Christmas tree and my insert ?

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Mike821

Mike821

Member
Nov 3, 2010
114
Bridgewater NJ
Hello all....Every year we put our Christmas tree in our fireplace room. (10' away) The fireplace was utilized on nights we were home and wanted a fire...say 3-4 days a week. We did not have that much drying of the tree, but it did shorten the life of the tree in the house. Now with the wood burning insert I am wondering when we put up our tree if I am going to run into any issues (drying...) and how can I prevent them.

Guess what I am doing today....tree hunting with the family.
 
If at all possible, cut your own tree, buy a large base that can hold lots of water and keep it filled. The fresher the thing is the better it will last.

I think you will be OK since it is only a few weeks before christmas so long as you don't want to keep it much past new years.

pen
 
There was a thread about a week ago with some interesting info.
 
I agree. Cut your own tree and get it into the stand asap. Then keep it watered and you'll have no problems....unless you cut spruce. They just don't hold the needles. We have heated with wood only or a long time and have never had a problem with the wood heat and the tree in the same room.
 
We had to give up on the fresh cut trees we harvested from a dear friends lot because of our wood stove. He ran out of the the long needle fir trees ...and it was only them that could survive our dry house.

...and yes we cut fresh, angle cut, re-cut, used prolong, water on the stove, vaporizer etc. Finally recalculated the risk and decided to lay down and accept the dryness. We went artificial.

We have to be right and victorious all the time...fire only has to be right once.
 
A live tree brings mold, dust,and aromatic hydrocarbons into the house atmosphere. After one season of running eyes and noses, we went for an artificial the next year
 
Back to the original question, our wood stove dries out the atmosphere indoors more than the fireplace, though perhaps because we run the stove a lot and the fireplace occasionally, as does the OP. So, while I don't have experience with an insert, I don't see why it would be any different from a freestanding wood stove. You will either see no improvement with the insert or it could be worse.
 
This is our second year with a tree near the insert. The tree does drink alot, I have been refilling daily, but needles staying soft. Last year we had no problems. We were thinking of getting a fake one after all these years, but I actually found a place for $30 for cut your own. Some people are getting upwards of $100 for fresh cut. A farm pretty far out, so I may be doing this for awhile.
 
Golf, that is definitely the key; watering the tree daily.
 
Water daily. While it is better to have the tree located a bit further from the main heat source to attempt to minimize the drying it can still be placed in the same room . . .
 
I can also report having no problems with the tree in the stove room.
 
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