EPA Burn Cycle Start to Finish Pic/video heavy

Ok well tried to get most of this done yesterday before work, but ran into problems. I figured with some people, who shall not be named, having such a hard time burning with their stove I would post a start to finish burn cycle in my stove. So Here is how I started. I had my stove about half full of mostly cold ashes, only one or two tiny coals. I added 8 16 inch splits of Cottonwood. I then started the stove at 12:42.

I then left the stove thermostat on high, cat bypass open, and door cracked until the stove was burning good, then closed the door and waited for the stove to come up to temp.

At this point I got the idea to set up the camera and tripod outside to view the chimney and what actually happens when I close the cat bypass, thus engaging the cat. Sorry if the video is a little long. At 58 seconds in you can hear me closing the cat bypass and by 1min 6sec you can see there is no more smoke, hardly can tell if the thing is even running.[video=youtube_share;D0e85L_7d3A]http://youtu.be/D0e85L_7d3A[/video]

I now left the stove on high until 1:50pm. Longer than usual but I got busy making my lunch for work. I then set the thermostat to the normal range of 2 on my stove, or about half throttle. I guess I should mention when I stated the stove my house was 72 degrees, and by 1:50 it was 84 degrees. I appreciate the heat as I am outside all night in the cold. I thought I might take another short video to show you guys how responsive this stove is with how much or how little heat you want from it. Not sure if this is the same as all stoves but I am guessing not. My old stove didn't have glass but I am sure it did not react this way. This video shows me going from wide open on the stove down to barely any heat, back to high. The last couple of times was just from 2 (normal operating range) to hi.[video=youtube_share;K-zo_jxCOY4]http://youtu.be/K-zo_jxCOY4[/video]
This is what the gauge said just after closing the cat
This is about as high as my heat gauge got with the Cottonwood. It goes at least the rest of the way with good Elm plus it gets hot enough that is passes the high range, at which point I turn on the blower and it drops the temp back down. I thought you guys might want to know how hot this was but my Blue Point infrared heat guy only reads to 530 degrees. When I tested the stove the two corners were 525 degrees, and the center by the cat and my heat gauge was out of limits. My best guess would be 600 degrees.
More to come but have run out of time yet again. Will try to post the rest tonight/tomorrow

When did the 8 pieces burn out?

Can you post some pics of your stove? I think it way look like mine,thanks.

Sorry didn't have time to finish this before work. Oh and I fixed the second video so it will work now. Some pics of the fire burning.


Now at this point in the cycle I left and went to work. I have an hour drive each way, plus an 8 hour shift. I got home at about 12:30 a.m. but got busy petting my dog. Sorry no pics on this new computer of him, but he thinks I need to pet him all the time when I get home after being gone. Just thought why not get a pic. Not real sure why it flipped the picture:msp_confused: Anyhow back on track here. At 1:45 a.m. the house was 79 degrees still. Oh, house is a trailer just over 1200 sq ft and not insulated very well at all due to my ex's dog ripping out all the insulation under the trailer.

I thought this would be a good time to take the temp gun back out and see just how much heat the stove was still putting out. Now remember fire was started at 12:42 p.m. with Cottonwood and it is now about 2 a.m., thus about 13 hours later. Also the stove had just fallen below the active range in the cat.



I don't think that is too bad for just over 13 hours on softwood. What do you guys think? Any how here is what wood is left at this point.

More pictures of the wood that was left at 2 a.m.


Now there was still enough heat that the stove was giving off to keep the house quite warm, and a little wood and coals left. I decided not to add any wood and to just head to bed. I got up at 8 a.m and the temp was down to 68.7 degrees at this point. I again got the temp gun out and checked the top of the stove. At this point the stove had been running for 19 hours on a load of Cottonwood.

I forgot this video of the wood that was left at 2 a.m.
[video=youtube_share;VA-Vw55nNRw]http://youtu.be/VA-Vw55nNRw[/video]

Now some pics of the coals/ash that was left at 8 a.m.



This is all the coals that were left after I stirred up the ashes and dug through them. I brought up all the coals for a relight in the stove only using the left over coals.

I added more wood and the stove took off after about 10 minutes, and here we go again. Hopefully this shows something interesting for someone, even though I couldn't take pictures throughout the whole process. Stove just burns too long for that.

Good pic's and vid's, could you tell me what the outside temps where when you made this.

The high temperature for the two days was around 45 degrees, not really that cold. Lows were about 20 degrees with 10-20 mph wind. Not the best conditions if you wanted a real cold burn test for time but I couldn't change the weather for some reason, must be losing my touch:msp_smile: I would say when it is cold out say highs in the 20 degree range during the day I can get a good 14 hour burn with the cottonwood keeping the house 75. I don't burn enough hard wood to say for sure but same temp with highs in the 20 degree range and probably about 20 plus hour burn.

EXCALIBER said:

14 hour burn with the cottonwood keeping the house 75. I don't burn enough hard wood to say for sure but same temp with highs in the 20 degree range and probably about 20 plus hour burn.

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Those numbers are impressive, I'm lucky to get 6 hours with my Jotul 600 using hardwoods.

There's no doubt those stoves can produce impressive results, but with what your heating there's no comparison. A small home may see 12 hours while a large home may see 6. It's all in the requirements of the home's heat load, layout, insulation, etc. It's been proven when a blaze king is turned up, a secondary burn stove can run side by side. It's the low burns that get the longest burn times. Also secondary combustion stoves tend to run cleaner on the high side of a burn, theres only so much smoke a cat can take. There's been quite a few threads from blaze king users that see smoke on a high burn rate. In your case having less square footage and having a low heat demand, a cat stove is the right match for you. What works for one, doesn't always work for another.

Mr 69 might be right, But damn An 18 hr burn awsome. I hope Mr WHITE SPIDER reads this thread, this would be perfect for him.

laynes69 said:

There's no doubt those stoves can produce impressive results, but with what your heating there's no comparison. A small home may see 12 hours while a large home may see 6. It's all in the requirements of the home's heat load, layout, insulation, etc. It's been proven when a blaze king is turned up, a secondary burn stove can run side by side. It's the low burns that get the longest burn times. Also secondary combustion stoves tend to run cleaner on the high side of a burn, theres only so much smoke a cat can take. There's been quite a few threads from blaze king users that see smoke on a high burn rate. In your case having less square footage and having a low heat demand, a cat stove is the right match for you. What works for one, doesn't always work for another.

Click to expand...

Of course the home, insulation, ect matter as it will with any stove. I would be interested in seeing the proof of when a blaze king is turned up that a secondary stove will compete. On high with cottonwood I will get an easy 4-6 hour burn. All secondary stoves I look at only list the low heat efficiency not the high. Also secondary runs cleaner on high, never seen any evidence of such. Everyone has different tastes but I don't believe anyone would go wrong with a stove like this.

I see you have a Vacu-Stack lid on your chimney, how do you like it? Does it help?



Thanks.


Rich

Yes I do and it does help with drafting and back-drafting when we get our famous breeze in Nebraska. Oh, by the way, a breeze in NE is 40-60 mph wind, slightly windy is 61-80 mph, and kinda windy is 81-100 mph. Once you get over 100 mph we start calling it "windy". Oh and forgot its all sand so you get sand blasted for free too! I couldn't install my stove with the stack going straight up due to a rafter. I had to put two 45 degree elbows in to move it over a couple of inches. Both the dealer's I went to sell them, one is in Nebraska and the other is in Wyoming.

I just cut out the rafter.

Awesome. Thanks for the stove tutorials! Very interesting.

Good job describing you stove. I am looking for a stove and I think I may give this stove a try.
Thanks for the info.

EXCALIBER said:

Of course the home, insulation, ect matter as it will with any stove. I would be interested in seeing the proof of when a blaze king is turned up that a secondary stove will compete. On high with cottonwood I will get an easy 4-6 hour burn. All secondary stoves I look at only list the low heat efficiency not the high. Also secondary runs cleaner on high, never seen any evidence of such. Everyone has different tastes but I don't believe anyone would go wrong with a stove like this.

Click to expand...

Are you in sales?