This is probably dumb, but I gotta ask

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area_man

area_man

Burning Hunk
Feb 12, 2013
124
Oregon City, OR
If I stack wood near the stove, how far away does it have to be to stay safe? My stove loads from the side, so if I stack wood on the opposite side past the hearth, is that OK? There's a spot that's about 3x3 and 9 feet high, so I could stack kind of a lot of wood there. Being close to the stove, I would think it would dry out pretty fast. There is another area on the door side of the stove that is a little bigger where I could stack more wood.

Playing with a red dot thermometer, it seems to me that the wood wouldn't get hotter than about 120 degrees in either spot.

If it's safe, I would install a sturdy metal rack and stack the wood on it there. It would get almost up to the ceiling. There would be little chance of wood rolling off the side towards the stove.

If I really went nuts and went through with my plans to tear down one wall in the basement to connect the laundry room and the main room, there would be about 15' of linear space along the outside wall where I could stack at least two cords in racks. Venting the dryer inside would provide some heat, and the moisture from the dryer would help a little in humidifying the house. I'd have to help my wife understand why it would be best to run the dryer when the stove is lit... that's another story...
 
the far side of the step wall divider I built into my heart is exactly 27" from the 30 and I often have splits piled in there to the top of the final step and beyond. Look at your owners manual for required distance from combustibles and add a little for safety and uneven stacking and you should be fine. finished stove 014.JPG
 
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The rule of thumb I've always heard is 16" from combustibles. I keep my wood about four feet away from the stove.
 
I try to keep wood away from the top of the stove and the flue pipe. That's where I have seen start to smoke if stacked too close.

To be safe I would stick to 18" away
 
Karl said it best . . . manufacturer's clearances to combustibles is what you need to follow.
 
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Yep.. keep those clearances. If you're trying to dry out some semi-seasoned wood, you can also split smaller to increase the surface area.

As far as the dryer thing, there are many threads in the DIY room about that very topic. It comes up several times each season.
 
I'd look at the manufacturer's clearances and stick with those. My guess is that over-dry firewood will ignite more easily than most common building materials, so you need to be even more careful with the firewood than you would with typical combustibles (like drywall).

I stack about two days' firewood near my stove, and I find that it helps dry off the rain and snow, but stacking near the stove doesn't make much of an impact if the wood in wet inside. Perhaps if I could stack the wood inside for a month it would help, but I don't have that much space.
 
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If you have no clue where your owners manual is, you can look for the specs online. Most of the stoves offer the clearance diagrams on the spec page.
16" is a common number that appears with many stoves.
I keep an iron log hoop near my stove to give wood the final drying. It holds 2-3 days worth and is actually quite handy for the early morning refill.
 
I like to keep it about 10-15 feet away minimum. ;)
 
Be careful with stacking it too high in that spot - if the pile shifted it could be a disaster.
 
Owners manual on clearances
 
I stack too close to one stove, but of course the sides are nowhere near as hot as the top. The IR gun has recorded wood temps of 115 where the blower aims at the wood, but the stack may only be there for a day or two, since I remove and then rebuild it.

The thing that concerns me is that I've seen the ceiling at 120, and that's ALWAYS the same ceiling, and it's 3.5' from the stove top. I run a fan to try and disperse that accumulated heat.
 
My coffee table is 4 ft from the stove and I see those air temps. And maybe the table just never checked?? 120f is a Kong way from spontaneous combustion temps. That's probably in the several hundred degree temperature range.
 
Not suggesting to push the limits aka: test your luck!! But spontaneous combustion is above 400 I believe - maybe 600ish.

120 is not going to get it done. Look at that split in the corner of the stove still smoldering in the lower corner after a reload while the center of the stove is already blazing - it is kinda hot in there!! I know the situation is a little different but my point is - 120 is no hot enough and I am very risk averse. The stump tables I built are 33" from the stove and I feel them sometimes out of curiosity. They are warm but no worries. No where near as warm as the dry wall behind my DBL wall pipe.
 

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BobUrban said:
Not suggesting to push the limits aka: test your luck!! But spontaneous combustion is above 400 I believe - maybe 600ish.

120 is not going to get it done. Look at that split in the corner of the stove still smoldering in the lower corner after a reload while the center of the stove is already blazing - it is kinda hot in there!! I know the situation is a little different but my point is - 120 is no hot enough and I am very risk averse. The stump tables I built are 33" from the stove and I feel them sometimes out of curiosity. They are warm but no worries. No where near as warm as the dry wall behind my DBL wall pipe.
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This was my point, well said. Here in the south in the summertime my whole attic is 120+ degrees!! I don't worry for a minute that the whole thing will go up in smoke!
 
I don't think you need to worry about your pile catching fire, but I would monitor what sort of critters you are bringing in with your wood. I have a niche built into my chimney as you can see in my avatar. I keep that filled with wood that I use for overnight reloads, but I pay close attention the quality of the wood I stack there. When you start talking about bringing two cords of wood in to stack near your stove you are likely going to bring in a lot of insects with it that will wake up once the wood gets up to room temperature. You could even bring in a snake or two if you live in an area where snakes are prevalent since they love to set up shop in wood piles. I killed two copperheads in one of my wood piles this summer.
 
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I found the geekiest paper once about the flash points of all kinds of material. I lost the link when I changed computers, but if I ever find it again I'll post it. I know 120 is not anything to worry about, but I was illustrating that sometimes we miss something perfectly obvious by focusing on conventional wisdom.

I do believe it's possible to lower the flash point of an object by repeatedly heating and drawing moisture out of it. In my case, my temp concerns have proven to more directed at the ceiling than to either side. I gotta' believe that as long as nobody is using their stacks as an ashtray, things will be in the safe zone, even if that's still a warm zone, and isn't that the point? :)

I wish I'd had an IR gun to measure the plastic seat covers we used to have to sit on in the car!! I doubt 120 would have phased us. I think a couple of parental paddlings raised my rear's temperature far above that!! Let me assure you I earned it, though.
 
Consider what ailanthus said. If the stack falls (especially if you aren't home or are asleep) it could get very bad very quickly. My stove is in my basement, which has easy access via a door to the outside and my woodpile. I bring in a wheelbarrow load daily and leave it in the wheelbarrow to avoid unforeseen accidents or pest infestation.
 
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36 inches by massachusetts state law - unless you've got documentation that states otherwise and is allowed to supercede that 36 inch rule
;hm;):)
 
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Maybe because of all the scorpions and black widows I've had to deal with in Nevada, I spray with Spectracide Bug Kill. (And I've done battle with them with my broom.) Is there any reason the area can't be sprayed (except for those of you who think it is too hazardous to have those chemicals around) where you plan to store your wood?
 
Not wood, but something to keep in mind. I had to respond to a fire last year up here when a lady had fire starting materials, mostly cardboard too close to the stove....it does happen folks.
 
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