What length do you cut your splits to?

[Gooserider]

The HearthStone Heritage has side load.

Mine takes 21" logs, and I try to cut to 19-20. I can fit about 20 or so BioBricks in.

Burn times around 9-10 hours with plenty to relight.

The stuff I've seen on the Hearthstone said that it was BOTH front and side load, and that the while the side load door could be disabled, it wasn't possible to disable the front load door.

Now I'm not a code expert, but my understanding is that even if you don't USE a load door, if it can be opened, you have to have the 16-18" hearth depth in front of it. Our current hearth setup would only have about 6" and I'm not willing to give up that additional foot of floor space. (Nor do I think it would be easy, since presumably it would take major work to make the extension fireproof - I can't just stack bricks on the wooden subfloor...)

Gooserider

 

[kevinlp]

Inside measurement is 17.5". Manual says max length is 16.5" Recent stuff and future will be cut to ~15". When the logs are 16-16.5", they fit but only when nearly empty. You need the full depth of the stove to swing the logs in.

 

[Gooserider]

Sounds about right... I'm actually going to need to start cutting my stuff shorter anyways. I just purchased a firewood cart from Harbor Freight - It is a really big improvement over the cavas log sling I had been using. It lets me carry about 50%-75% more wood in from the shed per trip, is much less work to get that bigger load in, and I don't drop any like I used to with the sling. It's a bit of a tug to get it up the stairs, but the big wheels actually bump up pretty well, not much worse than an appliance dolly w/ stair climbers. The downside is you can't stop halfway up or it goes right back down.

This is the model with the U-Shaped carrier slung between two 20" bicycle wheels. The problem is it carries the wood crosways, and there is only about 22" between the wheels. Can't make it wider, as it just barely makes it through the doors as it is. I could try to modify it to carry the wood lengthways, but I'm not sure its worth the effort. I think I've got enough short stuff mixed in this years pile to fill the spaces between the wheels, and next year I can just try to cut a bit shorter. The shorter rounds are easier to split anyway, and the length doesn't seem to make a big difference to how long the stove burns on a load.

 

[JBinKC]

I don't use any set length. Limbs that don't need any splitting I will attempt to cut the piece so it is as straight as possible and keep it under 20". The pieces I will have to split {by hand} the length will depend upon the species of wood and or if the piece appears knotty. Knotty pieces or species listed as difficult to split I typically cut it 12-13" otherwise, I will cut it close to 16".

 

[BurningIsLove]

The HearthStone Heritage has side load.

Mine takes 21" logs, and I try to cut to 19-20. I can fit about 20 or so BioBricks in.

Burn times around 9-10 hours with plenty to relight.

The stuff I've seen on the Hearthstone said that it was BOTH front and side load, and that the while the side load door could be disabled, it wasn't possible to disable the front load door.

Now I'm not a code expert, but my understanding is that even if you don't USE a load door, if it can be opened, you have to have the 16-18" hearth depth in front of it. Our current hearth setup would only have about 6" and I'm not willing to give up that additional foot of floor space. (Nor do I think it would be easy, since presumably it would take major work to make the extension fireproof - I can't just stack bricks on the wooden subfloor...)

Gooserider

Welcome to Massachusetts building codes, Gooserider. Although I'd be surprised if any other state was much different. The building/fire inspector has two choices in determining minimum clearances, state/town codes or accepting the distances posted on the panel on the stove (or in the owner's manual). Normally they will take the latter and go w/ the mfgr's recommendation. So unfortunately, if the stove has distanceX printed on it, then you're probably stuck with it. There are two bldg inspectors here in Billerica (yes, Im right down the road from you).....one of them I know would probably allow the lesser clearance if you sealed the front loader or persuaded them you'd never use it, the other lives to give grief to every homeowner in town since he is angry about every being born.

If you can get your hands on a used Russo stove (they dont make new ones anymore), they were GREAT sideloaders (grew up with one) and had a glass plate front for viewing, but it didnt open so it had very short clearances for the front (could be removed for cleaning).

 

[BurningIsLove]

Oh, and as for the original question of the thread, my stove accepts 22" splits, I usually cut mine to my bar length (18") as I use the side loading door of my Dutchwest exclusively once the fire is going. Sometimes if there is a huge coal bed and I stick a fresh split in from the side, the coals pile up against the opposite side so I leave myself some extra wiggle room. And my stove prefers big honkin splits (as do I for all nite burns), so a little less length helps in loading. It's also easy to use the bar length for making quick, consecutive cuts w/o measuring the trees I'm bucking.

 

[Gooserider]

The HearthStone Heritage has side load.

Mine takes 21" logs, and I try to cut to 19-20. I can fit about 20 or so BioBricks in.

Burn times around 9-10 hours with plenty to relight.

The stuff I've seen on the Hearthstone said that it was BOTH front and side load, and that the while the side load door could be disabled, it wasn't possible to disable the front load door.

Now I'm not a code expert, but my understanding is that even if you don't USE a load door, if it can be opened, you have to have the 16-18" hearth depth in front of it. Our current hearth setup would only have about 6" and I'm not willing to give up that additional foot of floor space. (Nor do I think it would be easy, since presumably it would take major work to make the extension fireproof - I can't just stack bricks on the wooden subfloor...)

Gooserider

Welcome to Massachusetts building codes, Gooserider. Although I'd be surprised if any other state was much different. The building/fire inspector has two choices in determining minimum clearances, state/town codes or accepting the distances posted on the panel on the stove (or in the owner's manual). Normally they will take the latter and go w/ the mfgr's recommendation. So unfortunately, if the stove has distanceX printed on it, then you're probably stuck with it. There are two bldg inspectors here in Billerica (yes, Im right down the road from you).....one of them I know would probably allow the lesser clearance if you sealed the front loader or persuaded them you'd never use it, the other lives to give grief to every homeowner in town since he is angry about every being born.

If you can get your hands on a used Russo stove (they dont make new ones anymore), they were GREAT sideloaders (grew up with one) and had a glass plate front for viewing, but it didnt open so it had very short clearances for the front (could be removed for cleaning).

Sounds like Billerica politics for sure...

If you grew up with a Russo stove, would that be an EPA grade unit? Our current stoves are pre-EPA, but otherwise there is nothing wrong with them. The only reason we would want to replace either of them would be to cut down on emissions and reduce the wood consumption. I'm not that horribly worried about the emissions as I don't see them as being as much of a problem as the gov't tries to tell us they are.

Given that I process my own wood either scrounged or purchased as log length, we probably are under the $50 / cord number I've seen mentioned several places as approximate cost for self processed cordwood. Last year was my first year doing burning as primary heat, and I had to purchase a couple cords of semi-seasoned cut and split, which I probably burned wetter than it should have been. Last year we burned about 3 cords, but it was mostly a mild winter and I kept the stove pretty choked down. Our sweep said I should run the stove hotter to reduce creosote buildup, between that and maybe having a more average winter, I'm guessing we might burn 6 cords this season (I have ~7.5 cut, split and stacked in the sheds). Assuming all else stays the same, and we get the 1/3 savings in wood consumption that a new EPA stove supposedly gives over a pre-EPA unit, the payback would still be awfully long - I really doubt it would be worth it.

Gooserider

 

[adrpga498]

My stove takes 20" but I cut @ 18 to give me a little room in the firebox. If I have scrounged rounds over 20" they get into the"cut me in half later " pile. These shorts will take on the north-south role of loading in the future. PS easy measure 18" from elbow to finger tip, when I salute that round to the future pile.

 

[velvetfoot]

My Quadrafire 2700i can take a pretty long piece side to side, maybe 20+ inches. Front to back it takes a 15" max piece. I like the front to back, but most of my wood was bought at 16" nominal.

 

[babalu87]

We had an old Russo when I was a kid too.
If I remember right the guy that built them lived in Hanson, MA.

Billerica/Washington, same thing

Goose, couldnt you just build a small hearthpad that you could remove for the AC season?

 

[Gooserider]

We had an old Russo when I was a kid too.
If I remember right the guy that built them lived in Hanson, MA.

Billerica/Washington, same thing

Goose, couldnt you just build a small hearthpad that you could remove for the AC season?

I'm not sure, haven't looked in detail as to what the rules are. I know that "hearth rugs" used to be legal at one point for some setups, but aren't any longer. My impression was that any hearth structure or extension needed to meet code had to be "permanent" and non removeable. Aside from my general objection on principle to gov't mandates (have you guessed that I'm a Libertarian? :coolsmile: ) this doesn't strike me as unreasonable - it keeps folks from putting something in place just long enough to get rid of the inspector, and then going to a non-compliant setup.

I initially posted a discussion about my current setup and how to modify it here, but that seems like it's getting pretty far off the topic of the thread. Rather than get the topic police mad at me, ;-P I've trimmed that part out, and put it HERE

Gooserider