Been using kiln dried during these mild weeks and I have noticed that too often there is smoke out the chimney even when it is burning hot enough to shut down the air. Any idea why. Could it be too dry?
smoke from kiln dried
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Smoked
Feeling the Heat
Too dry runs a risk for over-fire and short burn times. Add your stove to your signature/profile so we know what you are running. Advertised kiln dried sometime is not that dry either
Do have a moisture meter?
Do have a moisture meter?What color is the smoke? If it's black it's too dry and off gassing quicker than the stove can keep up for the secondary burn. If it's white it's very possible the wood was kilned hot enough to kill the bugs but not truly dry the wood.
True kiln dried wood furniture type would be dried to 6% internal moisture content- That % will change abit as it sits afterwards and generally is too dry for stove use by itself as noted above. Kiln dried to 12-18 % would be good for stoves ( don't know any company that truley does that) . Raising the temp of the wood in a kiln to x degrees for x amount of time as specified by interstate transport is just bug killing which also allows for it to be sold for use in state and federal camp sites if certified. While it does dry the wood a bit that is not its purpose- so it becomes a buyer beware factor and the old advertising game of stretching the truth extremely thin. Note a moisture meter is your friend but beware that to get a proper reading the wood must be at room temperature throughout it's cross section and of course the piece needs to be split open and the meter pins inserted across the the grain on the fresh face just exposed.
Smoked
Feeling the Heat
I bet the room temp part is throwing some of us
Did not ever think about that. So to accurately check, bring the log inside, warm it up for a day, take it outside and split and check. 
What might be fun is to split and check at cold ambient temp them warm it up and resplit and check just to see how much it changes the reading. I make beer and hydrometer reading change with temp so even though this is an different beast, it is not surprising.
English BoB
Minister of Fire
I bet the room temp part is throwing some of us
Did you say "BEER ".......what type do you brew ?
bob
Smoked
Feeling the Heat
LOL I like making Belgian strong stuff and German beers that if named end in "ator". Have even aged a few on white oak from my wood pile
edyit
Minister of Fire
Smoked
Feeling the Heat
So, if you are going to spend x amount of time making a batch of 4% beer or 8% beer, why not do the 8%
Like CSS firewood here, if you paid yourself for your time it might not be worth it. In ingredients I can do about $.50 pints for a higher end stile beer. Definitely not worth my time to do stuff I can buy for the same price. This is OT and we will prolly get yelled at but I think the best balanced book I have read on it was Home Brewing For Dummies. If interested, check it out. Just like free heat, it is not free but it gives you more control
On topic, I wonder if most kiln dried out there is for campers who need bug free wood to transport not something intended for wood stoves?
edyit
Minister of Fire
ot: if i was going to make it myself it would be what i prefer drink, i really enjoy a tall cold hefeweizen on a hot summers day but thats just me, by all means make what you like
back on topic: i would guess that a lot of the kiln dried is just for transport. i've seen a load of it dropped off at my neighbors that was still steaming from coming out of the kiln...
back on topic: i would guess that a lot of the kiln dried is just for transport. i've seen a load of it dropped off at my neighbors that was still steaming from coming out of the kiln...
Yep, Kiln dried - x hours a x temp to kill bugs for interstate transport( in and out of quarantine areas as well) also allows you to sell it for use in parks if you got your system certified. that does not mean dried/ seasoned or whatever to an internal moisture content of 20% or less - buyer beware. Nice new pallets are not all that dry- go for the older ones.
Thanks all--I kind of forgot about this after I posted it so I appreciate all your responses. My stove is an Alderlea T5. I suspect that the problem is the wood is too dry. Some of it feels downright featherweight and when I burn it alone I cannot put too much in or it spikes in temp and takes a while to go down. Weirdly it seems to give off dark smoke right in the stove as it is heating up. I have to check the color of the smoke outside again and also put the moisture meter on it to be more scientific but I decided to combine it with my air dried wood each time--especially because some of that is not quite dry enough so they seem to balance off.
PS The weather is ridiculously warm--I am still starting all my fires from scratch because it is not cold enough to keep them going--only one or two loads a day/night. Better for getting ahead on next year's wood since I was a bit short for this winter which is why I got the kiln dried in the first place. Hopefully next year--no need for kiln dried!!
Kwehme09
Member
It's a Non-Cat stove, so why would it not be showing smoke? My guess is that with the KD you're getting more combustion, even when you choke it down. This leads to more smoke. I might try cutting the air off sooner to keep from having a whole bunch of combustion going on at on at once with low air and a dirty burn.
I burnt 100 cord of Kiln dried a year in a GARN wood boiler. The warm weather burns and smoke behavior did seem weird at times.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
I bet the room temp part is throwing some of us
I can guarantee that when I stick a moisture meter in a stick of wood at -40dF it reads zero percent MC. At -20dF, it still reads zero percent. For conifers and birches -in general- you can warm them to +55dF (happens to be the temperature of my garage) and then add one percent to what ever the meter says for what the reading would be at the +70dF most meters are calibrated for.
I stopped homebrewing when I got married. I had Firestone's pale #31 pretty well nailed. They haven't put it back in production since the hop shortage ended, but I could ;-)
Smoked
Feeling the Heat
I like Firestone beers! Hop prices have gone through the roof for home brewers
I like cold but -40 is way too cold. I know ice can sublimate in cold dry air and basically skip the liquid state, how does that impact drying times there?
Smoked
Feeling the Heat
Non-cat EPA stoves can and do burn very clean with no smoke. The only thing they cant do is low and slow like the cats do. Basically the top portion of the firebox needs to stay close to 1000F instead of just having a catalyst at those temps. Mine has never smoked when the firebox is full of dancing flames
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
If I fell a spruce in October, have it split and stacked by Thanksgiving it will be close, but not quite to FSP (~30%MC) at the spring melt.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
My wife likes that weak... err wheat stuff. [emoji14]
Take the beer talk over here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/index.php?posts/2010385/
Disclaimer: I'll drink Hefeweizen while mowing the lawn in July.
Just in case anyone is curious about my original question from 3 months ago--not about beer--I don't drink the stuff--after 3 months of burning this kiln dried and reading a couple of other threads on very dry wood I have come to the conclusion that the wood is indeed very dry and off gasses faster than the secondary can burn at least at the beginning from a cold stove. Thus, smoke up the chimney at least until it gets a good bed of coals. Also, in order to prevent spiking temps (since it kind of burns like kindling) my son developed a new technique. Starting turning the air down before it is fully fired, whereas with 2 or 3 year dried hard wood you would want the wood to be fully charred before damping down. Then have it fully closed before all the wood has been charred. This keeps the pipe temp in the low red zone and keeps the stove top reasonable. Hope that makes sense. Trial and error and patience required.
Trying to figure out why I am getting smoke when I burn envi blocks. Not black but white. When I leave for work around 6:30 and take a look I see smoke. Fire going nicely and fully dampened. Maybe turning it down too late. Still trying to figure it out. These are the blocks I am talking about. about 2/3rd down the page. http://www.ctpellet.com/wood_pellet_products.aspx burning the blocks not 8" Cannot imagine the mc being that high
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