What do you do when the wood is less than seasoned?

[Berone]

We didn't get our insert until October. I ordered 2 cords of "seasoned" wood, but it's probably a safe bet that it's not quite there. But it's what I have. I'm working on appropriate measures for next year's wood, but what do I do for this season? What's the best way to deal with less than ideal wood?

Thanks,

 

[Hanko]

burn very small very hot fires

 

[SolarAndWood]

Have you burned any yet? If so, how did it go?

 

[jj3500]

Go and round up some wooden pallets. Those are typically very dry hardwoods. They break up easy enough. Toss a few pieces in there with the "seasoned wood". This will definitely kick up the temperature. See how that goes...add more if need to or taper back. Go in slow increments. Don't dump a whole bunch in at a time. Easy to overfire with the pallets.

 

[cycloxer]

The first thing to do is to try to burn some. If it burns well and you can get the stove hot, then you are good to go. Now, if it doesn't burn so great, but it is close, you can try a few things:

re-split some of the splits to get smaller pieces
use a higher primary air setting on the stove
burn the stove as hot as possible
mix in some kiln dried wood
mix in some pine, maybe you have some construction scraps (no pressure treat)
mix in some bio bricks
store your wood inside to speed up the drying
keep your wood stack covered on top and in as sunny/windy location as possible
inspect your flue if it makes you nervous

If the wood just smolders and is really wet, then just give it one more year and go try to find some dry wood.

 

[BrotherBart]

With less than ideally dry wood a good hot coal bed becomes extremely important. Split some of that stuff small and burn it to establish a good coal bed and then when it cools down to around 400 degrees stove top temp load your splits on top of it. It'll burn.

 

[LLigetfa]

The first thing to do is check your insurance policy. Second, all of the above.

 

[Berone]

I have burned quite a bit of it, but I'm wondering if it could be contributing to the problems we're having getting the fire going again in the morning (and at night when my wife has let it burn down too much before I get home).
Lligetfa - are you suggesting I burn my insurance policy?

Unfortunately the only truly sunny spot on my property is the middle of the very small front yard. My wife's vegetable garden in the side yard suffered from lack of sun. Plenty of wind, though.

cycloxer - "higher primary air setting"? I'm not sure what that means.

Thanks for the tips. I'm sitting here now trying to get a fire burning so I can go to bed. It seems that we get a decent bed of coals in the middle, but the sides of the stove have what look like cold coal chunks.

 

[skinnykid]

my wood is a bit under seasoned. It takes lots of air to get a fire going. What I have found that works a bit is when the fire is going, have your next load in front of the stove being warmed up. I have done this and noticed cracks in the wood that were not there before I layed it out. I have a gate around my stove for the kiddies so I stand the wood up against the gate, getting the heat out of the viewing window.

 

[Valhalla]

Borrow some from a friend or neighbor that has
a large supply. Just swap it out. Then take them to
dinner!

Incompletely seasoned wood fuel has reduced net
heat output.

Your goal is max heat! Not the daily frustration of
trying to burn some still green stuff.

 

[Skier76]

I have burned quite a bit of it, but I'm wondering if it could be contributing to the problems we're having getting the fire going again in the morning (and at night when my wife has let it burn down too much before I get home).
Lligetfa - are you suggesting I burn my insurance policy?

Unfortunately the only truly sunny spot on my property is the middle of the very small front yard. My wife's vegetable garden in the side yard suffered from lack of sun. Plenty of wind, though.

cycloxer - "higher primary air setting"? I'm not sure what that means.

Thanks for the tips. I'm sitting here now trying to get a fire burning so I can go to bed. It seems that we get a decent bed of coals in the middle, but the sides of the stove have what look like cold coal chunks.

I had a bit of this problem earlier in the seaason. But now, after an extra month or two of time, things have settled out.

However, if you are dealing with wood that's a bit wet.... To get a fire going from just a few coals, rake those up front near where the air enters the fire box. I've found that laying down some small splits of pine kindling works excellent. I'll then lay a small split on that. It should get things going in short order.

Regarding the primary air...he means run the stove with the air control more open than closes. There's less of a chance of the fire smouldering this way.

If you don't have one, a stove thermometer is a great cheap investment.

 

[Motor7]

As stated, green/wet wood causes creosote to form & collect faster. I'd burn it, & just check the flue every 1-2 weeks & brush it if needed. Mine is really easy to get to, so that may not work for you.

RD

 

[cycloxer]

You shouldn't be having trouble getting the wood to start burning again on a hot bed of coals. If you are, the wood is really a bit too wet and I know how frustrating that can be. You really want 1 year of ideal dry time. I often burn red maple that has only seasoned 3-6 months, but it is a fairly forgiving wood in that regard.

I meant to set your draft control at maximum open - pull it all the way out. (That's what Hampton calls it.)

If you really need to burn this wood, burn it as hot as you can and check your flue to make sure you are not getting a dangerous build-up.

 

[firefighterjake]

Last year I thought my wood was pretty good . . . and to be honest it wasn't really bad . . . but this year with wood cut and split and stacked last Fall I have to say Halleujah . . . I have discovered the joy of truly using seasoned wood.

A few random thoughts.

If at all possible, buy next Winter's wood now . . . or as soon as you can. The faster you get it split and stacked, the better off you will be by this time next year.

Using wood that is less than optimal is not fun . . . mostly when it comes to getting the fire going from a cold firebox. Because of this, once you get the firebox hot enough you will want to keep the fire process going as long as possible. As mentioned, coals are good . . . and heat is good. Normally I suggest folks wait longer before reloading the stove -- waiting until the coals are the size of plums or golfballs and the stove top temp is around 200. In your case, try loading a bit earlier and when the coals are larger.

Pallets are your friends. They're cheap (or free even) and easy (insert joke here) and get the fire hot enough so that any lingering moisture can be driven out . . . not the best scenario, but we work with what we've got, right? Pallets are also ideal for getting the fire going from a cold start . . . just don't load the entire fire box with pallets. Use them sparingly and you will find that they will help you out big time.

Air is your next best friend . . . I think Cycloxer and others may have mentioned this. When you have truly seasoned wood you will be able to close down the air supply more and get longer burn times . . . with less than ideal wood, unfortunately, you may not get this benefit as you may find that you will have to keep your air supply open more and longer to get the fire established. Typically, closing the air supply too much or too soon will kill the fire . . . that's the bad news . . . the good news is that by doing so you may be able to use this wood this year.

Split smaller . . . it can be a lot of work . . . but generally more surface area exposed = a hotter fire . . . plus any smaller split wood may be more seasoned by the end of the burning season.

Perhaps the best bit of advice comes from Motor7 . . . wood that is not seasoned enough has excess moisture in it . . . for this reason you really want to be extra diligent about checking your chimney. Every two weeks is erring on the side of being very cautious . . . every month would be the absolute minimum.

 

[Fsappo]

I burn green wood in my stove all the time. By green, I mean split over the summer. It burns fine if I keep the air open a little more than normal. Just burn a little higher and inspect your chimney every couple of weeks. Also, buy yourself some anti creosote spray and spray the fire with 5-10 pumps every morning during a brisk burn.

 

[FireWalker]

If you have a basement with concrete floor/walls, bring a weeks worth down there and stack it/spread it out on the dry concrete. The dry concrete will help draw out the moisture, I've done this with locust last season as an experiment, after 2 weeks similar sized splits showed cinsiderably less weight as compared those kept outside. Just don't move your whole supply down there as you will get moisture/mold problems.

 

[brokeburner]

If you wanna stay warm burn it or get dry wood.

 

[Battenkiller]

If you have a basement with concrete floor/walls, bring a weeks worth down there and stack it/spread it out on the dry concrete. The dry concrete will help draw out the moisture, I've done this with locust last season as an experiment, after 2 weeks similar sized splits showed cinsiderably less weight as compared those kept outside. Just don't move your whole supply down there as you will get moisture/mold problems.

I keep up to a cord of green wood in the basement at times, depending on how much seasoned wood I start the year with. I have never had a problem with mold forming, even with red oak. I have a much worse problem with fungus and such with wood stored under cover in the summer.

I live in a relatively cold part of the country, so outside winter air coming into my basement has little moisture. I welcome as much water as I can get into the air down there. I stack my green wood loosely so air can pass through it - 36" from the stove for safety reasons - and it adds enough moisture to raise the relative humidity to about 35%. Still, that is quite low, so any surface moisture on the wood disappears pretty quickly. When the outside is dry, mold can't form.

Within a few weeks, the ends of the wood are covered with cracks. That doesn't mean that the wood is by any means seasoned, but lots of the "free" water has left the wood at that point. Burning gets somewhat easier at that point, but you'll never be able to do anything about the heat loss from evaporating the "bound" water that is still trapped inside the cells. Only long seasoning can solve that problem.

If you have access to white ash and black cherry, I'd get a few more cords and burn that instead of what you have now. Pay a premium if you have to, it is well worth it. Ash will burn OK right off the stump if split small enough. Sure, it burns better after a year, but it will get you through your first winter just fine. Cherry isn't quite as good as ash as far as heat output, but it dries very fast compared to other hardwoods, and it burns fast and hot after only a few weeks inside.

Otherwise, what everybody else says. Burn hot (lots of air), split small, keep fire small and intense, build gradually so you can stoke it full at night with a nice bed of coals at the base. Once it gets going good, shut the air down before going to bed. Sometimes what seems like a nice slow burn in the beginning can get pretty lively three hours later once that wood has finally lost its water.


BTW, those big unburned coals you are talking about are wood that has had all of the volatiles distilled out of it and run up the chimney. Read "creosote". You need to get the fire hot and keep it there.

 

[Flame]

I have been there but thankfully I had seasoned wood also. I think most has been said. I burned only the smallest pieces of unseasoned wood until the bigger stuff became more seasoned (or split it down). Any other dry wood you can put in with it helps like pallet wood or some of that dry wood you see at the grocery stores (mixed in only). What also works great are Envi-Bricks or Bio-Bricks. Put one or two of those in with your unseasoned wood and things will heat up enough to get going. Pluss you will have nice coals from the Bio-Bricks to help on your next load. My unseasoned wood left only black coals too. Keep a stack of that unseasoned wood near the stove so it can dry out quickly. Good luck!

 

[Bobbin]

A couple of years ago we had some wood that was "sizzling" in the stove. We knew we were pushing it and that it wasn't fully "cured". We decided to put some of it in the boiler room for a week/so. We don't heat 100% with wood so the boiler runs periodically to keep the water in the baseboard hot. It worked like a charm! It wasn't too difficult to organize "incoming" and "outgoing" mini stacks. The "dried" wood was perfect for starting the fire and once it was good and hot we could toss in some "greener" wood with no ill effect.

We allow a solid two years to cure the red oak and red maple that are the predominant species available to us on our property and "free for the taking".

 

[Valhalla]

Incompletely seasoned or "green" wood is not effective
in heat (btu) production. Your chimney builds up
creosote. All are poor choices for any wood burner.

Plan ahead and do it right for your safety.

 

[mcollect]

That is where we were last year "seasoned wood" was no,t it had only been split the previous week! We resplit the wood lot, about three inches at the wides,t and moved it inside for a few weeks, worked like a charm. now the wood is at least a year in the stack but we still resplit it before burning, it makes a great deal of difference. BTW we only had a 1/4 inch of creosote after the first years burning.

 

[cycloxer]

Yeah there are plenty of things you can do to get the wood to burn better. It just takes a little bit of effort. If that was my wood supply, I would split it small and bring it into the house to speed up the drying. Heck, I do that with most of my wood anyway. Now is a good time to start lining up your wood supply for next year if you haven't already done so. It's not too late. I wouldn't buy kiln dried wood as it is just too expensive.

 

[Berone]

Thanks for all the replies. Most of the places around here claim to have "seasoned" firewood, but when asked they don't know what moisture content even is. Further questioning reveals that the trees were cut down within the past year and left to "season" in log form until a couple of weeks before. I did find one place, though, that seemed to have an understanding of how this actually works. When I asked them when the wood had been cut and split I was told "a year to two years ago". That would explain why they feel they can charge $289 for a cord plus delivery when the going rate in the area is $190 - $210, delivered. They do, however, have what they call seconds for $150 a cord. According to them "Seconds wood may have some rot, insect damage, be somewhat dirty, have excessive knots or simply be "ugly" pieces of firewood". Since that pretty much describes the current two cords I have (the green stuff) I figure it would be an improvement. Unfortunately they're closed until January 4th, but I think I'll go over and take a look at what they've got and, if it looks like I can work with it, order 3 cords for this season. Then I'll let this stuff sit until next season and add some more to it. Now I understand why so many guys have 7 or 8 cords stored! The only problem with the seconds is that the lengths can be up to 22" which won't fit in my 18" firebox. So I'll have to cut some of it down. That seems easier than some of the suggestions to improve this year's wood by moving it around a lot. I just don't have the space inside to follow most of those suggestions. Fortunately my mother in law got me the Homelite electric splitter that was well reviewed around here, so that will help with some of the other tasks.
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

 

[Berone]

Okay, so I got a moisture meter, based on a recommendation in another post (HQ-2G). I tested random samples of the wood that's been giving me trouble. The highest MC I got was 22%. Most were around 14-18%. And yet I watched moisture boiling out of one split that was smoldering. Now since I didn't test every log it's possible it was one I didn't test. I put the pins in the end as well as around the middle of the length and got the same reading in both places. I have another 2 cords coming next week, but I really don't expect it to be drier than 18%. The wood had been sitting inside overnight, but I don't think that would be enough to dry it out. Any further thoughts?

Happy New Year to all!

Thanks,