Moving stacks twice

Making more work? Yes.

Not sure the best solution though. I would do what I could to make stacking a one-time operation. With me it's stacking to pallets that get moved with a FEL & pallet jack. If I had an outdoor burner, it would be stacking right to a woodshed beside my burner, that was big enough to hold the coming winters wood with space around it for air movement. If trying to get a couple years ahead, but you didn't have a wood shed that big, I might be tempted to just leave the second years wood in a heap (or heaps) right off the splitter, even though that's not optimum for drying - but don't know what you have for room & space to work with. Bottom line for me is, stacking kind of sucks and do what you can do limit it.

You might be hamstrung in all that right from the get go though, in how much wood your CB will burn. I wouldn't expect to get by on 5-6 cords a year - those things can have a big appetite.

Depending on your space more work may be warranted. Sometimes work is fun and that cuts down on total work expended and sometimes none of it is work

Im not offering a solution here, just sharing what Ive seen. I have 3 neighbors and a friend that owns a restaurant that uses OWBs.
Fully loaded goes 12 hrs they say. One nighttime "feeding". 3 of the 4 built sheds surrounding the boilers. Sheds big enough to house some wood supply. They all tell me the sheds are very handy in the snow and winter so you are not out in the elements while you are loading.
The other one buys wood by log loads. They have a graveled yard big enough for a triaxle to dump off wood. They hire a man with a portable processor to come in and process the log deliveries and leave the wood in huge piles. It is on high ground and they drain tiled it. But they dont stack anything. Its all handled with tractor buckets.
The others buy wood split, but they all own equipment for moving wood around. There is no machine that stacks wood. Its all human effort. Out of this group no one bothers stacking wood.
I hope this info helps your decision making.

Platinum-welcome to the forum!
I hope you bought the side arm assembly for heating your domestic water with the OWB, you'll love it.
Now then-stack the wood once and as close to the Central as you can. My stacks are out in the weather from the word go. I do throw a tarp on the stacks before the snow flies, just to keep it a bit easier for myself.
The next thing that I can't figure out is why are you splitting the wood? Unless the rounds are enormous, don't waste your time splitting. The bigger the piece of wood is, the longer the burn you'll get from the classic. I save my largest rounds for the dead of winter when the mercury is way south of freezing!

Rounds won't dry if they're not split.

That's OK I guess if you don't mind adding water to your fire every time you put wood in.

Platinum8 said:

Hey everyone.

I am new to the forum so I wanted say hi and had a question.
I just bought a central boiler outdoor furnace and I am starting to cut and split wood. I have a lean to off my garage where I will store the wood I am using for the upcoming winter. As of now I am stacking everything outdoors so it can season at least a year. Am I making more work for myself stacking it away from my shed and then moving those stacks under my lean to again come 2 winters from now when that's ready to burn? Is there a better solution? It will be about 5-6 cords/ year

Thanks

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Welcome to the forum Platinum8.

We have a neighbor who has an OWB and he put up one of those steel carports you seem to see for sale all over the place (we bought one too). He does move his wood with the help of a front end loader on the tractor so he put his extra high. He also placed it so that all but the chimney of the OWB is under the carport. This allows him to fill the boiler without standing in rain or snow. I don't remember what width he went but he did go higher and longer than normal. It works like a charm. For sure this would save extra labor in moving the wood but sometimes you do what you have to do.

Good luck with this project.

maple1 said:

Rounds won't dry if they're not split.

That's OK I guess if you don't mind adding water to your fire every time you put wood in.

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I beg to differ-The rounds I cut and stacked three years ago were burnt this past winter. Yes, there were a couple that I had to "split" just because they were too darn big to lift into the Central; a couple more that I had to split just because they wouldn't fit through the door; but they were all dry! I wouldn't have had any reservations about splitting them down far enough for the nc-13 and burning them in it, but that's at a different location. Now I don't have one of those fancy-schmancy moisture meters, but I assure you they were dry!

Dave, don't forget there is a big difference between an OWB and an indoor stove. The boiler has a fan to feed the air and that is why so many will simply burn their wood green. Ugh: an awful thought.

Backwoods Savage said:

Dave, don't forget there is a big difference between an OWB and an indoor stove. The boiler has a fan to feed the air and that is why so many will simply burn their wood green. Ugh: an awful thought.

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Dennis, the OWB I have is a simple design. No fan to feed the air at all. That is why I bought one back in the early 90's and why I was a repeat buyer of the same design in the 2000's.

It is basically a fire box surrounded by a water jacket. an aqua-stat senses the water temperature in the water jacket and either energizes or de-energizes a solenoid that controls a damper which allows air to enter the fire box. The heated water is circulated to the residence by a simple boiler zone pump (taco f-7) into the heat exchanger for forced air or what have you and also the domestic water heat exchanger. I have burnt green wood in it and it is not pleasant for anyone. The wood I burn in it now has been "seasoned" for three years-some longer. By the time next year comes, I'll start burning wood that has been cut for 3 1/2 half years. Not bad for an OWB owner, no?

yooperdave said:

I beg to differ-The rounds I cut and stacked three years ago were burnt this past winter. Yes, there were a couple that I had to "split" just because they were too darn big to lift into the Central; a couple more that I had to split just because they wouldn't fit through the door; but they were all dry! I wouldn't have had any reservations about splitting them down far enough for the nc-13 and burning them in it, but that's at a different location. Now I don't have one of those fancy-schmancy moisture meters, but I assure you they were dry!

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The OP is just starting at building his wood supply - so I think splitting is very much desired in his case. If he has nice open exposed places to stack his wood and eventually can get 3 years ahead on his supply, he very well might do with less splitting then. If he doesn't split what he's working at now & goes to burn it this coming winter (gawd, this one isn't even over with yet...), I suspect he will be in for a very disappointing experience.

Just curious - how much wood do you find you burn in a winter? That info might help the OP in his getting ready too. You'd likely have to share other info too though like heat load related stuff (climate, house type age & construction, etc..)

I like moving wood...

I finally convinced a friend that uses a OWB that he will get better efficiency with seasoned wood. He really noticed a difference this year. Of course he still throws whatever else will burn in there too.

Platinum8 said:

Thanks maple and everyone else. Yes everything I have now will be for a couple years down the road. I will end up buying some season stuff this upcoming year but that comes with the territory since I didn't prep for it a couple years ago.

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Definately check out the "seasoned" wood before buying. My father in law bought done seasoned wood that was 33% moisture content.