This is not a farce, I really hate Red Oak. I have been struggling with it for Four years and I thought I would have mastered it by now. My old smoke dragon blew through a cord a month and I had a hard time getting ahead. Last winter was my first with the Fireview and I burned a cord of Red Oak that was split small and seasoned for 12 months. It did ok but some pieces mildly sizzled. When the Oak was finished I burned some dry swamp maple and then had to burn 6 month seasoned swamp maple and it sizzled like crazy (2009 was a bad summer for drying). I ended up retiring the stove by the end of February last winter as I didn't want to struggle with wet wood anymore.
I have been burning chunks, uglies, White Oak and some beautiful pieces of Dogwood for the last Month or so. The stove is doing much better this year and I don't have any sizzling and the stove temps are higher. The wood was stacked in the shed by Apr of 09 and both types of Oaks were bucked several months prior to splitting and stacking. The pics are of two pieces of White Oak and a Red Oak split is in the middle. The split is about 3.5" square and 16" long. It sizzled like crazy and actually got much worse than the pic shows. It eventually formed a U shape with only the upper side not sizzling out water. I have two cords of White Oak for this winter and a cord of Red Oak from Dec 08. I should be good to go this year but my plan was to burn 2+ cords of Red Oak from March 2010 next winter. It will not be ready. I have already split 2-3 cords of Red Oak and some kind of light maple that is sitting in a heap and is slowly being stacked for 2012-2013. I have changed my strategy and I'm now seasoning wood for a year + out in the open and probably won't cover it. I got some pallets and I'm stacking in two groups based on species, in the sun and wind. I may bring it into the shed after a year or just skip that step entirely.
This is more of a rant than anything else. This happened about a week ago and I have been burning the white oak steadily since then without incident. I did have a small amount of water come out of a 4"+ round of maple but in was over in a minute and could have been a bit of a fluke.
I say all of this to warn anyone trying to burn Red Oak that hasn't been seasoned for at least two years. People aren't kidding when they say 3 is better! I will get by next year but I'm going to have to find some wood to season in 12-15 months. I found a tall skinny Black Cherry on my property and a large one that is on my property but close enough to my neighboors that I will talk to her about it. I also found what I think is an Ash tree and that would provide another cord or so. I have only seen one other Ash on my neighboors property and would rather keep it so I'm hoping the Cherry will do the trick. After that I will be set with 3 year seasoned wood. My neighboorhood is called "Oakdale" for a reason. I have huge 4ft diameter Red Oaks on my property. I just wish it was called Locustdale or Ashdale or even cherrydale. That would make my life easier. Unfortunately it is predominantly Red and White Oak and Swamp Maple.
I have been burning chunks, uglies, White Oak and some beautiful pieces of Dogwood for the last Month or so. The stove is doing much better this year and I don't have any sizzling and the stove temps are higher. The wood was stacked in the shed by Apr of 09 and both types of Oaks were bucked several months prior to splitting and stacking. The pics are of two pieces of White Oak and a Red Oak split is in the middle. The split is about 3.5" square and 16" long. It sizzled like crazy and actually got much worse than the pic shows. It eventually formed a U shape with only the upper side not sizzling out water. I have two cords of White Oak for this winter and a cord of Red Oak from Dec 08. I should be good to go this year but my plan was to burn 2+ cords of Red Oak from March 2010 next winter. It will not be ready. I have already split 2-3 cords of Red Oak and some kind of light maple that is sitting in a heap and is slowly being stacked for 2012-2013. I have changed my strategy and I'm now seasoning wood for a year + out in the open and probably won't cover it. I got some pallets and I'm stacking in two groups based on species, in the sun and wind. I may bring it into the shed after a year or just skip that step entirely.
This is more of a rant than anything else. This happened about a week ago and I have been burning the white oak steadily since then without incident. I did have a small amount of water come out of a 4"+ round of maple but in was over in a minute and could have been a bit of a fluke.
I say all of this to warn anyone trying to burn Red Oak that hasn't been seasoned for at least two years. People aren't kidding when they say 3 is better! I will get by next year but I'm going to have to find some wood to season in 12-15 months. I found a tall skinny Black Cherry on my property and a large one that is on my property but close enough to my neighboors that I will talk to her about it. I also found what I think is an Ash tree and that would provide another cord or so. I have only seen one other Ash on my neighboors property and would rather keep it so I'm hoping the Cherry will do the trick. After that I will be set with 3 year seasoned wood. My neighboorhood is called "Oakdale" for a reason. I have huge 4ft diameter Red Oaks on my property. I just wish it was called Locustdale or Ashdale or even cherrydale. That would make my life easier. Unfortunately it is predominantly Red and White Oak and Swamp Maple.
