I came home from the salt mine yesterday and my family had the stove humming along at 600 degrees stove top, no flames in the box, but the splits looked like orange neon sign tubes. It was 80 degrees in the living room and the dog was panting - but it was just warm enough for my Wife..
So about 9 pm everyone hit the sack for the night and I was tired too and didn't really want to refill the stove and take the time to let the stove catch-up, get up to temp, etc. So at this point the stove bottom is full of glowing coals - what to do? I didn't want to refill the stove and I didn't want to let the thing burn out for a cold restart in the morning and it was going to be in the low 30's or upper 20's overnight.
Since everything was in charcoal stage and on my Keystone there is a tad of unregulated air that makes it's way under the floor grate at all times, I shut the damper down completely - to zero. I've never done this, but I thought if I could preserve the coals, maybe I'd have something to start a fire with this morning - but I had my doubts.
Great news - I got up at 6 am and checked the stove and there was 1/3 of the stove floor with nice hot/glowing coals! The stove top was about 150, the room was about 65 degrees. Spread out the coals, opened the damper full, some small splits and the stove lit off great.
So if you say "burn time" is from start/rekindle of fire to refire - this burn time was from 5 pm to 6 am for a 13 hr burn. Not bad for a 1.5 cu ft stove. I also found the the fully closed damper setting does have some useful use with my Woodstock.
Happy burning,
Bill
So about 9 pm everyone hit the sack for the night and I was tired too and didn't really want to refill the stove and take the time to let the stove catch-up, get up to temp, etc. So at this point the stove bottom is full of glowing coals - what to do? I didn't want to refill the stove and I didn't want to let the thing burn out for a cold restart in the morning and it was going to be in the low 30's or upper 20's overnight.
Since everything was in charcoal stage and on my Keystone there is a tad of unregulated air that makes it's way under the floor grate at all times, I shut the damper down completely - to zero. I've never done this, but I thought if I could preserve the coals, maybe I'd have something to start a fire with this morning - but I had my doubts.
Great news - I got up at 6 am and checked the stove and there was 1/3 of the stove floor with nice hot/glowing coals! The stove top was about 150, the room was about 65 degrees. Spread out the coals, opened the damper full, some small splits and the stove lit off great.
So if you say "burn time" is from start/rekindle of fire to refire - this burn time was from 5 pm to 6 am for a 13 hr burn. Not bad for a 1.5 cu ft stove. I also found the the fully closed damper setting does have some useful use with my Woodstock.
Happy burning,
Bill