 hours later.

 

[wallpaper79]

Two nights ago I loaded at 10:30. When I got up at 7:30 I still had enough coals to start a burn. Fuel was mostly fir with some spruce.

 

[njtomatoguy]

Secondary air control makes all the difference. Here are two modification examples:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Add_secondary_air_control_to_stove_Morso_2110/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/5716/

I covered the air intake on the back of the stove about 85%.
Amazing difference in burn time.
ex. Loaded at 5pm, had coals, loaded at 11pm, woke up at 5:30,
still had bright red hot coals.

I can't imagine how much wood i've wasted in the past 3 yrs.

 

[karri0n]

The name of this thread should be "What's the longest a thread can go on at hearth.com"