kiln dried wood

[Grisu]

Now that's confusing. I thought when you open the door it burns faster, not slower?

The in-rushing room air will cool the stove and the hot flue gases will go up the chimney. You would be converting your stove into an open fireplace.

 

[branchburner]

Now that's confusing. I thought when you open the door it burns faster, not slower?

Cracking the door (or opening the ashpan door) adds air and increases draft, but a fully opened door generally kills the draft... many stove burn like an open fireplace when their front doors are open, with a slow, gentle fire.

 

[Charles2]

... many stove burn like an open fireplace when their front doors are open, with a slow, gentle fire.

Is that dangerous to do without a screen?

 

[rsw49]

Exactly. The range varies a lot according to who has tested kiln dried lumber, but an average is about 12% according to building science corp. When OMNI labs tested 2x4s and 4x4s that had acclimatized they were getting 18-20%.

Begreen, Thanks for pointing that out. I usually deal with lumber in relation to furniture making. And have always read kiln operators shoot for 6-8%. I usually find furniture grade lumber in that range. I just did a search and found a source that said construction grade lumber is dried to 15% to 19%. I did not know that. Where I live indoor moisture content of wood ranges from 7 % to 10%. And outdoor equilibrium moisture content ranges from 12.8% to 15.7%. Although I do not have the scientific expertise to argue with OMNI labs the Forest Service has charts for several hundred cities across the US listing the EMC for all twelve months. There are only a few places for a few months out of the year that have moisture levels as high as OMNI cites. Hard to believe the acclimatized moisture content could be that high. I guess no hope for 15% firewood!!

 

[begreen]

Not out here, lol, but very possibly just 90 miles east of here. Much drier east of the Cascades.

 

[Charles2]

Charles 2 is correct. Kiln dried wood may come out of the kiln at 18 percent, but, once it sets around, in the wood pile for a while, it will absorb moisture from the air, and it will attain the same moisture content as any other wood in the wood pile.
I found this out the hard way. I ordered a truck load of kiln dried Southern Yellow Pine, tongue and grooved, to make the ceiling for a log house I was building. I had the rafters up, and was going to nail the t and g pine on top for the ceiling.
The wood sat out for a week or two before I could get it installed, this in the humid air of central Georgia.
I installed the ceiling. Several months later, the house was finished. I cranked up the wood stove and that wood started to get skinny on me. The tongues were 3/8 inch wide, in many cases, the tongues pulled right out of the grooves. So that, a 1x6 shrank a half inch!

I may be correct, but I don't think you are telling the whole story. As I recall, a fully saturated (green) SYP 1 x 6 will only shrink 1/8 inch as it dries to equilibrium moisture content, which is about 11% here in GA.

 

[begreen]

Odd, I thought GA was a pretty humid location. What is the source of the data?

 

[Charles2]

Odd, I thought GA was a pretty humid location. What is the source of the data?

It's definitely a humid location, but even if you put a 0% moisture content 1 x 6 in a bucket of water, it would never swell 1/2 inch like Simonkenton claimed.

 

[Grisu]

For equilibrium moisture content of wood in 1997 see table 12-1: http://www.conradlumberco.com/pdfs/ch12_Drying_Control_of_Moisture.pdf
Atlanta: 13% to 14%

Regarding the question why not to burn kiln-dried wood in the VL-17: Maybe a call to Englander would answer that?

 

[branchburner]

Is that dangerous to do without a screen?

Same as a fireplace: sometimes you can get away without a screen, but best to use caution. Especially when burning softwoods, which I find much more likely to crackle and pop and toss embers out of the fireplace on onto the hearth (or floor, or rug, or furniture). But once a fire is down to coals very little popping and shifting of logs occurs.

 

[ddahlgren]

Thank the EPA for not letting you shut the stove down should you need to do that. In their effort to not let you burn too slow they have also taken away the only way to easily shut down a run away fire. Just more over reach by well meaning idiots that don't think things through to all possibilities. I would take apart a new stove and make the stops go away so if needed a complete shut down it is there. My stove is from the 80's does have a burn tube secondary air and they light off well but can easily burn old lumber and not have it run away crazy hot. Going to a stove this year much older that will burn some wood but made for coal and will be the fuel of choice this winter with 12 to 24 hours between dealing with it it, no soot no creosote a little fly ash that is safe enough to be used in building materials like concrete and asphalt among others. Anthracite is a very clean fuel though more costly that wood but frees up a bunch of time.

 

[Charles2]

Same as a fireplace: sometimes you can get away without a screen, but best to use caution. Especially when burning softwoods, which I find much more likely to crackle and pop and toss embers out of the fireplace on onto the hearth (or floor, or rug, or furniture). But once a fire is down to coals very little popping and shifting of logs occurs.

Does anybody make screens for wood stoves?

 

[branchburner]

Does anybody make screens for wood stoves?

Generally the stove either comes with that option (rarely) or not. Mine does, and some Jotul models do. I believe the 1970s VC Defiant I grew up with did, but maybe we just burned with the doors open and no screen -- I can't recall.

If the particular model does not come with a screen option, I suppose one could be custom made, if you couldn't find a fireplace screen that could be adapted for that purpose. But burning with a screen not specifically provided by the stove manufacturer likely runs counter to their instructions for operation.

 

[Simonkenton]

That's funny, I was there, I installed the roof, and I watched the boards shrink, in some cases 1/2 inch. Now. y'all are telling me it didn't happen.
I was mistaken about one thing, they were 2x6s not 1x6s.

I did use wood from the same sawmill for the floors of that house, t and g yellow pine 1x6s, kiln dried. Same thing, the boards set around for a week or so, under roof, before I could install them.
I didn't realize how much moisture they would absorb.

Months later when I fired up the wood stove, each board shrunk at least 1/8 inch. So, there was at least a 1/8 inch crack between the boards, in some cases more than that.
I learned the hard way, kiln dried wood will absorb moisture from the air.

 

[bobdog2o02]

Now that's confusing. I thought when you open the door it burns faster, not slower?

Opening the door creates an inrush of cold air. The visible flame might increase but the cold inrush should cool the firebox and chimney.

 

[Charles2]

That's funny, I was there, I installed the roof, and I watched the boards shrink, in some cases 1/2 inch. Now. y'all are telling me it didn't happen.
I was mistaken about one thing, they were 2x6s not 1x6s.

I did use wood from the same sawmill for the floors of that house, t and g yellow pine 1x6s, kiln dried. Same thing, the boards set around for a week or so, under roof, before I could install them.
I didn't realize how much moisture they would absorb.

Months later when I fired up the wood stove, each board shrunk at least 1/8 inch. So, there was at least a 1/8 inch crack between the boards, in some cases more than that.
I learned the hard way, kiln dried wood will absorb moisture from the air.

2 x 6 vs. 1 x 6 would not make any difference. Dude, I'm just saying that there has to be more to the story. Like maybe someone lied to you about being kiln dried? Even if your wood started out oven-dry (which it didn't) and then was soaked in buckets to the point of fiber saturation (30% or so, which it wasn't), this table and many others like it show that the wood could not possibly have experienced 1/2" of shrinkage: http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/woodmove.shtml . 1/8" is a lot more plausible.

 

[ddahlgren]

My oak floors gain and lose the gap between them about a bit less than 1/16 going from summer 90 degrees and high humidity to dead of winter with stove running but only 2 1/4 wide per board. Saying that they are 100 years old more or less