I'm new to this forum and somewhat new to burning wood. I bought this house a couple of years ago and it came with a wood-burning stove in the basement along with a cord of wood that had also been in the basement for about 5 years. I burned most of that stuff last year. This year I bought a cord of "seasoned" mixed hardwood and built a small storage shed next to the garage in order to keep under cover and outside. The stove did help to keep the house warm, but barely. I definitely used less oil. So, with this year's tax return, I just went out and bought a Jotul C450 fireplace insert for the Heatilator fireplace that came with the house. The fireplace opening had been blocked with piece of 2" styrofoam since I moved in. The Jotul was installed two days ago and I had a fire burning both nights now. After the 1st night (yesterday), I noticed the glass covered in a reddish-brown film that was extremely difficult to remove, though I found a razor blade with a little ammonia free glass cleaner worked best of what I had on hand to remove it. This morning I have the same situation. I've followed a number of threads on this Forum (great resource, by the way) and I know it's because my wood is too wet and I haven't been able to reach the proper temperature to burn the film off the glass . However, when I tested the wood with a moisture meter, a Mini-Ligno that I use for woodworking, I get a reading of 12%-14% on the ends of the splits and 16% along the length. Shouldn't this be dry enough? How dry should it be?
Dave
Dave