Cold Wood = Slow Start

I keep a weeks worth or so in the stove room.

Dune said:

I keep a weeks worth or so in the stove room.

Click to expand...

+1

I haven't really noticed this problem. I bring wood into the stove from the attached, unheated garage area. Not sure what temp the wood is at (not quite as cold as outside wood), but lights right off when it lays on coals. Cheers!

After a small start-up fire at full throttle to warm up the chimney and fire-box, I stepped out to the 20* back deck and retrieve 3 oak splits, opened fire-box and inserted. They are thawing quite well.

Burn Safe:
Frank

My guess for the OP is that if you are bringing it in from outside directly to your stove, there is some moisture frozen into the wood.

When I was burning the furnace in the basement, I had room for about a cord, stacked in a corner. When one wall was empty I would burn from the other and fill the first wall back up. Wood was always dry and 60°+. It definitely took right off.
Still trying to figure out what to do with the stove. I've been keeping wood in the garage, and bringing the next load in after I load the stove. That load sits on the hearth for 12 hours or more. I don't know if it's the cold wood, or moisture, that makes it take off slower. We've had a ton of rain this fall, and EVERYTHING just feels a little damp.

I keep two rows of wood in my basement, each with about a weeks worth of wood in them. One pile is the active pile, the second is placed for drying any external moisture from the wood before using it. Seems to be working well.

If it's DRY, it'll burn. (See How to Start a Fire 101)
Cold, small stuff starts to burn before large stuff.
Even cold large splits have finer edges, which catch and warm the rest,
then burn.

So, if you want to burn cold large splits without finer edges (especially 'rounds'),
try splitting them further to make a few smaller pieces to mix with the load.

Don't worry. Be happy.

Aye,
Marty
Granpa used to say, "Don't work harder, work smarter."
Maybe it was Grandma...

Think about it this way: Wood has to get up to 600 degrees or so to ignite. The difference between your inside warm wood and the outside stuff is only 40-50 degrees or so depending on how cold it is. It has to warm up 500+ degrees either way to burn. I don't think it would make much difference being pre-warmed.

Plus, I like the bugs to get warm and wake up in the stove and not my living room.

woodmiser said:

I'm not worried. Just was asking how others dealt with it. Yes it was more with the cold startup as I said in a previous post, once it's hot there are no delays.
I'll edit the topic to be more specific.

Click to expand...

I don't deal with it as I've not seen an issue with it. I took some in at 12F or so last night, and it lit off like a rocket.

Wood fresh off the pile can have water in/under the bark or in the outer part of the split. Here's a time when measuring the inside of the split tells you less. It's the OUTSIDE of the wood that catches fire. If the outside is a bit wetter, it will take a few to dry it out. Bringing it into a warm house for a couple days may be all that's needed to dry out the outside.

I think it's water (though a superficial amount overall), not temperature.

I was thinking about this yesterday............I keep my wood in the shed and bring it in by the armload, 2 or 3 a day. Anyway as I use big, straight splits that fit perfectly NS in the stove and with this particular load I place a triangular big split with flat side down and the other tight to the stone sidewall. Then I filled the rest with tightly packed very cold wood. Oh, this load was going on a good bed of overnight coals. Anyway, the fire took right off but my worry had more to do with the thermal shock of that cold side of wood being placed tight against a somewhat hot stone wall inside the stove......the sidewall is the just thick stone and is the same stone as the finished outside..

Anyway, it makes some sense to think if all that secondary combustion requires hot gasses to circulate around the burn tube, a big load of stone cold wood annt gonna help that process.

Probably just worring!

The difference IMO is too small to even notice. Wood does not need to warm up... it takes one second in the fire to do that.

Plus one to the above.

I had oak last year that when resplit showed ice crystals inside. These obviously didnt burn worth a hoot. Maybe its something like that, just not as extreme. Cold the water has to go through all stages, ice, water, then steam, versus just water to steam. But again id figure this would be hardly noticable.

Maybe more so, with such a large volume of wood. Id try the resplit and check, just to triple check.

Im with Jags...

Personally, I like to have 1-2 day's worth of wood near the hearth. Warming it up may be insignificant, but it can't hurt, and any surface moisture on the wood will help to humidify the room. Mostly, I want to go out into the cold to bring in wood when I feel like it, not necessarily when the stove needs feeding. For me, having splits handy by the stove takes some of the chore out of reloading. I like to do wood fetching as a separate chore. . .er. . .fun part of this hobby.

BeGreen said:

hemlock said:

My guess for the OP is that if you are bringing it in from outside directly to your stove, there is some moisture frozen into the wood.

Click to expand...

+1, that sounds like a sign of semi-seasoned wood. I've brought in wood at 15F and not noticed this.

Click to expand...

++1

The ignition temperature of wood is probably the same ballpark as the famous paper flash point (451 F) right? The extra 30 degrees represents only 6% more temperature gain to ignite.


What could make a difference is that if the splits are frozen, there is a LOT of heat required to melt the 32F ice into 32F water.And of course the greener they are the more water to melt....

You have to calculate from absolute zero if calculating a % increase/decrease in temperature.