Just figured alot of problems posted lately on what first appears draft problems, which some are, but seams more are wet wood problems.
Just my 2cents..............
Good dry, ready wood will ignite almost immediately when good & seasoned. Sometimes this can even be misleading. Some times, the bark is dry, but the inner wood is wet. So usually yes, if it ignites within say a minute to immediately, chances are good that its dry. But sometimes it can be just the bark burning well. If it takes 2 minutes or so, its semi dry/ semi wet. If it takes like 5 minutes, the stuff is WET
! Now granted this is if it is going onto a good hot bed of coals. If you have morsels of coals from the night before, or waiting to long and missing the hot bed of coals, than these rules don't really apply. At that point, if its wet, it will smolder at best and continually smoke. I throw some on a lil late sometimes, but in 10-15 mins its blazing. This will not happen with wet wood. Its will just smolder and smoke and not raise temp.
Also, just touched was ash blocking air intake ports. A very good point made was that if the ash is blocking where the intake air comes in, = poor draft. Just like a caked dirty engine air cleaner, car runs like crap cause no air is coming in, or at best very little. Same holds true for our woodburning appliances. Keep the air intake clear, and the exhaust clear. Meaning cap, another common culprit to bad draft issues. The cap is the single most creosote concentrated area. Inspect at least monthly until you figure out how long it takes for the cap to start accumulating creosote if that is the case. Then adjust your inspections & cleaning as needed.
Just my 2 cents.
This has been a public service announcement from your resident Neanderthal.
Your regularly scheduled program will now resume but already in progress.
Thank You.
Just my 2cents..............
Good dry, ready wood will ignite almost immediately when good & seasoned. Sometimes this can even be misleading. Some times, the bark is dry, but the inner wood is wet. So usually yes, if it ignites within say a minute to immediately, chances are good that its dry. But sometimes it can be just the bark burning well. If it takes 2 minutes or so, its semi dry/ semi wet. If it takes like 5 minutes, the stuff is WET
! Now granted this is if it is going onto a good hot bed of coals. If you have morsels of coals from the night before, or waiting to long and missing the hot bed of coals, than these rules don't really apply. At that point, if its wet, it will smolder at best and continually smoke. I throw some on a lil late sometimes, but in 10-15 mins its blazing. This will not happen with wet wood. Its will just smolder and smoke and not raise temp.Also, just touched was ash blocking air intake ports. A very good point made was that if the ash is blocking where the intake air comes in, = poor draft. Just like a caked dirty engine air cleaner, car runs like crap cause no air is coming in, or at best very little. Same holds true for our woodburning appliances. Keep the air intake clear, and the exhaust clear. Meaning cap, another common culprit to bad draft issues. The cap is the single most creosote concentrated area. Inspect at least monthly until you figure out how long it takes for the cap to start accumulating creosote if that is the case. Then adjust your inspections & cleaning as needed.
Just my 2 cents.
This has been a public service announcement from your resident Neanderthal.
Your regularly scheduled program will now resume but already in progress.
Thank You.
