I currently have about 3/4 cord of well aged dry split oak, and two cords of split misc hardwood that was split yesterday. Would it be OK from a creosote viewpoint to start the fire with the oak until 350F is reached, then kick in the catalytic converter and switch to new wood for most of the evening, then finish with oak, and remove the catalytic converter just before bedtime? Will the catalytic converter use above 350F decompose the creosote flow from newly split wood? I have an Ideal Steel woodstove. Thanks...
My Wood Plan OK?
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How wet is the recently split wood?
Honestly it sounds like your asking for trouble, I'd burn the dry wood and looks for dry lumber scraps or see if you could get your hands on dry wood to fill the rest of your need.
Honestly it sounds like your asking for trouble, I'd burn the dry wood and looks for dry lumber scraps or see if you could get your hands on dry wood to fill the rest of your need.
mikey
Burning Hunk
What stove is this in?
Split yesterday wood can be soaking wet in the core. If so, the risk of thermal shock to the cat could be high. Test the fresh splits with a moisture meter by resplitting the thicker ones and testing on the freshly exposed face of the wood. If the moisture level is >25% it's too wet. If below 25%, bring some boxes or tote-fulls into the house for a few days to help get them to a few % lower MC.
Split yesterday wood can be soaking wet in the core. If so, the risk of thermal shock to the cat could be high. Test the fresh splits with a moisture meter by resplitting the thicker ones and testing on the freshly exposed face of the wood. If the moisture level is >25% it's too wet. If below 25%, bring some boxes or tote-fulls into the house for a few days to help get them to a few % lower MC.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Ideal Steel.
No matter, as begreen and others already noted, you're going to destroy that cat. Loading cold or wet wood into a stove with a hot cat is a recipe for thermal shock. These things are made to be loaded full, lit, and cruised 'till done.
The oak is 13%. The recent stuff is 22% to 24% moisture level. 70% of my supply is such. . OK to run WITHOUT the cat?
You need to freshly split it for it to be an accurate reading. Also cold wood will read lower. In that case bring piece inside for at least a few hours before splitting and checking
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
IMO no. Just use what you have when it’s really cold and buy some compressed sawdust products. Burning wet wood is frustrating. Imagine a new sports car that’s stuck in 3rd gear.
I've decided to buy an indoor wood rack and place it 18" from the side of the stove. Thus all wood burned will have spent one day near the stove to dry it out a bit more than the 23% average that I'm now getting with the new stuff. Not perfect, but probably an improvement.
That will help. If you can bring it in the garage or basement for a week or so will also help alot.
Do you clean your own chimney? If you clean your own you would need to inspect and clean often. I wouldn't run the cat on fresh wood, if you're going to burn it run without engaging the cat. Do it for a short time and inspect/clean the chimney.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
If you're measuring MC% on cold wood, use one of the many online tables for correcting the reading. None will be accurate, unless published for the make and model of your moisture meter, but any of them will get you roughly into the ballpark.
Summary point: there's no way oak is at 13% in December, unless you live in an arid climate, and it's been stacked a few years. There is some error in your reading, whether due to surface effect (days since split) or temperature correction.
Summary point: there's no way oak is at 13% in December, unless you live in an arid climate, and it's been stacked a few years. There is some error in your reading, whether due to surface effect (days since split) or temperature correction.
It seems to help a bit, but it's not a magic bullet.
Meet "Matt the Hoop." 😏
I once had about half a cord stacked in the stove room with a fan blowing on it. White Ash that I found lying out there. I seem to recall it was slightly punky. Maybe that allowed it to dry faster, but it went from 25>20% in a couple weeks.
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Although I have 30 acres of hardwoods, the recent cold spell is pushing me to stretch my limited supply of aged oak. The oak was split a year ago and has been kept dry under an overhang. If I simutaneously burn two splits of the oak (13%) and two of the recent hardwood (23%), how is that different from burning four splits of the average (18%)?
As I said, I'd go into the woods and get small, dead wood with the bark falling off. That will be pretty dry. A helluva lot drier than Oak that was split a year ago. It's hard to believe that would be at 13%. Equilibrium moisture content of wood where you live is probably 16% or so.
Review your wood testing procedure to make sure you are getting accurate readings.
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I agree, bring some in, point a fan on it for a day or two, and you should be fine. Still check the MC again, but ive had wood that was rained on, dried in about 2 days like that. Good Burning to YA! BUT the wood was really dry, then rained on....my tarp blew off. Not the best situation, but it works for the most part.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I'm suspect of those numbers, as I've never seen or heard of oak really reaching 13% after one year without a kiln. But putting that aside, once the load is started and charred, burning 2x13% + 2x23% should perform similarly to 4x18%, in terms of maintaining secondary combustion.
It may be harder to get the load charred and to cat light-off temperature, and you may find more unburned mass at the end if burning low and slow, but other than that I would not expect an enormous difference.
Yep. My wood is kiln dried due to it being basically cutoffs and defects from a wood working place. Its free, you just have to haul it. I mix it in with splits, usually pine or oak, or poplar. The MC is around 10% usually. They wont accept even semi dry wood. They send it back. Its almost too dry honestly. Burns fast and hot!
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