Super dry wood: Will it create creosote?

[Machria]

I've have a bunch, and have been burning some super dry wood. The wood had been CSS for 10+ years. It is a mix of Cedar, Pine and some Oak. When I say "super dry", I mean it is extremly light, I have large 20 to 22" splits, that are 6" x 4" thick, yet they weight almost nothing.

They burn super hot, light up very quickly and some of them burn fast, but a few of them burn normally.

Will these creat more than normal creosote, or wil these burn cleanly since they are so dry?

 

[DAKSY]

They will probably clean your chimney rather than deposit anything in it. The hotter the burn, the better, for the most part. Of course you don't specify the height or the number of offsets you've got, & those two specs can affect burning & deposit characteristics...

 

[Machria]

Offsets? You mean in the chimney? If so, it basically goes straight up 15' from the stove. There is only a small universal bend, about 20* back, and then 20* forward (to get straight again) to get it to line up with the chimney since the stoves collar is about 4" forward of the chimney connector box.

And I should mention, my pipe temp never gets above 300*, most of the time stays between 200 and 250 during the burn. (single wall heavy metal pipe, surface thermometer on it 12" up from stove).

 

[DAKSY]

Offsets? You mean in the chimney? If so, it basically goes straight up 15' from the stove. There is only a small universal bend, about 20* back, and then 20* forward (to get straight again) to get it to line up with the chimney since the stoves collar is about 4" forward of the chimney connector box.

15 feet & that minor offset shouldn't offer much restriction, so you should be fine. Burn away!

 

[Jags]

Bob is correct for the majority of any firewood you will come across, BUT there does become a point that wood can off gas at a rate that the reburner (tubes or cat) can't handle the volume of gasses. At that stage, yes, you could potentially produce the nastys. I doubt that your wood is that dry if dried under normal circumstances. Kiln dried stuff is where you can get in trouble.

 

[Machria]

oh, it is "that dry" trust me. I've never seen anything like it. It came from a neighbors yard who retired and moved away, and was nice enough to offer it up to me. It was split, stacked and covered between 10 and 20 years ago. Some of it is so dry, it is just flaking apart from being so dry. It's not rotted (there was some that was very rotted, I didn't take any of that), it's just so dry it's falling apart as if there is no stucture left to hodl the grain together. When hit together, it sounds completely hollow. Take that nice sound you get with good 2 year old seasoned wood, and times it by 100. It is actually much drier than kiln dried wood I have seen. My cheapo $30 moister meter gets no reading from it, it stays at 0.00 while my normal wood will read from 15 to 45%.

 

[Jags]

I don't believe that it is even possible for wood that is stored outside to be 0% mc. Dunno.

Anyhow, the answer is YES, very dry wood can outgas faster than tubes or a cat can consume them, but it is VERY rare in the world of cord wood.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sounds to me like it is punk. Okay to burn but won't be a long burn for sure.

As far as wood being too dry to burn, I've never seen it yet and don't expect to see it ever.

 

[Grisu]

oh, it is "that dry" trust me. I've never seen anything like it. It came from a neighbors yard who retired and moved away, and was nice enough to offer it up to me. It was split, stacked and covered between 10 and 20 years ago. Some of it is so dry, it is just flaking apart from being so dry. It's not rotted (there was some that was very rotted, I didn't take any of that), it's just so dry it's falling apart as if there is no stucture left to hodl the grain together. When hit together, it sounds completely hollow. Take that nice sound you get with good 2 year old seasoned wood, and times it by 100. It is actually much drier than kiln dried wood I have seen. My cheapo $30 moister meter gets no reading from it, it stays at 0.00 while my normal wood will read from 15 to 45%.

I agree, that sounds like punky wood. Burns like paper, good to get the fire going but not for anything beyond. Normal wood can not go to 0% moisture under outside drying conditions. At some point it will reach an equilibrium with the moisture in the air which in most places will leave a 10 to 15% moisture level in the wood.

 

[bag of hammers]

falling apart as if there is no structure left to hold the grain together.

.
A friend has had a pile of red pine logs stacked on his back property for years (from previous owner). He started bucking it up for the outside fire. It's disintegrating from the outside in. Some of the pieces that aren't exposed to rain (tarped) are like powder now. This stuff seems "dry" but it's more like dry rot - and it's like throwing cardboard in the outside fire. Exposed to rain, it will soak up water like a sponge. I was eye-balling it for scrounge wood once, but unfortunately it was ruined over time. I wonder if you took one of the light-as-a-feather splits and dropped it in a bucket of water for a few minutes, then see if it comes out weighing @ 10 lb? Seems silly maybe but that red pine was like that....

 

[HotCoals]

A few times now I have read that real dry wood can be a prob...I dunno.


Our advice is to try whatever firewood you have available. Make sure the wood is properly seasoned because all wood species burn poorly and produce smoky fires if their moisture content is too high. Extremely dry wood, like kiln-dried lumber, can also produce smoky fires. If you have some very dry wood available, mix it with regular firewood to avoid excessive smoke.

http://www.woodheat.org/frequently-asked-questions.html

 

[jeff_t]

I would think that the tubes AND cat of your stove can handle whatever you throw at it

 

[Lumber-Jack]

No such thing as wood that is "too dry to burn", but I believe there can be wood that is so dry it doesn't burn properly in some stoves, or at least you need to burn it differently.
The wood I normally burn is around 15% - 18% MC, which is recommended moisture content of firewood. When I load up my stove with splits with that wood, on a hot bed of coals, and close the main draft completely, the secondaries will burn all night. The temp will hold around 500 F- 600 F and slowly drop as the fuel diminishes.
I also have some wood that also doesn't read on my moisture meter. The fact that it doesn't read just means that it's very dry, somewhere below the range of my meter which is most accurate between 15% - 25%. Anyway, if I try to burn this dry wood the same way I do the wood that is between 15% and 18% it will not burn properly. If I load the stove up with that dry wood and close the draft the temperature will continue to rise, sometimes + 800 F, and I'll actually get a lot of smoke coming out the chimney as the dry wood off gasses too quickly and it's not getting enough oxygen to burn it completely. This doesn't mean I can't burn that dry wood, it just means I have to burn it differently. To avoid the over heating and smoke I try to burn with smaller amounts at a time, or I'll mix that dry wood in with wood that is a little wetter, and this helps moderate the burn cycle.

But it really does sound like the OP has dry rot wood. I don't think oak ever gets "light" even if it gets very very dry.

 

[jharkin]

Wood does not flake apart from age, only rot. They pulled wooden chairs intact out of king tuts tomb that would still hold a mans weight.

 

[rideau]

I stacked a cord of beautiful clear maple in my basement when I built over 35 years ago. Over a face cord of it is still there. It's dry, but still in perfect shape. Still in as good shape as the day it was stacked. Every once in a while I burn a piece with my other wood. I have two splits sitting next to my rack now.

 

[remkel]

Sounds to me like it is punk. Okay to burn but won't be a long burn for sure.

As far as wood being too dry to burn, I've never seen it yet and don't expect to see it ever.

If you have never seen it, then it does not exist.......kind of like leprechauns.

 

[BobUrban]

I think the term here is "DRY ROT" if wood started just falling apart from being too dry houses and barns would be falling down all over the place.

Regarding the original question: I would imagine if you let "any" wood just smolder in your stove it could create creosote but obviously if your wood burned like paper it would be tough to do. So the answer is yes - any solid fule burning appliance will create some impurities that potentially could collect as deposits in your flu/chimney system and reburn under perfect conditions. Is it likely for these conditions to take place with old, rotted, SUPER dry wood: NO.

 

[Bill]

Loading a hot stove with a bed of coals with super dry wood, burns fast and furious, keep an eye on it.

 

[jharkin]

I think the term here is "DRY ROT" if wood started just falling apart from being too dry houses and barns would be falling down all over the place.
.

Whichin actualility is neither DRY nor ROT, but actually a fungus that attacks wet wood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_rot

 

[NorthernMN]

ALL wood supposedly creates creosote....I have a chimney sweep company in Northern MN, and at a seminar it was explained to me that creosote forms by burning, of course, but it can accumulate more rapidly when a situation exists wherein the smoke you vent goes from hot and moist to cold and dry too rapidly. We tell our customers, sweep in autumn, and sweep mid season the first year. If you don't see a lot of accumulation (if your vent run is short, for example) then in subsequent years you can OPT to skip the mid-season sweep AT YOUR DISCRETION. I always tell my customers this, too: That creosote powder that you can buy is cheap, a tub is like $5 and you'll use two all year. Buy it and use it. You can buy it in bulk buckets or even in clean little plastic tubes (a special burnable type of plastic safe for the environment) that you simply toss in while charging (loading up with wood) your stove or fireplace.

Jimmy in Minnie
1976 Garrison 2 with Original tool set

 

[Ashful]

The wood in my house was cut and stacked in 1773, and is still (thankfully) not flaking apart. Lots if pine in there, too. Your wood is rotted. There is no such thing as dry rot in wood, only rot. The mechanisms of rot and decay require moisture. It may not be there today, but it was there when the wood went to rot.

 

[Machria]

AS I noted, I'm aware "some" of it is rotted. But the stuff I took is not bad at all, it's mostly cedar and pine, and is very dry, I've never seen wood this dry.

I think the term here is "DRY ROT" if wood started just falling apart from being too dry houses and barns would be falling down all over the place.

Regarding the original question: I would imagine if you let "any" wood just smolder in your stove it could create creosote but obviously if your wood burned like paper it would be tough to do. So the answer is yes - any solid fule burning appliance will create some impurities that potentially could collect as deposits in your flu/chimney system and reburn under perfect conditions. Is it likely for these conditions to take place with old, rotted, SUPER dry wood: NO.

Thanks, thats' what I was looking for...

Loading a hot stove with a bed of coals with super dry wood, burns fast and furious, keep an eye on it.

The PH seems to handle it just fine. It does get hotter quicker than normal wood, and does burn alot faster (I only get 8 hours with 3 or 4 large splits of it), instead of 12 or 14 hours with 3 or 4 splits of normal wood. But I can control it nicely, just turn the air almost all the way down. I tried burning it hot once, with air almost all the way open, it was fine, not much more heat from it, it just burned quickly (couple hours).

If find the red hot coals at the end of a fire seem to burn VERY hot with this wood, and they also last a while. So the splits burn up quick, turn to hot coals and then just simmer for a long time.

Anywho!

 

[Ashful]

I should ammend my post to say "if your wood is rotted, it's not dry rot... just rot." Didn't mean to imply your wood is rotted without seeing it, although it does sound like that may be the case. Dry rot happens with rubber exposed to UV, not with wood. Wood requires moisture to support the organisms that facilitate rot, and thankfully so, otherwise all of us with old houses would be screwed!

 

[jharkin]

I should ammend my post to say "if your wood is rotted, it's not dry rot... just rot." Didn't mean to imply your wood is rotted without seeing it, although it does sound like that may be the case. Dry rot happens with rubber exposed to UV, not with wood. Wood requires moisture to support the organisms that facilitate rot, and thankfully so, otherwise all of us with old houses would be screwed!

There is a fungal infection that attacks damp wood that is commonly called dry rot, even though it only happens in the presence of moisture... see the wiki I referenced above.

Its a bad usage of the term, but is so commonly used that it sticks.