Burning Treated Wood, Laminated Cardboard

[linckeil]

So growing up, we had an old franklin double door wood stove. no catalyst, no secondary burn - just a box and a flue... we would burn treated wood and laminated cardboard to get the fires going. my parents still burn to this day in the stove. there were no ill effects to doing so that i ever noticed.

so to present day - i bought my home a year ago and just installed a hearthstone mansfield. the manual instructs you not to burn any of this stuff, so i've been sticking to untrearted kindling and unlaminated newspapers to get her going.

i understand the higher emissions as a result of burning these materials and i could see how it would mess things up in a catalytic stove, but what harm will it do to my non-catalytic stove? would it mess up the secondary burn tubes? cause increased creosote formation? just wondering the reasons it is ill advised.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

It generates poisonous fumes out the chimney. Whether or not someone breathes it in- it could end up in your drinking water/fishing hole.

 

[Jags]

Yep - treated, painted, glued, its got some potential to create some pretty bad stuff coming out the chimney, even if it doesn't "hurt" your stove. Please don't do it. Everyone and everything will be better off for it.

 

[billb3]

You don't need to be worried about the damned stove, you need to be worried about the air you are breathing.

Many states don't allow burning of leaves because of the pollution, trash is hundreds of times worse.

Ask anyone with heart disease, asthma, emphysema, or other respiratory diseases how they feel about idjits that burn trash or even anything less than dry clean wood in thier stoves.

 

[linckeil]

You don't need to be worried about the damned stove, you need to be worried about the air you are breathing.

Many states don't allow burning of leaves because of the pollution, trash is hundreds of times worse.

Ask anyone with heart disease, asthma, emphysema, or other respiratory diseases how they feel about idjits that burn trash or even anything less than dry clean wood in thier stoves.

ok, settle down. lets not get emotional about it... i am aware of the environmental impact as noted in my initial post - and thats reason enough for me not to do it. i was wondering if there was also a detrimental impact on the stove or not.

and burning trash is in a whole other ball game. we're not talking about stuffing household garbage and platics in a stove - anyone who does that needs their head examined. we're talking about treated scrap lumber and cardboard - stuff i'm sure people burn all the time without knowing the impact or even realizing it is treated in the first place.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

we're not talking about stuffing household garbage and platics in a stove - anyone who does that needs their head examined. we're talking about treated scrap lumber and cardboard - stuff i'm sure people burn all the time without knowing the impact or even realizing it is treated in the first place.

Old treated scrap contains CCA- copper, chromium and arsenic. Burning trash is bad, chromium and arsenic- a shade worse, IMO. Probably in more need of said head examination considering the potential, IMNSHO.

The new stuff is better than CCA, but still BAD to burn. Interestingly- I bet that as old structures get removed, more CCA material will be burned than when it was widely available.

 

[linckeil]

Old treated scrap contains CCA- copper, chromium and arsenic. Burning trash is bad, chromium and arsenic- a shade worse, IMO. Probably in more need of said head examination considering the potential, IMNSHO.

The new stuff is better than CCA, but still BAD to burn. Interestingly- I bet that as old structures get removed, more CCA material will be burned than when it was widely available.

interesting info... this is my point, people will burn this old CCA scrap without realizing its impacts or without knowing it is treated in the first place. i think everyone knows burning garbage isn't a great idea, but how many people know that some old lumber scrap contains arsenic???

 

[Drumaz]

What about color/glossy newspaper. Like the CVS flyers or whatever.. Is that different than good old B+W newspaper?

 

[Jags]

What about color/glossy newspaper. Like the CVS flyers or whatever.. Is that different than good old B+W newspaper?

Yep, hit the recycle bin with it.

 

[Drumaz]

thanks jags.

 

[Valhalla]

Don't burn any polymer or plasticized, coated or painted, glued or adhesive bonded, colored or preservative soaked materials in a home heating device

 

[homebrewz]

Yep.. colored magazine/newspaper inserts are bad to burn. There are dioxins contained within them as told to me by a friend who works for the
NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation.

Not sure about secondary burn tubes, but catalyst material is a matrix of clay and metallic elements.. not sure if burning any sort of treated
wood could foul up the ability of the catalyst to achieve secondary burn, but its something to consider..best not to burn that stuff anyway.