Starting fires with paper and kindling is something that you teach your kids or boy scouts when camping. Most people nowadays no longer have news paper. One box of fire starter sticks from your local hardware store should last an entire season and will take an enormous amount of work, time an hassle out of wood burning. Always start the fire with three pieces of split wood. Place the fire starter stick on a split piece with another split piece over it. Takes few minutes.
There is a simple rule. If there comes smoke from the chimney, its not burning clean. If you can only see the heat waves from the chimney its burning clean
What's environmentally friendly about using this method of starting a fire? It looks to me like it uses a lot more wood to start a fire than the method I learned as a Boy Scout. Put your two half logs in the firebox parallel to each other, with the kindling in between, smaller stuff under larger sticks, and the wadded newspaper underneath. Light the newspaper, and if the wood is dry you will have a roaring fire in only a minute or two. Once most of the kindling has burned and the log halves have started you can shove the big log halves closer together. This method uses a minimum of kindling and doesn't smoke any worse that the method outlined in the video, especially in a stove designed to burn the smoke and volatile gases.
I do what you suggested, with the addition of opening the ash drawer to get a roaring draft into the fire immediately. In this way, my fire is hot within 5 minutes at most. The downside is that you have to stay on top of the fire or run the risk of over-firing the stove very quickly. My fires burn very cleanly, so I have zero creosote to worry about starting a chimney fire (I've seen a chimney fire....bad news), but you still want to be careful not to overheat the exhaust system.
The top down style of burning is much cleaner than the bottom up fires we were taught to make in scouts. When wood is exposed to high temperatures it releases particulate matter and volatile gasses that rise up in the form of smoke. In a bottom up burn configuration the wood is releasing all the gas and particles as the fire chews it's way through the wood. Because the heat of the fire causes those gasses to rise extremely quickly, most of the gas vapor escapes before it can be fully combusted by the flames, resulting in an inefficient and dirty burn. In a top down burn, once the fire gets going on top the heat it generates causes the unburned wood below it to start expelling the volatile gasses before the fire itself even touches it. These gasses then travel up and through the fire above and as a result are actually given enough time in the flames to be combusted, acting as an additional source of fuel for your fire. With this method your fire is far more efficient because it's able to make use of the wood gasses as fuel instead of letting them escape uncombusted in the form of smoke and pollutants. When you burn in this manner inside of an enclosed barrel, kiln or stove where you can control the amount of air intake and exhaust given to the fire, you can easily attain a much hotter, cleaner and longer lasting fire than would ever be possible when using the bottom up method. One of my favorite things about the top down fire is that it gives all these benefits while using a good deal less wood to meet your heating needs. I'll tell ya, I was as skeptical as anyone but the proof is in the pudding. After trying the top down method and seeing it's advantages first hand, I'll never light from the bottom up again. Hope this helps.
Soknik01 - I see your point, and conceptually, it makes sense. My fires - using the open ash drawer to make a draft, does create a lot of smoke (wasted fuel) in the first 1-2 minutes. You might be on to something. After 20+ years of making fires in a wood stove, this would require major behavior modification on my part. But it's an interesting idea and I'll have to give it a solid try.
I used to be a bottom up fire lighter like my Grandmother (who seemed to be able to put a match to damp sticks and still get a fire going :) the stuff of legends). One day a few winters ago an old country friend of mine was visiting for the weekend and helped get everything together to start the fire
He offered to show me a "new top down" method of starting the fire he had stumbled on, on youtube. I was skeptical but from experience new he had a good Bullstite filter and uses his fire a few months longer each winter than me. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have thought it possible. A very small amount of paper and fine sticks on a large stack of larger wood layers. ALMOST NO SMOKE even from the start. The fire progressively burnt down through the layers of bigger and bigger wood. I didn't need to open the door to feed the fire until it had burnt down to a nice bed of coals = no smoke in the room. I popped outside every few minutes and there was virtually NO SMOKE at the start and NOTHING after the fire got going I was a convert to TOP DOWN with this one effective demonstration in my own fire. Its so good at my age to learn something new, especially when it saves so much time and effort. Stack correctly, light, and walk away standing on the shoulders of others
I once got confused when I moved into my own place and started burning wood, when I would go outside and see no smoke coming out of the pipe and I knew the fire was burning, when everybody else in the area had constant smoke coming out I did not, was confusing at first, then I learned it was also burning the smoke.
the "quality" of the wood isn't so much the question as the "moisture content" of the wood. seasoned wood is generally anything under 30% moisture though ideally seasoned wood would be at 18-20% and frankly anything seasoned below that is just kindling at that point as it will outgas and burn much faster even in a low air environment most EPA stoves are tested with wood running in the 22-26% range because the lower burns are helped in the test if there is a wee bit more moisture there to lengthen the test out a bit (getting a low burn (category 1) is extremely tough with Non-Cat systems such as the Morso in the demonstration) whereas the high burn (category 4) you want a fast hot fire that uses the wood quickly as the "weighted average" method of testing is what determines the Listed BTU output of the stove so the test charge is weighed to a specification determined by the firebox size, and then timed as it runs through the fire, during that time the largest drop in weight over an hour of the test is used for the "output rate" figuring the BTU potential of the wood is 8500 BTU/Lb you look at how many lbs were consumed minute by minute hour by hour , and the largest 60 minute drop in weight is what is used. so , just to make the math easy lets say our stove hit 10 lbs consumed in an hour (thats way higher than anyone would get but im using it for the easy math that would release 85,000 BTU during that hour , this is your INPUT value, now once all the other parts of the test are done to include stack temps and such the "Listed Efficiency" is established (as the heat going up the chimney cannot be listed as "output" as its not staying inside the home) so (again for ease of math) lets say the unit achieved an average of 70% efficiency during the testing (minimum of 4 fires for the 4 categories) so going back to our 85K btu we multiply that number by .7 (70%) and it gives us 59,500 BTU so the stove would get to be listed at 59,500 BTU/Hr which isn't exactly the truth but its a measuring stick that everyone has equal ability to use. and it comes with a price as if you build the stove to get the high output in your cat 4 it makes it all the more difficult to get the Cat 1 (or 2 Cat 2 burns which is allowed if you cannot get a cat 1) which hurts your overall efficiency which lowers your BTU/Hr due to a smaller percentage. Full Disclosure, i work for a woodstove manufacturer other than Morso (though i admire their products) nice video.
Catalytic converter re burns the gases also if you vent your stove with outside air you are not pulling the warm air out of the house to go in the fire. This is the most efficient way to get the most heat from the fire without pulling in cold air into your house.
I removed the firebrick in the bottom of my wood stove and cut a v-groove to accept a perforated 3/8" threaded black pipe connected to an adjustable natural gas valve, no kindling needed.
What most people don't get is if you surrender a wood fire place with stone or fire brick these will keep the heat for hour to come make a good fire proof stone base and surround the fire place or box with stone the stone with render the heat for the next 8 hours no problem .
What you show is not the top down way of starting a fire, you refuel to soon when the small kindling are not burned as embers, and you should use a good long glove to refuel it slowly at the good place without feeling the heat, that is my opinion. thank you.
Are you burning your wood bottom up or from top down? (Think rocket stove) If air is coming from under the wood pile. the wood burns more efficiently from the top, down. Instead of a campfire, throwing wood 'on' the fire, burning from under.
I have two one gallon paint cans with KEROSENE and l soak pine cones (free and plentiful iny area) in them . Take a few out let excess fuel drip off then use them as a fire starter .
Carbon dioxide is CO2, it is formed by complete combustion of a carbon source. Carbon monoxide is CO, it is formed when there is insufficient oxygen to completely combust part of the carbon. Actually, both come from cars and pretty much anything else that involves burning something although CO2 is by far the predominate component. Animals and humans also generate CO2 from exhalation. This CO2 is used by plants in the production of cellulose and other materials. The reason for concern about carbon monoxide is that it is poisonous. CO binds to the hemoglobin in your blood so much better than oxygen that it doesn't come off easily and can lead to death because you blood can't carry enough oxygen anymore. To improve combustion simply allow more air to enter.
It takes a given volume of air to completely burn a given volume of volatile gases. Ideally you have a slight excess of air for complete combustion. Any more air doesn't burn any cleaner, not enough air makes carbon monoxide. I like to keep the air fully open all the time and regulate the heat by how much wood I put on. Takes a bit of practice though.
KiwiPowerNZ I do the exact opposite....I use the minimum amount of air necessary to maintain a rolling-hot fire in my firebox. In my stove, once I have a hot bed of coals, I can burn one or many logs very cleanly....I control room temperature by how many logs I place in the firebox. But my practice, developed from more than 30 years experience burning wood, is to maintain a HOT firebox, and then control the rate of combustion by adjusting the airflow to the absolute minimum necessary to maintain a hot, rolling fire in the fire box. My first goal is ALWAYS to maintain a hot firebox - even if this meant overheating the room. I know that this is working well, because my stove and exhaust chimney remains very clean. For example, I burn 3-4 chords each winter. After 9 years, my wife laid down the law and told me to get the chimney cleaned, even though I insisted it was clean. After the chimney sweep disassembled the access points and scrubbed the exhaust stack, in my wife' presence he asked whether we were actually using the stove at all.....it was that clean. (You might be tempted to ask if my wife acknowledged what I had previously said about the chimney being so clean. Answer: if one cares about marital benefits, seek a path of enlightened self-interest) Keeping good control of the wood seasoning is also important. In my part of the country (northern US), if my wood is cut in February and split, it will be dry enough by the start of the next heating season, usu around early Oct. Any drier than that and the wood will burn too quickly and won't form good coals.
So, how do you know what the minimum amount of air is? I notice if I keep both vents wide open, my wood burns up faster...even with the damper closed. This year I started cranking both vents about half way closed and had problems keeping the fire going at times, so I guess the optimum point is between half and full open.
D Wetick If you're burning wood with a lot of resin like pine it does tend to make black smoke in any case. In big coal fired power stations they have O2 sensors and adjust the airflow until there is say a 0.5% excess of air. But for us, we just experiment. Too much air actually cools the fire down if the fire isn't big enough to use that air. If you do want to run the fire really slowly, remember the flue is under a slight vacuum that's what pulls air into the fire, so any carbon monoxide you produce will be sucked up the chimney and not go into the room. Plus it's in such small volumes that outside it disperses into nothing so don't concern yourself too much.
I use charcoal lighter fluid on the ends of my wood to start a dead stove for coals.. As for NO smoke, I guess I'm burning wrong. I always have smoke, lots of creosote build up, which I have to clean out weekly... Maybe time for a new stove... lol
If you get lots of smoke and creosote ,most likely your wood is not dry enough. All woodstove owners should have a moisture meter. It should be below 20 % . People that sell wood often lie about it being dry. Good luck.
@@twoweary I bought a new stove one of those that burns the smoke before flu.. Works great now.. I did check to make sure no creosote build up and hardly anything the whole year..
yup, lots of liars selling high moisture wood out there! I use the 10% or less moisture rule, and use wood that has been *seasoned* - exposed to being dry outside for at least 2 years. This will give you dark brown soot at the end of the season when you clean your chimney (a good sign indeed!)👍@@twoweary
cracks me up how seriously people take this - like there is only one way to make a fire or you are just fucked. it really isn't as hard as people want to make it, lots of ways to make a fire!
*For the warmest winter ever: Fold 2 rubber bike tires with inner tubes and cram into fire box. Add tennis shoes. Saturate with diesel fuel and light. Bring on the vodka, whipped cream & marshmallows!*
+Procommenter I think you're a lot happier because you live where it was colder than most of the wienies referring to this "instructional" video. Somewhere like central Ontario? You likely only have to refer to this video (and start your fire) one time a year in the late summer and keep it burning until late May. Am I right? I love the diesel Idea, but most diesel is low sulfur nowadays, I find it's a more environmentally friendly way to dispose of used drain oil rather than preciously refined new lower emission fuels. Far more environmentally friendly than taking 5 gallon buckets of dirty 10W40 to my local dump and where there's a risk of spillage. I don't bike, so I'm fresh out of bike tires... Can you saw up used truck tires with a bandsaw when temperatures are below zero? I'd think they'd stack a lot easier in the kindling bin that way.
Critical, but unmentioned, is the wood’s moisture content! Seasoned wood is rarely sufficiently seasoned, and results in heat being used to expel moisture from wood, rather than heat a space! The maximum moisture content of 20% is often not achieved, and results in an inefficient burn!
all things being up to snuff concerning the operation of my stove, it still won't burn like it once did. although my wood is seasoned, I think it may be damp. any ideas what's going on? thx
Sweep the chimney, as a sweep it's recommended to be cleaned 1/4ly when in use. No matter how dry the timber is it's the resins in the wood that cause the problem.
@@jamescherry2082 1/4ly ?? serious ,,,My stove goes everyday morning till night ,,I clean once every two years and get maybe 4-5 cups of ash ,most at the top where hot meets cold ,,im always amazed ,I drop a light down the flu pipe and its pristine ,,burn dry wood
This fire pit is one of a few covered pits that is on the list th-cam.com/users/postUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM of approved products for Disney Fort Wilderness. The product served its purpose well and provided excellent fires throughout the evening. We were able to open the door and do s'mores, but I had to be careful because the handle was a bit hot on occasions. Additionally, I wish they had replaced some of the standard nuts with lock nuts in some places. We lost the door handle after just a couple of days of usage. Not a deal breaker, just a recommendation. I still give it 5 stars.
'Seasoned' means dry---that's all. At season's beginning get a few of your fuel wood bits, split those exposed surfaces with an ax and test the moisture% with a moisture (water) meter . The reading should be below 20% and is better if around 10%
I just throw two pieces of wood down 1 on top the other . I dip some paper towel in dirty cooking grease and put it under the two logs and presto fire started
Overstuffed firebox big time. Few bits of dry 3 inch tree branch and a firelighter to start and two redgum split bits for the whole night (til 2 AM or so) if you control it well. No need for the fancy wood towers, chimney inspections and top down stuff (well actually hehe)- just light the bloody thing lol.
After reading all of the comments below, I remain more confused,(many questions arise) ,we have evolved to burning bicycle tires and tubes, and tennis shoes doused,or saturated with diesel fuel....chunks of truck tires , 10-40 weight drain oil..?? How do You.... What are the steps to burning the drain oil...??? doesn't all of this make a sticky- guey sooty mess inside the stove and flue pipe..? Doesn't it stink up the neighborhood,and smoke bad enough for the neighbors to call the fire dept. or the Police .?? Furthermore...I can relate to the Vodka, and the Marshmallows , but what's the whipped cream for ? I Readily understand whip cream for Hot Chocolate.... and toasting marshmallows...I have even floated my toasted marshmallows on my cup of hot chocolate... But "vodka , whipped cream , and marshmallows" combination.. .maybe I'm missing something , or thinking too hard , or not hard enough Maybe if we drink enough Vodka we can start busting up the furniture and start tossing it in the stove....for a "Hotter Burn".
Wood heat rocks... I'm all for clean burning etc, just don't start going nuts and flat out ban wood stoves though.. Bad bad mistake imo if they ever do that.. But by all means if we can burn cleaner, lets do it!
EARLY DAYS, 100s of year ago, and still going on, England, Russia Germany, China, India etc, the European continent and Asia heated their homes with COAL AND STILL DO!!!! Our planet survived that torture..and will continue to survive I do believe.
Look I am so tied of these hypocritical environmental loons saying "Man" caused global warming. The earth has been going through periods of warming and cooling for BILLIONS of years and will continue to do so long after man is gone. The left just uses this propaganda for political gain and the EPA's crazy regulations does nothing but handcuff business and slow the economy. I agree we should all do our part for a cleaner world and as avid outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman, ect... I was green before being "green" was cool. Fact is that organizations that the left deplore like Ducks Unlimited and National Wild Turkey Federation do more to save wetlands and trees than the wackos at Greenpeace will every do! Rant complete.
So true, during the 1600 - 1800s there was actually a small ice age because the sun was NOT active, but today the sun has been more active causing more heat upon the earth.. It has nothing to do with man.. I see to many brainwashed libs thinking the government is our friend. Lol.. Stopping farmers from using land because of a rodent, that I'd just stomp if I saw one.. Or some mystical shrimp that lives on land when it rains... EPA is like IRS, a non-Constitutional branch of government to dictate our lives and to rob the citizen..
Paper is not the best way. Very little calorific value and leaves loads of ash. It's only there to warm the flue and then light the kindling. Use firelighters. Better results and no paper ash residue
I wish people would stop saying that burning wood is a sustainable activity because it returns CO2 back for the trees. We are overburdened already with more CO2 than we or anything need in the atmosphere. Burning wood very efficiently might not be a bad choice, but not because the trees need it anymore....this is 2021, we should know this by now.
@@stevehadfield5963 Paper burns too fast and not reliably enough. The key to starting a fire is good airflow. Paper impedes that airflow, even after it's burned.
Terrible way to light a stove! Guaranteed to put smoke in your room. Instead, put one firelighter at the back of the base of the stove, build a small pyramid of kindling around it, then add two mid size logs once the kindling has taken. Don't use newspaper, it adds nothing to the cinders, and burns out in seconds. Environmentally friendly firelighters made of compressed sawdust and wood oil is way better all round. Shame on you, Morso.
A wood stove is a prepper tool . No one cares about the smoke out side . Dont buy a new code regulated stove . This video if for bummies. If some one gave me that stove I wood put it out for the trash man
Why? It is literally the most natural source of heat from carbon fuel. This planet knows what to do with the gases and does it well. I will ALWAYS burn wood in my stove.
Shoot... I didn't know this would be a shameless plug for green extremist gobblygook. What a waste of time... But now I know which manufacturer to NEVER use🤓
Starting fires with paper and kindling is something that you teach your kids or boy scouts when camping. Most people nowadays no longer have news paper. One box of fire starter sticks from your local hardware store should last an entire season and will take an enormous amount of work, time an hassle out of wood burning.
Always start the fire with three pieces of split wood. Place the fire starter stick on a split piece with another split piece over it. Takes few minutes.
I use dryer lint and old corn chips. They go up like gasoline, and are pennies on the dollar.
Something there is no shortage of, Amazon boxes.
In Lithuania it is common to use birch bark
There is a simple rule. If there comes smoke from the chimney, its not burning clean. If you can only see the heat waves from the chimney its burning clean
Most can't figure thar out.
What's environmentally friendly about using this method of starting a fire? It looks to me like it uses a lot more wood to start a fire than the method I learned as a Boy Scout. Put your two half logs in the firebox parallel to each other, with the kindling in between, smaller stuff under larger sticks, and the wadded newspaper underneath. Light the newspaper, and if the wood is dry you will have a roaring fire in only a minute or two. Once most of the kindling has burned and the log halves have started you can shove the big log halves closer together. This method uses a minimum of kindling and doesn't smoke any worse that the method outlined in the video, especially in a stove designed to burn the smoke and volatile gases.
I do what you suggested, with the addition of opening the ash drawer to get a roaring draft into the fire immediately. In this way, my fire is hot within 5 minutes at most. The downside is that you have to stay on top of the fire or run the risk of over-firing the stove very quickly. My fires burn very cleanly, so I have zero creosote to worry about starting a chimney fire (I've seen a chimney fire....bad news), but you still want to be careful not to overheat the exhaust system.
The top down style of burning is much cleaner than the bottom up fires we were taught to make in scouts. When wood is exposed to high temperatures it releases particulate matter and volatile gasses that rise up in the form of smoke. In a bottom up burn configuration the wood is releasing all the gas and particles as the fire chews it's way through the wood. Because the heat of the fire causes those gasses to rise extremely quickly, most of the gas vapor escapes before it can be fully combusted by the flames, resulting in an inefficient and dirty burn.
In a top down burn, once the fire gets going on top the heat it generates causes the unburned wood below it to start expelling the volatile gasses before the fire itself even touches it. These gasses then travel up and through the fire above and as a result are actually given enough time in the flames to be combusted, acting as an additional source of fuel for your fire.
With this method your fire is far more efficient because it's able to make use of the wood gasses as fuel instead of letting them escape uncombusted in the form of smoke and pollutants. When you burn in this manner inside of an enclosed barrel, kiln or stove where you can control the amount of air intake and exhaust given to the fire, you can easily attain a much hotter, cleaner and longer lasting fire than would ever be possible when using the bottom up method. One of my favorite things about the top down fire is that it gives all these benefits while using a good deal less wood to meet your heating needs.
I'll tell ya, I was as skeptical as anyone but the proof is in the pudding. After trying the top down method and seeing it's advantages first hand, I'll never light from the bottom up again.
Hope this helps.
Soknik01 - I see your point, and conceptually, it makes sense. My fires - using the open ash drawer to make a draft, does create a lot of smoke (wasted fuel) in the first 1-2 minutes. You might be on to something. After 20+ years of making fires in a wood stove, this would require major behavior modification on my part. But it's an interesting idea and I'll have to give it a solid try.
I used to be a bottom up fire lighter like my Grandmother (who seemed to be able to put a match to damp sticks and still get a fire going :) the stuff of legends).
One day a few winters ago an old country friend of mine was visiting for the weekend and helped get everything together to start the fire
He offered to show me a "new top down" method of starting the fire he had stumbled on, on youtube.
I was skeptical but from experience new he had a good Bullstite filter and uses his fire a few months longer each winter than me. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have thought it possible.
A very small amount of paper and fine sticks on a large stack of larger wood layers. ALMOST NO SMOKE even from the start. The fire progressively burnt down through the layers of bigger and bigger wood. I didn't need to open the door to feed the fire until it had burnt down to a nice bed of coals = no smoke in the room. I popped outside every few minutes and there was virtually NO SMOKE at the start and NOTHING after the fire got going
I was a convert to TOP DOWN with this one effective demonstration in my own fire.
Its so good at my age to learn something new, especially when it saves so much time and effort.
Stack correctly, light, and walk away
standing on the shoulders of others
I once got confused when I moved into my own place and started burning wood, when I would go outside and see no smoke coming out of the pipe and I knew the fire was burning, when everybody else in the area had constant smoke coming out I did not, was confusing at first, then I learned it was also burning the smoke.
All in all, not a bad video. Establishing coals is an excellent idea. Especially when burning hardwoods.
I guess I missed the part about increasing my wood burning stove efficiency.
useless content all over the world
Me too !
Getting the stove box, pipe and/or chimney up to temperature faster increases efficiency
Lol
Must be for city folk that know nothing about burning wood
Very useful tips for ensuring best burning and low smoke emissions.
the "quality" of the wood isn't so much the question as the "moisture content" of the wood. seasoned wood is generally anything under 30% moisture though ideally seasoned wood would be at 18-20% and frankly anything seasoned below that is just kindling at that point as it will outgas and burn much faster even in a low air environment most EPA stoves are tested with wood running in the 22-26% range because the lower burns are helped in the test if there is a wee bit more moisture there to lengthen the test out a bit (getting a low burn (category 1) is extremely tough with Non-Cat systems such as the Morso in the demonstration) whereas the high burn (category 4) you want a fast hot fire that uses the wood quickly as the "weighted average" method of testing is what determines the Listed BTU output of the stove so the test charge is weighed to a specification determined by the firebox size, and then timed as it runs through the fire, during that time the largest drop in weight over an hour of the test is used for the "output rate" figuring the BTU potential of the wood is 8500 BTU/Lb you look at how many lbs were consumed minute by minute hour by hour , and the largest 60 minute drop in weight is what is used. so , just to make the math easy lets say our stove hit 10 lbs consumed in an hour (thats way higher than anyone would get but im using it for the easy math that would release 85,000 BTU during that hour , this is your INPUT value, now once all the other parts of the test are done to include stack temps and such the "Listed Efficiency" is established (as the heat going up the chimney cannot be listed as "output" as its not staying inside the home) so (again for ease of math) lets say the unit achieved an average of 70% efficiency during the testing (minimum of 4 fires for the 4 categories) so going back to our 85K btu we multiply that number by .7 (70%) and it gives us 59,500 BTU so the stove would get to be listed at 59,500 BTU/Hr which isn't exactly the truth but its a measuring stick that everyone has equal ability to use. and it comes with a price as if you build the stove to get the high output in your cat 4 it makes it all the more difficult to get the Cat 1 (or 2 Cat 2 burns which is allowed if you cannot get a cat 1) which hurts your overall efficiency which lowers your BTU/Hr due to a smaller percentage.
Full Disclosure, i work for a woodstove manufacturer other than Morso (though i admire their products) nice video.
I was asleep by line 5...zzzz
Catalytic converter re burns the gases also if you vent your stove with outside air you are not pulling the warm air out of the house to go in the fire. This is the most efficient way to get the most heat from the fire without pulling in cold air into your house.
Less heat, less wood....more heat, more wood...OK, I think I got it.
and lots of air
@@bill605able too much air will make the heat escape direcly out the chimney
I removed the firebrick in the bottom of my wood stove and cut a v-groove to accept a perforated 3/8" threaded black pipe connected to an adjustable natural gas valve, no kindling needed.
What most people don't get is if you surrender a wood fire place with stone or fire brick these will keep the heat for hour to come make a good fire proof stone base and surround the fire place or box with stone the stone with render the heat for the next 8 hours no problem .
What you show is not the top down way of starting a fire, you refuel to soon when the small kindling are not burned as embers, and you should use a good long glove to refuel it slowly at the good place without feeling the heat, that is my opinion. thank you.
Are you burning your wood bottom up or from top down? (Think rocket stove) If air is coming from under the wood pile. the wood burns more efficiently from the top, down. Instead of a campfire, throwing wood 'on' the fire, burning from under.
I have two one gallon paint cans with KEROSENE and l soak pine cones (free and plentiful iny area) in them . Take a few out let excess fuel drip off then use them as a fire starter .
How should you adjust the air vents so no Carbon Monoxide is produced? Instructions are un-clear...
Carbon dioxide is CO2, it is formed by complete combustion of a carbon source. Carbon monoxide is CO, it is formed when there is insufficient oxygen to completely combust part of the carbon. Actually, both come from cars and pretty much anything else that involves burning something although CO2 is by far the predominate component. Animals and humans also generate CO2 from exhalation. This CO2 is used by plants in the production of cellulose and other materials. The reason for concern about carbon monoxide is that it is poisonous. CO binds to the hemoglobin in your blood so much better than oxygen that it doesn't come off easily and can lead to death because you blood can't carry enough oxygen anymore.
To improve combustion simply allow more air to enter.
It takes a given volume of air to completely burn a given volume of volatile gases. Ideally you have a slight excess of air for complete combustion. Any more air doesn't burn any cleaner, not enough air makes carbon monoxide.
I like to keep the air fully open all the time and regulate the heat by how much wood I put on. Takes a bit of practice though.
KiwiPowerNZ I do the exact opposite....I use the minimum amount of air necessary to maintain a rolling-hot fire in my firebox. In my stove, once I have a hot bed of coals, I can burn one or many logs very cleanly....I control room temperature by how many logs I place in the firebox. But my practice, developed from more than 30 years experience burning wood, is to maintain a HOT firebox, and then control the rate of combustion by adjusting the airflow to the absolute minimum necessary to maintain a hot, rolling fire in the fire box. My first goal is ALWAYS to maintain a hot firebox - even if this meant overheating the room. I know that this is working well, because my stove and exhaust chimney remains very clean. For example, I burn 3-4 chords each winter. After 9 years, my wife laid down the law and told me to get the chimney cleaned, even though I insisted it was clean. After the chimney sweep disassembled the access points and scrubbed the exhaust stack, in my wife' presence he asked whether we were actually using the stove at all.....it was that clean. (You might be tempted to ask if my wife acknowledged what I had previously said about the chimney being so clean. Answer: if one cares about marital benefits, seek a path of enlightened self-interest)
Keeping good control of the wood seasoning is also important. In my part of the country (northern US), if my wood is cut in February and split, it will be dry enough by the start of the next heating season, usu around early Oct. Any drier than that and the wood will burn too quickly and won't form good coals.
So, how do you know what the minimum amount of air is? I notice if I keep both vents wide open, my wood burns up faster...even with the damper closed. This year I started cranking both vents about half way closed and had problems keeping the fire going at times, so I guess the optimum point is between half and full open.
D Wetick If you're burning wood with a lot of resin like pine it does tend to make black smoke in any case. In big coal fired power stations they have O2 sensors and adjust the airflow until there is say a 0.5% excess of air. But for us, we just experiment. Too much air actually cools the fire down if the fire isn't big enough to use that air. If you do want to run the fire really slowly, remember the flue is under a slight vacuum that's what pulls air into the fire, so any carbon monoxide you produce will be sucked up the chimney and not go into the room. Plus it's in such small volumes that outside it disperses into nothing so don't concern yourself too much.
I use charcoal lighter fluid on the ends of my wood to start a dead stove for coals.. As for NO smoke, I guess I'm burning wrong. I always have smoke, lots of creosote build up, which I have to clean out weekly... Maybe time for a new stove... lol
If you get lots of smoke and creosote ,most likely your wood is not dry enough. All woodstove owners should have a moisture meter. It should be below 20 % . People that sell wood often lie about it being dry. Good luck.
@@twoweary I bought a new stove one of those that burns the smoke before flu.. Works great now.. I did check to make sure no creosote build up and hardly anything the whole year..
yup, lots of liars selling high moisture wood out there! I use the 10% or less moisture rule, and use wood that has been *seasoned* - exposed to being dry outside for at least 2 years. This will give you dark brown soot at the end of the season when you clean your chimney (a good sign indeed!)👍@@twoweary
cracks me up how seriously people take this - like there is only one way to make a fire or you are just fucked. it really isn't as hard as people want to make it, lots of ways to make a fire!
*For the warmest winter ever: Fold 2 rubber bike tires with inner tubes and cram into fire box. Add tennis shoes. Saturate with diesel fuel and light. Bring on the vodka, whipped cream & marshmallows!*
+Procommenter I think you're a lot happier because you live where it was colder than most of the wienies referring to this "instructional" video. Somewhere like central Ontario? You likely only have to refer to this video (and start your fire) one time a year in the late summer and keep it burning until late May. Am I right? I love the diesel Idea, but most diesel is low sulfur nowadays, I find it's a more environmentally friendly way to dispose of used drain oil rather than preciously refined new lower emission fuels. Far more environmentally friendly than taking 5 gallon buckets of dirty 10W40 to my local dump and where there's a risk of spillage. I don't bike, so I'm fresh out of bike tires... Can you saw up used truck tires with a bandsaw when temperatures are below zero? I'd think they'd stack a lot easier in the kindling bin that way.
+YankeeinSC1 I find nuclear fusion works best, the warm glow lasts for decades.
Is your house still standing?
Procommenter yeah I got drunk doing that
This worked well for me. My village is still burning but, boy, are we toasty!
Critical, but unmentioned, is the wood’s moisture content! Seasoned wood is rarely sufficiently seasoned, and results in heat being used to expel moisture from wood, rather than heat a space! The maximum moisture content of 20% is often not achieved, and results in an inefficient burn!
Love this Computer Based Training (CBT) with creepy music
I believe this is cleaner than electric heating that depends on coal power stations
Good ideas to use with wood stove.
Great info! Thank you
all things being up to snuff concerning the operation of my stove, it still won't burn like it once did. although my wood is seasoned, I think it may be damp. any ideas what's going on? thx
Chimney is probably blocked up. The flue blocks up when the exhaust temperature is not hot enough.
If your stove has catalyst, they are probably clogged.
Sweep the chimney, as a sweep it's recommended to be cleaned 1/4ly when in use. No matter how dry the timber is it's the resins in the wood that cause the problem.
If it's damp, it ISN'T seasoned. Get a moisture meter and make sure it's 20% moisture or less . And get your chimney swept.
@@jamescherry2082 1/4ly ?? serious ,,,My stove goes everyday morning till night ,,I clean once every two years and get maybe 4-5 cups of ash ,most at the top where hot meets cold ,,im always amazed ,I drop a light down the flu pipe and its pristine ,,burn dry wood
This fire pit is one of a few covered pits that is on the list th-cam.com/users/postUgkxAU9pOCSV9Y5JprooHvfxTpOrt4hx8uRM of approved products for Disney Fort Wilderness. The product served its purpose well and provided excellent fires throughout the evening. We were able to open the door and do s'mores, but I had to be careful because the handle was a bit hot on occasions. Additionally, I wish they had replaced some of the standard nuts with lock nuts in some places. We lost the door handle after just a couple of days of usage. Not a deal breaker, just a recommendation. I still give it 5 stars.
If you have to use that much kindling then your wood isn’t seasoned.
'Seasoned' means dry---that's all. At season's beginning get a few of your fuel wood bits, split those exposed surfaces with an ax and test the moisture% with a moisture (water) meter . The reading should be below 20% and is better if around 10%
Very informative!
Wrong. 2 lbs of kindling won’t work. You need a minimum of 39 lbs.
I just throw two pieces of wood down 1 on top the other . I dip some paper towel in dirty cooking grease and put it under the two logs and presto fire started
Overstuffed firebox big time. Few bits of dry 3 inch tree branch and a firelighter to start and two redgum split bits for the whole night (til 2 AM or so) if you control it well. No need for the fancy wood towers, chimney inspections and top down stuff (well actually hehe)- just light the bloody thing lol.
Mick M wtf is a “Redgum split bit”
Who still uses newspaper and kindling? I light my stove with a propane torch. 5-6 minutes of propane fire and the wood is burning nicely.
I find that a good chunk of car tyre & a diesel soaked rag gets the heat in the flue real quick
The coffee that just blew thru my nose felt like burning car tire.
That works but cutting the tyre into chunks is too much work.
The Garlic Farm
P
Sham
If I do that and keep door half-open, room will be filled with smoke in no time.
Thank you very helpful
Seems basic but good info here.
After reading all of the comments below, I remain more confused,(many questions arise) ,we have evolved to burning bicycle tires and tubes, and tennis shoes doused,or saturated with diesel fuel....chunks of truck tires , 10-40 weight drain oil..??
How do You.... What are the steps to burning the drain oil...???
doesn't all of this make a sticky- guey sooty mess inside the stove and flue pipe..?
Doesn't it stink up the neighborhood,and smoke bad enough for the neighbors to call the fire dept.
or the Police .??
Furthermore...I can relate to the Vodka, and the Marshmallows , but what's the
whipped cream for ?
I Readily understand whip cream for Hot Chocolate.... and toasting marshmallows...I have even floated my toasted marshmallows on my cup of hot chocolate... But "vodka , whipped cream , and marshmallows" combination.. .maybe I'm missing something , or thinking too hard ,
or not hard enough
Maybe if we drink enough Vodka we can start busting up the furniture and start tossing it in the stove....for a "Hotter Burn".
I live near a power station & have a endless supply of depleted uranium which burns well with used engine oil..
When we re-shingled the roof on the cabin, all the old shingles went in the stove and kept us warm during the job
Phil Reilly
I find roofing Felt gives of a real good heat,, Best to burn after dark if you are in a smokeless zone
Wood heat rocks... I'm all for clean burning etc, just don't start going nuts and flat out ban wood stoves though.. Bad bad mistake imo if they ever do that.. But by all means if we can burn cleaner, lets do it!
have you had a look at rocket stoves? now they are fantastic!
Yes they are! I need to build a shop and tinker with more things... Soo many neat things soo little time :-)
make sure you film it, and work on your video descriptions so you get more views, i watched a couple, theyre allright, worth a watch
I use gasoline carefully squirted form a squeeze bottle.
Use charcoal fluid instead.. I know of a guy that burned his kid real bad from a serious back flash out the door.. Scared her pretty bad..
crispyspa not very bright to do that hope. You have good fire insurance
hilarious
Very helpful
wear heavy gloves when loading wood into the stove - safety first!
It gets rid hairy palms
Hmmmmmm , The Only way to improve your wood stove efficiency is with Very Dry Hard Wood and lots of it 🔥🔥🔥
Oh now, I've seen it all lol
Guess burning newspaper full of ink is environmentally friendly?
Take a day off from beinga Green Weenie prophesising doom, please.
EARLY DAYS, 100s of year ago, and still going on, England, Russia Germany, China, India etc, the European continent and Asia heated their homes with COAL AND STILL DO!!!! Our planet survived that torture..and will continue to survive I do believe.
Look I am so tied of these hypocritical environmental loons saying "Man" caused global warming. The earth has been going through periods of warming and cooling for BILLIONS of years and will continue to do so long after man is gone. The left just uses this propaganda for political gain and the EPA's crazy regulations does nothing but handcuff business and slow the economy. I agree we should all do our part for a cleaner world and as avid outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman, ect... I was green before being "green" was cool. Fact is that organizations that the left deplore like Ducks Unlimited and National Wild Turkey Federation do more to save wetlands and trees than the wackos at Greenpeace will every do! Rant complete.
So true, during the 1600 - 1800s there was actually a small ice age because the sun was NOT active, but today the sun has been more active causing more heat upon the earth.. It has nothing to do with man.. I see to many brainwashed libs thinking the government is our friend. Lol.. Stopping farmers from using land because of a rodent, that I'd just stomp if I saw one.. Or some mystical shrimp that lives on land when it rains... EPA is like IRS, a non-Constitutional branch of government to dictate our lives and to rob the citizen..
Paper is not the best way. Very little calorific value and leaves loads of ash. It's only there to warm the flue and then light the kindling. Use firelighters. Better results and no paper ash residue
Always use cloves not like that bell end in the clip
Cloves won't help
@@only1utdanditsleeds 2 year reply fuck off
GOOD WAY TO HEAT THE GARAGE AND USE THE OLD OIL
I wish people would stop saying that burning wood is a sustainable activity because it returns CO2 back for the trees. We are overburdened already with more CO2 than we or anything need in the atmosphere. Burning wood very efficiently might not be a bad choice, but not because the trees need it anymore....this is 2021, we should know this by now.
I burn wood and coal and I drive a v8 all I'm doing is giving plants more food to thrive
Let's hope your kids/grandkids get see their children grow up eh?
Uh, so if I want my house to actually be heated, I can't use my stove efficiently? They should mention that on the box.
Nothing to see here regarding efficient burning.
Not all woods are created equal... it’s not that easy.
Cook your hand much???
Trees love carbondioxside
Why the fuck would someone use newspaper and blow all the shit it contains out their chimney?
Don't use newspaper. Use fire starters. They are very cheap and work much better than newspaper.
Paper works just as well as and it's free.
@@stevehadfield5963 Paper burns too fast and not reliably enough. The key to starting a fire is good airflow. Paper impedes that airflow, even after it's burned.
Lost me at "environmentally friendly". Either tell me how to burn an effective fire for heating, or shove off.
very very poor title for this video
Russian pitchki much more effecient
Terrible way to light a stove! Guaranteed to put smoke in your room.
Instead, put one firelighter at the back of the base of the stove, build a small pyramid of kindling around it, then add two mid size logs once the kindling has taken. Don't use newspaper, it adds nothing to the cinders, and burns out in seconds. Environmentally friendly firelighters made of compressed sawdust and wood oil is way better all round.
Shame on you, Morso.
wrong, rick....the way they described works perfectly....shame on YOU....
Useless useless uselesss
yes, jimmy boy....you ARE useless......
Don't talk so fast your makeup is going 2 get damaged.
hey im not gay, am i still able to use these techniques?
A wood stove is a prepper tool . No one cares about the smoke out side . Dont buy a new code regulated stove . This video if for bummies. If some one gave me that stove I wood put it out for the trash man
Smoke is good for the environment so how why shouldn’t it be smoking? Makes no sense. Go back to school
don't burn wood... just don't do it !!!!
Why? It is literally the most natural source of heat from carbon fuel. This planet knows what to do with the gases and does it well. I will ALWAYS burn wood in my stove.
Burn coal
Shoot... I didn't know this would be a shameless plug for green extremist gobblygook. What a waste of time... But now I know which manufacturer to NEVER use🤓