Disappointed by hickory

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TradEddie

Minister of Fire
Jan 24, 2012
981
SE PA
The weekend weather finally got cold enough to light the Insert. I bought a Lopi Freedom last February, but due to the mild winter I didn’t get to use it much. My splits were sized (and seasoned) appropriately for my old smoke dragon, so I had limited supplies of suitable wood. Over the Spring and Summer I shortened my long splits, and prioritized hickory that was C/S/S in Feb 2011 and some Cherry from Dec 2011 that was already reading about 18%. Maybe I expected too much, but I was a little disappointed. The hickory was slow to start, and loading N/S resulted in blackened glass. Neither wood maintained secondaries for more than a few minutes when the air was turned down and I felt that I needed a lot of air just to keep the fire going. I was more impressed with some red oak, also from Feb 2011 which I was not even planning to burn this season, it lit easily, and burned hot and long even when the air was turned down low. Is this the nature of hickory, or the lower shoulder-season draft, or a combination of factors?

TE
 
Your hickory is not dry enough then!

I would tend to agree as hickory is one of my favorite woods.

The proper way to test for moisture content is to re-split a few pieces, test on the newly exposed center of the wood.
 
Maybe you're turning the stove down too early, Hickory rocks in my stove! Why are you burning it now?
 
The weekend weather finally got cold enough to light the Insert. I bought a Lopi Freedom last February, but due to the mild winter I didn’t get to use it much. My splits were sized (and seasoned) appropriately for my old smoke dragon, so I had limited supplies of suitable wood. Over the Spring and Summer I shortened my long splits, and prioritized hickory that was C/S/S in Feb 2011 and some Cherry from Dec 2011 that was already reading about 18%. Maybe I expected too much, but I was a little disappointed. The hickory was slow to start, and loading N/S resulted in blackened glass. Neither wood maintained secondaries for more than a few minutes when the air was turned down and I felt that I needed a lot of air just to keep the fire going. I was more impressed with some red oak, also from Feb 2011 which I was not even planning to burn this season, it lit easily, and burned hot and long even when the air was turned down low. Is this the nature of hickory, or the lower shoulder-season draft, or a combination of factors?

TE
What size is your chimney and how high is it, Lopi wants a 6 inch stainless steel liner at 15 feet minimum height.

zap
 
My first year burning in my EPA wood stove i had some seasoned hickory and it burned great.

Sound like it is not seasoned enough.
 
Your hickory is not dry enough, simple as that. Hickory is flat out awesome fuel, but it does need to be dry. I have burned tons of it and it always behaves the same way....long burn times and gobs of heat.
 
I'm burning hickory now because it's the "worst" of what I've got! I used up all my shoulder wood last year. :) Last weekend was intended as a test to see how well each wood had seasoned. This hickory was cut in winter, and has been C/S/S for 18 months, so it should be dry, but the oak that was cut the same time actually seems to burn better and Cherry that was less than a year old certainly did burn better. Admittedly I was trying to avoid a sauna, so maybe that was some of it. Will report back when it drops below freezing.

TE
 
Also if you were starting the fire with hickory and then adding oak and cherry to a warm stove with an established coal base then I'm not surprised they took off faster and got the secondaries firing easier. The issues you seemed to have are not particular to any singular species of wood, but those issues definitely are particular to wet wood.
 
I have found on an EPA stove that on the first load of logs you should really not turn the air down for a long time. Until you get a really good bed of coals. The tendancy is to turn the air down too quick. The saying goes, wait until all the wood is charred (black) before turning down. I bet if start with the cherry on the first load, and then put the hickory in on the second load, you will have a whole different scenario. But then again, wait until it is black, before you turn it down.
 
If you know the cherry is at 18% then you should know what the hickory and the red oak are at
Cherry drys faster than Oak and Hickory, dont forget that dense woods do not start as quickly as the less dense, the black glass says it all.
 
My stove doesn't draft as well this time of year as it will when the weather gets colder. That might be part of the problem.
 
If hickory is the worst of what you've got I'd gladly take it off your hands. :)

A couple of times this past week I've turned the draft down too soon and gotten some blackened glass. Sort of like riding a bike, I guess, I'm a bit wobbly but getting better each time.
 
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Well I never start fires with Oak, Locust, or even White Ash, always Green Ash, Silver Maple, Cherry, or even Boxelder, just makes life easier.
 
I have found on an EPA stove that on the first load of logs you should really not turn the air down for a long time. Until you get a really good bed of coals. The tendancy is to turn the air down too quick. The saying goes, wait until all the wood is charred (black) before turning down. I bet if start with the cherry on the first load, and then put the hickory in on the second load, you will have a whole different scenario. But then again, wait until it is black, before you turn it down.

A word of warning here. I agree about the wood being charred but do not agree on the first part. That being, "...you should really not turn the air down for a long time." If you wait for a long time the heat is going up the chimney. Most times with a cold stove I am turning the air down within 10-15 minutes at most. If not, heat goes up and the stove heats very slowly. Turning the draft down a bit keeps more heat in the stove where it belongs. I know for sure if I left the draft fully open as some people claim they do, the flue would definitely get too hot and the stove would not warm up that much. Knowing when to turn it down is a must and can be different on different stoves.
 
The only reason I'm disappointed with Hickory is because I spend more time sharpening chains,sawblades,router bits,plane irons,drill bits etc when cutting it.....

But some things are well worth the effort,I have the same 'problem' with Honey Locust. ;)
 
I just noticed where the op is located, I've decided to change my mind, hickory is absolutely worthless as heating fuel, I'll be a good neighbor and dispose of it for you TradEddie, just let me know where to pick it up;)
 
A word of warning here. I agree about the wood being charred but do not agree on the first part. That being, "...you should really not turn the air down for a long time." If you wait for a long time the heat is going up the chimney. Most times with a cold stove I am turning the air down within 10-15 minutes at most. If not, heat goes up and the stove heats very slowly. Turning the draft down a bit keeps more heat in the stove where it belongs. I know for sure if I left the draft fully open as some people claim they do, the flue would definitely get too hot and the stove would not warm up that much. Knowing when to turn it down is a must and can be different on different stoves.
BS, I too turn the air down a bit at a time, just not the whole way down. I think people are too hung up on looking for secondaries. I think this is why people get black glass because the temp is not high enough or the wood is not seasoned enough or both.
 
You'll all have to pry that hickory from my warm, toasty hands.
At worst I have to wait for colder weather to improve the draft, or wait a longer for it to season, I never imagined that 18months might not be long enough, so I never even thought of taking the meter to the hickory. The oak I expected to be bad, and the cherry was newer, so I checked those.

TE
 
Hickory like Oak ( white being the worst) will take 2 years minimum or longer to dry out. Varies slightly with the particular type, weather, and stacking area but that's a good avg. Few years back 6" splits of Shagbark Hickory 2 years in the stack still wasn't below 20% in the middle. Took another year before it was good to go.
 
So right you were! Nothing in several years lurking here had let me to expect that hickory would take as long as oak to season. I tool the MM out today and when I looked at wood in my "premium" stack, in the best location, the oak and hickory were both about 19-20%. My fire last week was from another stack, and the hickory from there was about 22-24%, no better than the oak from the same stack. Cherry less than a year old, from the premium stack was as low as 14%.

TE
 
Well I never start fires with Oak, Locust, or even White Ash, always Green Ash, Silver Maple, Cherry, or even Boxelder, just makes life easier.
hello all, I was blessed with about a face cord of construction scraps this summer, mostly 2 x 4 cut offs and such. That works great for starting fires especially during the shoulder season..

chuck
 
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