How do you burn your wood stove?

[mike033089]

The chimney post got me thinking, how does everyone keep their wood stove going?  Still fairly new to burning. Entering my 5th year in our house with a wood stove. It’s a nice hearthstone soapstone stove located center of the house with stove pipe going into the flue.  I usually only light it when I’m home from work at 4pm and it goes out around 1030 and the heat doesn’t kick on until early morning.  Between that, a heat pump and oil I usually go through just under one tank (330 gal). Now with the price of oil we’re thinking of trying to run it more often while the wife’s home during the day.  Just curious how everyone loads it and when. I’m out the door by 515am so going to do some playing around with the damper and see what I can get the hang of at night. Ideally I don’t want it burning while sleeping, that still freaks me out a bit especially with young kids. But would like to be able to start it quickly before I go to work off the previous nights coals.  I burn pretty clean as it is I think. Keep the stove pipe temp around 350-400 and hardly have crap In the chimney flue, but the stove pipe does get some ash in it. After I get it going I put the damper half way and throw 3-4 pieces on as needed. Some mornings I can relight kindling off the coals but not most.  Thanks 

Edited October 2, 2022 by mike033089

[Nomad]

I load mine up as tight as I can before I go to bed and then turn the damper all the way down almost closed and let it burn real low all night.  Best is one huge chunk, "nighttime log".  Morning there are enough embers to just throw more wood on and get it going good again.

[mike033089]

4 minutes ago, Nomad said:

I load mine up as tight as I can before I go to bed and then turn the damper all the way down almost closed and let it burn real low all night.  Best is one huge chunk, "nighttime log".  Morning there are enough embers to just throw more wood on and get it going good again.

That doesn’t cause build up in the pipes and flue due to smoldering? 

[Rusty]

Mine burns 24/7 for 5 -6 months without ever going out.  I could load it 2x a day and still have good embers but I typically load it 3x / day.  

[mike033089]

Just now, Rusty said:

Mine burns 24/7 for 5 -6 months without ever going out.  I could load it 2x a day and still have good embers but I typically load it 3x / day.  

So do you dampen it down most the time to keep it slowly burning?

[Rusty]

Just now, mike033089 said:

So do you dampen it down most the time to keep it slowly burning?

I let it burn wide open for 5 minutes then I shut the dampers down all the way.  I only burn seasoned barkless oak.  

[mike033089]

I have seasoned oak and ash that’s pretty much all I’m burning as it’s all over my house. Well the ash not much longer unfortunately. 

[Coyoteslayer]

I'm scavenger wood guy lol. I do have some oak I keep for the super cold days (my premium stock lol)  but if I see a tree down or lengths bucked up at curb I'll stop and grab em. I burn pallets from jobs to get rid of em. This being said I have brushes and do clean the walls of the stove frequently and twice a winter run them down the triple wall stack outside.

[Nomad]

3 hours ago, mike033089 said:

That doesn’t cause build up in the pipes and flue due to smoldering? 

When I'm home it burns at a moderate level.   When I go out I close the air intake almost off.   And, yes, smolder it all night so it lasts.  I clean the pipes once midseason and after the season.  

Edited October 2, 2022 by Nomad

[Farmshine]

I burn 5-6 months 24/7.  Mostly ash which is not optimal.  I run it hot only afternoon and evening.  It’s dampened down all night and most of the day.  Burning seasoned wood and preferably oak hickory locust helps tremendously.  Unfortunately I’m dealing with hundreds of dead ash trees so that’s what I burn.  

[Eyesofthewoods]

I don’t have a wood stove in my home but at my hunting camp we have an older Vogelzang barrel wood stove.  And like others have said before bed throw the biggest log you can fit in the mouth of stove and dampen it down a bit and that thing will go all night and be toasty even on the coldest of nights.  Good luck!

[Bossman429]

So one of the keys to avoiding an over firing issue is never load up a stove full when there is a large coal bed going.  You gotta let it burn down some or only load it with a few sticks if there is a lot of coal glowing.   Little bit of a trick to time it right so you can load it full just before turning in for the night. 
 

And in the event you do over fire it you can open the door wide open and open the damper.  Seems counterintuitive but the large blast of room air will actually bring you back down from the over firing.  It’ll roar like hell but your temps will actually drop.  This assuming your at the 800+ mark and you need to bring it down STAT!  This won’t help if you in a normal burning temp 300-600

[tick trawler]

This time of year I will sometimes get the wood ready in the stove in the evening, but not light it till he morning. 

When the newspapers are all gone, we will still have our friend cardboard to get things going.  Save the dried bark from the wood it is great for kindling.

I use the firestarters sometimes.  They help to light that morning fire without tending to the fire as much.

 

[mike033089]

1 hour ago, Rusty said:

It’s not cold today so 3 logs will do.   I’ll only put 2 in when I get home at 3:00.   

So your just opening the damper up to get it going good for 5-10 mins and then dampen it back down to burn/smolder?  usually when I’m home have the damper midway or about a 1/3 open when I’m running mine once it gets going.   In a few weeks when I start lighting it I will start playing around on weekends to see what I can get it going at and how long once the house reaches temp. 

Edited October 4, 2022 by mike033089

[Nadornati]

I keep the damper wide open for about 15 minutes on the first light. That gets it going good. 
 

after it’s going I keep it about 2/3 closed. Overnight I almost shut it completely to really slow it down. We have a regency insert. Burnt 3.5 cords last year. Burn as much as I can with the price of diesel ($4.67 delivery today) ouch.