Tricks on drying and thawing frozen wood?

[michaelthomas]

I have my last row of wood that got pretty soaked when the tarp let loose in the past few storms. I was gathering last week and the wood is like an ice chunk. It was near impossible to start the fire and I was worried about adding Icy wood to a hot stove. I am able to bring in 3 or 4 days worth of wood at a time with my wood wagon but even after having the wood in for 2 days with the fire going it is still damp. I am wondering if there is a trick to stack it on the driveway with a make shift greenhouse to increase the temp to thaw and dry it a bit. I do not have any dry wood left and have another month of heating here in Maine. Oil just went up to 3.56 a Gal!! This wood has been stacked and split for over a year so it should dry out if I can get some heat to it. Any good ideas?

 

[tradergordo]

Nothing will dry your wood like sticking it right next to a 500 degree stove for a couple days. A makeshift greenhouse in your driveway won't come close. And NEVER EVER add wood to your fire that is caked with ice or snow. That's a recipe for trouble.

 

[Flame]

michaethomas,
I wish I had a better answer for you. I'm sure someone will chime in... I can let you know how I got by when my wood got soaked. What I did was bring in as much wood as I could in the room with the stove. Then I stood up wood around the perimeter of the stove while it was burning a load. I would use that wood for the next load and set up the next load around the perimeter and repeat. As a few days went by the wood was a little better. Then I got lucky and had a couple of nice windy drier days on my wood pile. Of course my wood around the perimeter was still not completly dry so I tossed in two Bio Bricks with each load to help it a long. If you stand wood around the stove though be careful it won't get bumped against the stove. I would set each one up with it's natural lean away from the stove.

 

[brooktrout]

I like to stack two or three days worth of wood near the stove and have a rotating tower fan blowing on the ends of the splits. I leave the fan on high at nite when we're asleep and during the day when we're at work, low when we're hanging in. In less than twenty-four hours, they are noticebly lighter, drier, and full of checks.

 

[eernest4]

I have my last row of wood that got pretty soaked when the tarp let loose in the past few storms.

I was gathering last week and the wood is like an ice chunk. It was near impossible to start the fire and I was worried about adding Icy wood to a hot stove. I am able to bring in 3 or 4 days worth of wood at a time with my wood wagon but even after having the wood in for 2 days with the fire going it is still damp. I am wondering if there is a trick to stack it on the driveway with a make shift greenhouse to increase the temp to thaw and dry it a bit. I do not have any dry wood left and have another month of heating here in Maine. Oil just went up to 3.56 a Gal!! This wood has been stacked and split for over a year so it should dry out if I can get some heat to it. Any good ideas?[/quote]

Now you know why I hate tarps & think little of people that recommend them & have 3 woodsheds instead.

What flame said and what brooktrout said but I use a 24 inch box fan , usually on high,aimed first at the stove,to pick up the stove's heat & then in line with the standing on end wood.

A side effect of this is that the drying wood humidifies the room air.

Even with 3 wood sheds, some extra wood won't fit inside , as I just can't seem to stop picking up free wood whenever I see some & I over stock my storage capacity & always end up drying off some wet wood in march to burn 3 weeks later.

The longer you can wait for it 2 dry,the better it burns, but if you gettin cold,just go ahead & burn it, AS LONG AS YOU DON'T HAVE A CATALITIC COMBUSTOR. Cats won't abide wet wood,it ruins them.

ANOTHER TRICK is to mix a little wet wood in with a mostly dry load of wood. The dry wood will steam the water out of the wet wood but you will loose 100 or 200 degrees of the fire while the wet wood is outsteaming as the steam cools the fire.
When the wet wood finishes steaming out, it will burn as dry wood & fire temps will go up a couple hundred degrees, so watch the stove for this as your primary air will be set high because of the wet wood & will give too much primary air for when the wet wood becomes dry wood. a overfire condition could result if you are not right there to cut down on primary air.

WORD TO THE WISE.

 

[steam man]

I have my last row of wood that got pretty soaked when the tarp let loose in the past few storms. I was gathering last week and the wood is like an ice chunk. It was near impossible to start the fire and I was worried about adding Icy wood to a hot stove. I am able to bring in 3 or 4 days worth of wood at a time with my wood wagon but even after having the wood in for 2 days with the fire going it is still damp. I am wondering if there is a trick to stack it on the driveway with a make shift greenhouse to increase the temp to thaw and dry it a bit. I do not have any dry wood left and have another month of heating here in Maine. Oil just went up to 3.56 a Gal!! This wood has been stacked and split for over a year so it should dry out if I can get some heat to it. Any good ideas?

I've been dealing with frozen ice laden wood all winter. Since I have an easy access daylight basement, I haul in enough and dump it near the stove. After the flood it takes a week or so to get dry enough to burn OK. My suggestion is to forget trying to handle the wood you have and go find a minimal load of seasoned stuff you can use to get through heating season. I just bought a pickup truck load (not seasoned) to mix in with what's left of the dry stuff. The wet stuff will still be there next year. Hopefully dried out.

 

[Henz]

yup, thats what I do. My wood ring is located right next to my stove. It holds enough for one solid day and night of burning or about three loads in the stove. At times I ahve alittle ice on the splits, I usually use another split to get most of it off and then it melts away in the ring. I ahve alittle carpet under the ring to absorbe the moisture

 

[Chettt]

Remove all bark, it holds lots of water. I always keep a face cord in the garage.

 

[Henz]

remove all bark?? who has time to do that?

 

[bruce]

i had the same problem with the wood under the seam in the tarps, i brought it in stacked next to the fire and used a box fan for a day or so melts the ice fast and dries out quickly, but you need good wood to make the heat to do this

 

[gpcollen1]

[/quote]

Now you know why I hate tarps & think little of people that recommend them & have 3 woodsheds instead.

[/quote]

You think little of those of us who recommend tarps or who actually use them? And do you only think little of those of us who have them blow off and get them rained on and iced up?

I think most here understand that a wood shed is the best solution. I am sure some of us do not have the skills to do it themselves, some don't have the space near to the house, some wives do not want the thing at all...and some of us, like me, just have not got around to it. I have been tarping 4-6 cords of wood for the past 5 years and have never had an issue but one small tear in a tarp leaking water into the pile. Does that mean I am a rocket scientist - nope - just a good camper i guess.

 

[billb3]

Only had that happen to me once and I was burning in the basement at the time so a couple days worth kept down there near the drain wasn't so bad.

I remember being surprised how much watre dripped out of those sponges.

 

[brooktrout]

remove all bark?? who has time to do that?

As I select a few splits for the stove, I pull off the bark of the next few in line and pile it in the "bark" pile next to the stove. This pile never gets that big, though, because I love using it to fill in the spaces of a start up fire in the moring. Burns real hot and fast. :cheese:

 

[derbygreg]

Nothing will dry your wood like sticking it right next to a 500 degree stove for a couple days. A makeshift greenhouse in your driveway won't come close. And NEVER EVER add wood to your fire that is caked with ice or snow. That's a recipe for trouble.

Tradergordo,

I have not done it, but have put in slightly wet wood. I find the fire just turns the moisture to steam and it goes away.

Why is it a recipe for trouble?

 

[billb3]

Why is it a recipe for trouble?

It is for anyone that doesn't have the requisite intelligence to know the effective difference between a cup of water thrown in a fireplace and several gallons.

 

[tradergordo]

Well admitedly I'm not sure what the real odds for damage might be, but throwing ice/snow caked wood on your fire will cause RAPID cooling and steam, this can destroy a catalytic converter if your stove has one, and could potentially crack cast iron - especially if when you put the log in, the snow/ice happens to end up actually pressed against hot metal. Of course it can also cool the fire to the point where you can no longer burn efficiently or cleanly - this too can lead to trouble (chimney fires).

Nothing will dry your wood like sticking it right next to a 500 degree stove for a couple days. A makeshift greenhouse in your driveway won't come close. And NEVER EVER add wood to your fire that is caked with ice or snow. That's a recipe for trouble.

Tradergordo,

I have not done it, but have put in slightly wet wood. I find the fire just turns the moisture to steam and it goes away.

Why is it a recipe for trouble?

 

[johnsopi]

When I have a wet/not as dry peice of wood I spilt it, and put by the side of the stove for a few day then burn it.

 

[savageactor7]

I was thinking of this post the other day when I was replenishing our indoor supply. A couple (2) of pieces of dry maple splits got off the beaten path and embedded themselves in the ground. After bashing them out with the splitter and bashing the chunked ice off them I inspected them both and thought... "sure, they'll burn OK"...

...well I put 1of the logs on an established bed on top of 2 partially burned logs and the fire just burned around the frozen wet log...it burned eventually but there is no way I could start a fire with this type of wood, and I doubt I could even sustain an established fire if all our remaining wood was like this.

The only advice I have for michaelthomas is to go on a pallet hunt and mix those wet pieces with some hot burning pallet wood.