Drying Wet Wood

[jchristie600]

I know I'm going to be laughed off this board for this but I'm going to ask this question anyway. Has anyone ever tried drying there wood in the oven?

Hypothetically speaking. Joe Schmo needs to light a fire just in the evenings to keep his house comfortable without using the furnace. Being that it is late in the season his dry wood supply is very low. Would it be worth it to load the oven up and run it for a couple hours to dry out his wood? Or should he just suck it up and turn the thermostat up?

 

[reaperman]

Maybe try and have a bonefire outside and put some chunks of firewood on a rack above the bonfire. A bonfire will be much hotter than the oven without using gas or elect. Haven't ever tried it, but I looks good on paper.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I think you could dry your wood in the oven (microwave, too), but the negatives far outweigh any advantages. Cost is one. Domestic disharmony (for some of us) is another. The rest of the world going "WTF????!!" is another.

Why not just buy a couple bundles of kindling at your local convenience store to get a good fire going, then toss a couple of those wet chunks in and enjoy the hot, sizzling fire?

 

[raybonz]

I think you could dry your wood in the oven (microwave, too), but the negatives far outweigh any advantages. Cost is one. Domestic disharmony (for some of us) is another. The rest of the world going "WTF????!!" is another.

Why not just buy a couple bundles of kindling at your local convenience store to get a good fire going, then toss a couple of those wet chunks in and enjoy the hot, sizzling fire?

I have soaked my work gloves working construction and the microwave gets em dry in less than 15 mins... Wife thought I was nuts but they were fully dry in no time ....

Ray

 

[Chris S]

My neighbor used to stack wood around his hommade woodstove which was made from scrap off of a gas pipeline. It looked like a 275 oil tank , but was qll 1/2" plate, with some tubes through the top & a fan mounted to blow air through- very primative actually. This was all in a 100' long plastic greenhouse. He kept a fire going all winter long- anyway one night he piled the wood too close & it all caught fire, which melted the plastic , which let the ice & water accumulated on top of the plastic down onto the fire, which slowed the fire down. In the morning the fire was burned out, the wood was just ash (completely I wish I'd taken a picture) and the greenhouse needed new plastic.
He lit a fire right away, and started all over- nobody noticed the fire or the flames & there was no extension- truth is stranger than fiction
Don't try this at home

 

[burntime]

I agree with Eric and am part of the rest of the world... Food goes in the oven, gloves..er, food in the microwave and wood goes in the WOOD stove. ;~)

 

[mayhem]

The energy expenditure to dry the wood on the oven is going to appraoch that of turning up the thermostat in my opinion. I would try to get a day or so ahead of the game and stack a bunch of your wet wood around the stove for the night when you run it...then you're in decent shape for the next day. This is basically what I'm doing right now. At this point I'll be happy when the nightime temps are a bit higher and I can stop worrying about where this week's wood is going to come from. I ove using the wood stove, but I'm tired of the twice-a-week scrounging.