Wood for Jotul 550

We have burned about a dozen fires with some left over ash in our Jotul 550 which was installed a couple months ago. I am getting ready to buy some wood for next year, will likely buy some split and "seasoned", so will likely be stuck with the typical 16-18" length. For the future, I may buy log length and cut and split myself. My first thought was to cut them long, 20" or so, to take advantage of the 24" max log length on the 550. But I got to thinking that maybe I would be better off with short splits and loading the logs back-to-front.

Ignoring the fact that cutting short means I would need to make twice as many cuts, does anyone have a preference/advice for how to load a Jotul 550?

I cut most of my stuff to 20".

I also cut a bunch of shorties so that I can start my fires using a lean-to arrangement. I do that by placing the shorty left of center, front to back, then put 2-3 pines next to the shorty, add two handfulls of kinding, and then lay 2-3 20" splits left to right on the short and over the pine cones and kindling. I restart frequently, usually after pulling ashes, and find this to be relatively effective approach.

Were I you, I'd cut everything I intend to burn this winter and next winter short for a different reason than loading. Short pieces will have more surface area per unit volume, and will therefore dry more quickly than standard 18-20" lengths. The cost of the extra cutting time is worth having the wood ready a bit sooner in my view.

I'd also be looking to get a load of hard maple now so that you've got a shot at using your stove this winter. I wouldn't fool around trying to buy oak with the intention to use the stuff this winter, it'll likely be too green to burn well with just one summer of seasoning (regardless of what the guy selling it says).

We've run a 550 for four seasons so far and love it. It's fairly robust and forgiving, but you need dry wood to use it effectively. It's a great stove, and it'll give you great service if you do a few basic things right.

I have an Avalon Olympic 1190 and it rated to use up 24” logs BUT I cut mine from 16” to 20” and average length is 18”. I do because if you add more wood, it hard to put the wood to fit the hole. I don’t add too wood either because if I do, it gets too hot. I usually add wood ever 3 – 5 hours and three splits or so. I get in bed and add wood at 10:00 pm, then up at night about 3:00 am to add wood, then do it again at 6:00 am when we get up.

Robert

I have the Jotul F500 and also do what you intend to do, buy log length and buck and split. On my first load about 5 yrs ago I did not go to 20", stuck to the 16-18" sizes, which was fine for handling it. On the second grapple load I split up the load 50/50 on both size splits. I found I had longer burns and a little more heat. I have about 2.5 cord of that wood left and have gone to the 20" splits ever since. I also have a Jotul 602 that takes much smaller sizes, alot of the off cuts from the larger sizes end up working for that stove. It's a win win...

Thanks for the responses everyone. I think I will stick with my plan then. I have ~1/3 cord of ash, that has been split and covered for more than 2 years (from previous owner). They are very short splits, maybe 12" or so as he was stuffing them into an old pot-belly type stove.

For next winter, I will purchase, probably 2 cords, of supposedly seasoned mix hardwoods. It will likely be 16-18 inch typical cut.There are a couple of places advertising 18 month seasoned wood, but I suspect it means it cured for 18 months in log length, then they cut it and split it and called it seasoned. Still not sure I buy the 18 months, maybe a year or a winter would be believable though.

For the winter of 2014 and beyond, I an trying to find source log length wood that I can cut myself. Anyone know of a good source in the Oxford CT area? I've seen a tree company up in the danbury area advertising free truck loads of rounds and $50/cord log length, but they wont bring it down my way...

Look in the phone book for land clearing companies. A lot of times they ate looking to sell of log length cordwood. Also, if there are some smaller saw mills in the area you can check with them. I utilize a local sawmil down the road for me. Too bad that company will not deliver your way- 50 dollars a cord is a great price!

Make sure you use this year's phone book. A lot of those found in a phone book from 2 - 3 years ago are likely no longer in business. Building is at a "dead slow" speed around here, to use a shipping term.