Question about fireplace bricks

10 years ago

Good Morning all, I am new to this forum. I have a voglezang defender wood burner, I only heat my hunting cabin with it. but it doesn't seem to burn very long. about 2.5 hours when I fill it with wood. question is can I remove the side bricks to get more heat out of it? I am only trying to heat about 600 sqft. it.

Comments (4)

berlin
10 years ago
The problem isn't the bricks (which are there to protect the relatively thin metal from warping and burnthrough) but rather the fact that it's a tiny stove and, being epa certified, doesn't allow the ability to really slow the burn down substantially. I don't think anyone (unless they're burning green wood) gets the 8-10 hour burn out of one.
christopherh
10 years ago
Your stove is rated to heat up to 1,200 sq ft. But one of the drawbacks is it's not that efficient.

"Burn times" can be a lot of hooey. My Regency stove claims to have an 8 hour burn time. So I called my stove shop and asked just what is "burn time"? He calmly said you cannot expect to come back to the stove 8 hours later and still see flames. And that's what people think. No, you can come back to the stove after 8 hours and still see glowing embers. You can reload the stove and get the fire going again without fire starters, newspaper, etc.

But in order to get the 8 hour burn, you must pack the stove! Not just a few logs and you're done. You fill the stove with wood, get it going, and then shut off the air. In the EPA stoves the air is never completely shut off and the secondary burn does it's thing. In the non EPA stoves, once you shut off the air, and oxygen, and smoke goes up the chimney. That's why they're called "smoke dragons".

Now, you're only getting a 2 hour burn time? Is that when you're there and want to have a nice fire to look at? In that case your burn times will naturally be shorter. When we're home during the day and have the stove going, yeah, a 2 to 3 hour time is normal. Because we don't completely shut down the air supply. And I must admit that sometimes during the evening, that fire is a lot more entertaining than what's on TV!

Naturally, your wood selection has a lot to do with burn times. Here in Vermont I burn only seasoned maple, oak, and beech. My "soft wood" is birch. No pine at all.
Greg2741
Original Author
10 years ago
I normally just burn a fire to warm the place up, I can fit about 6- 18" logs. I am also burning Birch and Pine. I don't really care if I have flame or not I just want it to stay warm so I can get 3 or 4 hours of sleep at a time would be nice.
christopherh
10 years ago
There's your problem. Birch and pine.