Overnighters

[ChadMc]

So I had to buy wood this winter because we’re in a new house and the wood I’m stacking now is for next winter and so on. I got a cord of some really good seasoned stuff. However I don’t know what it is. He called it mixed hardwoods and I can notice ash in there. Maybe locust and maple but a lot of it I just don’t know what it is. It all burns very clean and hot but when I wake up there’s hardly any coals and makes restarts in the morning tough. Not to mention house temp really drops.

so here is the question. Moving forward when I’m the one cutting the wood what is the best overnight stuff? I know most of you will say oak but to be honest it hard to find. I have hundreds of acres of woods behind our house and not one oak blowdown. But a never ending supply of ash maple and cherry. Thoughts?

 

[Medic21]

Pick an oak tree each year and drop it to mix with everything else.

 

[WinterinWI]

ash maple and cherry

Sounds like you're all set with that mix. Could also do as medic suggested to mix in some oak.

 

[Grizzerbear]

I agree with medic....drop a oak tree or two every year. You could also just buy a cord of oak every year if you dont want to kill your live trees.

 

[Sawset]

When you're splitting, reserve some larger blocks for banking the stove overnight. A couple 4x6 pcs stacked in back will need a long time to burn through.
Also, leave a thick layer of ash from previous burns to help insulate.

 

[pjohnson]

I like maple google wood btu's and oak, maple are the same ash slightly less and cherry the lowest of the bunch. I don't think you will see much difference between oak maple and ash

 

[ChadMc]

actually I have 1 ha just one wind blown oak that has been laying for at least a year. Could probably yield a cord or so out of it. Wonder if I split and stacked now if it’d be ready to burn next winter.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

Ash, locust, and maple are pretty good. I prefer oak and hickory, but they aren't necessary

 

[sweedish]

Not sure what your stove is, but I’ve had overnight burns on pine. When I split if it’s smaller in diameter than my hand, I don’t. just make sure you have some smaller stuff to fill in the gaps around the big pieces when loading.

 

[thewoodlands]

So I had to buy wood this winter because we’re in a new house and the wood I’m stacking now is for next winter and so on. I got a cord of some really good seasoned stuff. However I don’t know what it is. He called it mixed hardwoods and I can notice ash in there. Maybe locust and maple but a lot of it I just don’t know what it is. It all burns very clean and hot but when I wake up there’s hardly any coals and makes restarts in the morning tough. Not to mention house temp really drops.

so here is the question. Moving forward when I’m the one cutting the wood what is the best overnight stuff? I know most of you will say oak but to be honest it hard to find. I have hundreds of acres of woods behind our house and not one oak blowdown. But a never ending supply of ash maple and cherry. Thoughts?

Once it gets real cold we like beech,sugar maple,ironwood (American Hophornbeam) and yellow birch.

 

[Woody Stover]

It sounds like your wood may indeed be pretty dry, if it burns hot, doesn't leave a bunch of coals, and you can't hear it hiss when you open the door about fifteen minutes after tossing it on a hot coal bed.
It's possible there's a problem with your stove or chimney setup. Fill us in, if you would..
You can put your stove in your signature to get more people to comment if they run the same stove. Just click on your username at the top/right of the page, click "signature," and add your stove make and model.

 

[Woody Stover]

Hard Maple (Sugar) is rated at 24 Mbtu/cord, same as Red Oak, and slightly above White Ash at 23.6. Soft Maple is only 18 or 19, depending on what specie. Green or Black Ash is about like soft Maple. Black Cherry is about 20. There's a noticeable difference between those and hard Maple/Red Oak. Honey Locust or Black Locust are a couple notches above Red Oak.
If you can post some good pics of some fresh splits (bark, end grain and split grain) maybe we can ID it.

 

[Woody Stover]

I have hundreds of acres of woods behind our house and not one oak blowdown. But a never ending supply of ash maple and cherry.

With that much acreage to work, you might find small <8" trees dead-standing, with the bark fallen off. Even Oak will be pretty dry. Check with a moisture meter after you have cut some rounds and gotten them to room temp for a couple days, then split and test.
No need to ever cut a live tree with that big a wood lot to work..

 

[ChadMc]

It sounds like your wood may indeed be pretty dry, if it burns hot, doesn't leave a bunch of coals, and you can't hear it hiss when you open the door about fifteen minutes after tossing it on a hot coal bed.
It's possible there's a problem with your stove or chimney setup. Fill us in, if you would..
You can put your stove in your signature to get more people to comment if they run the same stove. Just click on your username at the top/right of the page, click "signature," and add your stove make and model.

We just got a new regency f2400 with 25ft of stainless double wall chimney. It has 2 soft 15 deg bends to go around the eve of our roof. I have been experimenting and the bigger splits seem to work better. The wood I bought is not uniform at all. Some big gnarly pieces some straight lotta blocky pieces. All my stuff I’m stacking is very uniform. All 16” straight and stacked nice and neat.

 

[Woody Stover]

Once you get a new load going, and secondary firing, are you able to cut the air enough to where you have lazy flames coming off the load, or is the fire more vigorous? Yes, the bigger splits will definitely stretch the burn. That's a big enough fire box to make it overnight but if you have a lot of small splits, it can be tough.

 

[Kevin Weis]

For me well seasoned Mulberry about 6" diameter will do the trick.

 

[Diabel]

The firebox size will be the biggest factor for your overnight burns.

 

[ChadMc]

Once you get a new load going, and secondary firing, are you able to cut the air enough to where you have lazy flames coming off the load, or is the fire more vigorous? Yes, the bigger splits will definitely stretch the burn. That's a big enough fire box to make it overnight but if you have a lot of small splits, it can be tough.

I can cut the air back a 1/4 at a time and secondaries roar the whole time. Air all the way closed a lazy flame off the bottom but the secondaries still rip for a while. The stove top temp probably cruises around 500 ish for hours. But I can imagine at some point there’s a big drop off. Now I can say trying the bigger splits helps for sure. Seems like when the top temp drops to 300 and lower the house temps really start to fall.

 

[ChadMc]

Because I’ve been trying to perfect my overnight burns my house temp drops quite a bit. I woke up to low 60s which can be a bit chilly esp for the wive and kids. On a real cold morning do most do a full load first thing in the morning?

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Like Kevin said Mulberry is a great choice, also look for some Hickory and if you can find it Dogwood, might not have that on your property but it really kicks ass!

 

[Woody Stover]

Air all the way closed a lazy flame off the bottom..Seems like when the top temp drops to 300 and lower the house temps really start to fall.

OK, sounds like you have good control of the air.
Are you starting with a cold stove? If so, you might burn a few small splits at first to get the stove up to temp, then put your full load in; That way you don't have to burn up as much of your load getting the stove up to temp. Of course you still have to burn the fresh load in to some degree.
You can also try some different ways of loading. If your box is square you could load splits E-W instead of straight in, that will slow it somewhat. Or you can try different things with the coals, like shoving them to the back so that the fire has to work its way upstream against the air flow. Of course, you need dry wood to do that.
I'm trying to learn my SIL's new stove, a secondary-burn type like you have. I've only run cat stoves, so there's definitely a learning curve. You just have to keep experimenting and observing the results of the things you try. Look at your stack while you try different thing; You want to burn as clean as possible.

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

If your firebox is sized appropriately, just about any wood will get you a decent overnight burn if managed correctly. Wood must be below 20% moisture on a fresh split face.

I can get overnight, 8-10 hour burns with enough coals to do a restart with a load of tulip poplar if it is dry, the stove is loaded correctly, and the air supply is adjusted properly.

You are certainly set up for success with maples and cherry.

 

[firefighterjake]

Others have said it, but I think it bears repeating . . .

Sugar maple, oak, beech, yellow birch and locust are my "go to" wood when it gets wicked cold or I'm looking for some longer burns.

As others have said though . . . it is possible to get a decent overnight burn with other wood species as well. I find a lot depends on how dry the wood is, when you turn down the air and the outside/inside temperature differentials.

 

[ohlongarm]

So I had to buy wood this winter because we’re in a new house and the wood I’m stacking now is for next winter and so on. I got a cord of some really good seasoned stuff. However I don’t know what it is. He called it mixed hardwoods and I can notice ash in there. Maybe locust and maple but a lot of it I just don’t know what it is. It all burns very clean and hot but when I wake up there’s hardly any coals and makes restarts in the morning tough. Not to mention house temp really drops.

so here is the question. Moving forward when I’m the one cutting the wood what is the best overnight stuff? I know most of you will say oak but to be honest it hard to find. I have hundreds of acres of woods behind our house and not one oak blowdown. But a never ending supply of ash maple and cherry. Thoughts?

Any type of oak will be great when temps are really low,however i've burned ash,cherry,and hemlock in zero weather and we were warm,just shorter burn times.I've got black locust osage ,and hickory if things go south real bad. But red,white oak never left me cold,at sub zero temps.

 

[Woody5506]

This season I've been getting good overnighters with ash. Yesterday, I loaded up with norway maple around 9am and reloaded the stove again at 8pm with significant hot coals left over. I reloaded with mostly silver maple, and a couple splits of ash, and it was still hot this morning at 6:30.

Norway isn't regarded as the best maple for firewood but when it comes to long burns I've been impressed with it this year.