Rookie Questions asked one at a time

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The Dude

Member
Jan 17, 2011
78
Central PA
Hi Everyone. This is my first season burning, and from time to time I have questions that I know many people with more experience would have the answer to. I try to search for that question or answers to it on the forum, and often spend an hour reading into other topics, which is helpful in it's on rite, but the end result being no answer to my original question that brought me. So I thought I'd start a thread where I can ask simple questions as they come and get simple answers. If I think it is a more complex question that may open up discussion, I'll put that in it's own thread. The purpose of this thread will be for the simple rookie questions that can be answered quickly, followed by the next. And hopefully this will provide to be a good source of information for other beginners.

To provide a frame of reference, my stove is a Harman TL-300 wood stove, installed on the first floor of a two story house with basement. The new chimney was installed running up the interior of the house, thanks to the information I learned on woodheat.org.

First question:
The doors to my wood stove are incredibly squeaky. Is there any sort of high temp grease that is okay to use on my stove or all stoves, or should I contact my local Harman dealer about this?
 
Hi and welcome, I would ask the dealer or complain, whichever suits your fancy, because I don't remember anyone complaining about this before.


Put all your information in your signature so you will not have to decribe each time you post
 
Try a powdered graphite. You can find it at a hardware store around the door locks.
 
Thanks. I left a message with the local dealer, and they don't recommend anything specific I'll try the powdered graphite.

Next Question:
Is it recommended that seasoned wood be brought indoors any amount of time before burning to reduce moisture content, or is bringing it in from my covered front porch good enough? Some of the pallet wood hisses from having been collected only recently and the water in it from rain won't evaporate in the cold weather. That stuff is more of a given about brining it indoors. I'm talking about stuff that is seasoned and was not recently rained on.
 
I like to keep a couple of day's firewood inside. My wood is 2+ years old and pretty dry but not covered. From the main, uncovered outside stacks I move about a week's worth on a covered porch, then move some of that next to the stove for a couple of days. My system isn't very efficicent in terms of my effort, I know. The days inside make the wood light up faster and dry off any rain or snow, but except for starting fires it would burn just fine coming directly from the uncovered stacks into the stove. There might be a little more steam for the first few minutes but that is about the extent of the problem. I would definitnely keep some kindling and small splits inside so when you need to start a fire you have some wood that will catch quickly.
 
Question 1: As mentioned . . . graphite powder works well.

Question 2: I think it's a personal preference . . . I mean to say I'm sure bringing some wood in for a day or two would help evaporate any surface moisture . . . but for me personally my wood is under cover for at least a year previously so that isn't the reason I load up my woodbox every day . . . it's more of a convenience factor so my wife and I don't have to go outside in the cold every time we load the stove -- it's much handier to have the wood close to hand.
 
Thanks! Having no prior indoor wood burning experience, its been a learning experience understanding the significance of seasoned wood and the diffenreces between different types of moisture. I didnt have to deal with that in my years of campfires and cooking with wood on the charcoal grill. My main concerns in the last question about rain moisture on seasoned wood was mainly a concern of creosote from the cooking-dry process and also an efficiency concern.

My next question was going to be related, and was touched on by wood duck. Is it unwise to use smaller stuff that is seasoned but with moisture to hiss off the moisture for 10 minutes and go through most of the burn dried out? I don't mean kindling. Im talking stuff like well seasoned pallet boards that were stacked tight to each other, uncovered. They seem to burn amazingly well after they dry out. Next year I'll have let them dry in the summer then cover them, but is what I'm doing now a bad idea for creosote or does the initial steam make no difference if I'm putting the boards on a hot coal base?

This is the type of thing for discussion in a thread of its own, but I think having all of my rookies questions in one thread will be a good thing, great for other beginners to read through.

Thanks!
 
I think this is a great idea! As a rookie myself, I find I have a lot of questions that could be simply answered by someone with experience, but which are perplexing me. If you don't mind, I might chime in with a question of my own now and then.
 
HollowHill said:
I think this is a great idea! As a rookie myself, I find I have a lot of questions that could be simply answered by someone with experience, but which are perplexing me. If you don't mind, I might chime in with a question of my own now and then.


in a nutshell, this is what this forum is really for in a manner of speaking sharing information to make for a better informed hearth community, ask away if your questions "dovetail" into the line of discussion started by the origional poster, if the questions follow a different subject simply begin your own thread to ask and the discussion will follow your particular subject
 
The Dude said:
My next question was going to be related, and was touched on by wood duck. Is it unwise to use smaller stuff that is seasoned but with moisture to hiss off the moisture for 10 minutes and go through most of the burn dried out?

The consensus seems to be to burn the wood you have, and clean the chimney as necessary.
 
Welcome to the forum

What has really helped me was using the SEARCH ENGINE on the forum when you have questions!
Question #1 https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/87997/
I like the advise to use a lead pencil if you do not have graphite power. Now thats a really smart idea to make the door stop squeaking.
Enjoy the forum, these guys are expert wood burners and they have had an effect on my home heating and wood storage. Remember its all about having dry wood!
 
Lanning, I too like to utilize search function on the forum for questions. Maybe if you READ my original post you'll see what brought me to ask my first question. I searched for terams like squealing, squeaky, lubrication, & grease. Who knows what you searched for since you didn't provide that, but since I didn't know about graphite how could I have searched for it? You're reply was rude, so I thought I'd respond the same exact way. Maybe you didn't mean to come off that way. Whatever the case, I'd like to feel welcome to ask questions because I can't always spend an hour reading through 10 page topics to find my search result, yet I often hold off on asking things because I fear getting that exact "TRY THE SEARCH FEATURE" reply you gave me. You're first sentence welcomed me, and you immediately proceeded to be the only one making me feel unwelcome.

Thanks for the advice on the pencil lead.
 
In addition to powdered graphite you might try molybdenum disulphide. On guns I've used "Trislide" with good results in all kinds of conditions.
 
Freischutz said:
In addition to powdered graphite you might try molybdenum disulphide. On guns I've used "Trislide" with good results in all kinds of conditions.
That remined me I have a dry lubricant called EEZOX and it is for guns, it might work
 
Dude, I hope you do not think me rude but here goes. We do not bring wood into the house until it is ready to go into the stove. The plain and simple reason for that is that we have, contrary to what some say, have had bugs and/or millers come in on the wood. Is our wood too wet? Most would certainly agree it is not and the reason for that is we let our wood dry for years and not months (the wood we are burning this year was split and stacked in April 2009). In addition, last October I moved 3 cord of wood into our barn. That 3 cord will get us through the winter and now it won't even get snowed on. But, we need exercise so I also built a small rack to place on our back porch. There is a sliding glass door and right inside the door sits our wood stove. So it is quick and easy to grab some wood and put it into the stove then and now we have no worries about any crawling or flying insects.

As for rain, wood does not soak up rain unless it is punky. It takes a very short time for that outside moisture to dry after a rain. Or as I've said many times, wood is not a sponge. If the ends of our wood happen to be a bit damp, we worry not and it won't sit and sizzle in the stove either because it is only outside moisture; that is, that moisture has not penetrated the wood.

Good luck and don't be afraid to ask more questions and hopefully not many will come off rude. We really do try to help.
 
The Dude said:
Lanning, I too like to utilize search function on the forum for questions. Maybe if you READ my original post you'll see what brought me to ask my first question. I searched for terams like squealing, squeaky, lubrication, & grease. Who knows what you searched for since you didn't provide that, but since I didn't know about graphite how could I have searched for it? You're reply was rude, so I thought I'd respond the same exact way. Maybe you didn't mean to come off that way. Whatever the case, I'd like to feel welcome to ask questions because I can't always spend an hour reading through 10 page topics to find my search result, yet I often hold off on asking things because I fear getting that exact "TRY THE SEARCH FEATURE" reply you gave me. You're first sentence welcomed me, and you immediately proceeded to be the only one making me feel unwelcome.

Thanks for the advice on the pencil lead.

Did not mean to come off rude about the Search engine comment, But the link that I sent you was from a thread that I started just a few days ago about the same question that you had just asked.
Moving On, I used anti-seize (NAPA Item #765-1674. Silver) that I had in the garage. the label said that it can handle up to 2,000 degree temps. I was using oil but it seemed to burn off right away.
 
Question:

Is it normal to experience pulsating of the flames when I first get a fire going? Specifically, it is when the stove is cold and I am burning smaller stuff with the bypass open to build a coal base.
 
The Dude said:
Thanks. I left a message with the local dealer, and they don't recommend anything specific I'll try the powdered graphite.

Next Question:
Is it recommended that seasoned wood be brought indoors any amount of time before burning to reduce moisture content, or is bringing it in from my covered front porch good enough? Some of the pallet wood hisses from having been collected only recently and the water in it from rain won't evaporate in the cold weather. That stuff is more of a given about brining it indoors. I'm talking about stuff that is seasoned and was not recently rained on.
Just because it's pallet wood does not mean it's dry.I work construction and see green pallets all the time.How long has the pallet wood you have been seasoned.
 
The Dude said:
Question:

Is it normal to experience pulsating of the flames when I first get a fire going? Specifically, it is when the stove is cold and I am burning smaller stuff with the bypass open to build a coal base.
If it's green wood then yes,you will get some sporadic flames
 
This pallet wood is definitely seasoned. It's fully grey and burns great. It doesn't even hiss anymore now that I only use what's been on my porch for the weeks. I shot a video of the pulsating. It's an airflow thing I think, not created by the wood. Here is the video. Listen carefully with the sound up for the huf-huf-huf-huf sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG00N1V9Xuc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 
With what you show in the video, I'm not sure why you would still have the bypass open. Looks like it's due time to close things up and let it burn proper.

pen
 
In my opinion there is not a substantial enough coal base in that video to close it down and throw splits on. It would not burn hot enough, and smolder a lot. When that pallet wood is about 2/3 coals and starts to collapse, then I have a good coal base for larger stuff. I'm pretty sure I have that process down; it's not a concern of mine. I am just wondering what causes the pulsating when the fire really starts going from from a cold start. You can hear it if you turn the volume all the way up.
 
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