There's always the "scrounge up some kiln dried lumber cutoffs and/or cut up some old pallets idea" too...just to be clear, this would just be mixed in with the regular firewood. Wouldn't want a whole load of this stuff by itself...especially after struggling with wet wood...likely some creosote in the chimney that could be lit off by a real hot "dry softwood" load
At this point I suggest whacking 2x4 into pieces and buying a chuck of kiln dried hardwood lumber. If that burns, you know the issue is the wood. Do not mix any of your wood, burn just the lumber. You may have to supplement with bricks or find pallets etc, but at least you will know. Good luck
Oh boy, here we go. Be warned also that wood that is too dry, thats right i said too dry, can cause other burning problems..... 1st problem with too dry is overfire if your not carfull....duh 2nd and not much discussed, too dry wood can gas off faster than the stove can supply air, this leads to extra fuel not being burned in the form of heavy smoke out the chimney.... this leads to creosote just as easily as wet wood.... from the stove manufacturers themselves, these EPA stoves are engineered to run well on wood from roughly 13%-22% Mc Kiln dried wood in the 4% range will cause problems if you have a stove full of the stuff....
Thank god I do not have one of these EPA stoves. I burn the right moisture content in mine, but in the event I didn't I would not have so many headaches as it sounds like some of you do. Looks like the EPA stoves are solid supporters of the three year plan.
I also did not mean filling the stove full. Small to medium sized load. i would be very advise filling with kiln dried and possibly over firing.
I figured that. I just want to see this stove work how it's supposed to for him. I think we're all in that boat.
I grabbed three pieces from the pile today and split them. Ash 17.9 to 19.4 Walnut 18.2 to 19.6 Maple? 1 split 16.9 to 19.9 the second half of the same split 16.7 to 24.1. Don't know what to make of this reading. Took the readings many times. Wood was not room temp. when I did the readings. This is not at all what I expected.
For those of you that have asked. I am located about 15 miles east of Marion Ohio. I plan on picking up a package of Eco- Bricks Tues when in Marion.
do it again tomorrow. bring your splits indoors and let them acclimate for 24hrs... the mc% is completely unreliable if not measured at about 70deg. F.
Marshel54 do not know what ya got for a truck or trailer.. but this is what I would do... it's January in ohio.. you got roughly 2 months left of winter.. get some bricks and take swags or somebody closer up on their offer.. bring truckload to them.. (they are really doing you a big favor to be friendly make it easy on them) take a truckload of dry home.. what's downside get a trip.. meet some nice people.. learn somethings.. EPA stoves ARE finicky about dry wood but once you learn then you get more heat from less wood! just my 2 cents worth what ya paid for it
Sir I am 30 miles east of Marion,I am retired if there is any thing I can help you with let me know. If nothing else we can get together have a cup of coffee and talk wood PM me sometime, and it is good to have you here .
Sometimes stoves dont work well in certain installs, it happens, my Summit would not come up to temp no matter what I burnt in it. The scrap lumber is a good suggestion but as mentioned you have to be careful and watch the stove after all it is a box of fire in your house. I would think after the moisture is cooked out of your wood the stove should come up to a good temp but this would be a little later in the burn cycle, the fire would be sluggish to begin with.
If cut to length it dries, the cell structure of wood is made up of what looks like straws so a lot of drying is done from the ends.
A lot of that depends on the wood and location.. I realize your talking in generalities but the most extreme example birch.. will rot in less than a year cut to 16 inch length and not split.. in my area
