pallet wood burn time

[gutlo]

I'm considering buying an Englander 13-NCH to supplement my pellet stove. I need to get at least 6 hours of burn time. The only free wood available is pallet wood which burns hot and fast. If I load up the stove with pallet wood, will I risk over fire?

If so, and I put in less wood to avoid that risk, I'll likely get only 3 or 4 hours of heat. Over night burn would be impossible.

Does this scenario sound likely?

 

[James02]

Hey gutlo, I'm sure some of the Englanders will step in soon.. I do feel better about myself saying this and you might know, but, pallets often get horrible products leaked on them.. burning said product might not be the best for the stove... That aside, I'd imagine it'll take a lot of pallet to fill a stove.. that's all I have I think.. good luck!!

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

I'm considering buying an Englander 13-NCH to supplement my pellet stove. I need to get at least 6 hours of burn time. The only free wood available is pallet wood which burns hot and fast. If I load up the stove with pallet wood, will I risk over fire?

If so, and I put in less wood to avoid that risk, I'll likely get only 3 or 4 hours of heat. Over night burn would be impossible.

Does this scenario sound likely?

You should be able to fill it full. Just cut them all to the same length and stack them flat and tight to one another. Make a top down fire so it doesn't fall over.

 

[byQ]

In the spring I drove by a pallet supplier. They had some stacked piles of pallet wood for free (most of the nails ground off). I asked the owner, he said, "...take it all, we'll load it with our hyster!" I wondered how much was 'all' - he takes me out back - there were 6 or 7 cords neatly stacked and bound. I obtained 5 stacks (3 or 4 cords) in 2 trips. The wood just needs to be cut to length. As I offloaded the wood I tried to determine wood species/wood density.

I live out west, in Idaho. But pallets get shipped from all over the place. Because of the greater population density, most of these pallets came from east of the Rockies. There were many dense pieces of wood (oak?). And there was cherry, too. I could tell by the color. Some Doug fir, pine, and the like, too.

The wood pieces appear to be dry. This is a great way to get Eastern hardwoods, like oak, in a place where they aren't. The downside? - the ash will contain nails. But to your question, some of the pallet wood I collected should burn slow enough. Although narrow, the pallet wood is dimensional so it can be stacked to reduce air access. This is my first experience with pallet wood - now I wish I did as the owner wanted and taken it all (I didn't know there was so much good dry wood in old pallets).

 

[kennyp2339]

Do not fill the stove with dimensional dry lumber, it will take off and it will give you a good scary time. Pallet wood is made from pine, cotton wood or oak, Since its dimensional you can stack in more surface area in the stove compared to log splits, once you hit that critical temp in the stove your will have every piece lighting off or off gassing heavy, resulting in a over fire scenario, this could be exacerbated if you have a stronger then normal draft.
Englander stoves are well made stoves, the famous NC30 comes to mind, but the nc13 is also a proven work horse, and it seems like you did your homework with pegging down realistic burn times for that unit.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Do not fill the stove with dimensional dry lumber, it will take off and it will give you a good scary time. Pallet wood is made from pine, cotton wood or oak, Since its dimensional you can stack in more surface area in the stove compared to log splits, once you hit that critical temp in the stove your will have every piece lighting off or off gassing heavy, resulting in a over fire scenario, this could be exacerbated if you have a stronger then normal draft.

EPA woodstoves go through the certification process using kiln dried dimensional lumber stacked in a crib. I would be more worried about absorbed salt/chemicals that are in some pallets. If the pallet is stamped with "MB", don't burn it. It means it's been treated with the fungicide methyl bromide and the fumes will be toxic.

BKVP gave the OK to burn the pallet/crate my new Chinook arrived in. After using my 4' long demolition bar to remove all the nails, the wood looks like pine and it's clean and relatively new (one time use). That's 42 lbs. of fairly dense pine to heat my home.

 

[kennyp2339]

EPA woodstoves go through the certification process using kiln dried dimensional lumber stacked in a crib. I would be more worried about absorbed salt/chemicals that are in some pallets. If the pallet is stamped with "MB", don't burn it. It means it's been treated with the fungicide methyl bromide and the fumes will be toxic.

BKVP gave the OK to burn the pallet/crate my new Chinook arrived in. After using my 4' long demolition bar to remove all the nails, the wood looks like pine and it's clean and relatively new (one time use). That's 42 lbs. of fairly dense pine to heat my home.

Understood but us BK owners have a whole different air control setup, all of our air comes through the T-stat air control, limiting the chance for an over fire / run away stove situation. EPA reburn stoves have a single air control that does not close the air all the way, and have a none controllable secondary air supply.
So if you pack a secondary air reburn stove up and the load is ultra dry you will have control issues we call it going nuclear, also the same with burning many compressed sawdust blocks.

 

[gutlo]

From all your replies, i came up with the following:

1. Try pure pallet wood (all oak and cherry), flat pieces, half the firebox full, check the stove temperature, add wood to 450 F.
2. If this burns for only a few hours, then I'll try filling out the firebox with purchased splits, which should give me at least 6 hours.

Any criticisms and/or other ideas would be welcome.

 

[Hogwildz]

Loading a stove full of pallet wood is going to make you need many new undies, after you crap your pants when the thing goes nuclear. 6 hours of full heat out of a 13 may be a challenge. You may want to consider the 30, which you can load less full if desired, but still have the option to load full and get nearly double the burn time you desire when wanted/needed. You may find you make the 30 your primary heater, and the pellet stove the secondary. That is, if you find yourself loving heating with wood like the rest of us.

Once you have an established load firing, the last thing you want to do is add more fuel. The will make it take off.

 

[jetsam]

I wouldn't be worried about loading up my stove with pallet wood and burning it on low, but I wouldn't do that with a tube stove- unless it was modified to allow me to turn input air down to near zero.

 

[gutlo]

Jetsam,

What's a tubestove?

 

[jetsam]

Jetsam,

What's a tubestove?

IN THE BEGINNING, there were regular old smoke dragon stoves, and they were pretty bad, but we didn't know it yet so we liked them a lot.

Then the mean old EPA said we had to have cleaner burning stoves going forward, and we did wail and tear at our vestments and gnash our teeth (those of us who still have 'em). However, after a rough start it became apparent that more efficient stoves also meant a lot more heat from a lot less wood, so we got over it pretty completely.

Modern stoves use two approaches to be marvellously better than their grandfathers: either they use a catalyst to reburn the wood gas (like your car exhaust, except that you get to keep the heat)- or it's a tube stove, which sends the wood gas through tubes and reburns it.

There are people who feel very strongly that one or the other is terrible, but they are wrong- there are plenty of excellent cat and tube stoves out there. (And some bad ones!)

Because they both work well, any woodstove forum has a thousand threads devoted to proving once and for all that one or the other is way better. People are like that.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Modern stoves use two approaches to be marvellously better than their grandfathers: either they use a catalyst to reburn the wood gas (like your car exhaust, except that you get to keep the heat)- or it's a tube stove, which sends the wood gas through tubes and reburns it.

I think you just chose your words imprecisely but, to avoid confusing any fire-burning newbies, I'll clarify:

The wood gas doesn't actually go through the burner tubes, the tubes supply additional heated combustion air to the upper (hottest) portions of the firebox to initiate a re-burn of any un-combusted gases that would otherwise escape up your chimney where they would be wasted and some of it would condense to form creosote in your chimney.

And some "tube" stoves don't have actual tubes, they are just called that to indicate they are air injected secondary burn stoves as opposed to a stove that achieves secondary burn via a catalyst.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Understood but us BK owners have a whole different air control setup, all of our air comes through the T-stat air control, limiting the chance for an over fire / run away stove situation. EPA reburn stoves have a single air control that does not close the air all the way, and have a none controllable secondary air supply.
So if you pack a secondary air reburn stove up and the load is ultra dry you will have control issues we call it going nuclear, also the same with burning many compressed sawdust blocks.

That's why I suggested the wood be stacked tightly, to limit the ability of oxygen to get to the bulk of the load.

 

[gutlo]

Hogwildz,

If I load 2/3 volume of the stove with pallet wood and run it at less than half air input, should I be safe from going nuclear? I gave the wrong impression when I said "load it up."

 

[James02]

Do not fill the stove with dimensional dry lumber, it will take off and it will give you a good scary time.



^^^ yup

 

[gregbesia]

Hi Gutlo. I have that same stove in the insert version. I will try to give you some pros:
1. Heats up really quick from cold starts, especially with pallet wood
2. Clean burning (my neighbors often asking if I heat with wood)
3. Great manufacturer if you ever have a problem. They will respond quickly and work with you to your satisfaction

and Cons:
1. No overnight burn. Waking up every morning and staring a new fire sucks !
2. No N-S loading (straight in) ,
3. Only loading E-W (sideways), thus less usable space in the stove, more mess when opening the door
4. About 4 hrs of heat

Please do your homework. Remember that a stove is a long term item and any extra money spend now , when divided by 10 or 20 years of ownership , will be money well spend if you are happy with your choice years later. Also, take your time and read up all you can on this site. There is a lot of really smart people here (not me) who will give you great advice.

 

[xman23]

I've cut up a lot of pallets from under my stacks and burn them in the fire pit. I think it would be way to much work to heat the house with pallets.

 

[Hogwildz]

IN THE BEGINNING, there were regular old smoke dragon stoves, and they were pretty bad, but we didn't know it yet so we liked them a lot.

Then the mean old EPA said we had to have cleaner burning stoves going forward, and we did wail and tear at our vestments and gnash our teeth (those of us who still have 'em). However, after a rough start it became apparent that more efficient stoves also meant a lot more heat from a lot less wood, so we got over it pretty completely.

Modern stoves use two approaches to be marvellously better than their grandfathers: either they use a catalyst to reburn the wood gas (like your car exhaust, except that you get to keep the heat)- or it's a tube stove, which sends the wood gas through tubes and reburns it.

There are people who feel very strongly that one or the other is terrible, but they are wrong- there are plenty of excellent cat and tube stoves out there. (And some bad ones!)

Because they both work well, any woodstove forum has a thousand threads devoted to proving once and for all that one or the other is way better. People are like that.

And then there is those with tubeless baffles.

 

[Hogwildz]

Hogwildz,

If I load 2/3 volume of the stove with pallet wood and run it at less than half air input, should I be safe from going nuclear? I gave the wrong impression when I said "load it up."

You have to get the stove up to a certain temp before cutting the air back. Otherwise it will smoulder. You can try 2/3, but pack it fairly tight. Maybe a couple small gaps between the stacks. You have to have some air running through or around the splits. Just don't load it it with air paths all over the place, or it will get hot, fast. And at that point, it will have to run the course before it calms down.