Checking in... Sooteater and Woodpile Update (pics).

Well kids, I made it through my first year of heating primarily with wood heat. My wood was 9-10 months dry and I didn't notice a difference in how the wood burned until the last month... then I hit the wet stuff with the wood bubbling for a good while before the CAT lit off.

Anyway, I sat on my arse for the Spring/Summer when I should of been collecting more wood to replenish my stacks and get 2 yrs ahead. Well better late than never.... towards the end of the summer I started to hit it hard on weekends:



When I finish the 3rd row, that will be about 4.5 cords. The seasoned stuff (don't forget the stuff way in the back haha) is about 5+ cords. Last winter was very long so I'm thinking "3 rows per year" will do me fine. I'm really not sure how much I used last year as I was stacking some of my first rows completely criss cross to get as much airflow in there as possible. When I criss-crossed some of my stacks that really cut down on the wood density in my stacks.




I'm also no longer covering my stacks. My neighbor does not and he says he's fine, so that will be a welcome change if it works out. I find the tarps a PIA, they get brittle in the winter, and they look like crap. I'm also much better at stacking these days so hopefully that will keep the side yard from looking like too much of a dump going forward. Each stack is about 5 feet tall when you subtract the height of the bricks and 2 x 4s the wood sits on. I'm not comfortable going any higher.

Anyway, I also used my Sooteater for the first time today. I did not clean my chimney at all during my first burning season. Setup:



It works extremely well.

As for how much creosote was built up for a first year burner with less than optimal wood? You be the judge, I'm ecstatic!



90% of the way up with the Sooteater, there was very, very little coming down the chimney, then the last 10%, WHAMO, one big shot of black creosote dislodged and I was done once I hit the rain cap.

Here is a closeup. I'm soooo pleased with the Blaze King Princess insert, that sucker burns clean!:

I am figuring a year of uncovered drying will be "just fine" as my neighbor doesn't see to complain. If it doesn't work out, I guess I'll be looking for scrap.

The downer for today was my wife made me light the pilot light on the natural gas boiler for (insurance). I guess truth be told we have a petsitter staying all next week, so the stove won't be used:

And ~this~ is why I hate my boiler so much:



While I'm thankful the previous owner converted the house from oil to NG, he certainly cheaped out on the furnace.

Well I am starting to burn all the non-uniform pieces of wood. Soon enough I'll be into some wood I stacked last year that is not covered. We'll see how it burns.

Into full on burn season now, the uglies are gone. No change that I can tell thus far with my less-than-covered wood. Maybe it's that Blaze King voodoo, haha. It'll be interesting to see if there is more creosote at the end of the burning season this year, but so far same, long burn times.

So a cup of black stuff is a bad sign for a first year burner with 10 month old wood?

Agreed, it was all dust with the sooteater until the last 8in at the very top, that's where the black stuff came from.

I actually have bricks under my 2x4s. The previous owner of my owner made a half-as_ed attempt to finish the basement and left me a lot of good lumber. Haha.

Charles1981 said:

I stacked the same way you did first year I was burning (2x4 on the ground). Wood seasoned so so and the middle row definitely retained the moisture.

the past two years I purchased cement cinder blocks that keep the wood about 6-7 inches off the ground and place the 2x4 on top of the cinder blocks. This provides much more superior air flow underneath the stacks and keeps accumulating snow from turning the bottom row into an ice sheet where all the splits are stuck together.

It can cost about 150-200 bucks in cinder blocks and treated 2x4 to stack 6-9 cords this way as the treated 2x10 or 2x14 are like 5-6$ a pieces and you will need 15-20 of them probably, but man it is a great way of stacking wood.

This isn't my photo but this is basically the setup I have created but my stacks are 30 feet long, and i fortunately have a concrete slab to stack them on rather than dirt.

Click to expand...