popping- sign of wet wood?

[iceisasolid]

I don't have a moisture meter as of yet, but I imagine if I can see stuff bubbling out of the cut end of wood, then I probably don't need a meter. Some of my wood is really dry (so it seems) others are wet on the outside about 1 inch. When I load my wood, it pops and crackles something fierce for about 30 minutes. It is red fir. The person I bought the wood from cut it this summer from dead standing trees, but never covered the wood pile and I found out split it prior to delivering it. We have had a lot of moisture here in my neck of Idaho.

I can get my stove temps up to 500+ pretty easy and it stays plus 500 for a couple of hours then cruises at about 400-500 for a few more hours. Burn times are 8-12 hours (if you include only placing wood on a bed of hot coals to restart the stove). When it is time to reload there are lots of coals, which I burn down with small split wood every few loads prior to loading some more of the big splits.

I have 2 questions:

1. is the excessive intial popping/coaling due to moisture or does red for have this intrisic property?

2. Am I screwing up my newly replaced catalytic unit by burning wetter wood? This is my wood source for this season and I probably won't be needing to buy any more this season.

Thanks.
-Ray

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

Popping: Some types of wood are more prone to popping. Resins in fir can/will pop when heated rapidly. 'nature of the beast...
I wouldn't sweat the wood being wet on the outside.


I'm not a cat user so I'll wait for guesses from folks who have experience!

ATB,
Mike

 

[firefighterjake]

As ZZr7ky said many of the softwoods with pockets of resin tend to pop and snap . . . I almost hate to admit this, but sometimes when I am home during a cold, snowy weekend I'll actually put some pine, fir or spruce into my stove just for the snap, crackle and pop effect . . . on the flip side sometimes the sap hits the glass and leaves a sticky smear . . . until the secondary light show burns that away.