What to do when a bad split has been loaded?

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seabert

seabert

Member
Oct 25, 2013
103
Long Island
Tonight I loaded the stove for the night the typical way on a nice hot bed of coals. Well one of the splits somehow got mixed in with my good wood. By the time I realized I made this mistake the fire was already going so it was too late. I had to work the fire to get the green split to stop smoking and start to burn. However the heat output is borderline.

What have other done when this happens? I am running wide open hoping to crank it up. Outside it's only 4 so it's really cold outside.
 
My boys brought in stuff from the wrong stack the other day, and I did the same thing. Cranked her and added some extra pine kindling. Cost me 45 minutes sleep though
 
If all the other splits are good it should eventually smooth out.
 
People used to do that on purpose to extend the burn.
 
I hate when that happens. But it does.
 
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I toss in a couple of "shorties" up against the bad piece...the shorties usually burn good and hot and take care of the bad piece
 
Suck it up and let er' ride! Way more chance of things going majorly wrong trying to UNLOAD a burning stove than letting 1 greenie smoke out of a cord of burning. Like Osage said, "Maybe some lost sleep or a little late getting into the office" vs. the myriad of dangers caused by trying to get a flaming split out and then outside.
 
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Burn it hot for about a 1/2 hour or until you notice the hissing is gone. Good to go from then on, the moisture has been burned out of it.
 
I bring the stove up to normal temps. Adjust the primary air to its normal position and pretend in never happened.
 
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Heck, one green split is no worse that me burning half-seasoned wood two years ago. Just open the draft up, like others said. One dud should not spoil the whole load.
 
Exactly, your stove is solid steel or iron, one split is not going to cause a problem. If you forget your anniversary, your wife will smoulder a lot longer than one green split.

I know that from personal experience with both.
 
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Ditto to what everyone else has said . . . let 'er ride, open up the air a bit more and realize that one split may take a while to catch on fire, but it will not lead to your chimney being fully blocked that night with creosote. As stated . . . pulling out a split on fire and getting it outside could lead to many, many, many more problems.

Oh yeah, whatn a bad split has been loaded . . . I scold it in my harshest sounding voice and then ground it for a week. :)
 
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It is a lot worse when you are doing a cold start (or almost cold, like in the morning) and you have a wet split in there. Had one like that this morning, tt was bubbling from the end like crazy. Kept throwing kindling on top and around it, burned through the rest of the week's kindling doing that.
 
I cuss the bad split out. Makes me feel better and much safer than trying to remove the bad split.
 
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seabert said:
Tonight I loaded the stove for the night the typical way on a nice hot bed of coals. Well one of the splits somehow got mixed in with my good wood. By the time I realized I made this mistake the fire was already going so it was too late. I had to work the fire to get the green split to stop smoking and start to burn. However the heat output is borderline.

What have other done when this happens? I am running wide open hoping to crank it up. Outside it's only 4 so it's really cold outside.
Click to expand...

Most times it pays to run it wide open but once the fire is established, it pays to turn the draft down. Otherwise you are sending a lot of heat up the chimney that would be put to better use inside the home.
 
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