Man...This first year is getting really discouraging...Thinking of packing it in.

burn pallets this year. get your supply stacked and drying for next year. then find your dryest stuff resplit it bring it in and run a dehumidifier near it. get your pallet fire roaring and ad your splits and you'll get through it.
That's how I'm doing it.

Sorry to hear that...try re-spiting to smaller splits and throwing them in haphazardly for a max burn and see if you get any improvement.

Hi hemi--I know how you feel - We are in the first season with a Jotul Oslo --and have chalked this up to the learning curve - I have burned more wood this year already than I did last and got less heat. I thought I had enough experience (30+ years) but admit total ignorance to how these new EPA stoves burn. Don't like that "bowels of hell" experience - want more control -- After 3 months we are just now finding some consistency but it has certainly been a struggle. Have had problems with the ashpan door and can't seem to get that resolved. But I have learned much from those on this forum who have shared their experiences and for that I am very appreciative. Unfortunately, the 3 manuals Jotul supplies don't give much info about burning techniques. Also had a new chimney installed which adds another variable to the stewpot.
Hang in there and keep reading the posts --it gets better.


Buffygirl
New Jotul Oslo fall of 09

I hear you. First year with the Rockland for me too. I am burning exclusively biobricks. You can read why here:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/49658/

Temperature outside in the teens/low twenties all week-end long (-3F this morning). 68-79F in the house...first year our house is too warm during the winter. :lol:

How big are your splits? I've found that the 550 really likes small splits for good hot fires - then fill with medium size ones and only big splits when the stove is really ripping along.

46hemi said:

Sorry for the rant - Just trying to share my experience with anyone who is researching a new stove.

Click to expand...

No need to apologize... it's fully understandable. If more people went in with their eyes opened, they could be saved a lot of aggravation. That's why I tell some people to just leave the wood they have for next year and run the furnace if you cannot find good (really good!) wood. If it's a matter of choosing to put food on the table or pay the oil man, you do what you have to do.

I've been there with marginal wood. My stove is an older EPA non-cat stove and from what I hear, is a bit more tolerant than some of the newer stoves. I'm not poor, just frugal so I do have options. I also know the difference between poor planning and misplaced priorities. If someone were in dire need, I would trade them some of my dry wood.

Do you know anyone with good dry wood that might be willing to swap some of your green for some of theirs?

I've been running my Olso about three weeks now. Certainly much different than my old Waterford. I started with 1/2 cord Aspen (very dry) and 1 cord of oak (not well seasoned). If I run with the Aspen only I have to be careful of overfiring. I ran it up to nearly 700 °F once when I wasn't watching it very closely. If I run it with the Oak I'm lucky to get it to 400 °F even with air full open. Between 550 and 600 seems to be the optimum temp for me so the unseasoned oak just doesn't cut it. I've ended up splitting most of it into small pieces (1/8 round or smaller). I've also bring them inside and set them by the stove to dry a little. Then I mix the Aspen and Oak to burn. Not optimal but at least I'm keeping the house warm (75 °F). Burning through the wood fast so unfortunately I'll need to buy some more to get through the season. I'll probably go with juniper and aspen this time. Next year I'll start cutting my own wood.

Try buying some BioBricks or EnviLogs or the like. They are VERY dry and when mixed with less-than-perfect cordwood may be an answer for real good fires. Most of my wood this year is less than perfect -- oak seasoned one year. Many will say that a year isn't adequate for oak. It sure wasn't this year, with a rainy & cloudy summer.

Four or five bricks with two or three splits gives me a great fire. For a reload, with a good bed of coals established, I use all cordwood with good results

I have well seasoned wood this year, but can say my Quad Insert does fine on wood with only a few month's seasoning... hardwood. But I am happy running at about 400 degrees (measured on the face of the insert). I will run hotter, but I don't hold back on the air to keep the temperature around the 400 mark.

I read a another post here tonight that talked about using some pellets with the "semi seasoned" hardwood to get it hot and burning well. I don't anything about that approach.

My wood supply was just fair last winter and it took more "fussing" than I like to keep it up to operating temperatures. This season, my wood is well seasoned and secondary burns are effortless (oak and hickory). I get a surface temperature on my Jotul 500 Oslo of 500 f. with the air control just either side of the midway mark. The only exception is when I add some punky wood that I have in the stack. I don't know if the problem is due to the low energy density in punky wood or if it is because the sponge-like outer layers have soaked up moisture.

No doubt about it, EPA stoves want quality wood. The wood needs to be seasoned two years and kept out of the rain/snow. On the plus side, creasote buildup is almost non-existant and I am heating over 2500 sq. ft. in (currently) sub-zero weather - albeit at the rate of 1/4 cord per week.

I'm also a first year burner and have almost run out of decent wood. Once that happens, rather than burn next year's supply (which would just be an unpleasant experience) I'll just pack it in until next year. It's just not worth the struggle to me - like you, I did not buy an insert to struggle with a stove that provides little to no heat (with bad fuel). So I'll use more natural gas - that's fine. I didn't use any in Sept and Oct. I also cut down my usage by 70% in Nov and Dec. Sure, I would like to burn until it gets warm but it just won't be worth the trouble.

I have a good friend that has the same insert. He couldn't get it to burn proper. I took my moisture meter over and determined his wood was NOT dry enought. So, we sorted out some dry stuff and it got better for him...that was last year.

This year he reports to me "we got that bad boy dialed in now" "wake up, shovel ash out, nice bed of coals left over, throw the next load in and off she goes!"

So, really, it's the dry wood that makes the difference in his 550. He's got an old farm house with a stainless liner up the old chimney. In fact, he's got the 350 runnin in another part of the house too, indeed, he's tendin' TWO inserts.

That 550 is choosy about dry wood. Get a moisture meter. Buy wood, stack it, cover the tops, and look at it for a year or two before burning it.

Now, buy the driest wood you can find - for next year.

Sorry to hear of your frustration, hemi. I'm beginning my 3rd season of burning 24/7. When I installed my PE T6 and 1st started heating with wood, I too found that there are some wood suppliers out there that will just flat out lie to you. I took two 5 cord deliveries of "seasoned" wood from two different suppliers, both of which told me their wood was dry/seasoned. It was BS, neither load was even close to seasoned. Fortunately I was lucky enough to find a place not too far away where I could get seasoned wood. Only problem was he didn't deliver. So every week or two I'd go to his place and load a face cord on the truck, and bring it home. I burned the seasoned stuff and would mix in a few splits of the unseasoned wood, which got me thru that 1st heating season. And yes, it was a bit of a PIA. I ended up with about 5 cords of the unseasoned stuff in the spring. But it burned fine the following season. So all was not lost.

Since being here at Hearth.com I've read numerous posts about the importance of dry/seasoned wood. And allot of the posters say to get next years supply, this year, stack it, and give it a year or so to season. That way, you know your wood will be good to burn. I took their advice and now get my wood dumped in February or early March, and stack it as soon as I can. That way it has from March to November (give or take a couple of weeks) to season. My wood is stacked out in the open and subject to plenty of sun and wind, so in 7-8 months it seems good to go. The last two seasons I asked my wood guy for a combo of maple, birch, ash, and hickory. And he's been pretty good with that. However he did mix in quite a bit of oak last spring. I've re-split the bigger oak splits, and it seems to be burning pretty well. I do get a sizzler here and there though.

One of my favorite things is to tell the LP gas guy to away ) Don't give up

Hemi,
It's the lament of most new woodburners. Like some kind of stupid rite of passage.
Maybe you can't be a real woodburner without going through all this crap.
I have a much older stove, and for the first 2 years, while trying to get ahead on the wood supply, I fought with undry wood. I must be either really dense, or extremely stubborn (I prefer the latter), but that's what got me through it. Damned if I was going to get beat by a simple (HA!) woodstove and wet wood.
Last years wood got put up a few months early, and burned better. This years stuff had even more time to dry and I can now just put a couple splits on top of a load of coals and we're off to the races.
Dead cold starts are splits only, with the smallest being about 3", and a little newspaper. Good fire in a couple minutes.
Next years wood is in the back field since last July. 2011-12 wood will have 2 years and some of that is c/s/s.
As you've found, it's all about the DRY wood. Such a simple concept, yet tough to achieve and maintain.
Good luck whatever you choose to do (but stay with it). :coolsmile:

I don't know the if the sensitive stoves/inserts are catalytic, if so that may be the difference. My Quadrafire 4100I Insert isn't sensitive. I work hard to use 1+ year seasoned hardwood, but it burns all I put in.

I don't know if the sensitive stoves/inserts are catalytic, if so that may be the difference. My Quadrafire 4100I Insert isn't sensitive. I work hard to use 1+ year seasoned hardwood, but it burns all I put in.

Sounds like your wood is wetter than you think. You don't want to burn unseasoned wood anyway. Less heat output because the flame is
fighting the moisture in the wood...also lots of gunky creasote to clog your chimney. Season all your wood for a year or two depending on species
and then enjoy the warmth and ease of wood burning wood stoves. And don't believe these guys that sell wood that tell you it is seasoned....98% of the time
it isn't. I wish you the best of luck and happiness next year when your wood is drier. Don't hang it up...hang in there...life will get better! We are all pulling for you!

Man, I feel your apprehension. I installed my EQ last January and spent the rest of the winter scrounging and burning less than seasoned wood. I struggled and did use a lot of pallet wood to get stove up to temp. I promised myself that this year would be different and built up a supply of 8.5 cords of seasoned wood. What a difference My wife enjoys just throwing the wood into the stove and having it just start burning. She is getting quite good at adjusting for better burn times and heat. I have burned about a third of my stockpile and already have enough bucked wood to get up to 8.5 again. I know it can get aggravating, but, the experience I gained from learning about my stove last season has helped me tremendously this season. Good luck and please be patient, it will be worth it next year.

Reading the various posts only strengthens how I feel; that is, anyone thinking about heating with wood needs to get the fuel....and then get the stove. However, almost 100% of the time it is done the other way around. Probably because of the fact if you are burning oil or gas, you can put the stove in and then buy the fuel. That just can not be done very successfully when burning wood. However, this will no doubt continue to fall on deaf ears....

As for the new EPA stoves and the learning curve; the learning curve should be pretty short, especially for someone who already has some experience with wood burning.

Hemi

I had nearly the same experience with my C450 last year, and this year is WAAYY better now that I have two year old wood and more knowledge of the stoves personality. I also have 3 cord outside waiting for next winter - that was the best thing I've done so far.

Don't give up on the stove, but perhaps work on drying some wood inside for those well working weekend night fires, and let the other system in the house take care of the primary heating.

In the mean time, you may want to give your flue a look - it sometimes doesn't take long for buildup to occur when fires burn like you are descibing, especially for the chimney cap. That could make the few good fires you are getting better.

The advice you keep hearing about making sure that wood is really dry sounds like badgering parents after a while, but it's 100% true. You will get a rhythm down on gathering/drying wood 1-2 yrs ahead of time- depending on wood species.

Burning dry wood after you've suffered with crappy wet stuff is a real joy.