Hello, I've been a lurker for 2 years in anticipation of retiring, buying a home, and installing and learning to run a wood stove.
I bought a 2 story 2100 sq ft house and installed a PE Summit LE stove with a new single wall liner in the external existing brick chimney.
I just started to acquire my firewood in Aug-Sep this year. Ponderosa pine is about it around here for firewood. I cut, split and stacked 3 cord
of Ponderosa pine that I got myself from the local Natl. forest. This will be for Next season.
For this season I bought 3 cord from different venders, supposedly dry, some had been split and stacked, some was just cut from standing dead trees.
(All Ponderosa pine)
In the first month of shoulder season burning I checked my flue and to my horror I had up to 1/2" of fluffy ash chunks from the stovepipe to chimney,
and pretty much all the way up to the cap (16') in the external brick chimney liner. (I bought a soot eater kit and cleaned it)
I did (only 1) moisture test on a fresh split for each load of wood that I bought, coming in at 15-20% and thought I was good to go.
Now in retrospect I remember some of the splits being HEAVY and do remember some smoldering, and occasional difficulty in lighting or keeping
hot fires going. And some of the splits were heavy (fatwood) that I remember trying to burn.
I believe 4 things may have contributed to my rapid soot buildup. Please help me confirm my assumptions.
1. Even though I tested just 1 re-split piece of purchased wood w/moisture meter, some of the wood was probably not dry.
(I should check more pieces and beware of heavy pieces.Wet or sappy fatwood)
2. I should not assume that a standing dead tree is the same moisture content at the upper parts as it is at the base.
(I now suspect the base has more moisture content and sap.)
3. Shoulder season mistake of trying to keep low fire 24/7, recently saw advice from begreen that it is better to do 2 smaller HOT fires.
4. Does external brick chimney w/liner "stay cooler" further requiring the use of only very dry wood and hot fires?
Thanks in advance for helping me learn these principles!
I bought a 2 story 2100 sq ft house and installed a PE Summit LE stove with a new single wall liner in the external existing brick chimney.
I just started to acquire my firewood in Aug-Sep this year. Ponderosa pine is about it around here for firewood. I cut, split and stacked 3 cord
of Ponderosa pine that I got myself from the local Natl. forest. This will be for Next season.
For this season I bought 3 cord from different venders, supposedly dry, some had been split and stacked, some was just cut from standing dead trees.
(All Ponderosa pine)
In the first month of shoulder season burning I checked my flue and to my horror I had up to 1/2" of fluffy ash chunks from the stovepipe to chimney,
and pretty much all the way up to the cap (16') in the external brick chimney liner. (I bought a soot eater kit and cleaned it)
I did (only 1) moisture test on a fresh split for each load of wood that I bought, coming in at 15-20% and thought I was good to go.
Now in retrospect I remember some of the splits being HEAVY and do remember some smoldering, and occasional difficulty in lighting or keeping
hot fires going. And some of the splits were heavy (fatwood) that I remember trying to burn.
I believe 4 things may have contributed to my rapid soot buildup. Please help me confirm my assumptions.
1. Even though I tested just 1 re-split piece of purchased wood w/moisture meter, some of the wood was probably not dry.
(I should check more pieces and beware of heavy pieces.Wet or sappy fatwood)
2. I should not assume that a standing dead tree is the same moisture content at the upper parts as it is at the base.
(I now suspect the base has more moisture content and sap.)
3. Shoulder season mistake of trying to keep low fire 24/7, recently saw advice from begreen that it is better to do 2 smaller HOT fires.
4. Does external brick chimney w/liner "stay cooler" further requiring the use of only very dry wood and hot fires?
Thanks in advance for helping me learn these principles!
