Switched from softwood to hardwood and it's not heating up the house. Why?

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Jan 4, 2011
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Mt. Scott, SE Portland, Oregon
www.frontierdreams.blogspot.com
We moved into our first house that has a woodburning fireplace upstairs on the main floor, and an old woodstove (1975ish? when the house was built) downstairs in the finished basement (second living room/office, bar, laundry, bedroom, full bath). The fireplace upstairs was gas when we moved in, and we got it capped off and switched to a woodburning fireplace. The gas co. worker who came out said the gas fireplace had never been used, not even once. Weird.

Anyways, our first 2 loads of logs from Craigslist were a mix of softwood and harwood, but mostly softwood. I've been researching to figure out what types of woods to avoid, and what types are the best. Everything I've read points to hardwood being better in the long run, yet slightly more expensive, and more difficult to get your hands on. The softwood mix burned hot, and probably burned faster than what I'm reading about hardwood, but it was enough to heat up the entire 2800 sq ft home. We mainly use the woodstove, since the heat in the fireplace goes up and not really out into the room. The woodstove is located downstairs at one end of the house, but the heat travels upstairs and all the way down to the other end.

This weekend we ran out of the softwood mix and got a load of mostly seasoned hardwood mix (to include cedar, maple, dogwood, fir, etc.). I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but when you put the logs on a hot, well-burning fire, it almost puts the fire out. With the softwood of the previous 2 loads, I could put any amount of logs on the fire and this never happened. It would keep burning hot and get even hotter the more wood you load in the woodstove. But with this hardwood, it seems like tossing on a few logs puts the fire out. If you only throw in one log at a time, it certainly won't heat up the house. Right now, no matter what I do, it barely heats up the room, much less the house. With the softwood, I could get it burning so hot that it was too hot to even sit in that room.

So, what should I do? I'm obviously doing something wrong, or there's more info I need to know about these new types of wood I'm trying to burn.

Thanks in advance!
 
The likely answer is that the Hardwood is not as seasoned as your softwood. A god test would be a moisture meter on the onside of a freshly split piece of hardwood. If you do not have one try establishing a hot fire and then put on 1 piece of the hardwood. Wait a minute or 2 and then open the door enough to take a look at the wood. If it is unseasoned you will likely see moisture being pushed out and also hear a slight "Hissing" sound from the steam.

Only fix is to let the wood season longer outside in the wind and sun. If not mix it with well seasoned wood and clean the chimney often.
 
SKIN052 said:
The likely answer is that the Hardwood is not as seasoned as your softwood. A god test would be a moisture meter on the onside of a freshly split piece of hardwood. If you do not have one try establishing a hot fire and then put on 1 piece of the hardwood. Wait a minute or 2 and then open the door enough to take a look at the wood. If it is unseasoned you will likely see moisture being pushed out and also hear a slight "Hissing" sound from the steam.

Only fix is to let the wood season longer outside in the wind and sun. If not mix it with well seasoned wood and clean the chimney often.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Honestly, this new batch of hardwood is more seasoned than the softwood we're used to burning. Some of the softwood was donated, some delivered from people on Craigslist. With the rain we get here in Oregon, most of the wood was either wet or filled with sap. With that softwood, you could hear the hissing and see the moisture cook out of the logs, but not with this hardwood. This wood is neither wet nor full of sap. Not sure what's going on. The weird thing is that, when you open the door to toss on a new log, it's super duper hot inside, but the heat isn't coming out of the woodstove like before. I can't figure it out, which is why I felt it necessary to join this forum to get some answers.

Also, I forgot to discuss what type of woodstove I have. I know it's a Glo King, and that this company is supposedly out of business now. I searched google images for a pic, and found maybe an older model, but almost the exact one we have. Here it it:

3n63k83o05Q45P25X1aas5ff7764288b51136.jpg

3n93m13pd5O35W35P1aasa6a2917710e11579.jpg
 
Sounds like a classic case of wet wood.

Hardwood and softwood do burn differently and it takes a while to figure out how to burn them best. But what you're describing sounds like the wood isn't dry...
 
My own take on hardwood and softwood . . . if properly seasoned they both burn fine . . . the key is they need to be properly seasoned. Softwood -- such as cedar, fir, pine, spruce, etc. -- tend to season faster . . . these woods also tend to give a quick, hot fire . . . but don't give you the longevity of a fire from hardwood. I like burning both softwood and hardwood -- and "soft" hardwood such as poplar -- providing the wood is seasoned and depending on what I need -- a quick, hot fire to take the chill out of the air or a longer burning fire.

I would not be surprised to find you are not getting as hot a fire with hardwood if you're used to the softwood -- these can be very different types of fires. If all things are equal -- i.e. all the wood is properly seasoned -- I would suspect that a fire with all softwood would be a quick, intense fire . . . whereas the hardwood may not provide as hot a fire as quick as the softwood . . . but once you get the stove warmed up the fire with the hardwood should last a lot longer.

Like the previous poster if you're putting the wood on a coal bed and the hardwood almost suffocates the fire I'm guessing the wood might not be as well seasoned as it should be . . . if you've got wood spitting and bubbling water out the ends and glass that blackens up these could be some indications that the wood is not seasoned enough.
 
One can't tell whether wood is wet or dry by looking. As far as I know, the only two good tests are with a moisture meter (a lot of threads describe these in the "Gear" section) and by performance. What you describe is exactly what one would expect from hardwood with a moisture content higher than it should be. The softwood is drying quickly in the stove and burning. The hardwood is unable to dry quickly in the stove and just sits there. I've had the same problem.

One way to know: buy some seasoned wood in a bundle at your 7-11 (make sure it doesn't have moisture condensed inside the wrappper) and see how it burns. Or borrow some known-good wood from a neighbor.
 
Are you giving the hard wood more air, it takes longer for it to get cooking and usually takes more air. But it could be unseasoned like others say.
 
I agree with the other people who have answered- I would suspect that the wood may not be properly seasoned.

I find hard woods take a little longer to "come up to speed" so to speak, but once they get going they will produce a lot of good heat for a longer period of time.
 
I agree with others who say you must not have seasoned hardwood. When I put seasoned hardwood on a pile of hot coals, it ignites within a minute or two. Seasoned soft wood like Eastern Red Cedar or Pine ignities a little faster and is engulfed with flame sooner, but even oak, if seasoned, should ignite quickly on a hot coal bed.

Maybe you should try splitting the hardwood smaller. It should burn a little faster that way.

Another part of your post said you're learning which wood to avoid and which to burn. I say anything that is well seasoned is the wood to burn. If you can get some well seasoned wood of any type, you'll find a great improvement in the performance of the stove.
 
The hardwood is not seasoned. If you throw wood on a good bed of coals and it just smolders for several minutes then it is too wet. When adding wood, open your air, stoke your coals and get them good and red, add 2 or three splits, close the door but keep the air open. They should ignite and be burning on all sides within 2 minutes, if they don't, then the wood is too wet. For example, I burn all hardwoods and if I load my stove full on a decent coal bed all of the splits are engulfed in flame in less than 90 seconds, and if I only add 2 or 3'splits then they are burning well in about 30'seconds.
 
If I add hardwood splits to hot coals and they don't start burning within 5-10 minutes, I use my welding gloves and remove the splits. I know they'll just sit there and smoulder.
 
Softwood seasons a lot quicker than hardwood.
If you want to burn some of your hardwood, try splitting a couple of bits down smaller, and leave in the same room as the stove (but not too near) to gently warm and dry for a week or two.
You will then see how much better hardwood is than softwood.
The downside is that it does take a lot longer to season properly, and you will somehow have to buy, beg, or scrounge at least 3 or 4 years of wood ahead of your burning.

Getting there takes some serious work and planning, as most on here will confirm, and I'm miles away from that dream at present....... :)
 
remember this: Seasoned isn't just a "how long" sort of thing; it's a "how well"

It would be kinda like ordering a steak by saying "i want it cooked for 5 minutes" - That doesn't mean a thing, because you don't know how thick the steak is, or how hot the fire is.
 
I have just recently started burning a wood stove and have found the statements posted here to be true. Softwood such as pine inherently burn faster and hotter and seem to season quicker. Though not ideal, I can get away with burning marginal (in terms of dryness) quality pine and still get a nice hot fire. If I try to do the same with hardwoods it's a no go. It has to be properly seasoned, and sometimes split a bit smaller to burn well.

Many here have said it and it is a fact that it is rare to by truly seasoned firewood. Most people in the business do not have the storage, nor financial incentive to let it sit for 2 years.
 
I have a theory that coniferous wood with a high oil content will burn with a much higher moisture content. The fir we are burning now is not perfectly dry in the core, but you could almost use it as a torch it has so much oil in it. Actually, I'm glad it has a bit higher moisture to extend its burn. Super dry pine and fir can be like trying to run a stove on carpentry scraps.
 
Odds are strong that the wood isn't dry enough, but as others have pointed out it can take more heat to get hardwoods going, generally. Might have to leave the door open a while to get it going. (Don't leave until you close it, though...) Size of splits also makes a difference. I burn HUGE chunks of softwood in order to slow the burn down, but split hardwoods to about half the size of the soft.
If you split them down and still have trouble burning, the wood's still too wet.

Nice stove, by the way. Guessing that's not EPA certified, but I dig the cooling fins on the door and the side loading. If you get serious about wood heat, you'll probably want to look into a more efficient stove.
 
BeGreen,

My Pocket Reference shows pinon pine to have the highest BTU content per unit weight of any wood, so I'd have to agree with you. When there's a pinon/juniper forest fire out west, it's as though it is gasoline-fed.
 
I agree, pine btu by weight is incredibly high, probably due to the resins and stuff in it, and the fact that a cord of pine might weigh less than a cord of oak is down to the density........

A pound of oak will weigh the same as a pound of pine :)
 
counter: Funny you posted this topic, I almost did the same since I was having this trouble but resolved it.

Try splitting your biggest hardwood and smell the split surface. If there is any sappy smell, it's not seasoned. I noticed it takes a hotter bed of coals to get my seasoned (2.5 years) Red Oak lit. Soft maple lights right up when the stovetop temp is 250, but the very dry oak needs a stovetop temp of 300 to light. The coals are noticeably brighter at the slightly higher stovetop temps. This oak measured 14% and sounds bone dry when dropped, but definitely takes more heat to ignite.

Another trick is to throw some bark or small softwood splits under the hardwood to liven things up.
 
My Well seasoned Oak Lights right off just as fast as softwood,now my friends out of seasoned wood and is using wet wood and it seems to smolder until its reduced to coals, little to no noticable heat output.
 
trump said:
my friends out of seasoned wood and is using wet wood and it seems to smolder until its reduced to coals, little to no noticable heat output.
Click to expand...

That's because all the power is going into boiling off the sap, and there is nothing left to warm up the house :)
 
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