Has anyone burned slab wood in their gaser?

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I can buy hardwood slabwood from the local lumber mill for $400 a Triaxle load. Has anyone burned slab wood in their gaser and it is worth my while in place of splits? Does it burn too fast?

Thanks,

Musclecar Joe

 

[NCPABill]

I haven't, but I'm following along for the answers! I burned slabwood in a wood stove many times. You have to stack it tight to get any time out of it, but it does seem to dry fast if stacked like cordwood. I would chekc with the mill to see if they can precut to your length and deliver in a dumptruck? Usually hardwood mills have a trim saw to so this with, or they gang saw the whole slab at once.

 

[jebatty]

I burn lots of slab wood, mostly pine, and have done so since 2007. Some of the slabs need to be split. I try for not larger than about 5-6" widths and 2-5" thick. Burns just fine. IMO wood is wood, and if dry and not too large of splits, works great in my Tarm.

 

[Duetech]

Slab works good as long as you don't try a full load of the thin stuff as it does burn quick. Being selective and stacking similar sizes in the load chamber gives a longer burn and when you are operating without storage that is really nice. It is harder to replicate a stack in the load chamber to mimic the burn of splits as the coal base and design in my gasifier are prone to frustrate the "perfect & ideal" load and as Jebatty says some pieces need to be split. Most of what I have burned is black cherry and red oak. Burning for storage though would not be as critical as you would already be in the habit of attending the fire to the point of your storage saturation. Denser hardwoods will give a good btu output though. All fuel sources and and solid fuel appliances have their niche and so I would suggest that you get some of the type of wood you are considering and do some trial burns before you commit to a large purchase that will tie you to a behavior pattern that might not be to your liking. Getting cut to length would help a lot but bear in mind that stacking and handling slab cuts just seems like a lot of handling. Stacking fresh pre-cut slab flats on one another might easily take as long as splits to season correctly too. If you knew the weight of a triaxel load you could better equate your true "cord " price by comparing some of the btu/weight charts that are out there like chimneysweeps.com . I have about 4-5 cords worth of 3 year old slab for this heating season plus the 6+ cords of splits that I have to choose from.

 

[wantstoburnwood]

I burn lots of slab wood. the gassifier really heats up well with a load of dry hardwood slabs. There's a possibility of some puffing if u use too many thin slabs at once but mix the size and thickness and I'm sure it will work great