Hello all o was at the store today and my wife was just getting a fire going when I got home. I had a little plie of stuff that was to wet and didn't want to burn I just haven't got to hauling it back out side. Wellnsomenof that made it into the stove. I opened the door to move a few things around and I could hear the sizzling. It's my fault for having the wet stuff there and she didn't know. How bad is it to do this on accident once and a while.
Burning wet wood
- Thread starter Welderman85
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It seemed to brun ok it's just one round is sizzling water out of the ends. I put some real dry stuff around it
Bad LP
Minister of Fire
Touch0Gray
Member
Not true at all. Sap burns very well water doesn't burn at all.
But yeah one load of wet wood won't hurt a thing
Touch0Gray
Member
So green, sap soaked wood is less likely to contribute to creosote build-up than rain soaked wood?
The sap has absolutely no effect of creosote buildup. What causes creosote is the low temps of exhaust gasses caused by high moisture content.
Touch0Gray
Member
OK, I did not realize that, I mean I know hotter is better. Lemme ask you a question, when we first bought our land, there was an old timer down the road who had a chainsaw shop. He was born and raised in the farmhouse he lived in, probably 100 years ago by now. He told me that tossing an aluminum can into the fire (and I try to always keep it as hot as I can) would prevent buildup in the chimney, because some of the aluminum vaporizes, then condenses on the tile and the creosote flakes off, back into the stove and burns in there. Any truth to this? I have actually been doing it for decades and my chimney is really clean when I inspect it every fall. (about 40 feet, 8 x 12 clay, inside block, inside the house except above the roof) Anything on it flakes off into the stove thru the summer.
It can have a slight effect. But proper burning practices are far more important than an occasional can. That and dry fuel.
Now while I said sap has no effect you really can't have sap running in properly dried wood. So if you see wet sap on your wood it can't be dry enough to burn. But dried out sap is no problem at all.
And really hotter is only better to a certain point. After that you are just wasting BTUs up the chimney.
Everything I burn right now sizzles
won’t hurt as long as you start out hot to get moisture out and check your pipe regularly. Still should have dry wood but if you don’t have it you don’t have it.
won’t hurt as long as you start out hot to get moisture out and check your pipe regularly. Still should have dry wood but if you don’t have it you don’t have it.
Sawset
Minister of Fire
The first year here, everything sizzled. Silver maple, uncovered, rain soaked and snow covered. Slow to start, sometimes an hour with the door open trying to keep it going. Stove top temps were difficult to get over 400f. But - flue temps were maintained over 250-300f, well over that. Brushed the flue 4 times that year, and never got much of anything in the way of buildup. Fly ash buildup mostly, very minimal. Keep the flue temps up, keep monitoring, next year will be heaven when fires simmer on their own, love the ghost flames, stove top temps can really put out some heat, and easily attained at that.
Touch0Gray
Member
I must be doing ok, living in WI, been heating a 2500 square foot house with wood pretty much exclusively for 36 years, we designed and built the house ourselves with a wood heat in mind, the hearth is the core of the house, like I was saying on another thread, close to 30,000 pounds of masonry (estimated, based on 200 pounds per cubic foot). Built a good wood shed, burn almost entirely dead standing oak, elm and maple. Mostly aged over a year or more. We kinda made it up as we went, but common sense and working knowledge of tools and physics goes a long way.
Woody5506
Minister of Fire
I really just can't stand trying to get wood going that's sat out in the elements uncovered. Seems like around here, every wood stack I see has absolutely no cover. I guess I haven't figured out a way to efficiently burn water out of wood 
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