Convince me its okay to burn pine

I burned about a cord of eastern white pine last year.
Supposedly it seasons in 6 months but I usually let logs/rounds sit until the sap dries out and then split it so it usually ends up at least a year.

For crying out loud just try burning some fresh pitch some time. It burns like candle wax. It's fuel when it dries out, just like the wood.


If you've never burned any I highly recommend only filling the stove half way the first time to learn to adjust the air properly, you'll probably find you need a bit less air. My first load every morning is pine as it burns hot and fast and gets things warmed up quick. I'll keep burning pine if I'm gonna sit around and can load the stove twice as often. If I want a long burn then I load maple or oak.

I live down here on the GA/SC border in Augusta, GA. Cut a cord of longleaf pine from a storm salvage and removed the heart from every wheel. The remaining pine was split and stacked. Nobody around here burns this stuff except me (so many snobs around here and I want to keep this secret to myself). Burns hot with no smoke with my gasifying wood stove. Maybe a half cup of soot cleaned from stove pipe which remained from burning dried hardwood as well. Split the heart into 1/2 inch. fire starters. Will continue to cut and store as an alternative firewood source. I'm convinced that having a diversity of dried wood (<20% moisture) including pine is a good thing. Andrew

I'm a bit shocked to see a major stove producer like Jotul trying to scare people about burning pine. The following extract is taken from one of their guides:

"Some new wood stove owners attempt to burn pine as the wood is cheap, but Pine should always be avoided as the wood builds up harmful deposits within the flue. Overtime, the use has been known to cause fires. The wood is ideal for outdoor fires only as there is no risk of the harmful buildup in the great outdoors."

The full guide can be found here:

https://jotul.com/uk/guides/how-to-buy-the-right-logs-for-your-wood-burning-stove

After reading their guide my opinion of Jotul has dropped a couple rungs on the ladder.

I was taught as a young fellah to mix pine throughout the woodpile, so that when you moved wood to the boiler room during burn season you'd always have some "nuggets" to split up into kindling. I know some folks that have "pine only" stacks to do more or less the same thing. My current boiler is dual-fuel, so I use all pine sometimes to get a coal fire going. Just had my chimney inspected last week and she's still clean as a whistle. I stay away from it in the fireplace because it does crackle a bit, and my kids like to sit close to the fire.

Blowndiffuser said:

I'm a bit shocked to see a major stove producer like Jotul trying to scare people about burning pine. The following extract is taken from one of their guides:

"Some new wood stove owners attempt to burn pine as the wood is cheap, but Pine should always be avoided as the wood builds up harmful deposits within the flue. Overtime, the use has been known to cause fires. The wood is ideal for outdoor fires only as there is no risk of the harmful buildup in the great outdoors."

The full guide can be found here:

https://jotul.com/uk/guides/how-to-buy-the-right-logs-for-your-wood-burning-stove

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I wonder if that is something new or just for Europe . . . I don't recall anything other than an admonishment to burn seasoned wood in my Oslo owner's manual.

I burn 90% spruce, 10% birch.

Been running a wood stove for about 40yrs.

Only reason I don't burn much pine is the ample supplies of better hardwoods around here and in my woodlot.

I also have a lot of pine and will burn it if convenient ie it's big enough and falls over

firefighterjake said:

I wonder if that is something new or just for Europe . . . I don't recall anything other than an admonishment to burn seasoned wood in my Oslo owner's manual.

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I’m not sure, I know the firewood sellers over here have a hard time convincing their customers to burn any type of softwood. It does seem a strange endorsement of hardwood especially as hardwood prices are starting to go up.

Blowndiffuser said:

I’m not sure, I know the firewood sellers over here have a hard time convincing their customers to burn any type of softwood. It does seem a strange endorsement of hardwood especially as hardwood prices are starting to go up.

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Same here, in eastern USA. But you have to remember the north and west part of this content are dominated by conifers. You're not going to find much hardwood, in some of these areas.

I guess they'd better not buy a Jotul.

My Jotul F45 eats pine for breakfast, always has, always will Lots of pine trees around, here's a photo about a 10 minute walk from my house, and another about a 10 minute drive (during the fires we had in Summer 2017).

So true. I burned Wood Stove for 7 Winters. Never once with anything but Pine. Red Fir is the Best. Then What I call White Pine (got 10ac of it). But alas my Blaze King King is gone to another home and Pellet Stove in it's place. Wife complained all the time about ash and such mess stuff. Harmon XXV replaced it. I hope guy who got it knows what he got. Great Stove. Trick to Pine was load up the stove with as much as I could cram in it. Get it into Zone (Cat Stove) and damper down to Medium on Dial. Burn all night just fine. Lots of Heat. Too much in Living Room. Pellet burner is nicer! Able to control heat. No need to open windows or doors.

Dataman said:

So true. I burned Wood Stove for 7 Winters. Never once with anything but Pine. Red Fir is the Best. Then What I call White Pine (got 10ac of it). But alas my Blaze King King is gone to another home and Pellet Stove in it's place. Wife complained all the time about ash and such mess stuff. Harmon XXV replaced it. I hope guy who got it knows what he got. Great Stove. Trick to Pine was load up the stove with as much as I could cram in it. Get it into Zone (Cat Stove) and damper down to Medium on Dial. Burn all night just fine. Lots of Heat. Too much in Living Room. Pellet burner is nicer! Able to control heat. No need to open windows or doors.

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Waitaminnit... there are many here who would have one believe pine doesn't make ash.

I find a surprising amount of variety between (at least the local) pines in terms of how they handle in a stove. "Bull" pine (Gray, Digger, whatever) is rough... I have a huge one in my backyard that's ready to come down, and I'm not sure I want it. On the other end of the spectrum is some weird hybrid at my father's house that produces wonderful, clean-burning splits (Ponderosa/Monterey maybe? Some mutant?). Between these extremes, Ponderosa, White, and Jeffrey burn the way I think "normal" pine would.

There are tons of Sugar pine up here too, but I don't think I've ever burned it. Still, "pine" can vary widely in my experience.

Adabiviak said:

I find a surprising amount of variety between (at least the local) pines in terms of how they handle in a stove. "Bull" pine (Gray, Digger, whatever) is rough... I have a huge one in my backyard that's ready to come down, and I'm not sure I want it. On the other end of the spectrum is some weird hybrid at my father's house that produces wonderful, clean-burning splits (Ponderosa/Monterey maybe? Some mutant?). Between these extremes, Ponderosa, White, and Jeffrey burn the way I think "normal" pine would.

There are tons of Sugar pine up here too, but I don't think I've ever burned it. Still, "pine" can vary widely in my experience.

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We are probably burning the same types of wood. Never burned any Bull pine that I am aware of but try some Lodgepole. It burns closer to hardwood vs White and Ponderosa. Sugarpine burns better also sorta like Doug Fir.

When I went on the Travis Industries factory tour, their wood supply was several cords of 100% Douglas Fir.

We have mainly Oak where we live, both red and white. I am always on the look out for Pine. If I can get my hands on it, I will get it. Love Pine.

Osage: 30 MBTU/cord
Hickory: 25 - 28 MBTU/cord
White oak: 24 MBTU/cord
Locust: 24 MBTU/cord
Red oak: 22 MBTU/cord
Ash: 21 - 22 MBTU/cord

Pine: 14 MBTU/cord
Fir: 13-14 MBTU/cord

If you live in the east, where at least one of the hardwoods above is sure to be in plentiful supply, I just can’t see wasting the time to split and stack even one cord of pine or fir.

Ashful said:

Waitaminnit... there are many here who would have one believe pine doesn't make ash.

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It sure doesn’t make much, i’ll tell you that. I think i cleaned ash out of my stove 3-4 times all last winter, and that was it.

Ashful said:

Waitaminnit... there are many here who would have one believe pine doesn't make ash.

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Definitely been my experience that pine leaves far less ash. Waaaay less ash than anything else I utilize. Almost unbelievable at times. Possibly just the type in my backyard?

Jazzberry said:

We are probably burning the same types of wood.

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I see your location as "next to Yosemite" - we are almost certainly burning the same types; I live up the highway 108 corridor (downtown Yosemite, like the base of El Cap, is 100 minutes from my house, so I imagine we're drawing from the same local biome.

Sugar pine is rare treat for me... I almost never find it freshly fallen enough where it hasn't begun to rot (and most of them are huge, so the occasional standing dead is beyond my ken to drop).

Im down here in East Texas where abundant supply of Pine. In our lake house we have old Ben Franklin type stove, I had 8 pines cut, all were close to 80 ft tall. Had the tree man cut 1 of them into 1 ft long pieces and stacked for 2 years under cover. They burn great I mix in with some oak and hackberry. sure keeps us warm in winter.

I've burned pine many times and when it becomes available, I welcome it to my wood pile. As for ash, I have found that NIELS may very, very little ash. NIELS are made of all softwoods. When I burn Doug or Red fir or Tamarack, I can burn nearly a cord before the King needs emptying.

So if you have a load of pine and you deliver, make a left at the "Y" and dump in in my yard....I'll stack it.

I luv pine!