Stove cleaning

I accidentally loaded too much at 8pm last night, didnt burn out until 4pm today and had to suffer through 76 degree temps all day today. This shoulder of a winter has got to stop.

 

BTW it was only a half load.

 

I'm not sure what I would even do if I could get my stove to burn that long. But hopefully someday I will find out, I've got my eyes set on a fireview, I fell in love with the look of the soapstone.
I will need to save my pennies for a few years but that will give me time to build my three year plan up

 

Keweenaw , not sure what your using for a stove I am assuming a newer one because of this section instead of older pre-epa section. I have new IS, (Woodstock company same as fireview) and Backwoods Savage, is a great resource but probably been 30 years since he has had marginal wood.. And please correct me if I am wrong.. but get a moisture meter and on fresh splits know what's above and below 20% moisture. Then if you mix some higher moisture with some lower you can get best results I've found with my stove. I hope that helps..

 

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan, I have wanted one since I started reading on FHC but my budget has been super tight. Now things are loosening up a bit and I just might order one up

 

Understand.. there is a thread here look up moisture meter on amazon less than 25 dollars or mine was... until you get up to the three year ahead plan it's almost a necessity

 

I think I found a good one, I will probably order it up in the next couple days, kind of excited to actually know how dry my wood is

 

Do

you have a Harbor Freight tool a near you? If so theirs is no worse than others c at 1/3 the price

 

I wish... No harbor freight, lowes, Home Depot, Menards or any other big box hardware store for at least 2 hours in any direction. That's one of the costs of living up here, totally worth it to live in my favorite place I've ever been though

 

So I just checked harbor freights web sight and they want 14.99 for the only model they have and then 6.99 for standard shipping so $22.00 to get it from harbor freight. I share an Amazon prime account with my in-laws so I get free 2 day shipping from them and the top rated mm on Amazon is only $25.00. I might just poke around a bit more and see what else is out there for a good price

 

they are alleabout the same product. I have prime too, do the amazon thing. It will be good enough for firewood use. We dont need the precision of Kiln Dried wood working here.

 

How often do they run sales like that, and how would I best keep track of when they happen? This idea has got me excited

 

We sure have it rough living in first world countries.

 

With my stove it is possible for ash to accumulate above the "roof" of the firebox, in or in front of the doghouse air intake, and perhaps in other places where air is supposed to flow. I remove the flue pipe and look inside the top part of the stove, and I can vacuum come of the ash out that way. I can also reach up at the front of the stove and pull some ash from the space I mentioned. Creosote and other burnable stuff will be burnt away next time the stove gets nice and hot.

 

My moisture meter came in the other day. 18 bucks and free shipping from Amazon. I tried 5 pieces of spruce on fresh split faces, averaged about 15%
Tried several splits of ash, elm, and birch. Most of my smaller splits hovered around 20% but some of the bigger ones were up at 28-29%
Not so great, but next year will be better and the following year better still. For now I'm trying to make sure I only ever put one under seasoned split in the stove at a time, in addition of course to two or three drier ones

 

You're not the only guy to go about it that way.

 

As in almost all cases it comes down to the wood not being seasoned enough. You gotta burn what you got, but just know that it will get lots better in the coming years. Once you start burning all 15% wood you won't believe the difference.