moisture content and burn times

Please add your stove to your signature, so we can give you more advise / help.

I get 2-4 hr secondaries and the stove will stay 550-650 for a few hrs. Secondaries IMHO are only part if the "burn" time the rest is stored heat output of the stove

Try to get the stove shut back down quicker after reload. As you learn the stove you will get better at it. Generally people turn the stove down in steps of 1/4 ways increments.
If your not efficient in getting the stove shut back down quickly in 1/4 ways increments you will use up some of your time you will have secondaries.

The reason drier wood helps is it fires up quickly, the box heats up quickly and your getting the stove shut back down quickly to its lowest setting to still have secondaries.

If your letting the stove get too hot before shutting it back down makes the wood off gas quicker.
Part of the efficiency in getting things shut back down is only letting the box heat up enough to get secondaries. Heating it up to hot before shutting it back down will shorten the time you get secondaries as you speed up the off gassing of the wood and there is only so much gases in the wood.

If there is moisture in the wood it cools the upper part of the box as it steams out of the wood. So your burning the stove longer with the input air wide open or the door cracked open to compensate and over come what the moisture is setting it back.

begreen said:

He's got a Roby Ultimate Dix. Not many seen here. It's a big honking steel stove.

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Woot !! Tell me more!!

I'd like to know more also

Good answer hunting dog

brad wilton said:

does dry wood increase your burn times,

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To answer your question - no. Dry wood will give you more heat, but shorter burn times than wood that is not fully dry. Why? Damper wood will sit there while the moisture burns off before it burns properly. You also tend to get more unburned coals from unseasoned wood.
If you want to extend your burn times overnight, try putting some very large but less seasoned wood on the top of the pile. Note that I am not advocating unseasoned wood. I'm also assuming that you have enough hot fires going that any moisture from the occasional less seasoned log will not cause a chimney problem.

BTW, I looked at that stove when I was shopping for my 4 cu ft 'monster'. I remember the typo on their web site
Maximum output0 BTU/h
That kinda caught me

DougA said:

To answer your question - no. Dry wood will give you more heat, but shorter burn times than wood that is not fully dry. Why? Damper wood will sit there while the moisture burns off before it burns properly. You also tend to get more unburned coals from unseasoned wood.
If you want to extend your burn times overnight, try putting some very large but less seasoned wood on the top of the pile. Note that I am not advocating unseasoned wood. I'm also assuming that you have enough hot fires going that any moisture from the occasional less seasoned log will not cause a chimney problem.

BTW, I looked at that stove when I was shopping for my 4 cu ft 'monster'. I remember the typo on their web site
Maximum output0 BTU/h
That kinda caught me

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Doug glad you put the note in about burning unseasoned wood. You can really tell when your wood is slightly off moisture wise, stove doesn't work!
We are getting a blast of winter now, so load up the stoves with good wood

Ya, I was hoping that this year I would get caught up on all the extra wood that I was forced to use last year. I burned half of this year's supply last winter.
Now, it seems that I may have to re-evaluate how much wood I actually need to set aside. I'm burning a lot of smaller stuff that is dry and adding some big chunks that are just over 20%.

brad wilton said:

I was trying to talk the wife into buying soapstone stove she didn't like the look

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Not sure about total impact on burn times, but wet wood will definitely reduce stove temps and heat output.

DougA said:

To answer your question - no. Dry wood will give you more heat, but shorter burn times than wood that is not fully dry. Why? Damper wood will sit there while the moisture burns off before it burns properly. You also tend to get more unburned coals from unseasoned wood.

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Hmmm I've noticed generally longer burns from drier wood. Dry wood burns good enough I can back the air down more, and seems with less air it can still maintain a better burn and higher heat. With wet wood I need to have the air opened much more and still not get the same heat output.

DougA said:

To answer your question - no. Dry wood will give you more heat, but shorter burn times than wood that is not fully dry.

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I don't agree with this 100%. Something I've noticed is with marginal wood I need to leave my air open a bit more to keep the fire hot and not make black glass. With good dry wood I can close my air quicker and almost completely. The stove gets hotter quicker and with the air closed down the coals seem to last longer.