No Smoke

It's because your wood is dry and you burn properly ... when you get a bunch of smoke either the wood is wet or not enough draft/air ... so how long are your burns? Keep it up!

It sounds like you are a bit lucky. Most people on this site do not consider wood to start seasoning until it is split, then they give it a year or two to season. If it is burning this good now it will only get better once you start seasoning properly. What kind of wood are you burning?

Congrats.

One week seasoned wood and no smoke? Sign me up unless your stove top doesn't get above 250. Is it a soft maple like silver?

If it is Oak that is a miracle since most people claims it takes at least 2 years once split. Does the wood have any bark? Some pictures would help. I did get lucky with some Oak this year that was dead for about 20 years, it was very dry. But normally Oak is the worst for drying, but one of the best for burning once it is dry. Alot of people here use a Moisture Meter to check for moisture. Harbor Freight usually has them online for about $12. You resplit a piece and stick the prongs in(ideally under 20 percent). Once you get a couple of years ahead it is no big deal. My guess is it is not Oak as Ohio burner said it may be Maple or Cherry, they season pretty quick. Pictures sure would help. But you are on the right track if you are not getting smoke.

Redguy, indeed these new stoves usually burn with no smoke from the chimney except on reloads and then only a short time. However, in your case....it's weird. Burning that oak like you are you are lucky to get by with no smoke and having to leave the draft almost fully open tells the story on the fuel.

No matter how long a tree has been dead or cut into 8' lengths, that wood will barely dry at all until it has been split and stacked. Around here we never even try to burn oak before it has been split and stacked for 3 years. We'd probably cut a year off if the tree had been dead for a while. Most wood needs at least a year, some needs 2 years and oaks need 3.

Warning: Once you do burn good seasoned wood in that stove you will not be burning with the draft almost fully open! It will be the opposite, so beware when you get new wood because things will get a lot hotter. Now most of your heat is going straight up the chimney because of the almost fully open draft but you probably need it because of the fuel.

I'd still try to cut that draft a bit more if possible as this will keep more heat in the house rather than up the chimney.


Also, BE SURE YOU CHECK THAT CHIMNEY OFTEN; MONTHLY AT LEAST. Clean as needed.

RedGuy said:

It's the strangest thing, my new wood stove emits no smoke! Very occationally I'll get a white wisp, but mostly you can just see the heat ripples emenating from the top of my chimney. This is opposed to my neighbors stove that is billowing white smoke pretty much constantly, and has been what I've seen from other wood stoves. The only thing I can figure is that these new stoves burn that clean.

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Oh no . . . you're obviously doing this all wrong. I mean haven't you seen the pictures on postcards and scenic winter scapes showing a snow covered home with a thin trail of smoke coming out of the chimney.

Actually, sounds like you may be doing something right . . . or at least partially right . . . the new stoves do burn clean . . . the secret is to have seasoned wood, burn at the proper temps (hot enough) and manage your air control correctly . . . the result will be more heat, less wood burned and a clean burn.

RedGuy said:

Not sure yet, I've been running it pretty much continuously since last night. I'd say I probably add a split probably every couple hous. My wood is alittle wet still since it sizzles for a few minutes when I first put it in. The tree's where fell this spring and cut into 8ft logs. I just started splitting last weekend, so I'm not sure how well seasoned the wood is. It's what I have for this year though since I just moved in, and I doubt I could buy wood that would be seasoned any better locally.

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Hmmm . . . I may have to revisit my original thoughts.

A few items here.

First off, putting a single split every two hours or so is actually not the most efficient way to run the stove . . . I mean you can do so . . . but the most efficient way (and for long term happiness so you don't feel like you're a slave to feeding your stove) you will want to load up the stove with a full load on the reload, bring the stove up to temp (thermometers help) and then start to turn the air down . . . this will result in a longer, intense burn.

I'm going to take a wild guess here . . . are you leaving the air control open all the way vs. shutting it down? Doing so effectively allows more heat up the chimney and burns up the wood faster . . . on the flip side . . . when dealing with marginal wood . . . and I have no doubt that your wood is marginal at best due to your description of just splitting the wood up last week . . . keeping the air open will allow the wood to burn . . . possibly OK. You may however have some issues if you start to shut down the air without letting the marginal wood get nicely charred and letting the stove and flue temps get nice and toasty.

Of course, it may be a case where you just got lucky.

RedGuy said:

I belive it's mostly oak and red oak as oak is primarily what's on my property in the area the tree's where cut, they where cut down before I moved in. I'm not sure as of yet how to tell what wood is what unless it's growing with leaves on it.lol I don't know what my stove top temps are as I don;t have a thermometer yet, but I'd say it's above 250 based on "feel" plus it kept my house at about 70 all day with temps in the 20's here. I do however have to run the air pretty much fully open.

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I would highly suggest you get a thermometer . . . or even better two thermometers -- one for the stove and one for your flue.

The stove top thermometer will let you know what temp you are burning on since us human beings aren't really calibrated to be able to tell if a stove is running at 200 degrees or 400 degrees . . . a stove top thermometer will let you know if you are burning hot enough for secondary combustion and will let you know if you are burning too hot and at risk of damaging the stove.

A flue thermometer will let you know if you are burning too cooly and causing creosote to form in your chimney or too hot and at risk of causing any creosote in that chimney to ignite.

Both thermometers can be used to let you know when to start cutting back the air.

Ah ha . . . I really should start reading the entire thread before making comments . . . I guessed correctly. Running the air all the way open may allow you to run the stove OK -- but it's not really taking advantage of the stove's secondary burning characteristics which allow you to burn longer, burn hotter and burn cleaner. What you are effectively doing is allowing a good amount of that heat go up the chimney instead of heating your home.

By burning with the air open all the way you may in fact not get a lot of smoke (although many combustible particulates that would normally be burned in a secondary burn are still escaping) . . . it should be mentioned that by doing this you are also allowing a lot of heat to go up your chimney . . . which could be a problem if creosote begins to form . . . again . . . burning unseasoned wood and allowing the combustibles to re-form as creososte in your chimney and then allowing the chimney to overheat can cause a chimney fire . . . which is a good reason to get a flue thermometer . . . and be sure to check and clean your chimney frequently.

Unfortunately, with your wood there is a good chance that attempting to cut back the air too much . . . especially if the stove has not come up to temp . . . will suffocate the fire which will cause a lot of smoke in your chimney, creosote and will blacken up your glass.

OK, we've given you the bad news . . . now the good news . . . well sort of good news.

Most of us are where you are . . . in our first year we didn't have good, seasoned wood . . . and we had to make do and get by . . . some of us got by OK, some of us had a rough time in the first year.

Your wood is most likely not seasoned . . . which will mean it will not ignite easily, it will be hard to have a sustained secondary burn, you may have a hard time getting a long, clean burn and perhaps most important of all . . . there is a very good chance your chimney will get gunked up with creosote which can be dangerous.

First . . . again . . . I highly encourage folks to buy thermometers for their stove and flue. These will help you . . . in the same way having a speedometer and fuel gauge will help you run your car more efficiently and safely.

Second . . . it's time to go scrounging . . . pallets are your friend. Folks are often trying to get rid of these things . . . and while they can be a pain to haul home and process . . . and you can't toss your ashes in the garden or driveway due to the risk of nails, you will find that cut up pallets are very useful for helping to get the wood fire going . . . and can be used to help bring the temp up on marginally seasoned wood -- think of them as being used to dry out the moisture remaining in the wood so when the "real" wood is finally dried out you can then have a successful secondary burn . . . and again . . . secondary burns are good -- a cleaner burn, more heat and less wood used. I should also mention that dimensional lumber such as untreated 2 x 4s and 2 x 6s can also be used in this manner.

Finally . . . and this is wicked important . . . so I'm reiterating here . . .you have to check your chimney on a regular basis and clean it when necessary. Burning semi-seasoned wood can be a problem and can gunk up a chimney in just a few weeks. I would suggest checking your chimney every 2 weeks or so . . . and if you do not have a chimney brush I would get one . . . best case scenario . . . there is a Christmas miracle and your chimney is always clean . . . even then at some point you will want to clean your chimney and oftentimes it is easier and cheaper to do this yourself than to hire a sweep.

As others have posted before, you are using your stove like an old smoke dragon. I cringe at the thought of how much wood I wasted burning wet Red Oak in my old stove. I had a pretty good system of sizzling out the water in the wood over hot coals but I wasted a lot of wood doing so. You need to get a couple years ahead this winter in order to not repeat the mistakes you are making this year. If you are planning on splitting next winters wood over the summer, your wood will not be ready, especially oak. I am burning 20 month seasoned White Oak at the moment and it burns beautifully. I reported on an earlier thread on how I hated Red Oak becuase it still sizzles after 20 months. I have 2.5 cords of Red Oak that next winter will have been split and stacked in the wood shed for 20 months and I was planning that to be my supply for the winter of 2011-12. I now know that it will not be ready and I've been out in the woods culling some soft maple and the few cherry trees that I have on my property. Those species should season in one year and after that I'll be burning 2.5+ year Red Oak for the next 10 years or so.

My point is: get ahead! The White Oak I'm burning is a pleasure to burn. It has been split and stacked for 20 months and was bucked and was stacked on pallets for another 4-6 months prior. No hissing or water, lights off in an instant and I'm getting so much more heat than last year. If you are going to be burning Oak, you need to get several years ahead, can't stress it enough. If you can find some Ash then you will have better luck.

I should also mention that my old smoke dragon also didn't produce any smoke when she had a good fire going. It was around 3.5 cf and would heat the stove pipe almost red. You could hear the draft as it went through the pipe, sounded like a jet turbine and when you looked outside at the chimney all you saw was the waves created from the hot air. Very inefficient because after 4 hours you were down to a small amount of coals.

RedGuy said:

So you think it's because I lined and insulated my chimney all the way up?

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No...if you burn dry and hot and correctly you will get no smoke insulated or not.

Neil said:

RedGuy said:

So you think it's because I lined and insulated my chimney all the way up?

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No...if you burn dry and hot and correctly you will get no smoke insulated or not.

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I tend to agree. I do not have a liner. Heck I just have a pipe that goes up 2-3 feet into the chimney and I only get smoke at initial start up. Once the stove is warmed up no smoke. Especially no smoke when I engage the CAT.

RedGuy said:

AHHH PALLETS! I fly for a cargo company so we have pallets! Time to start bringing home pallets with me every time I come home from work.

BTW Where do I get these thermometers from? And what's a good one?

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We've tried several different thermometers but found only one that seems to be true or at least reasonable. Rutland is the common one but we threw those away. We received one with our new stove and then bought another one from them. Here is a link: Stove Thermometers

You can call the company or order from the web. Call is 800-866-4344. If you call, tell them you talked to Dennis. They will get a kick out of that. I really found out when we went to their bbq party last September. They knew who I was before I got there! I have no idea why.


btw, this is also where we met Craig. That's Craig of heart.com fame.

RedGuy said:

AHHH PALLETS! I fly for a cargo company so we have pallets! Time to start bringing home pallets with me every time I come home from work.

BTW Where do I get these thermometers from? And what's a good one?

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I purchased my thermometers on-line at northlineexpress.com . . . but I imagine any hearth store and a good number of hardware stores would also have these in stock -- at least the magnetic mount thermometers.

RedGuy said:

Well I just picked up 16 pallets from work, ripped up a couple already. They definatly burn hot and fast, I think between pallets mixed with my green wood I should be in good shape.

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A good plan.