My Log-Burning Strategy

[Wood Doctor]

When loading the woodstove again after a good burn, I generally rake the coals a little and then load it back up with one or two large logs first. Then I may add a few more small ones to make sure that she restarts and gets a good burn going again. Seems to work pretty well.

Does that make sense to you?

 

[nocdpc]

Makes perfect sense!

I get great pleasure rolling the largest single log I can into the front two doors of our Jotul Firelight. It's got to be really seasoned to burn well. Just about six hours ago I put in a single piece of black gum that just barely fit in. It takes full air to burn these large chunks at a fast enough rate to keep secondary combustion going strong. I think it's got something to do with the volume of wood in the firebox Vs. the surface area of the wood itself. Of course a large round would have less surface area than splits. By habit when cutting and splitting wood I mentally size up pieces that would fit in the stove. I often leave these whole and use them for over night burns.

I have a jotul F600 and it is not performing well at all. I think it does better on smaller cuts as it breaks them down easier to build up the wood coals in the fire box. When I put the bigger logs in the firebox the fire just does not perform... My stove will run about 350f. I have a therm on top of surface of the stove. I used to have a F500 in another house and that stove used to get so damn hot that I could barely feed it wood sometimes... no luck with this one.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Makes perfect sense!

I get great pleasure rolling the largest single log I can into the front two doors of our Jotul Firelight. It's got to be really seasoned to burn well. Just about six hours ago I put in a single piece of black gum that just barely fit in. It takes full air to burn these large chunks at a fast enough rate to keep secondary combustion going strong. I think it's got something to do with the volume of wood in the firebox Vs. the surface area of the wood itself. Of course a large round would have less surface area than splits. By habit when cutting and splitting wood I mentally size up pieces that would fit in the stove. I often leave these whole and use them for over night burns.

Thanks, Dan. Glad to see we are on the same page. I often use large dry elm logs for overnight burns. These only need a couple of small logs around them to keep them going the whole night. Elm sems to work the best for me, even though ash is just as effective.

I cut a bunch of ash last month, and it is still my firewood of choice--almost impossible to beat, all things considered.

 

[havenodog]

nocdpc
It could be a chimney problem. If you have good draft and you're chimney is up to temp. you should'nt have any trouble getting even the biggest rounds to burn well. Also check your draft control. Could be your throttling down to soon.