Hey...Pine Actually Burns Pretty Good!!

We're getting about 6-7 hours of good heat from a load of pine with temps in the teens. There are still good coals after that period, but tops temps drop to about 300-400 and that just isn't enough to keep this ol' place warm. Above 30ish and it'll keep from about 9pm to 6:30am with enough coals for a restart if it's packed.

We have been burning 24/7 since November and were doing one or two loads a day sicne October and just cleaned out the stove for the 2nd time this past weekend. I think it produces less ash than some of the hardwoods we burned in previous years...

BurnIt13 said:

I'm not seeing any more ash than with my other wood either. 8 hours??? You must get 16 hour burns from a load of hardwood! The best I've been able to do so far is 6 hours but at that point there really wasn't enough coals to start a fire without a fuss. I'm only a few years into this and have a habit of splitting my wood to small. Maybe with some larger splits I could stretch it a bit...

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I loaded the stove at 11 last night with pine. At 7:30 the stove was sitting at about 200 degrees with plenty of coals for an easy relight. Room was at 72 degrees. Outside temps were at 19. The joys of oversizing a stove is that you get more usable heat at lower temps.

Packet tight and done right I can get 12 hours of heat from the 30 (it would be longer in shoulder season, but I do not pack the 30 full and tight during milder temps anymore), but I can get usable heat from the 30 at lower temps since I am heating a smaller area. With the fan on, I can maintain room temps over 70 even when the stove is dying and hanging out at 200 degrees.

eclecticcottage said:

I think it produces less ash than some of the hardwoods we burned in previous years...

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I have definitely noticed less ash when I have been burning pine this season in the Defiant and the 30.

I am a fan of pine also though I burn primarily hard wood. I like to have at least a cord of pine on hand. Great for getting heat quickly, burning in the shoulder season, and keeping a coal bed in production on days when the house is too warm for a large fire, but I dont want the stove to go out completely.

BrowningBAR said:

Packed tight in the 30 and you will still get 8 hours of heat. I am not seeing a huge build up of ash.

I buy all my wood. I picked up a ton of dry pine at 65 a cord. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

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Been burning alot of spruce lately. In the first fire of the morning, it warms up the place very quickly. Yes, you need to use more, but at 65/cord, or free as it is around here, what's not to like.

BTW, I'm a spreader of the old myth that pine/spruce will cause creosote, more free wood for me!

mass_burner said:

BTW, I'm a spreader of the old myth that pine/spruce will cause creosote, more free wood for me!

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I need to remember that next time I go to correct someone saying pine cause creosote and chimney fires

Early this fall I burnt 2 year old cut/split/stacked hemlock almost exclusively, until it was gone. It will burn as hot as other species, depending on how you set the air, and what I liked most about it was that there was almost no ash or excess coaling at the end of a burn cycle. Compared to my regular wood (oak, maple, beech, hickory), there is noticeably less ash. Of course, it weighs much less, so I suppose that stands to reason.