Huge pile of coals

[larryjbjr]

There's your answer right there, that wood is way to wet, and will cause coaling. Keep a close eye on your chimney as well for creosote buildup, just read another thread about a guy burning unseasoned wood and his chimney was horrible.

Uh, I didn't buy that wood. But, some of the wood I am burning is almost as bad.

I climbed up top last week and looked down the chimney, and all looks good. Only thing on the inside of the pipe was a fine soot, kind of like the soot that gets on the inside of the globe of an oil lamp if you turn the flame up too high.

 

[Sodbuster]

Sorry about that, I missed the part where you turned him down, my bad.

 

[weatherguy]

Technically your supposed to check it at room temperature, not sure how checking a piece that's outside will affect the reading, maybe an engineer can opine.

 

[larryjbjr]

Technically your supposed to check it at room temperature, not sure how checking a piece that's outside will affect the reading, maybe an engineer can opine.

From what I understand it reads a bit higher when cold, but that would still put it in the 30s when warm I would think.



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[Hogwildz]

Learn patience, and quit adding wood until it is burnt down.

 

[sportbikerider78]

...copied....
Pin-style wood moisture meters, by nature of their technology, are more susceptible to the temperature of wood. Pin meters take MC readings by passing a small electrical current between the pin tips, and the resistance is translated into an MC reading. As wood temperature increases, its electrical resistance decreases and the MC reading will change accordingly. In order to correct for this temperature-related skew, corrections are necessary to ensure the accuracy of the actual MC. For the most accurate results, if using a pin meter, always follow the moisture meter manufacturer’s correction factor recommendations.

 

[jetsam]

Thanks for the advice. I've tried raking the coals forward and burning a smaller split hot and fast. It definitely has helped. I now am able to go a little longer without getting quite so many coals built up.

I tried again today to get some dry wood. Seller said it was all less than 20% MC, but when I split a few splits and checked them, they all read in the 30s, most upper 30s. Now, they were stored outside with just the top covered, and it's been quite damp lately, even rained a bit last night, but I turned him down. I'm not sure if the wood would've been ok or not, maybe it was just wet from the rain, but didn't want to take the chance.

Stack the next load in front of the stove with as much surface area exposed as possible.

It won't actually dry the wood unless just the surface was damp, but it will dry the surface. The splits will catch fire more easily.

Shut it down and sweep regularly, especially in this warm weather. I'd start out sweeping once a week to get a feel for how often you actually need to do it.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I consider myself lucky that my wood is dry and my house is 1600 square feet. Even here in Maine I have to let my stove burn down almost to no coals before reloading because otherwise it overheats my house.

 

[Woody Stover]

Thanks for the advice. I've tried raking the coals forward and burning a smaller split hot and fast. It definitely has helped. I now am able to go a little longer without getting quite so many coals built up.
I tried again today to get some dry wood. Seller said it was all less than 20% MC, but when I split a few splits and checked them, they all read in the 30s, most upper 30s. Now, they were stored outside with just the top covered, and it's been quite damp lately, even rained a bit last night, but I turned him down. I'm not sure if the wood would've been ok or not, maybe it was just wet from the rain, but didn't want to take the chance.

I don't have much problem with coals, as my stove feeds a small amount of air in through the ash pan housing and works on the coal bed as the burn progresses. That said, I wonder if, after you rake 'em forward, can you divide them into two or three piles to get more air to each pile, and will that help get rid of them faster?

Technically your supposed to check it at room temperature, not sure how checking a piece that's outside will affect the reading, maybe an engineer can opine.

From what I understand it reads a bit higher when cold, but that would still put it in the 30s when warm I would think.

I think if the wood is cold, it gives a false low moisture reading. I'm guessing maybe 3-5%? I never did a A/B test...

Learn patience, and quit adding wood until it is burnt down.

Yeah, a little frostbite never killed anyone!

I consider myself lucky that my wood is dry and my house is 1600 square feet. Even here in Maine I have to let my stove burn down almost to no coals before reloading because otherwise it overheats my house.

Yep, seems to be a stew with a lot of ingredients, like what stove you have, how big is your house, how well does the heat move through it, and how good is its weatherization. As I said, I can usually get by burning down coals and keeping the stove top at 300+, unless it's super-cold and windy.

 

[Highbeam]

Learn patience, and quit adding wood until it is burnt down.

+1 This is the real answer. I too have an NC30 and run it as hard as I can with very dry wood. It is easy to get a coal buildup to the roof if you are trying to feed the thing like a locomotive to maintain 700-750 stove top. The fresh wood gives off all of that lovely energy rich wood gas in the early stages of combustion and the stove gets hot, then you're left with the less energy rich and slightly smaller coal remnants. Yikes, too cold, so you try and load more fuel on top and get a nice blast of heat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. At some point, usually about 4 reloads with three hours between for me, you end up with the inability to load more fresh fuel until you burn down that low energy coal.

Coaling up is a very common problem when a stove is pushed hard. If you are happy with lower stove temperatures then you can wait for the coals to convert to ash.

An entirely different problem caused by wet wood is chunks of black unburned fuel in the stove at the end of the burn. Wet wood often doesn't burn down to ash unless you are able to crank up the air near the end of the burn or reload on top of it.

I dare say that anybody who has pushed a stove hard has run into the coaling up problem. Evergreens or hard woods do it. Here's my NC30 looking just like yours.

 

[Woody Stover]

An entirely different problem caused by wet wood is chunks of black unburned fuel in the stove at the end of the burn. Wet wood often doesn't burn down to ash

That's something I don't understand; Seems to me that the moisture should be gone by the time the wood reaches the coaling stage, since it is at several hundred degrees in there. If you look at the instructions for determining the moisture content of wood splits using an oven to dry the wood, it says you need a couple hundred degrees for 24 hours or so. I'd think that having the wood in a stove, at maybe 500*, would dry it out in a hurry and it should finish the burn like dried-in-the-stack wood with nothing but ash left...or maybe not?? Maybe the wood at the bottom ends up insulated by ashes, and never gets all that hot?

 

[Highbeam]

That's something I don't understand; Seems to me that the moisture should be gone by the time the wood reaches the coaling stage, since it is at several hundred degrees in there. If you look at the instructions for determining the moisture content of wood splits using an oven to dry the wood, it says you need a couple hundred degrees for 24 hours or so. I'd think that having the wood in a stove, at maybe 500*, would dry it out in a hurry and it should finish the burn like dried-in-the-stack wood with nothing but ash left...or maybe not?? Maybe the wood at the bottom ends up insulated by ashes, and never gets all that hot?

It just happens. I think because the block of wet wood burns only on the outside as it dries. The only part that is burnable is the dry layer on the outside and then once there is insufficient heat to boil and burn any new burnable wood then the fire dies. This is like a driftwood campfire. The center burns out and the edges don't burn.

Nice to have dry wood and not have to worry about it.

 

[blades]

Add to the mix that the new stoves are kinda choked down. So some times ,when being a bit impatient I will just crack the latch on the 30 that allows a bit more air to leak in past the door gasket with out really cooling things down much. The other thing is to set aside some spits of poor coaling fuel for the purpose of burning down the existing coals. this increases the draft which helps. I like to use the compressed blocks for this purpose also. Never tried pellets.

 

[Woody Stover]

only part that is burnable is the dry layer on the outside and then once there is insufficient heat to boil and burn any new burnable wood then the fire dies.

With your thermostat, wouldn't it feed more air and keep the firebox temp up, or isn't the chunky charcoal as much of a problem in the Princess?

other thing is to set aside some spits of poor coaling fuel for the purpose of burning down the existing coals.

Hmm, I wonder if Tulip would work good for that...it doesn't seem to coal as much.

 

[Highbeam]

With your thermostat, wouldn't it feed more air and keep the firebox temp up, or isn't the chunky charcoal as much of a problem in the Princess?
Hmm, I wonder if Tulip would work good for that...it doesn't seem to coal as much.

I have a princess and an NC30 which is the OP's stove. I don't have to run the princess that hard.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Yeah, but that's a BK. They defy physics. You only have to load them once a week and they'll warm the neighborhood.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

An entirely different problem caused by wet wood is chunks of black unburned fuel in the stove at the end of the burn. Wet wood often doesn't burn down to ash unless you are able to crank up the air near the end of the burn or reload on top of it.

There's green wood, wet wood, damp wood, dry wood and everything in between. While it's true that pushing the stove really hard by reloading well before the heat output diminishes can cause excessive coals to build up, this is primarily a problem caused by wood that may appear dry but is not fully cured. If the wood has more moisture than ideal, there is the temptation to re-load sooner since the moisture in the wood is constantly cooling the combustion process and allowing some of the combustible gasses to escape without providing any heat. So, the stove is not heating optimally to begin with and the user continually wants more heat output so they re-load sooner.

Wood with 15% moisture content puts out so much more heat it's not necessary to re-load as soon.

I dare say that anybody who has pushed a stove hard has run into the coaling up problem. Evergreens or hard woods do it. Here's my NC30 looking just like yours.

That's happened to me before in numerous stoves that I was pushing hard but only when the wood hadn't had enough time to fully cure. Wood that is actually dry to the center of every split is amazing in it's ability to solve most wood burning issues people have. The center of the split has the highest mc content when wood is only partially cured and this is the same part of the split that ends up as leftover coals. It's true that, by the time the coals form, there is very little moisture left in them even if they started out wetter than optimal. However, by this time the volatile gases responsible for high combustion temperatures have left the scene and the temperatures are too cool to render the remaining coals into fine ash. Loading new wood on top doesn't do much to increase the temperatures in the coal bed below hence the tendancy for the bed to grow.

It's amazing how many ills are cured by fully cured wood. Maybe that's why it's called "cured".