I'm wondering if anyone has had a problem like this - I'm at my wits end! I bought a new Yosemite cast iron woodstove (mahogany finish) in April and had alot of problems with the installation, including water leak at ceiling where chimney was installed. After many, many visits from the installers I was fed up and ended up having a roofer come to fix the leak (there were 2 layers of shingles on the roof - not sure if this could have been a problem with the initial installation?). Anyway, one problem that I'm still having is that there is a brownish-black, sticky substance showing up on the floor, under two of the legs every time I have a good fire going. The installers said they had no idea what it could be and told me to just wipe it up with a cleaner. It's very, very sticky and hard to remove. The stove has a side door and this goopy stuff appears to also be leaking from the bottom of this door onto a ledge under it as well. Has anyone ever had this problem or would you have any idea what it could be?
Problem with my wood
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Well, I've been informed that the gooey stuff is liquid creosote and I should get better wood and burn hotter fires. My next question is how do I know if the wood is dry enough and good for burning in my stove? The fellow I bought the wood from told me it was good for burning; he said he cut it a year ago and it was stored until this year. Sorry - this is a pretty basic question I guess but I'm new to all this.
Hi smokestack to make a long story short...wood doesn't start to season until it's cut&split;.
Right now the quick fix for you is re split into smaller sizes maybe mix with pallet wood or other available slab wood. To avoid this situation buy firewood a year or 2 ahead of time so your certain its seasoned. btw green unseasoned wood is usually less expensive as well.
...and keep in mind why you got the stove in the 1st place... 'affordable heat'. Wood is so inexpensive in comparison to fossil fuel there no reason ever to go cheap and stretch out wood to those creosote producing smoldering burns.
Right now the quick fix for you is re split into smaller sizes maybe mix with pallet wood or other available slab wood. To avoid this situation buy firewood a year or 2 ahead of time so your certain its seasoned. btw green unseasoned wood is usually less expensive as well.
...and keep in mind why you got the stove in the 1st place... 'affordable heat'. Wood is so inexpensive in comparison to fossil fuel there no reason ever to go cheap and stretch out wood to those creosote producing smoldering burns.
Yep, I second everything that SA7 said. Your wood sounds VERY unseasoned and/or your fire burning methods need some tweaking. What type of stove top temps are your running? How long does it take to get there? Do you see visual signs of bad wood, such as bubbling from the ends or can you hear any sizzling? How about your glass getting dirty?
Good advice from both you guys. Thanks for your time. This is such a great site - I'm so happy I found it! I'll split the wood I have now to see if it helps - does that mean the wood I bought that was suppose to be dry wood isn't dry enough because it's only cut into lengths? I have alot of trees on my property (oak, maple, poplar & balsam) so I'll make sure to cut some this summer - & split it!
BTW what about cutting up old dead trees that have fallen or are leaning over onto other healthy trees? I heard they'd be full of bugs and insects and I shouldn't use them - do you agree?
Excuse my ignorance but what is "pallet" wood & "slab" wood?
As for the stove top temperature ......man, I'm such a novice. The people I bought the stove from didn't say anything about temperatures or thermometers? There is no thermometer on the stove so I don't know how hot it's getting. Is that dangerous? I simply start the fire with the vents open, place some scrunched up newspaper on the bottom and top that with very small kindling and a small piece of split wood to start. Once that gets to a glowing coals stage I throw in a bigger piece of wood with some kindling and close the vents. If the fire starts to go out I open the vents again but if it doesn't I leave the vents closed and throw in more large logs when needed. I don't hear any sizzling or see any signs of bubbling but some of the logs burn VERY slowly and I have to throw in more kindling around it to get it going. The glass is extremely black all the time. Kind of made me wonder why they put a glass door there in the first place - I can never see anything through it anyway!
BTW what about cutting up old dead trees that have fallen or are leaning over onto other healthy trees? I heard they'd be full of bugs and insects and I shouldn't use them - do you agree?
Excuse my ignorance but what is "pallet" wood & "slab" wood?
As for the stove top temperature ......man, I'm such a novice. The people I bought the stove from didn't say anything about temperatures or thermometers? There is no thermometer on the stove so I don't know how hot it's getting. Is that dangerous? I simply start the fire with the vents open, place some scrunched up newspaper on the bottom and top that with very small kindling and a small piece of split wood to start. Once that gets to a glowing coals stage I throw in a bigger piece of wood with some kindling and close the vents. If the fire starts to go out I open the vents again but if it doesn't I leave the vents closed and throw in more large logs when needed. I don't hear any sizzling or see any signs of bubbling but some of the logs burn VERY slowly and I have to throw in more kindling around it to get it going. The glass is extremely black all the time. Kind of made me wonder why they put a glass door there in the first place - I can never see anything through it anyway!
Definitely sounds like wet wood. You can tell by placing a freshly split surface up against your cheek. If it feels cold and damp, it is 
. Or if you bang two splits together do they go thunk, or have a nice tone to them. Clunk is wet.
This is keeping the fire too cool which is blackening the glass and gunking up the stove and pipe. Get a couple bundles of store bought wood and try them out. It should be a whole different burning experience. Also, pick up a stove top thermometer. It will help you know how the stove is burning.
. Or if you bang two splits together do they go thunk, or have a nice tone to them. Clunk is wet. This is keeping the fire too cool which is blackening the glass and gunking up the stove and pipe. Get a couple bundles of store bought wood and try them out. It should be a whole different burning experience. Also, pick up a stove top thermometer. It will help you know how the stove is burning.
I'll try here to cut through some of the fog.
Wood from a seller is rarely seasoned and ready for burning.
Unsplit wood is never seasoned UNLESS is has been standing dead for a long time - and even that is no guarantee.
As a rule of thumb and very basically - wood should be split for 12 months before being burned. There are exceptions to that rule (thats another thread all in itself).
Bugs in wood does not make it bad unless the wood has degraded to the point of "punky" (soft and spongy). Split and dry the wood and the bugs will go away.
Pallet wood comes from breaking down loading pallets (think forklift), slab wood typically comes from a mill and is the cutoffs from the sides of a log.
Get yourself at a min. a stove top thermometer. A probe thermo is also recommended for the stack. These are the visual gauges that help to determine proper operating temps. Without them, you are just guessing.
When I hear that someone is having a problem with the fire dieing down but if they open the door the flames will come back - yeah, you guessed it - its the wood. It ain't seasoned properly. Add on the fact that your glass is always black and I KNOW that its your wood.
Wood from a seller is rarely seasoned and ready for burning.
Unsplit wood is never seasoned UNLESS is has been standing dead for a long time - and even that is no guarantee.
As a rule of thumb and very basically - wood should be split for 12 months before being burned. There are exceptions to that rule (thats another thread all in itself).
Bugs in wood does not make it bad unless the wood has degraded to the point of "punky" (soft and spongy). Split and dry the wood and the bugs will go away.
Pallet wood comes from breaking down loading pallets (think forklift), slab wood typically comes from a mill and is the cutoffs from the sides of a log.
Get yourself at a min. a stove top thermometer. A probe thermo is also recommended for the stack. These are the visual gauges that help to determine proper operating temps. Without them, you are just guessing.
When I hear that someone is having a problem with the fire dieing down but if they open the door the flames will come back - yeah, you guessed it - its the wood. It ain't seasoned properly. Add on the fact that your glass is always black and I KNOW that its your wood.
Ah, what a relief to know what's going on at last! I'm not sure if I'll be able to find really dry wood at this time of year but at least I know alot more about my woodstove than I did yesterday - thanks to you people! I'm glad to know about the spongy wood and insects too because I saw some like that in the wood I have. I think I'll just forget about using those pieces. Thanks again for all the great information!
Hey, watch who you are calling "people" %-P
Try a different supplier. Only get a small amount to test at first. Heck, if you explain your situation, a good dealer may allow you to take home an arm load as a test.
When you DO get good wood, your gonna be surprised at the resulted. Gar-own-teed.
Try a different supplier. Only get a small amount to test at first. Heck, if you explain your situation, a good dealer may allow you to take home an arm load as a test.
When you DO get good wood, your gonna be surprised at the resulted. Gar-own-teed.
No, there wee some logs but most of it was split. However, the majority of those were very large pieces. Sorry if I misled you - this is all very new to me. I've used up all the smaller split stuff and now I'm left with the large pieces and some logs.
You gotta crawl before you can walk smokestack so no worries, we have all been there more or less.
Tractor supply, Home depot, and Lowes, plus your local stove shop will have a cheap Rutland thermometer for around 15 bucks. Even Ace Hardware will have them for around the same price. Get one and put in on the stove top right in the middle, try to get the temps up to 450F and keep it there for most of the burn. Overall if you can heat up your stove to that temp quickly and with little smoke at startup, then you are burning well. Many people burn around 400-450F for a nice clean, long burn.
Wet wood, unseasoned wood will make that chimney smoke like a dragon, piss of your neighbors, pollute the air, give wood burners a bad rap, and put your house/family in a risky situation. Having slimy stuff outside means your chimney and stove is full of sticky, slimy creosote inside. When you have a hot fire and the pipe is coated with this creosote, that could easily start a chimney fire...how do I know this? Well first hand when it happened to me a while ago...like I said we have all been there more or less.
They key is having good wood. I would say to truly see how your stove should work, ask and see if the local stove guy will come over and show you how it is done, or there are a lot of good videos out there, some on Youtube, that shows you how. Do a search for John Gulland, the god of fire, as I call him
Here are a couple of links for his videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esOhChmdUq4&feature=channel
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzSiQ3dkgiw&feature=channel
He also has a video where he plays dumb and a lady shows him how to start a fire that is pretty good but I can't find that one
OK I actually did find it...you are a lucky man
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videos/Woodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv
Plus go to his website for a wealth of knowledge
http://www.woodheat.org/
This stuff will help you out a lot...
So start crawling and you'll be walking in no time ;-)
Cheers
Tractor supply, Home depot, and Lowes, plus your local stove shop will have a cheap Rutland thermometer for around 15 bucks. Even Ace Hardware will have them for around the same price. Get one and put in on the stove top right in the middle, try to get the temps up to 450F and keep it there for most of the burn. Overall if you can heat up your stove to that temp quickly and with little smoke at startup, then you are burning well. Many people burn around 400-450F for a nice clean, long burn.
Wet wood, unseasoned wood will make that chimney smoke like a dragon, piss of your neighbors, pollute the air, give wood burners a bad rap, and put your house/family in a risky situation. Having slimy stuff outside means your chimney and stove is full of sticky, slimy creosote inside. When you have a hot fire and the pipe is coated with this creosote, that could easily start a chimney fire...how do I know this? Well first hand when it happened to me a while ago...like I said we have all been there more or less.
They key is having good wood. I would say to truly see how your stove should work, ask and see if the local stove guy will come over and show you how it is done, or there are a lot of good videos out there, some on Youtube, that shows you how. Do a search for John Gulland, the god of fire, as I call him
Here are a couple of links for his videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esOhChmdUq4&feature=channel
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzSiQ3dkgiw&feature=channel
He also has a video where he plays dumb and a lady shows him how to start a fire that is pretty good but I can't find that one
OK I actually did find it...you are a lucky man
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videos/Woodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv
Plus go to his website for a wealth of knowledge
http://www.woodheat.org/
This stuff will help you out a lot...
So start crawling and you'll be walking in no time ;-)
Cheers
Sounds like time for an 8 lb splitting maul. But it may be better to get another delivery of wood from a reputable dealer that will guarantee dry wood (if you can find one) and save the current load for next year.
Thanks for the encouragement JFK and all the great information. I really appreciate you taking all that time to help me out. This site is truly amazing. I can't believe how much I've learned in one day! Thanks for those links - I'll definitely check them out. That's really good to know about the danger of burning unseasoned wood. Makes me nervous when I realize I've burnt some this season. What about those logs they sell that are suppose to clean your chimney of creosote while they burn? Do they really work? If so, I'll definitely get one immediately.
Hi BeGreen. I think you're right - I should save the wood I have for next year and try to get some good, seasoned wood to burn now.
I have to thank everyone for their great advice. After very careful selection of wood from the woodpile I just had two nights of burning wood in my new woodstove with no sticky, gooey stuff running out the side door AND thanks to the wet newspaper & ash trick I also enjoyed watching the fire within! Thanks to everyone! This site is amazing!
Did all of you guys miss this??
I think this might be the problem...
Your not heating your stove up enough. Im a newbie too so someone please correct me if i am wrong but I believe your not getting your stove hot enough before closing the intake.
Try this. Put in a couple splits let the fire get really blazing once you have a good coal bed and hot stove, fill the stove up. Let her get roaring a little then close your vent halfway. it should still be fireing good. you can shut it down more once you;ve got a good coal bed and are producing a hot fire. Dont smolder your wood, burn it. If you dont get the stove hot enough you will deposit creosote especially if youve got semi seasoned wood.
I think this might be the problem...
smokestack said:
smokestack said:
Your not heating your stove up enough. Im a newbie too so someone please correct me if i am wrong but I believe your not getting your stove hot enough before closing the intake.
Try this. Put in a couple splits let the fire get really blazing once you have a good coal bed and hot stove, fill the stove up. Let her get roaring a little then close your vent halfway. it should still be fireing good. you can shut it down more once you;ve got a good coal bed and are producing a hot fire. Dont smolder your wood, burn it. If you dont get the stove hot enough you will deposit creosote especially if youve got semi seasoned wood.
smokestack said:
Yeah you want a good HOT base fire and coal bed. Otherwise you snuff the fire out and make smoke. Go outsite and look at your chimney and once your fires going well you should see zero smoke. or almost zero smoke.
Man, I have so much to learn! It never occurred to me to go outside to check what was coming out the chimney. I'll do that today - very interesting. Man, if I get through this winter without burning the house down I'll be lucky! This site is just amazing - there's so much information it will take me ages to sort through it all!
The little Yosemite stove is in the Master bedroom upstairs. We're trying to go without using the furnace to heat the upstairs and, well....it's been quite a learning experience - and a little chilly some nights. It was worth it though to think that we're just a little less dependent on that oil tank downstairs! I had a couple of good overnight burns this week thanks to all the help I've had from this forum. I'm on hold now though - I've got to get some good, dry, split wood - a bit of a challenge at this time of year. I've got alot more learning to do but it feels great finding out so much about how to properly burn and heat with it.
I have a Findlay Oval (Elmira) Cookstove downstairs in the kitchen/living area but never really learned to use it properly. We bought it about 20 years ago and it was more for appearances really. It did get us through a 9 day power outage though! We cooked on it, heated water on it and heated the house with it! I cringe when I think of that now though because I realize we didn't have a clue how to use it properly - or what kind of wood to burn! Lucky we didn't have a chimney fire. I had a WETT inspection done on it last year and they installed a heat shield behind it. Maybe once I'm educated about the little Yosemite upstairs I'll tap into the expertise of everyone here to learn how to use that one properly too. Thanks so much to everyone in this forum!
The little Yosemite stove is in the Master bedroom upstairs. We're trying to go without using the furnace to heat the upstairs and, well....it's been quite a learning experience - and a little chilly some nights. It was worth it though to think that we're just a little less dependent on that oil tank downstairs! I had a couple of good overnight burns this week thanks to all the help I've had from this forum. I'm on hold now though - I've got to get some good, dry, split wood - a bit of a challenge at this time of year. I've got alot more learning to do but it feels great finding out so much about how to properly burn and heat with it.
I have a Findlay Oval (Elmira) Cookstove downstairs in the kitchen/living area but never really learned to use it properly. We bought it about 20 years ago and it was more for appearances really. It did get us through a 9 day power outage though! We cooked on it, heated water on it and heated the house with it! I cringe when I think of that now though because I realize we didn't have a clue how to use it properly - or what kind of wood to burn! Lucky we didn't have a chimney fire. I had a WETT inspection done on it last year and they installed a heat shield behind it. Maybe once I'm educated about the little Yosemite upstairs I'll tap into the expertise of everyone here to learn how to use that one properly too. Thanks so much to everyone in this forum!
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