Combustion help

[RichL]

Guys, I think my problem is wet wood....but you all know a lot more than I do at this point. Here's the situation. I've got a woodmaster 5500 and I've noticed recently that it's taking it a long time to heat up. Some of this of course is the load of the house. I was initially concerned that the insulation around the tank had gotten wet or some other issue with the pex. Then I noticed that when I opened the door it was pretty much smoldering and in the past the fire had been flaming pretty hard. With the door open, it seems like that the fire gets going, but close the door and I get a lot of smoke and it settles down pretty quick (this unit has two blower fans). The other thing I noticed that when I got a good bed of coals going and put in some fresh wood, the water temperature would start to drop.

So with that as the background, I ran out a picked up a moisture meter and my wood is around 29-31%. I know if should be below 20%, but is 30% really bad and is this likely causing my problem? Is there anything I can do about it? I have been splitting bigger pieces into small 2x2" sizes. I guess I really don't have enough experience heating with wood to know what's ideal, what will be problematic, and what simply won't burn (as far as moisture goes). Any thoughts, advice, recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone!

 

[MarkW]

I got into some wetter stuff and it didn't want to burn well, either. Just as you described. Initially, I was adding some scrap lumber to the mix(layered like a cake with alternating splits/scrap). Since running out of that, I've been running Bituminous coal in place of the scrap. Small amounts have done nicely to keep the load going well. Not sure if you boiler is rated to burn it. I know the 50% wood/coal figure on the Biomass causes issues of it's own.

 

[maple1]

Yes, a measured 29-31% is really bad. I don't know how you can get it to burn, actually. I wouldn't be trying to burn it, I'd save it for next year - you'll be gunking up your boiler pretty bad too.

That would leave you with finding drier stuff elsewhere, maybe some compressed wood product, or running your backup heat.

I measured some fresh cut & split maple here last week for the heck of it - it metered at 27%. I KNOW it was more than that - also seems to be an issue that once you get above 26-28% measured, the meters are not very reliable, so yours might actually be wetter than what your meter is saying. When was this stuff split?

 

[Clarkbug]

Guys, I think my problem is wet wood....but you all know a lot more than I do at this point. Here's the situation. I've got a woodmaster 5500 and I've noticed recently that it's taking it a long time to heat up. Some of this of course is the load of the house. I was initially concerned that the insulation around the tank had gotten wet or some other issue with the pex. Then I noticed that when I opened the door it was pretty much smoldering and in the past the fire had been flaming pretty hard. With the door open, it seems like that the fire gets going, but close the door and I get a lot of smoke and it settles down pretty quick (this unit has two blower fans). The other thing I noticed that when I got a good bed of coals going and put in some fresh wood, the water temperature would start to drop.

So with that as the background, I ran out a picked up a moisture meter and my wood is around 29-31%. I know if should be below 20%, but is 30% really bad and is this likely causing my problem? Is there anything I can do about it? I have been splitting bigger pieces into small 2x2" sizes. I guess I really don't have enough experience heating with wood to know what's ideal, what will be problematic, and what simply won't burn (as far as moisture goes). Any thoughts, advice, recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone!

Rich, thats definitely your problem. As maple mentioned, you are running the risk of gunking your boiler/chimney if you can get any heat at all. Alternatives are to look for some pallets (usually free, dry, but take work to break them down), or look at buying some biobricks. You are on the right path by splitting your big pieces into smaller ones. if you do that and stack them in a warm place you might be able to use them mixed with pallets/biobricks by the end of the season, but you might be better waiting until next year.

 

[Frank Nuhfer]

Guys, I think my problem is wet wood....I ran out a picked up a moisture meter and my wood is around 29-31%. Any thoughts, advice, recommendations are greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone!

I see you live in Southern Maryland. I have some free dry wood that you can have, you just have to cut down old dead trees and haul away. Easy access, and I will supervise. PM me. Spring is coming.
Leonardtown

 

[evamaxx]

I see you live in Southern Maryland. I have some free dry wood that you can have, you just have to cut down old dead trees and haul away. Easy access, and I will supervise. PM me. Spring is coming.
Leonardtown

hi richl I live in glen burnie have 20 or so cords dry and split let me know if u need some wood u can pick up any day msg me for details