Fire burning too quickly and not a lot of flame (newbie)

[8686]

Hey guys, Just bought a house about 6 months ago. first fireplace. Lit about 10 fires so far.

When you see fireplaces you always see a few logs in it with huge flames that are dancing along the top. My fire has some pretty big flames for about a half hour, then dies down. Also, when the flames are big they are very "torch like", as if I have a fan on it. If I stoke it and turn the logs over then I get flames again, but they die down after a half hour too. For most of my burn the wood all turns red. It's a molten cherry. It gives off a lot of heat but no flame.

I throw about 7 or 8 logs in the fireplace and this lasts about 2-3 hours. After this there are still embers but no flames and cool enough to close the glass doors and shut her down for the evening.

Is this normal? I thought of a couple things:
House too tight? Not enough oxygen getting to the fire? But then why are my flames like a blow torch?
Is it my stacking technique?
The wood I use is a little wet, maybe 80% seasoned. There is some hissing going on.

I also noticed there is virtually zero popping going on.

Anyway, my wood loading technique consists of starting with the "upside down fire" technique. I lay 4 big logs on the grate. Then 3 smaller logs on top of that (perpendicular) then 2 smaller on top of that with the kindling.

Eventually, the wood turns into a tic tac toe fort throughout the night. When I feed more logs into the fire I usually put it across, right on top.

Any advice? I know there are a lot of things going on in this post! Thanks

 

[gzecc]

Not sure what you are expecting from a fireplace. If you leave your fireplace doors cracked during the fire, you should get a very aggressive fire. If you close the doors, you should slow it down (less air). You should have some sort of mechanical air control to adjust. If you have sub-optimal fuel, its hard to make up for it. Do you know the species of your wood and how long it has been split and stacked off the ground?

 

[8686]

"Not sure what you are expecting from a fireplace." - I guess I'm not either. To sum it all up, it seems like I am going through a lot of wood and the fire does not seem to produce a lot of flames. It turns into a big molten cherry. I don't use my fireplace for heat, just for ambience. Since the flames don't last long I am always getting up every 20 minutes to stoke the thing.

The wood? I think it's all oak. It was leftover by the previous homeowners, sitting on the ground. I chopped it up last summer.

I never actually do anything with the doors. Should I? I leave them as open as they can be when using the fireplace.

 

[gzecc]

"Not sure what you are expecting from a fireplace." - I guess I'm not either. To sum it all up, it seems like I am going through a lot of wood and the fire does not seem to produce a lot of flames. It turns into a big molten cherry. I don't use my fireplace for heat, just for ambience. Since the flames don't last long I am always getting up every 20 minutes to stoke the thing.

The wood? I think it's all oak. It was leftover by the previous homeowners, sitting on the ground. I chopped it up last summer.

I never actually do anything with the doors. Should I? I leave them as open as they can be when using the fireplace.

Your wood is not seasoned, probably the biggest problem. When you are starting the fire, have the doors 95% closed. You will hear a rush of air supporting the combustion. Use this blow torch effect to really ignite the blaze.
At a certain point you will be able to open the doors, but with unseasoned wood it will take some significant time.
Realize a fireplace is inherently inefficient. Yours will be more so with unseasoned wood.

 

[8686]

How do you know when the optimal time to burn the wood? I hear if it is "too" seasoned it will burn even quicker. I'm guessing my wood should not be hissing, and the absence of the popping is a bad sign too?

Also, last summer I had a couple trees cut down. I had the tree guys cut up the logs into 1-2 ft sections. I got some pressure treated 4x4 and made rails to stack them on. Pic included. They have not been covered. I just got tarps that I will cover soon. I figure with the tarps on them all summer (this upcoming summer), would this wood be good to burn for next winter? It's oak btw.

There are two rows of what you see in the pic. I figure I would start chopping some of it up in October. There will be a lot left as is and eventually be stored this way for another year.

Thanks for your help. I'm new to all of this. It really is a science!
Appreciate any other members opinions on all this too.

 

[begreen]

Those rounds will not start drying in the core until split. Start chopping like yesterday.

 

[8686]

hahaha. Well, it's 10 degrees here in Long Island, NY. Since I would only use a quarter of this wood for next winter, maybe I will only use the smaller rounds and leave the bigger ones on there for the following winter? Give them an extra year to dry out?

Do people normally chop their wood up as soon as it is cut down? I thought it's much easier to chop it up when it is seasoned, right before you cook it.

 

[begreen]

Rounds take years to dry out, especially if oak. Some wood is much easier to split when green, some not. I would split it up on a nice dry day with temps in the 20s. You will work up a sweat splitting.

 

[jatoxico]

What begreen is saying is that for all practical purposes the wood does not begin to season until it is split. Dry wood contains <20% moisture. Wood in the round, even pretty small ones will take forever to get to that moisture content. Wood can be a little wetter when used in an open fireplace but dry is better.

 

[8686]

So, what should I do?

 

[weatherguy]

Split the wood, the sooner the better, store it in your rack without the tarp and put the tarp on the top only not covering the sides in October.

 

[8686]

Isn't it going to be hard as hell splitting fresh oak with a maul?

 

[DanCorcoran]

Isn't it going to be hard as hell splitting fresh oak with a maul?

Welcome to the wonderful world of wood!

 

[begreen]

http://www.woodheat.org/split-wood.html
Be sure you split the rounds off the ground, on a chopping block. That helps deliver the maximum impact of the maul to the wood. And be sure you have a heavy enough maul to do the job. It should be 6-8#.

 

[mol1jb]

It can be difficult. It depends on how straight the tree was. But that is the trade off for wood heat. It is cheap in terms of money but expensive in terms of labor.

 

[BurnIt13]

How do you know when the optimal time to burn the wood? I hear if it is "too" seasoned it will burn even quicker. I'm guessing my wood should not be hissing, and the absence of the popping is a bad sign too?

And in reality wood can never be too dry. Sure if stuff is left to dry in a heated garage for 20 years it will burn like rolls of newspaper but in 99% of scenarios dryer is better and it takes years for wood to dry properly.

I am burning some oak that is two years old that I had intended to use it for next year. The larger ones sizzle and bubble and thats not good. You need to get that stuff split a year ago.

 

[DougA]

Hissing is the sound of water/moisture turning to steam and escaping. Popping comes from bits of sap or moisture that gets trapped. I rarely hear any popping unless burning pine.

A fireplace with the doors open looks nice but is a huge waste of energy. Large amounts of house air is going up your chimney. The house air has already been heated by - guess what- your furnace. Close the doors, except for a small crack, as soon as the fire is going, then once it's going well, close them fully. You want the heat in your house, not outside in the air.

I've only been on the forum a few months and the number one reason people have problems is because wood is not dry enough. I also am burning 20%+ right now since all my wood for this year is gone and I'm well into next year's wood. I've got problems now that I have not had in years - guess what - wet wood is the cause. Even with experience and a good stove, burning 25% moisture wood is a PITA.

 

[8686]

Thanks for the wood splitting article. My technique there is pretty good it seems. I just need help with all the stacking and seasoning I guess.

In that article it says that oak is easiest to split when green. Surprising. I thought seasoned would be easier.

So if I chop some of those rounds and store them under a tarp for this summer, do you think that will do the trick for next winter? @weatherguy, you said split it, stack it now, and cover it in October? What good will covering it do in October when I'm going to be using it a month later?

 

[begreen]

Oak it will be ready to burn in the 2015-16 season if split now. Buy some ash, beech and maple mix now that is already split for next fall.

 

[8686]

Close the doors, except for a small crack, as soon as the fire is going, then once it's going well, close them fully

Really? I do enjoy some of the heat when sitting about 5 feet away. After about an hour that heat is really hot sitting right in front of it. The tempered glass can handle that?

 

[BurnIt13]

Don't cover them. You need maximum wind and sun exposure. Only cover them before you are going to use them, say the October/November before burning season. This prevents them from getting wet and frozen and soaking up a bit of water. Dry wood will soak up water. Try getting a fire started when there is a quarter inch of ice on all of your splits.

Nothing will do the trick for burning next winter. If you burn that wood next winter you will be having even more problems than you are having now.

And you are burning quite a lot of wood for "ambiance". Quite a lot of effort for not much in return IMO. You bust your butt splitting it, then stack it, then bring it in the house, struggle burning it....get a pretty flame for a bit and then get rewarded by a higher utility bill because your furnace/boiler needs to heat the air the that got lost up the chimney.

You sound like a good candidate for a wood stove.

 

[gzecc]

Really? I do enjoy some of the heat when sitting about 5 feet away. After about an hour that heat is really hot sitting right in front of it. The tempered glass can handle that?

You can open the doors after your really cranking. Realize, most of the room air is being sucked up the chimney. But for ambiance its nice to have a roaring fire going.

 

[BurnIt13]

Oak it will be ready to burn in the 2015-16 season if split now. Buy some ash, beech and maple mix now that is already split for next fall.

That's 18-20 months until burning if split right now. Around here that wont cut it unless the splits are slightly larger than kindling. 2016-2017 to be less than or equal 20%.

 

[begreen]

This is for a fireplace, not a modern woodstove.

 

[gzecc]

Thanks for the wood splitting article. My technique there is pretty good it seems. I just need help with all the stacking and seasoning I guess.

In that article it says that oak is easiest to split when green. Surprising. I thought seasoned would be easier.

So if I chop some of those rounds and store them under a tarp for this summer, do you think that will do the trick for next winter? @weatherguy, you said split it, stack it now, and cover it in October? What good will covering it do in October when I'm going to be using it a month later?

Water on the surface of the wood has very little effect on seasoning. Appropriate seasoning is removing water from the interior of the wood. The air and suns heat, effect the seasoning greater than some rain water on the surface. The rain water on the surface of the wood evaporates after a couple of dry days.