Wet wood...

[Lloyd the redneck]

I'm sure this has been beat to death, but. I have a ton of wood that has been well seasoned in rounds cut to length even. But this fall we had a ton of rain 5" of snow that melted and another 1.5" rain after that. Then froze. It splits up nice but when it's stacked up in my heated shop it is just soaked. Wich I expected. And after about 2 weeks it's nice and dry. Any tips to boost it? I'm thinking about putting a dehumidifier in there. 2 vehicles in everyday to melt off and warm up keeps it pretty moist. I tried a fan but that did nothing. At all. Any tricks would be appreciated. And yes I am burning it. Last week being -20 I used up all my 2-3 week dry and had to start over.

 

[Firefighter938]

wood doesn't dry very well in the round. The moisture from the rain and snow isn't really a big deal. It will dry and be gone in a couple of days. Your best bet now is to continue doing what you are, and possibly try to get some dry wood to mix with it. You can try craigslist, but that is a long shot. Many members here like the compressed saw dust bricks you can get at fleet stores. You could also get pallets and cut those down to mix in with your wet wood. Just watch your chimney. It can plug up remarkably fast from wet wood. Construction scraps are another good source for dry wood for free. Best of luck.

 

[jetsam]

Split it small, stand the next load on end around the stove, put a tarp over it next time!

Honestly, you'd probably get semidry wood a lot faster and easier by going out and taking a standing/leaning dead tree at this point.

May also want to try the stuff that was in the center of the stacks, especially if it was all stacked bark-up.

If you have to burn wet wood, never let it get down to low coals (reload hot), and inspect your cap and flue daily, and sweep weekly until you get a feel for how fast you're building creosote.

 

[Lloyd the redneck]

It's all split now, stacked indoors. And I have been reloading hot and watching the chimney. I'm all out of standing dead I hammered thru that unfortunately. I am a contractor and use my cutoffs, it's just not building season now so I'm almost out!

 

[SaltyWoodsman]

Is it correct to say that as long as you keep your stove at optimum temp (300° - 500°), you can burn the wet wood without much risk for heavy chimney build up?

 

[Coog]

I assume your stove is in the house? I have had this issue, not quite as bad as you but I just bring the wood in the dry house a full day (or longer if you have room) before burning and put it just to the left or right of the glass doors of the stove. Those are the hottest and driest areas of the house. If you are burning relatively hot fires, that moisture should bake out in no more than a day. You could probably put them right in front of the glass but you better be right there.

 

[Lloyd the redneck]

Is it correct to say that as long as you keep your stove at optimum temp (300° - 500°), you can burn the wet wood without much risk for heavy chimney build up?

I burn hot. I can't afford to have a potential issues. Maybe next year I can cut back on the wood use and focus more on efficiency. This year I'm just trying to get by , atleast mostly safely. And save some money so I can invest it into the nessicary upgrades to do it efficiently from here on

 

[Lloyd the redneck]

I assume your stove is in the house? I have had this issue, not quite as bad as you but I just bring the wood in the dry house a full day (or longer if you have room) before burning and put it just to the left or right of the glass doors of the stove. Those are the hottest and driest areas of the house. If you are burning relatively hot fires, that moisture should bake out in no more than a day. You could probably put them right in front of the glass but you better be right there.

Yes. I have one in the house one in the shop, i have been trying to pile a weeks worth in the house and that usually is nice by a weeks time. Still soaked in the middle but the rest lights up.

 

[Coog]

That is tough when it is soaked to the center.

 

[jetsam]

Is it correct to say that as long as you keep your stove at optimum temp (300° - 500°), you can burn the wet wood without much risk for heavy chimney build up?

I would say don't burn wet wood unless you are able to inspect and sweep weekly. I clogged a mesh cap in 3 days one time (wet wood, warm weather).

Hotter is obviously better, but temps are still going to be lower than normal with wet wood, and the excess moisture is further cooling the flue towards the already cool top. If your flue is 300 at the bottom, I don't think you have much of a chance for a 250 degree exit, even if you have an insulated liner.

Honestly, regular inspections are a good practice anyway. Nobody can tell you how often you need to sweep, because they don't have your stove installed on your flue burning your wood in your weather.

I'd check it every couple days until you feel comfortable going longer. The part that really needs scrutiny is the coldest part (normally at the top). Bear in mind that if you, based on your inspections, decide you need to inspect once a month in cold weather, you need to do it more often when it warms up, because you're burning the stove lower.

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

I would say don't burn wet wood unless you are able to inspect and sweep weekly

Yeah. Be careful. Our set up as far as inspecting is not ideal. I have to remove duct work and the stove to see the pipes. I can look down the chimney but hard to really tell. We don't burn marginal wood when we can't burn hot, like now. Wood is low 20%'s and it's in the 50's, so we tough it out till it gets cold. Wood was CSS for almost two years but was split too big and not enough air flow. Lessoned learned.

 

[Lloyd the redneck]

Thick yellow smoke just came from the chimney , I cut off the air for a few minutes and looked down the chimney , nothing out of the ordinary but I have never seen that before. Was that the start of a chimney fire?

 

[Lloyd the redneck]

In the middle of a load, burned normal for 2 hours then the smoke

 

[Firefighter938]

I'm not sure, but if you are concerned I think you should sweep your flue. That would help you know how much creosote youre creating.

 

[Lloyd the redneck]

I can see down it I check it frequently. I think it might have been some weird wood.

 

[D8Chumley]

If you've never had a chimney fire be thankful. I had one when I first starting burning. Wet wood, not an ideal stove. It's a feeling you will never forget when the stack thermo is buried. That's when I found this place Please be safe