24 hour burn

[4seasons]

During our last batch of warm weather I let my fire go out. Yesterday I came home to a cold house. I had turned the heat pump down to 50. No need to heat the house when no one is home, right? So when I came in yesterday morning the outside temp was in the 40s and it was 54 in the house. Now I was only going to be home for a few hours but I figured I would better off to build a fire than run the heat pump for a few hours. So after getting the house up to 68 I stuffed the firebox full around 2pm yesterday and cut the dampers back for a slow burn. That was the last time I loaded my US Stove Wondercoal model 2827. Note that this is not a new EPA stove nor a OWB or even a wood furnace, just a basic stove that has been around since the 70's. Firebox size is 24 in deep by 12 in wide by 16 in high. No blower only a spring loaded flap on the air inlet for temp and draft control. The overnight low was 25 and it was up to 40 outside when I walked in the door this afternoon. Inside temp was 64 and this is what the firebox looked like:

Now I know 64 isn't exactly comfy for most people and after throwing a log on and opening the damper up I had the house up to 74 in about an hour. So does anyone else get this kind of burn time with just a basic wood stove or am I in the minority when I can pull 24 hour heat from a single loaded stove with a mix of red oak, white oak, and black locust?

 

[Hedgerow]

You would be in the minority... I can't get even close to that out of my stove... Maybe 10hrs, tops...
And that's with Hedge...

You must have a pretty air tight stove...

 

[Jonesy11]

I agree with Hedgerow

I have a franklin style stove, that is no where near air tight and I can only get about 6-8 hours out of it. Came with the house so I am not complaining but I am definately looking for an upgrade.

 

[darkbyrd]

That black locust is great stuff. I've gotten 24 hr burns many times on a load of locust.

 

[Hedgerow]

That black locust is great stuff. I've gotten 24 hr burns many times on a load of locust.

In an old fashion non secondary burn stove? Air tight?

 

[darkbyrd]

In an old fashion non secondary burn stove? Air tight?

Yup. 1970's circulating stove. New gaskets, welded a new top on last fall.

 

[Hedgerow]

Yup. 1970's circulating stove. New gaskets, welded a new top on last fall.

Nice... Being able to control air is soooo important for long burn times... I can fit 24 hours worth of wood in the stove, but with all the leaks, it would get pretty hot in the house!!!

 

[darkbyrd]

Nice... Being able to control air is soooo important for long burn times... I can fit 24 hours worth of wood in the stove, but with all the leaks, it would get pretty hot in the house!!!

The air is controlled by a thermostat. The firebox can hold 22"-24" logs, 1' wide and almost 2'high. It seriously holds a lot of wood.

 

[Manatarms]

I can easily get 24 hour burns out of my Blaze King "King" model, with oak and locust on a low setting, however it is a CAT stove with a 4.3 cub Ft. firebox.

-mark

 

[Hedgerow]

I can easily get 24 hour burns out of my Blaze King "King" model, with oak and locust on a low setting, however it is a CAT stove with a 4.3 cub Ft. firebox.

-mark

No doubt... Those blaze kings have a massive fire box... And good air control...

 

[Hedgerow]

The air is controlled by a thermostat. The firebox can hold 22"-24" logs, 1' wide and almost 2'high. It seriously holds a lot of wood.

That's impressive... Didn't know a us stove made one that big... My double door silent flame can handle 20" wood about 4 or 5 6" pieces... But if ya want to fix it every 3 hours, will run your ass out of the house...
:msp_sneaky:

 

[branchbuzzer]

So does anyone else get this kind of burn time with just a basic wood stove or am I in the minority when I can pull 24 hour heat from a single loaded stove with a mix of red oak, white oak, and black locust?

Hey, could you post a pic of the exterior of your stove 4seasons? My old King coal/woodburner looks almost exactly like that on the inside, just was wondering how close the designs were. I think mine is 28" deep, I can fit a 32" if I angle it in. I think the height is around 18 or 20, width around 14. The door is about 12x12. It is sheet metal on the upper half of the box.

I don't think I could ever get a 24hr burn. I've never really packed it to the gills with locust and choked back both intakes though. Most I usually get is 12 or so using mixed good stuff. My house is pretty small, so I usually don't need the full output of this stove or need to pack it full, but it was here when I moved in 15 yrs ago.

 

[4seasons]

Hey, could you post a pic of the exterior of your stove 4seasons? My old King coal/woodburner looks almost exactly like that on the inside, just was wondering how close the designs were. I think mine is 28" deep, I can fit a 32" if I angle it in. I think the height is around 18 or 20, width around 14. The door is about 12x12. It is sheet metal on the upper half of the box.

I don't think I could ever get a 24hr burn. I've never really packed it to the gills with locust and choked back both intakes though. Most I usually get is 12 or so using mixed good stuff. My house is pretty small, so I usually don't need the full output of this stove or need to pack it full, but it was here when I moved in 15 yrs ago.

Ask and ye shall receive:

and the side view where I load the wood:

If you look closely in the second pic you can see the metal flap damper in the front of the stove(left side of the pic) close to the ash pan door. That flap is on a cable up to the knob on the front of the stove. That knob has a thin spring inside that sags as it gets hot. When the stove gets hot the flap closes on its own and when it cools off that flap raises and gives the fire more air. Took a while to get it adjusted just right but now when I turn the dial to low the fire will just get enough air to keep burning. Nice thing is it requires no power to operate. If the electricity is out my house is the same temp, no worrying about backup generators or the blower not running so the firebox getting too hot.
By the way I did have to put new gaskets on the doors 2 years ago to get this kind of control on the air/ burn times.

 

[4seasons]

Did it again

Saturday at 2pm I loaded the stove and went to visit the in-laws. When I say loaded this is what I mean:

The big round in the middle is hickory, the 1/2 split in the bottom is white oak and the 3 smaller rounds on top are red oak. All were about 20 inch long.
When I got home at noon Sunday (22 hours later) this is what it looked like:

After busting that up with a poker I had a 4 inch deep bed of coals.
Overnight low was 14, current temp 34, 62 inside. Again 62 is not an ideal temp but with that much wood still in the stove I'm sure I could have got 30+ hours out of that burn in freezing weather.

For anyone wondering my house is about 1200 sqft and very well insulated. It is a block house with brick outside and studs inside. My walls are 16 inches thick and have a layer of styrofoam insulation in them as well as 12 inches of fiberglass insulation overhead and good windows as well as on a pored concrete slab (no crawl space to let air under the house.)

 

[darkbyrd]

Ask and ye shall receive:

and the side view where I load the wood:

Very similar to my coalmaster. I don't have the air intake on the door, but it has the same thermostat-flap setup.

 

[4seasons]

Cleaned the flu yesterday

Time for an update on these long burn times. I have always cleaned the chimney at least every 2 months during burn season and every month during mild "choke the stove back" weather. So if you want to get the kind of long burns that I have been from a 3 cubic feet firebox this is the kind of creosote buildup you can expect. I cleaned the flu back in January so this is around 30-40 days of maximizing burn times with 3 year old wood. As you can see it is a bit of a creosote machine.

This is the stovepipe that goes into the thimble. Only a 1/4 - 3/8 inch buildup in it.

This pic was taken by reaching thru the thimble with the camera aimed straight up the chimney. As you can see it has quite a bit of buildup right in the bend where the stovepipe dumps into the chimney.

 

[darkbyrd]

Looks like my chimney.

 

[savageactor7]

Well thanks for the update, 24hrs and still 64* is an very respectable achievement imo...

Back when we had our smoke dragons, both of the Shenandoah's (which I was perfectly happy with) we use to burn real hot twice a day to burn out any creosote. First thing in the morning and sometime after supper. Did you ever try that?

Sure sometimes you get a mini chim fire but that's the way I was schooled back in the bronze age. You need an inline flue damper if your going to do that move so as to be able to close the vent. Oh you'll know when you have to, don't worry about that. Anyway doing that regularly left us with a clean flue.

That is a lot of creosote btw

 

[darkbyrd]

Well thanks for the update, 24hrs and still 64* is an very respectable achievement imo...

Back when we had our smoke dragons, both of the Shenandoah's (which I was perfectly happy with) we use to burn real hot twice a day to burn out any creosote. First thing in the morning and sometime after supper. Did you ever try that?

Sure sometimes you get a mini chim fire but that's the way I was schooled back in the bronze age. You need an inline flue damper if your going to do that move so as to be able to close the vent. Oh you'll know when you have to, don't worry about that. Anyway doing that regularly left us with a clean flue.

That is a lot of creosote btw

I burn a good hot one at least once, usually twice a day. When I take the bottom off the tee outside, more loose creosote falls out than when I sweep it. I can't get it all out very well, there is a layer of rough tough stuff my brush won't budge. The whole vertical run of my stovepipe is outside, so as long as I keep my pipe reasonably clean, I'm not paranoid about a chimney fire.

You think if I threw some beer cans in there it would loosen up? :msp_biggrin:

 

[4seasons]

My stovepipe takes a little work to get out, to clean real good, but I can run a brush down the chimney in just a few minutes. Takes an hour total to do a good job on the whole setup. If I just brush the chimney it may take 10 minutes most of which would be spent screwing the chimney cleaning rod together and getting the ladder in and out of the shed. Being that most of my buildup is in my chimney. I could probably just brush it every month and do the pipe at the end of the season, but for an hour a month I would rather have the piece of mind that it was done.

As far as really hot burns to loosen or burn off the buildup, seems like I would be wasting wood, getting the house hot, and risking a real chimney fire to save a few minutes of work a month. Actually if all I did was sweep the chimney it would take less time to do than opening and closing the dampers every day for that hot burn. At only a minute a day that still comes up to 30 minutes a month vs 10 minutes to run the brush.