Wood burns but Foams and Hisses like a Rabbed Dog

TGun9590 said:

I am sure my wood is not fully seasoned :down: . This is my first year burning as an adult and I had to scramble to get wood. I managed to score 10 cords. Most of it I harvested my self. My question is, am I O.K. to burn wood that is catching on alright but hissing and foaming as only unseasoned wood can do. I remember as a kid some of the logs i would put in the Ol' Jotel 118 would hiss just as bad, but my old man would tell me to throw them right in there :bug: .

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yep: with the old stoves you could kinda get away with that unseasoned wood. providing you were willing to clean the chimney at least once a month. IMO the newer ones like you have now-practically demand dry-seasoned wood to perform at there best. but I suppose you will have to do-what ya have to do to get by this winter. Just make sure that you "get off your ass and clean that chimney at least once a month"..

And best advice of all, start on next years wood supply --Right Now!!

TGun9590 said:

Thank you for the feedback. Next years wood is all set and seasoning as we ..well...type. I have some pine and some seasoned burch so that should help me get the temps up. It's just hard to find a good all night log.

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In the meantime, you could start to scrounge pallets, mill-ends, etc. Also, maybe bite the bullet and buy some of those bio-bricks to help you maintain some decent temps. Just a thought. Get that nice dry stuff up to temps and then perhaps, lay some of your un-seasoned wood on top of it. Whatever you do? Just try as best as possible to keep that creosote to a minimum

it won't burn near as hot.....and will clog up your pipes and cats if you have them. keep an eye out for creosote problems.

Chimney fires probably void the warrantee, too.

I'd seriously consider something a bit safer and/or less wasteful / frustrating to burn this year.

10 cords sure is sitting pretty for next year, though.

Anyone around willing to trade. ?
Anyone with plenty of dry stuff for this year but nothing for next year ?

BioBricks shouldn't void a warrante if youy don't do anything crazy with them.

Keep the wet stuff up away from the metal in your fire grate. The water heat and creosote will shorten the life of the stove considerably. You might want to buy a cord of seasoned stuff as mentioned to make a bed for the green. Ditto on the chimney cleaning. Frequent, frequent, frequent. No chimney fires means a home you can keep warm...cave2k

Sounds like your burning rounds, you know if you split the wood, it will season much faster

Yeah...the smaller the splits the quicker it will dry.

split it smaller and cross stack some of it to get it dry faster. There are some spray's & powder ect. that you can throw in the stove periodically to help reduce the heavy creosote. I definatly recommend that if your wood isn't quite seasoned. I usually use one of them once a month. Quick Shot is my preference. NOT a substitute for cleaning your chimney but helps with that heavy build up. Try to burn the stove really hot for 20 to 30 min morning & eve.

Burn pellets in it. I burn them in mine(Napoleon)

carp said:

Burn pellets in it. I burn them in mine(Napoleon)

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Or biobricks/biologs...

carp said:

Burn pellets in it. I burn them in mine(Napoleon)

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carp, what do you do to get pellets to burn in a woodstove. Thought they would just smolder.

I second that, how in the world do you get pellets to burn?

pyro68 said:

carp said:

Burn pellets in it. I burn them in mine(Napoleon)

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carp, what do you do to get pellets to burn in a woodstove. Thought they would just smolder.

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Perhaps Carp meant "pallets" . . . just going out on a limb here. If in fact Carp meant pellets it would be the first time I've read or seen anything here (in the short time I've been here) about pellets going into a woodstove.

Do the commercial creosote chemicals that you put into the stove actually help or is it all hype? I clean my masonry flue 3x per season along with my stove pipes. I take the pipes outside to my outside pit and prop them up like a flue and get them red hot with newspaper and kerosene burns them super clean. Then I polish them with a good stove polish. My wood is seasoned very well. I have 25 cord that I keep stored at my cabin about 10 mile from home. Yesterday my son hauled a load home after he was done hunting around the cabin. As kids are he loaded the easiest to get to which I did not have covered and it is wet from the snow melting. I can not get a good burn. I thought about the cleaning chemicals. I am burning a lot of dry kindling with it.

deadon smoke with me just smoke with me relax thats it smoke . wow

I have a similar problem. I ordered 4 cords of green oak in April and it was stacked by early May. It's definitely still pretty green. I can get it to burn, but it's very difficult to establish and maintain secondary burn. I also had two pallets of EnviBlocks delivered. I was originally planning to use them to allow more seasoning time for my oak, but I've discovered mixing them with the oak actually works pretty well. I've found that burning the EnviBlocks on top of oak near the refractory will keep the stove temperature high enough to maintain a nice secondary. The creosote produced by the oak is burned off and there is no visible smoke. I start the fires top down with the EnviBlocks on top.