Wood Stove Loading Direction?

[Wood Hound]

Yes,seems there was a thread last year about this and i set aside all my short wood and gave it a try-my Regency stove like`s it better loading front to back,so this heating season all my wood i processed to 14 inch-i can get more wood into this stove...Should not knock it,unless you have tried it...

 

[Be Stihl]

Thanks fellas for all the replies! I will try a few fires and see what I get, at least I get to go out and run the 261 some more.
I am still learning when to dial the stove (Jotul #8) back and when to let it burn flat out. I don’t have much problem with getting enough temperature, it peaks at 650 - 700 STT if there is any oak or hickory involved. My concern is with short burn cycles average 3 hr. I still have plenty of room to close off the air but seem to loose too much heat when I do. My problem is no doubt my wood moisture level, 10month hickory and oak, 6month maple and mulberry. Thankfully I cut much more than I should use this year so I will have almost 2 year seasoned next year. Maybe then I can dial it back a little and still get some heat over a longer time, hopefully! Thanks again you guys have taught me more than I could learn in a couple lifetimes.


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[sb47]

Thanks fellas for all the replies! I will try a few fires and see what I get, at least I get to go out and run the 261 some more.
I am still learning when to dial the stove (Jotul #8) back and when to let it burn flat out. I don’t have much problem with getting enough temperature, it peaks at 650 - 700 STT if there is any oak or hickory involved. My concern is with short burn cycles average 3 hr. I still have plenty of room to close off the air but seem to loose too much heat when I do. My problem is no doubt my wood moisture level, 10month hickory and oak, 6month maple and mulberry. Thankfully I cut much more than I should use this year so I will have almost 2 year seasoned next year. Maybe then I can dial it back a little and still get some heat over a longer time, hopefully! Thanks again you guys have taught me more than I could learn in a couple lifetimes.


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Moving the air around with a fan will increase the output quite a bit. I use a 24'' fan on one side of the stove and push air across it from the side and it worms the whole house.
You don't have to burn a hot fire all the time to keep it clean. Depending on use, a hot fire once or twice a week is fine and will keep it clean.

 

[U&A]

I've got a little Jotul 602, not much leeway there. It's so small that one of the guys at work accused me of swiping pencils when it gets really cold outside.

Despite the jokes E/W , N/S I find air flow the key? Any stove with secondary combustion fuel needs to be placed to take advantage of that. Sometimes I get more fire of the secondaries than the wood itself.

Who would have thought you could burn smoke....

Great point!!

Most of my flames are secondary majority of the time once the temps are right.


Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]

 

[Multifaceted]

I often load my cold stove from the front, then feed it from the side. The door is on the right, so I guess it do East-to-West.

 

[MountainHigh]

with a stove that is wider than it is deep but the air intake flow comes from the front, when starting it cold, I'd place about 3 short slim splits front to back (north/south) leaving a little space between them, and then stack longer splits east/west on top. The air will travel under the splits easily and once the fire gets going, you can simply load east/west the larger splits. Only caveat is if high moisture content your wood, it will be more fussy on startup. Next year with drier wood, everything will work better.

 

[James Miller]

I load from the top E/W. After having a top loading stove I wouldn't want a stove that loads any other way.

 

[Wood Hound]

James Miller you are right,top load stoves are good,have one for sale-the mid size Harmon....

 

[James Miller]

James Miller you are right,top load stoves are good,have one for sale-the mid size Harmon....

We have an old VC.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

It's a PITA to fill with the wood sideways. I cut wood to 16" for the house. I think it will fit 20", but 98% of the wood I cut is 16", so no reason to do otherwise just for the house. I think I did 10 cords last year of custom length out of around 350 cords.

Shop stove, however it'll fit, but that stove has a 2ft door and the stove is about 4ftx7ft.

 

[moresnow]

NS here. Only way I can completely fill the stove.

 

[SWI Don]

My stove has air inlets front and center and an air wash system from above the door glass. The air control gates drop out the front and center inlets before throttling the air wash inlets. I generally stack the bottom layer perpendicular to the door opening to allow air into the stack and the upper layers are parallel to the door opening. It works pretty well most times with my catalytic stove.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Just seems to me, there is x amount of btu's in amount of wood you put into stove and it would be more about your stoves efficiency.

 

[JustJeff]

Trying southwest to northeast tonight. Had an extra long piece of Ironwood with a curve in it and a short chunk of maple to fill the void.

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