So I took off for work this morning around 5:30. Still had a solid bed of coals in the stove, and the house was a balmy 72 so I left well alone. I get a call from my wife about 7:45 as she is about to put the kids on the bus, and she tells me the top of the stove is "red" and the magnetic thermometer is pegged. After an expletive or so I run home - luckily, I only work about a mile from home - to check it out. By the time I got home the redness was gone and the temp had crept down to a very mild 800 degrees (yikes!). No warping, no funky smells, no major issues, but it was obvious what had happened.
As it turns out, she plopped 6 hefty splits of 3 year old oak onto a nice bed of coals and let her rip. I'm guessing it was somewhere in the 700 plus degree range when she decided to dial things down, and it shot up from there. Lesson learned here, on my part too. Suffice it to say, I don't have 8 cords of 3 year old oak to burn this year, and didn't last year either. I'll need eight or so cords to get through this year, and 90% of that is a mix of cherry, oak, and mulberry split between 18 and 6 months ago. I'll be fine, but today was my first glimpse of just how nuclear well-seasoned hardwood can be. I heard all of the stories, of course. But last year we burned a lot of slab wood and some reasonably well seasoned hardwood, but nothing bone dry. Everything was just at or over about 20% MC. Not green, but not ideal. It was a struggle to get the kind of heat we needed out of the stove, although I'm admittedly asking it to do more than it should. We kept nice and warm, but I certainly didn't have to worry about overfireing the stove. It was a bit of an eye-opening experience, in a good way. I just thought I would share with some of the newer guys that there really, really is a huge performance difference between truly well-seasoned wood, and "decent" wood. Assuming that you're burning the former, pay attention to the stove and enjoy!
As it turns out, she plopped 6 hefty splits of 3 year old oak onto a nice bed of coals and let her rip. I'm guessing it was somewhere in the 700 plus degree range when she decided to dial things down, and it shot up from there. Lesson learned here, on my part too. Suffice it to say, I don't have 8 cords of 3 year old oak to burn this year, and didn't last year either. I'll need eight or so cords to get through this year, and 90% of that is a mix of cherry, oak, and mulberry split between 18 and 6 months ago. I'll be fine, but today was my first glimpse of just how nuclear well-seasoned hardwood can be. I heard all of the stories, of course. But last year we burned a lot of slab wood and some reasonably well seasoned hardwood, but nothing bone dry. Everything was just at or over about 20% MC. Not green, but not ideal. It was a struggle to get the kind of heat we needed out of the stove, although I'm admittedly asking it to do more than it should. We kept nice and warm, but I certainly didn't have to worry about overfireing the stove. It was a bit of an eye-opening experience, in a good way. I just thought I would share with some of the newer guys that there really, really is a huge performance difference between truly well-seasoned wood, and "decent" wood. Assuming that you're burning the former, pay attention to the stove and enjoy!
