New burner, no wood, no luck...

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
OL...Obviously Lying. ;lol
 
OL on a moisture meter means over the upper limit the meter can measure. IE: Soaking wet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Osagebndr
OL on a multi meter means Open Line. Not sure about on a moisture meter.
 
Supplier called saying he "can deliver now" over the weekend, took delivery of six cord of seasoned wood for $250 per cord.

Tried out new moisture meter (as recommended), and was thrilled to see that it really is seasoned as the meter said its old ("OL" - as in "Ye OL' wood", right?), though some was in the thirties, also found some in the teens.

Another confirmation was the Rip-Van-Winkle beard-like growths found on some pieces!

After handing over my check, heard that it was the last he had, seasoned since last year in a concrete horizontal silo, uncovered, of course.

If my luck holds out, stove delivery will get delayed 'till spring... Ye-haw!

PS, wife and I spent a solid day resplitting most of the six cord, will be stacking in the sun and wind over the next few days (spending our one week summer vacation prepping for winter, good thing my gal is practical).


Bruce that is a good looking stove. I looked through a few of those stoves and I like them. Just wondering why you chose the Pheonix over the Manchester. That side loading door looks nice on the Manchester.
 
6 cord at a crack- dealer must have a a truck or trailer of at least 768 cf for that much in splits a little over 85 cubic yards.
 
6 cord at a crack- dealer must have a a truck or trailer of at least 768 cf for that much in splits a little over 85 cubic yards.

It's actually right around 28.5 cubic yards. Last time I checked a cube had 3 dimensions, and 3*3*3 = 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard.
 
Check the moisture on a freshly split piece of firewood. The outside of the wood won't give you the needed info - which is how dry the wood is on the inside.
 
Glad you are able to take all this with a bit of humor. For some people hoping to actually save money heating their home with wood, after buying a stove and buying and trying to burn green wood, the results can be very disappointing.
Personally if I had to buy wood, I'd never expect to actually save any money, wood heating would be more of a novelty then an actual money saving activity. The only reason I do it is because I have the means of getting out and cutting and transporting my own wood which I enjoy immensely.

there's nothing you can heat your house with that costs less than wood at less than 200/cord. even coal. at 1200 for a bad winter plus 2/3/400 for amortization of the stove and pipe it's a bargain compared to 3/4/5 thousand for oil or propane. it's no novelty for most people, you dont have to scrounge wood like a hobo or cut your own to save a ton of money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gyrfalcon
don't know why I typed 9 instead of 27. Tired I guess. at any rate one big trailer or Semi style dump unit . 16" splits x5'x20' is just shy of a cord cubic footage wise x 6 rows(8' wide stacked tight)
 
Sorry for the delayed response, been dealing with the recent wood delivery.

Applesister, "How did your supplier deliver 6 cords? I think Id feel a little overwhelmed by that amount of wood. I'm used to processing one tree at a time. That seems daunting even if I had a week to do it."
It took him two trips in his large dump truck (max load three cord). The moisture meter showed that the wood was mixed - some decent, but a lot was damp (due to poor storage). So my wife and I re-split most of the delivered splits. We spent most of the rest of the week moving and stacking, It's been a lot of work...

Lumber-Jack, "Glad you are able to take all this with a bit of humor. For some people hoping to actually save money heating their home with wood, after buying a stove and buying and trying to burn green wood, the results can be very disappointing. Personally if I had to buy wood, I'd never expect to actually save any money, wood heating would be more of a novelty then an actual money saving activity. The only reason I do it is because I have the means of getting out and cutting and transporting my own wood which I enjoy immensely."
I am hoping to save money eventually. If I can cut my oil bill in half then the cost of the stove, 35' stainless-steel liner, installation and the six cord of wood will be paid for in two seasons. I may not be able to cut it in half, but another goal is to be less dependant on fuel oil. FYI last winter I noticed our tank was just about empty during a very cold spell. The delivery company told me they cut me off due to non-payment. I said "what do you mean, non-payment?!?!?" they said there's an unpaid bill for the last delivery and they wont deliver until it's paid. I asked them why they didn't contact us about this, they said "we have too many customers to be able to call you when this happens"!!! All I know is that we had never missed a payment before, have been a customer for about a decade now. They leave the bill in an evelope either stuck partially in the door or hanging on the door knob. I guess that one blew off and was lost in the snow. Things could've been bad if I hadn't noticed the oil level before it ran dry. Additionally, every few years we lose power for several days - often when the temps are low. I have to run the generator to run the furnace, and sometimes gasoline supplies in the area grow short.

Frank625, "Bruce that is a good looking stove. I looked through a few of those stoves and I like them. Just wondering why you chose the Pheonix over the Manchester. That side loading door looks nice on the Manchester."
Thanks Frank. There's a few reasons; first, we like the soapstone stoves and the Manchester is all cast iron. Second, while I like the heating capacity of the Manchester the rear exit height is too high to fit in my installation - the fireplace opening is just a tad higher than 27 1/2" over the hearth (I actually wanted the Mansfield but it wouldn't fit due to top-only flue exit). Finally, there was a tent sale going on and the Phoenix we selected was discounted about $950 because the manufacturer had fired it several times (though it looked close to new to me).

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I'll attempt to post a few pics soon.
Bruce.
 
Sorry for the delayed response, been dealing with the recent wood delivery.

Applesister, "How did your supplier deliver 6 cords? I think Id feel a little overwhelmed by that amount of wood. I'm used to processing one tree at a time. That seems daunting even if I had a week to do it."
It took him two trips in his large dump truck (max load three cord). The moisture meter showed that the wood was mixed - some decent, but a lot was damp (due to poor storage). So my wife and I re-split most of the delivered splits. We spent most of the rest of the week moving and stacking, It's been a lot of work...

Lumber-Jack, "Glad you are able to take all this with a bit of humor. For some people hoping to actually save money heating their home with wood, after buying a stove and buying and trying to burn green wood, the results can be very disappointing. Personally if I had to buy wood, I'd never expect to actually save any money, wood heating would be more of a novelty then an actual money saving activity. The only reason I do it is because I have the means of getting out and cutting and transporting my own wood which I enjoy immensely."
I am hoping to save money eventually. If I can cut my oil bill in half then the cost of the stove, 35' stainless-steel liner, installation and the six cord of wood will be paid for in two seasons. I may not be able to cut it in half, but another goal is to be less dependant on fuel oil. FYI last winter I noticed our tank was just about empty during a very cold spell. The delivery company told me they cut me off due to non-payment. I said "what do you mean, non-payment?!?!?" they said there's an unpaid bill for the last delivery and they wont deliver until it's paid. I asked them why they didn't contact us about this, they said "we have too many customers to be able to call you when this happens"!!! All I know is that we had never missed a payment before, have been a customer for about a decade now. They leave the bill in an evelope either stuck partially in the door or hanging on the door knob. I guess that one blew off and was lost in the snow. Things could've been bad if I hadn't noticed the oil level before it ran dry. Additionally, every few years we lose power for several days - often when the temps are low. I have to run the generator to run the furnace, and sometimes gasoline supplies in the area grow short.

Frank625, "Bruce that is a good looking stove. I looked through a few of those stoves and I like them. Just wondering why you chose the Pheonix over the Manchester. That side loading door looks nice on the Manchester."
Thanks Frank. There's a few reasons; first, we like the soapstone stoves and the Manchester is all cast iron. Second, while I like the heating capacity of the Manchester the rear exit height is too high to fit in my installation - the fireplace opening is just a tad higher than 27 1/2" over the hearth (I actually wanted the Mansfield but it wouldn't fit due to top-only flue exit). Finally, there was a tent sale going on and the Phoenix we selected was discounted about $950 because the manufacturer had fired it several times (though it looked close to new to me).

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I'll attempt to post a few pics soon.
Bruce.

OK I see, that is a big savings. It looks like it has a bigger ash pan than the Manchester. Classy looking stove. Good luck with it and I hope you get some nice wood to burn in it.
 
Here's my woodpile from the 6 cord delivery. The height is more than four feet except for the tapered ends, the near row is 88' long, and the short one is 24', splits are 16" wide. There's another cord or so in the pile waiting to be stacked.

DSCN4313.JPG DSCN4316.JPG
 
Thanks Chimney Smoke, but it has it's drawbacks. Like winter winds that fill in the cleared 700 foot long driveway with snow when I return home from work, having spent hours clearing it that morning. I had one of those tarp buildings with steel poles, I put tractor wheel weights at the base of each pole, the winds destroyed it in a few days. It resembles a scene from Antarctica at times, but this time of year it's nice.

NorthPa, I love how you use your trees! Fanatic property too. I planted trees in the field, but they're years away fom being strong enough to use that way. The existing trees are along the property border, very shady but I don't want to thin them out cause it'll make the neighbors more visible.
 
Now you just got to slide some pallets underneath to get those stacks up off the ground. Lookin good!
 
winter winds that fill in the cleared 700 foot long driveway with snow
Another 25 cords or so, and you'll have a "snow fence" the full 700'. ==c

NorthPa, I love how you use your trees!
If you get a lot of wind, those trunks can move quite a bit and destabilize the stack...
 
Now you just got to slide some pallets underneath to get those stacks up off the ground. Lookin good!
Thanks, you're right. Don't have pallets ready yet, so I put down two-by's for rails with cross members to keep the wood off the ground (hard to see with the grass so tall). Figuring the bottom level will need to be restacked to dry, may have to restack the whole thing before winter anyway.
 
Nice stack!

It would disappear under snow here Ha Ha.

IDE look into building a nice open wood shed. Not like you haven't got the space.
 
I
Sorry for the delayed response, been dealing with the recent wood delivery.

Applesister, "How did your supplier deliver 6 cords? I think Id feel a little overwhelmed by that amount of wood. I'm used to processing one tree at a time. That seems daunting even if I had a week to do it."
It took him two trips in his large dump truck (max load three cord). The moisture meter showed that the wood was mixed - some decent, but a lot was damp (due to poor storage). So my wife and I re-split most of the delivered splits. We spent most of the rest of the week moving and stacking, It's been a lot of work...

Lumber-Jack, "Glad you are able to take all this with a bit of humor. For some people hoping to actually save money heating their home with wood, after buying a stove and buying and trying to burn green wood, the results can be very disappointing. Personally if I had to buy wood, I'd never expect to actually save any money, wood heating would be more of a novelty then an actual money saving activity. The only reason I do it is because I have the means of getting out and cutting and transporting my own wood which I enjoy immensely."
I am hoping to save money eventually. If I can cut my oil bill in half then the cost of the stove, 35' stainless-steel liner, installation and the six cord of wood will be paid for in two seasons. I may not be able to cut it in half, but another goal is to be less dependant on fuel oil. FYI last winter I noticed our tank was just about empty during a very cold spell. The delivery company told me they cut me off due to non-payment. I said "what do you mean, non-payment?!?!?" they said there's an unpaid bill for the last delivery and they wont deliver until it's paid. I asked them why they didn't contact us about this, they said "we have too many customers to be able to call you when this happens"!!! All I know is that we had never missed a payment before, have been a customer for about a decade now. They leave the bill in an evelope either stuck partially in the door or hanging on the door knob. I guess that one blew off and was lost in the snow. Things could've been bad if I hadn't noticed the oil level before it ran dry. Additionally, every few years we lose power for several days - often when the temps are low. I have to run the generator to run the furnace, and sometimes gasoline supplies in the area grow short.

Frank625, "Bruce that is a good looking stove. I looked through a few of those stoves and I like them. Just wondering why you chose the Pheonix over the Manchester. That side loading door looks nice on the Manchester."
Thanks Frank. There's a few reasons; first, we like the soapstone stoves and the Manchester is all cast iron. Second, while I like the heating capacity of the Manchester the rear exit height is too high to fit in my installation - the fireplace opening is just a tad higher than 27 1/2" over the hearth (I actually wanted the Mansfield but it wouldn't fit due to top-only flue exit). Finally, there was a tent sale going on and the Phoenix we selected was discounted about $950 because the manufacturer had fired it several times (though it looked close to new to me).

Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I'll attempt to post a few pics soon.
Bruce.
My research was that both the Phoenix and the Manchester are both soapstone/ cast iron hybrid stoves. Maybe I had that wrong, but thought the correction might help other readers of the forum. Though I went with the Manchester because it was way cheaper than the Mansfield which has a similar size fb. Manchester has soapstone lined fb with cast iron outer shell. Happy burning!
 
Kelvin 506, you are right, the Manchester does have a soapstone lined firebox! Thanks for the correction. You've got a great stove!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.