Do you dry wood in IBC totes?

[williaty]

I’m going to start using IBC tote frames to hold my firewood while it dries. I know some of you dry your wood this way because I’ve seen pictures, so I want to benefit from your experience.

1) Do you stack the wood properly or just jumble it in as you throw it off the splitter?
2) With however you do it, how long does it take to get most wood under 20% MC (in other words, is it as fast as stacking it in rows)?
3) If you stack, how tightly do you fill the tote? I’m cutting at 15” long, which technically gives me 3 rows fitting in an IBC frame. However, they’d be pretty much end-to-end in there. 2 rows would leave a >10” airspace between the rows, which might aid drying.

Is there anything else I should think about?

 

[Applesister]

What do these totes look like?

 

[williaty]

 

[TedyOH]

Perfect... especially if you have a machine with forks to move / rotate stock.
I work for a chemical distributors that sells the full totes, always wondered (other than recycling) what companies and people did with the empties.

 

[Mike Z]

I'd want to make sure that air could flow through out the pile. From a physics perspective, the jumble would probably have better airflow than a tight stack of 3 deep. That said, if you go by the rule that for every minute spent building the stack you'll spend 5 minutes admiring the stack, then a jumble probably won't cut it. If you stack horizontally around the edge of the cage and have some loose vertical pieces in the middle, then you may get air flow, dry wood and something to admire. If too tightly packed, then the interior pieces may not dry, especially if the top is uncovered so that rain water seeps in.

 

[Applesister]

Oh...those things
I would love to get ahold of some of them. I would just toss wood in hodge podge. It will dry better loose with airflow. Bending over and fussing would counter the benefit of convenience of the cage features.
Then you might as well just stack the wood.

 

[TedyOH]

You can stack them safely 2 high as well, (3 if you are brave) talk about a space saver.

 

[sportbikerider78]

If I had those and a way to move them, I would. They would be so easy to tarp cover.

 

[Longstreet]

Perfect... especially if you have a machine with forks to move / rotate stock.
I work for a chemical distributors that sells the full totes, always wondered (other than recycling) what companies and people did with the empties.

Rain collection.


These are the big 330 gallon ones used by North GA chicken farmers to spray their birds with vinegar, so they are food safe.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Rain collection.
View attachment 170397

These are the big 330 gallon ones used by North GA chicken farmers to spray their birds with vinegar, so they are food safe.

And you get extra exercise trying to get to those stairs!

 

[Oldman47]

Rain collection.
View attachment 170397

These are the big 330 gallon ones used by North GA chicken farmers to spray their birds with vinegar, so they are food safe.

Yep, but that means keeping the tote liners and tapping them so that you can use them as rain butts. I would seriously like to go that way because I keep tropical fish and there is not much better than rain water for refilling an aquarium.

 

[CountryBoy19]

My brother uses his this way. Seasons roughly the same as a stack 2-3 rows wide.

IMHO, I wouldn't mess with stacking, it's a major PITA to get the bottom of the stack started right (almost need somebody inside the cage stacking the lower rows.

They are also a PITA to get the lower rows of wood out. The sides are too tall to comfortably lean over and grab wood from down low.

 

[firefighterjake]

Rain collection.
...

These are the big 330 gallon ones used by North GA chicken farmers to spray their birds with vinegar, so they are food safe.

Gotta ask . . . not knowing . . . they spray the chickens with vinegar to do what? I mean our local snowmobile club has a "secret" vegetable oil/vinegar concoction that they spray on the grilled chicken that they cook up in middle of the winter, but I am assuming this is sprayed on live chickens?