Woodstove Efficiency Debate

[Deleted member 116684]

never thought of putting a grate in me stove. I don't have an ash drawer or anything like that. Great. Now i have something else to start thinking about.

 

[midwest_170]

My stove has secondaries, no cat. One damper/air inlet, I leave 75% open. I do have coals in bottom if I am feeding it when in single digits. I leave door open from half hour to an hour and it burns down well. No big deal. In the morning I only have enough coals to get a fire going in no time.

What size of holes are in you guys grates? How tall? I am thinking level with my door, so about 2" tall. I would like to build a grate, have a welder, just need to pick up some welded wire/expanded steel. I do not have an ash cleanout, so would have to pull grate when need to clean ash. Probably a couple times a weak, roughly.

I built my own out of 1/2" plate with 1" holes on 3" centers. I would not go any thinner than that. I tried the 1/4" weld wire doubled up but it didn't last.

 

[Gkiesel]

We also have 2 stoves. A Waterford trinity circa 2003 and a Quadrafire 4100i in NE Pa. The quadrafire certainly goes through a cycle. It actually always makes me a bit nervous the way the firebox appears to be totally ripping along at first about a half hour or less after a reload. It's not overfiring or anything, it's just the nature of the beast. The waterford I can choke down too much if I try, but with the Quad it seems that you can't shut the air down to the point of smothering it even if you try. Like big brother wants you to burn it hot to burn it clean. I'm always afraid it's going to overfire. We have been burning mostly Ash, and probably will be for years thanks to the EAB! The old stove just seems to be more controllable.

 

[cskeller07]

Just for reference... I cut my firewood to 16 inches, I've never used anything close to the full capacity of the box.
*

Why wouldn't you want to?

 

[cskeller07]

I am currently burning 99% ash in my EPA stove. I've burnt a little cherry and really liked it and could tell it burnt hotter than my staple ash wood. I have a large surplus/server all years worth of ash both cut, and standing dead on my property, so it will be a few years before this is all gone.

I too like 16-18" splits where my stove could take nearly a 20" log, having airflow around the wood front and back with north south loading seems logical and my wood is only 10 months seasoned, so I figure shorter splits dry quicker? Just moved to a new house @2 years ago and I'm finally caught up on chores where I will be 1-rs ahead on firewood form here on out.

This has been an educational thread and I appreciate all the input.

What is everyone's favorite EPA stove firewood? And why?

Thanks

Jason


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Good point getting the air around the front and back. I have a 23" firebox and i plan to shoot for about 20" on the wood, which makes using my stihl bar a guide while cutting easy

 

[Chris-PA]

but with the Quad it seems that you can't shut the air down to the point of smothering it even if you try. Like big brother wants you to burn it hot to burn it clean. I'm always afraid it's going to overfire.

The Magnolia is in the basement on a 28-30' insulated flue, and I don't think I could keep it under control if I could not throttle the secondary air too. I have put it out from a borderline overfire condition several times - it takes a little while, and it's an amazing site. You can see every little door gasket leak as tendrils of flame search them out, it's neat and a bit frightening too. Eventually the firebox cools down and it goes more-or-less out. I like a welded steel box for that reason though.

The Hampton H200 has an open secondary, but it's a smaller stove on a shorter flue and it's never been an issue.

Been running them both these last few days, and it's time to reload.

 

[Gkiesel]

My chimney is approx. 18ft. interior. I'm assuming from your description that I'm only throttling down the primary air. Which makes sense. Whith a fresh load of wood, even with the air turned all the way down, it's still rippin pretty good. Also the Quadrafire has what they call Automatic Combustion Control, which is basicaly a timed front air inlet to get a fresh load going quicker.
Is this typical for a new style insert or stove?

 

[CaseyForrest]

Depends on how hot the firebox is. On the upper end of the heat spectrum where the secondaries will fire, the wood will almost instantly start burning.


Sent from a field

 

[Chris-PA]

My chimney is approx. 18ft. interior. I'm assuming from your description that I'm only throttling down the primary air. Which makes sense. Whith a fresh load of wood, even with the air turned all the way down, it's still rippin pretty good. Also the Quadrafire has what they call Automatic Combustion Control, which is basicaly a timed front air inlet to get a fresh load going quicker.
Is this typical for a new style insert or stove?

I'm afraid I don't have any knowledge of the Quadrafire. It took me a while to figure out the difference between the Magnolia's throttling of both primary and secondary air, and that most don't do that. I take care of it because I want it to last - I don't know what I would replace it with if I had to. I doubt a damper would help as they don't close/seal that well and the amount they let through would be plenty to keep things burning hot. When it is burning well the total air inlet might be the size of a nickel.

One morning last weekend it was quite cold and I had slept in a bit - the stove was burned down pretty good. I loaded it with 6 large tulip splits and man did that burn. I would never have done that if I couldn't keep it under control.

 

[Ash_403]

One morning last weekend it was quite cold and I had slept in a bit - the stove was burned down pretty good. I loaded it with 6 large tulip splits and man did that burn. I would never have done that if I couldn't keep it under control.

I did that with some smaller soft maple splits this past weekend, for the same reason. Talk about throwing some serious heat for about one hour.
I'm on the seventh year of owning/using my Regency I3100. I've got it figured out pretty good now, as I should.

 

[woodchip rookie]

I have an old Fisher Mama Bear that I added a baffle, reburn tube and outdoor combistion pipes to. Once its hot it burns pretty clean, puts out mad heat and burns coals down pretty good, but since I have a baffle in there my firebox is less that a foot tall, about a foot wide & 24" (ish) deep. If I pack it full and give it enough air to burn good I have a bed of hot ashes in 3hrs. But because of the firebox size restrictions "full" is only 3 splits 12-15" long. In an EPA stove how long would 3 splits that size on high heat last?

 

[Modark]

Facinating reading this. Does anyone have any experience with large masonry stoves that are common here in northern and eastern Europe?