Drying wood on top of stove

I'm not aware of anything in production like what you're looking for and of course I wouldn't recommend doing it, however I do stand pieces of wood up in front of the stove from time to time to dry out if it rained recently. it gives the pieces of wood time to to contemplate their fate while drying off.

We keep our wood rack near the stove to help things dry out. (A safe distance, obviously.)

cake drying rack? dunno, my smoke dragon has a built in "grate" over the top of the insert that is about 6 inches high and 30" wide. I might be known to throw a wet-ish log up there occasionally, maybe.
With the infrared thermo, the temps on the rack never reach over 130 deg, which is what I consider a safe temperature to store wood for an hour or three.

pen said:

clearances to combustibles must be maintained in all directions (including up).

Wood should not go on top of the stove period.

pen

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Yes, and my mom told me not to run with scissors at an early age. I never got a manual with my stove so my safe clearances are based on actual temp measurements with the IR thermo

I'll stack green/wet wood about 18" from the stove, one stack on either side. Rotate green to dry, etc.

When the wood starts to smolder its ready to go inside.

I would just stand the wood about 3 feet away from the stove and let it dry from there.
This is what I do to my wetter wood that I need to put in, I also have a fan blowing across the wood in the wood bin to assist in drying.
Trying to put it on top of the stove even in some type of rack could be dangerous.
Also if it is very wet the wood dripping dirty sappy water on the top of your stove probably wouldn't be a good idea nor would the dirt and bark falling onto the stove as it dries be helpful either.

Also if your wood is just wet from a recent rain and was ready to burn before the rain it should dry pretty quickly once you bring it into a wam dry house.

The scariest moment I ever had with a woodstove was leaving some wood stacked sideways on top of some other splits in a tub next our old Lopi M380 that was in the house when we moved in. I had just loaded the stove for the night and it was burning really nicely. The ends of the splits I'm talking about were probably no more than ~4" from the side of the stove. Went to bed. Woke up after a while (dunno why), and thought I smelled smoke. Got up to find that the ends of the splits closest to the stove had started to char and smoke...they undoubtedly would've been in flames soon. Scared the bejeezus out of me. Yes, I'll put wood in the proximity of my stove to promote drying of surface moisture from rain/snow, but I keep it a fair distance away, and never directly above the stove. I really, really want the fire to stay inside the box. Rick

fossil said:

The scariest moment I ever had with a woodstove was leaving some wood stacked sideways on top of some other splits in a tub next our old Lopi M380 that was in the house when we moved in. I had just loaded the stove for the night and it was burning really nicely. The ends of the splits I'm talking about were probably no more than ~4" from the side of the stove. Went to bed. Woke up after a while (dunno why), and thought I smelled smoke. Got up to find that the ends of the splits closest to the stove had started to char and smoke...they undoubtedly would've been in flames soon. Scared the bejeezus out of me. Yes, I'll put wood in the proximity of my stove to promote drying of surface moisture from rain/snow, but I keep it a fair distance away, and never directly above the stove. I really, really want the fire to stay inside the box. Rick

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Pyrolysis in action.

The risk of drying wood near a stove is that as it dries (invariably unevenly) small stacks could topple over, possibly towards the stove.

Yes, I know that many people over time have done it and got away with it, but to be honest, is it really worth risking the life of your family.

Even a good home made rack, put near a stove, could cause problems with insurance should the event of a chimney fire result in an insurance claim for fire damage should fire spread about the house.

Note I have used words like risk, might, could, and possibly.

With thousands of wood stoves in use, something somewhere will go wrong, and thoughts of might, could, and possibly suddenly become someone writing a sad post about the loss of their house..........

Ya I am not sure the OP was talking about a log rack that you can stack a whole load of wood on. I put maybe 3-4 splits MAX on my "rack" for 1-3 hours between supper and bedtime. And every once in a while, I'll walk over and hit it with the IR thermometer to make sure.
As far as pyrolysis goes, you are talking 525F+ temps.... if you have your stovetop that hot, you don't need to dry any wood before you throw it in there. It would be instantly dry on the outside lol

Alanash, you jsut HAD to know what you were walking into with that one, am I right?

Although your idea does make sense on a certain level, I think that I'd probably devote my time, money and effort to seeing if I couldn't get myself a cover for my woodpile. That would probably offer the best return on investment.

Not indorsing anything here, but my neigbhor has 2 metal milk crates on his stove all the time with wood lying on them. Plenty of saw dust all over the top of the stove too. Stove top is always around 700 degrees. Some of the dust turns dark and thats about it. I let ya know if anything ever happens.

I have a good friend that has only a baby bear fisher for heat and he woke up on the couch with waist high smoke filling the house when he fell asleep with wood drying on top of it. He probably still does it knowing him.

Yeah, look...nobody here can dictate to anybody else here what they can or can't do in their own homes. The appliance manufacturers publish minimum required clearances to combustibles based on testing in labs. Yes, they are very conservative. But conservative isn't a bad thing when it comes to having a fire in a box inside your home. People do some ill-advised things all the time and quite often get away with them...but every now and then we hear of a real disaster having happened that never should have happened. Just think long and hard about what you're contemplating when it comes to placing combustibles in proximity to your stove...weigh the perceived benefit against the known risk, then do what you will. In any case, please be careful. Rick

I have the same problem living in Northern California. After many days of consecutive rain and then 3 ft of snow on top of my tarps slowly melting, the wood was very wet. The things I do are-

When the rain stops uncover the wood.

Split into smaller pieces and keep out in the sun and breeze in a wheel barrow before bringing into house.

I have a nice wood rack that holds a stack about 3 feet high that is a safe distance from my stove that I leave wood in several days before burning. If the wood is only wet on the surface, the low humidity in the house drys it out in a few days.

I would always keep wood the distance away from the stove that is listed fro combustibles. That means no wood on top.

This has come up many times and the safe answers are always the best. FYI one night after reading a long thread on this subject I took a paper towel and laid it one my 700 degree stove top. Left it there for a couple of hrs. It never even smoked, just turned dark. Does that mean I was safe, heck no, but it made me feel better about the snow wet wood I had drying on the floor 18" from the stove.

Being a newbie burner this year and having gotten stuck with some wet wood I contemplated stacking stuff near the stove to dry it. Then I found hearth.com and read other posts about this and quickly came to the conclusion that my wood either belonged outside the house (bugs!) or INSIDE the stove. Near the stove? Nah not me. As the MOD said no one can tell anyone what to do here but I think when you ask you're open to getting peoples opinions-not much of a forum if everyone just agreed with everyone's ideas And I think its commendable that when it comes to safety issues people get a bit more passionate about the subject. In the end Darwin will decide who's right

wkpoor said:

Not indorsing anything here, but my neigbhor has 2 metal milk crates on his stove all the time with wood lying on them. Plenty of saw dust all over the top of the stove too. Stove top is always around 700 degrees. Some of the dust turns dark and thats about it. I let ya know if anything ever happens.

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Sounds like an accident waiting to happen. I hope he has a smoke detector near the stove.

Why don't you guys have the wood inside? I keep a few days worth in a wood crate by the stove and ~ weeks worth in a covered trailer by the front door.

Bugs? Tell me what bugs are living in wood when it's below zero?

My folks have a better setup, wood for the winter all in the basement (~4 cords)

NATE379 said:

Why don't you guys have the wood inside? I keep a few days worth in a wood crate by the stove and ~ weeks worth in a covered trailer by the front door.

Bugs? Tell me what bugs are living in wood when it's below zero?

My folks have a better setup, wood for the winter all in the basement (~4 cords)

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I ocasionally bring several splits in if it is snowing out, usually enough for 8 or 10 hours. There are times when moths or spiders that go dormant in the woodpile in the fall will revive in the house once they warm up.

Perhaps, though I'm not scurred of a spider or 2.

As always I am almost speechless when I hear this question raised . . . note I said almost speechless . . .

I guess the simplest answer for "wet" -- not unseasoned -- wood is to a) top cover, b) use a woodshed or c) have a rack of wood or a woodbox beside the stove, but at a safe distance. I have a woodshed now, but in my first year of burning I didn't have any problems with wet or snow covered wood since I had a tarp covering the top of the wood and what little moisture, snow or ice that was clinging to the splits and rounds quickly melted off and dried off in the woodbox.

To me it's a simple equation . . . Wood inside a woodstove = toasty, warm fire to keep us warm. Wood that is too close to the woodstove by being outside the woodstove on top, to the side, back, etc. = change of catching on fire. The fuel belongs inside the woodstove . . .