My Napoleon like wet wood...

[Thislilfishy]

Okay sort of, it's definately a lot more controlled! When I got my wood this year I measured a fresh split at 12-14%. This burned great, too well actually. I fought and fought to keep the stove under 750 (manual says to not exceed 700 surface temp). I installed a damper, modified the secondary intake with magnets. Even tossed some fresh cut soaking wet cedar on top of raging infernos to bring the temp down. I checked all seals over and over.

Well go figure, the weather around here is just nuts. -16 one day and +10 Celsius the next. With crazy winds, rain, sleet and snow. Unfortunately my tarped wood didn't have a chance...it's mostly soaking wet now. BUT, no more insane fires and 30 degree house. Now I have a bit more difficulty getting the fire going, but instead of an hour at 700 with a quick cools down to reload time, now I get several hours at 450-550 degrees. Then it slowly works it's way to 300 degrees and by morning I have a 150-200 degree stove with a small amount of coal left over for the reload. As opposed to large chunks of coal and a cold stove, due to the damper and draft being closed all the way to try to keep the fire from going insane while I slept. Now I just need to keep an eye on creosote build up.

Ian

 

[BrotherBart]

You ain't gonna believe what you find in that chimney.

 

[Thislilfishy]

Yeah, not certain. I am hoping the whole wood pile isn't soaked. This wood is several years old (5-7 years) and was stored in a wood shed, so it soaked up the moisture like a sponge. However, I don't think its near as bad as unseasoned wood. The cell structure of the wood will be broken down, so the moisture comes right out, but who knows. We shall see.

Ian

 

[Hogwildz]

Git yer cleaning rods and brush out once a month, you're gonna need em.

 

[Thislilfishy]

Git yer cleaning rods and brush out once a month, you're gonna need em.

Gotta get some of those...tis the season and all that.

Ian

 

[Charles1981]

Are you talking in both Celsius and Fahrenheit? C for ambient and F for stove temps?

 

[Thislilfishy]

Yeah, sorry. It's confusing....just how I do things.

 

[tarzan]

Agreed you should check the chimney often to get an idea of what may or may not be building up.

 

[Thislilfishy]

I added a few splits to the already hot load (now that sounds dirty!) to get through the night. She's cruising at 650-675. I had the pipe off a month ago when I added the damper and there was no build up at all, but I'll be letting it burn down Sunday for a clean out and will pull the baffles for a quick look then. That'll be about two or three weeks of soaked wood. Of note, there is no build up on the glass or inside the stove at all. The probe on the thermometer has light white ash on the bottom that just blows off, and a thin black layer on the top half that just shakes off, sort of like light graphite powder. So it can't be all bad I would think.

Ian

 

[smokedragon]

If the glass isn't dirty, that is a good indicator. Nothing tells you better than actually looking inside the pipe, but I would be SLIGHTLY optimistic knowing the glass is clean.

 

[Hogwildz]

Check at the cap and top of the pipe, that is where the crud will be if any.

 

[mepellet]

There have been many reports of Napoleon stoves being hard to control with "overly seasoned" wood. I modified the secondary intake slightly, and that made a huge difference. No change in buildup in the chimney either. I check monthly and clean when needed.

 

[DougA]

If I was a stove mfg., I would get pretty sick & tired with all the people whining about their stoves that won't easily burn 'seasoned' wood bought from typical suppliers. I'd design a stove that is intended to burn better with wood that is not so dry. So maybe Napoleon is doing something smart, maybe just lucky.

On the wet wood discussion, to my way of thinking, their is a difference between wet, green wood and properly seasoned wood that got rained on. Moisture from rain water will dry out in a stove much faster because it's normally just on the outer edges. Burning it will cause some steam and your fire will not get as hot. Greener wood is wet with sap, which is full of sugar which will cause a much worse problem. Other opinions?

 

[tarzan]

If I was a stove mfg., I would get pretty sick & tired with all the people whining about their stoves that won't easily burn 'seasoned' wood bought from typical suppliers. I'd design a stove that is intended to burn better with wood that is not so dry. So maybe Napoleon is doing something smart, maybe just lucky.

On the wet wood discussion, to my way of thinking, their is a difference between wet, green wood and properly seasoned wood that got rained on. Moisture from rain water will dry out in a stove much faster because it's normally just on the outer edges. Burning it will cause some steam and your fire will not get as hot. Greener wood is wet with sap, which is full of sugar which will cause a much worse problem. Other opinions?

My take on it is, not all stoves, setups, are created equal.

My first year with the tube stove came after much research and I was convinced my wood needed to be 15%mc to burn in an EPA approved wood stove. What I found was, in my case anyway, 18 to 22%mc worked much better. To top things off, I never covered my stacks although many splits were not rain wet by the time they found there way into the stove.

I had zero issues with creosite buildup in the three seasons I ran this stove. In fact I could have easily never cleaned the pipe in that time but I did after two and a half seasons, just cause one unusually warm winter day made me want to play outside.

I'm in no way promoting or saying to run YOUR stove in the same fashion. Only that, just as I started this post, not all stoves, setups are created equal. It's up to you to find what works for you even if it's a little outside of the general consincous.

 

[Thislilfishy]

There have been many reports of Napoleon stoves being hard to control with "overly seasoned" wood. I modified the secondary intake slightly, and that made a huge difference. No change in buildup in the chimney either. I check monthly and clean when needed.

Yeah, but not sure how that would effect the EPA requirements. I suppose it could be a happy medium I suppose. I tried limiting my secondary intake as well, but I think I just have too much draft. I added a damper that I can close when things get out of control, but it doesn't kill the fire, it just seems to stall it, and the temps don't climb any higher...just kinda hover.

If I was a stove mfg., I would get pretty sick & tired with all the people whining about their stoves that won't easily burn 'seasoned' wood bought from typical suppliers. I'd design a stove that is intended to burn better with wood that is not so dry. So maybe Napoleon is doing something smart, maybe just lucky.

On the wet wood discussion, to my way of thinking, their is a difference between wet, green wood and properly seasoned wood that got rained on. Moisture from rain water will dry out in a stove much faster because it's normally just on the outer edges. Burning it will cause some steam and your fire will not get as hot. Greener wood is wet with sap, which is full of sugar which will cause a much worse problem. Other opinions?

This was my thinking as well. This wood is truly aged, and well aerated by boring beetles. It tends to burn very hot and fast. However, now that it's been soaked it's burning a bit slower and at more normal temperatures. When the wood gets up to temp I see some water boiling out the ends, but only from about a 1/2" depth on the wood, as opposed to the entire end of the split. I tend to agree that with unseasoned wood you get a lot more sap and sugars burning off...which to me would be the real cuase of creosote build up, as opposed to just rain/melt water in the wood. Time will tell, I'm burning 24/7 now, but will give an inspection if we get another warm day. It's very cold right now but supposed to warm up again before Christmas. I was hoping tomorrow, but if it stays this cold then definately not.

Hey Doug, have you found a source for bulk energy logs locally? I'd like to grab a skid to store in the basement for emergencies, but can only find individual packs at $20-30 a box. Everyone looks at me like an alien when I ask about ordering a skid load.


Ian

 

[DougA]

I've never looked at the energy logs. Don't even use the energy drinks, unless Crown Royale is considered one. I've got 300 sq ft of wood sheds piled 6' high so no need unless we get a nuclear winter and I'll run out of food before I run out of firewood. You might be better to look at free skids. There are lots of factories in our area dying to get rid of hardwood skids for free. PITA to pull apart but in an emergency it would work.

 

[Thislilfishy]

Hah, true enough, but I don't have the time to tear skids apart, and definately not a chore for the wife. The needs of our little girl requires both parents most of the time, so what little time we have free is not spent cutting skids or wood these days.

Ian