Dad always said, "Never burn pine in the woodstove!"

Dad had a cabin in central Colorado for over a decade. Never burnt anything but pine and aspen. But ALWAYS well seasoned and nice and dry.

Why? The place was surrounded by a national forest where they basically begged you to come cut down and remove whatever you wanted in certain overgrown areas. Free. Or for a tiny permit fee back then.

Can't even begin to count how many chords of wood we went through burning that stuff, but it worked great. There are photos of many summers where when the place was buttoned up for winter and ready to go through the cold season that both sides of the basement walk out style two car garage were full of stacks to the ceiling, drying out in the high mountain air and out of the elements. (Typically in winter we couldn't get vehicles around back anyway if there was any real snowpack, so the garage made for a great wood storage area.)

Mountains of the stuff burned. We never got cold in the cabin, so it must have worked.

bholler said:

yeah at what btu output? Pine has much less btus that the hardwoods i use no matter what stove you burn it in. Cats dont change that

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Pine has fewer Btu's? Btu's per pound are static. Due to specific gravity you can fit more pounds of certain woods than others within the same space.

Good example, 100 lbs of 20% oak in a 4.27 cu/ft firebox, but only 52lbs of cottonwood at 20% in the same firebox. This is because the variation in specific gravity. That load of oak only has more Btu's because it has more lbs.

The pine myth is a great source of free firewood for those of us who know better.

Old puffer said:

Now, after reading through posts, how true is this? I have a non cat stove so it is not going to burn as hot. So what is the truth folks?

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Well if you read it on the internet it must be true, right? . . . Only in this case, it really is true . . . pine is fine.

Fine to burn whether in a cat or non-cat stove -- providing it is seasoned. In fact, this time of year I tend to burn pine or mix it a bit when I want a quick, hot fire to heat up the stove and then let the warm stove radiate off the heat for awhile until the outside air temp picks up vs. going with a good, coaling wood that will heat up the stove and then keep the stove warm much longer so that when the outside air temp increases it is uncomfortably warm inside. I tend to use pine for this reason in the early Fall and late Spring . . . and I generally split some up into kindling.

Incidentally, the fact that you have a non cat stove should mean that you will be burning hot . . . in fact, stoves that use secondary combustion to achieve cleaner burns are designed to burn hot (although by "hot" I mean in the Goldilocks Zone -- not too hot and not too cool.

Great wood to burn in the shoulder seasons too. Takes the coolness out of the morning temps until the sun comes up a little more and adds solar gain to the house.

Pine just sits in the local compost sites around here, I guess since we have so much hardwood to chose from. Only time I see anyone take it is for an outdoor campfire, but like some of you have said Pine is basically all some areas have to burn. And yes, I do hear the "Pine will cause creosote" talk quite often here, and always say "any wet wood will cause creosote, you can burn Pine but it has to be dry just like any other woods", and usually don't get any answers back!

In certain parts of the country there is no other choice other than pine. Been this way for centuries. In our area there is wood that gives off much more heat, but to me heat is heat. Wet hardwood is just as bad for creosote buildup. If it is dry it burns. If you pay attention to your chimney stove etc. the buildup of creosote should not be a problem. Dry wood is dry wood is it not?

Heavy Hammer - I think this is were pine gets confused or its bad wrap of chimney fires, people burn wet hard wood all season, run out of there hardwood, go into the woods and grad a dead pine, the pine being much dryer gets split and put into the stove, it starts burning and takes off lighting the creosote up in the chimney that was created from burning non season hard woods

webby3650 said:

I've had 30 hour burns in my Blaze King lots of times with pine, no problem...

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I don't know how many times burning pine I've wished I had a thermostat control instead of me to try to conrtol the burn rate.

I'm starting to lose pines to some kind of beetle so I'm either going to have to get the ones near the house and yard down on the ground to rot, top them or burn them.

kennyp2339 said:

Heavy Hammer - I think this is were pine gets confused or its bad wrap of chimney fires, people burn wet hard wood all season, run out of there hardwood, go into the woods and grad a dead pine, the pine being much dryer gets split and put into the stove, it starts burning and takes off lighting the creosote up in the chimney that was created from burning non season hard woods

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You know, I think you just might be on to something here!

webby3650 said:

Who's knows!? What does it matter? If I can heat my house entirely with the stove using pine. With the BK I can control the heat output and have no fear of an overfire like the above posters have mentioned. I honestly don't see much of a difference with hardwood or soft, burning smoke is a wonderful thing!

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Me too, I've used nothing but Norway spruce for days in mid winter in my Morso. Indoor temp 70, warm and comfy.

No, guys...you cannot and do not want to burn pine! ! ! It is very bad and terrible things will happen to you! ! !
I burned some pine in the Fall and all of my neighbors became zombies, these 4 guys on horses rode through town yelling about some apocalypse thing, planes fell from the sky, cars crashed everywhere, the ground shook constantly, an energy vortex of some kind started absorbing everything in the sky, and my family has disappeared. We are still recovering! ! ! For the love of God and your safety, never burn pine! ! !
The best thing to do is send it to me in North Carolina and I will properly dispose of it and save you from the pain & heartache I have experienced! ! !
Please, DO NOT BURN PINE! ! !

I burn mostly pine, some burners burn ONLY pine. For 8 Yrs now.
Never a chimney fire. Zero creosote problems. Even when i burn it in my NON EPA Homemade stoves.
Its always very dry though ,i never burn green wood of any kind. I save my seasoned oak for special occasions.

I have several cords of pine at any given time, split and stacked. It is typically what falls and blocks our road after most storms. It would be a shame not to burn it.

We have not yet installed our stove and I have lots more fir trees to take down, but I can't resist the huge ponderosa pine rounds that show up for free on Craigslist. If they are close I will take an hour to go pick them up. Planning on mixing in a bit with the doug fir until I learn the stove - that's what we have around here. Some of these things have so many knots they may burn far longer than expected.

I am down south now for work. Why did God put so many BTU's in a place that doesn't need it?

volunbeer said:

that's what we have around here

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I would do the same thing with the ponderosa. Im burning a bit of doug fir right now. Any larch in your part of eastern Washington? I think we have a few members here from there that have access to some of it. If you can find any its about the best btu coniferous you will find. If not the fir is a great burning wood as well. What kind of stove are you installing?

I don't have a lot of larch (tamarack) on my property, but there is a fair bit around us. I have access to some from a friends property (borders paper company land) but access is more difficult than my doug fir.

I am leaning a little towards the BK King although I am researching one indoor furnace.

I think pine got a bad rap before it was widely known about drying and seasoning wood properly. I never heard of having to season wood until after i was burning for a year already in 2008. And i found out about it on this website.

Old puffer said:

Dad always said, "Never burn pine in the woodstove!"
Now, after reading through posts, how true is this? I have a non cat stove so it is not going to burn as hot. So what is the truth folks?

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Your dad likely never lived or burned wood out West.

The truth is, that is an old myth spread only by Easterners who generally don't know what properly seasoned firewood is.

kennyp2339 said:

Heavy Hammer - I think this is were pine gets confused or its bad wrap of chimney fires, people burn wet hard wood all season, run out of there hardwood, go into the woods and grab a dead pine, the pine being much dryer gets split and put into the stove, it starts burning and takes off lighting the creosote up in the chimney that was created from burning non season hard woods

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Exactly!

Pine has a high resin content. Burning it green or semi-dried will contribute to creosote buildup. That, I believe is the source of enduring negative rumors about pine.

Similar warnings persist about sweetgum which also has a high resin content. We've burned gum for years; brush out the flue once per year in the spring. All I've ever found in the flue is brown dust.

Rumors like these, more anecdote than fact tend to originate from sources who don't know how to properly cure firewood. As a result there's a chimney fire and someone says well, no wonder, its all that pine you been burning.

And so the rumors continue to pass as fact.

Fred Wright said:

Pine has a high resin content. Burning it green or semi-dried will contribute to creosote buildup.

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No doubt that is a key part of the pine rumors, but not necessarily the source of the creosote build up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe burning any green wood will contribute to creosote build up.

Old puffer said:

I have a non cat stove so it is not going to burn as hot.

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I burn pine all the time in a non cat stove. Burns just fine. But dont dial down the air and let it smolder.Better to let it burn hot and go out overnight than it is to let it smolder in a non cat stove or non EPA stove. I always burn very dry pine though. Never burn green wood of any kind !

I have pine in my stove right now, and a clean chimney after a full winter of burning. I'm still standing and have not mutated...yet.