Seems every year 90 percent of the guys I know that burn wood run out by the end of January yet every year these guys tell me how much wood they have cut then I stop over to their place for this or that and see their so called wood supply. Just looking I can tell the will never make it till spring and most of the stuff is so wet you wouldn't catch me burning it. Sometimes it's not even stacked or anything. They all ask me why I have so much wood cut and that it will get so dry it will just burn up quick. First year I started burning I had 14 cords cut split and stacked and am still burning that stuff 3years later.
I have tried they are set in their ways, seem the outdoor wood burners REALLY like the wet wood lol! And they are cutting all winter long in a foot of snow getting stuck.
yup my neighbor down road thought that too the creosote is corosive and destroyed inside jacket for couple grand
I had a guy just tell me last week that the key to running an outdoor wood burner is using wet wood so it last longer. I just said, with my indoor woodstove, I find dryer is better...
Got to love that "put some green wood on the fire so it can smolder and (never) keep you warm all night long because dry wood burns up too fast" logic.
It takes all types. Volunteer fire for 12 years, and I can tell you a couple things rang true with chimney fires. The houses we went to rarely cleaned their chimneys, and didn't burn seasoned wood. One of the chief's finally got tired of it, and we started taking the wood stoves out of the houses. His intention was for the homer owner to get the chimney properly inspected for flue damage and the wood stove properly installed. This didn't happen, but his intentions were born on good intentions. You just can't fix stupid.
....not all OWB owners...... One of my ex-partners started complaining as soon as he found out I had one. "Stinky, foul smelling POS" he called them due to a wanna-be burner in his neighborhood. Told him my practices, but he continued. One day during work hours, I had him stop by the house. (In the dead of winter) He looked and said "there's the beast huh? When you gonna start it?" Told him it was going since Oct. Then he asked if I could stop by the guys house in his neighborhood and talk to him! Same thing here in the U.P. though....more so with the indoor stove crowd since there are more of those than OWBs. Get the wood in Sep, Oct for the years heating season. Not too many subscribe to the three year plan.
Well I've cut and burned on the same day at one point in life, is what it is when you're cold. Hopefully don't ever get to that point again. But if you tell em and they don't listen, hard to feel bad when their on their roof when it's -10 and blowing, cleaning the chimney out. I've done that as well, it was cold.
Sometimes people's priorities are different, don't want to change or just plain lazy. Growing up, we always we're working on firewood it seemed but just never really got ahead by much, didn't have an epa stove then either. But yes, having dry seasoned firewood is extremely important now more than ever for many reasons. If people could just work on next year's wood now it would be a step in the right direction for them.
It's all in what you want, and how bad you want it. I climbed a steep roof and put out 3 chimney fires, two of them bad, in my knickers, in the middle of the night in the dead of winter when I was a kid. To quote the lady from FB, "I AIN'T DOIN' IT!!!" Not anymore.
Hej hej all, Sorry but i dont laugh at other guys misfortunes, i like it better to help out and try to learn from the misstakes and get educated! Norman has got a good point i think, havening the right tools for the job cost money and not all of us have a the experice with wood burning (talking about my self i guess). Never the less it takes a whole lot of time to get the 3 year plan on the right tracks, and if u got the right tools it makes it a whole lot easier. “You got to work with what u got” my old man always said. So i am always glad if i can help out someone in need, but thats just me. Have a nice day all!
I've run into the same thing and always tell them that is one reason they put adjustable draft controls on the stoves. Of course if you try to burn dry wood with the same settings as green wood, it will burn up fast. Just turn it down! Another thing I always tell folks is that until we learn how to burn water, I'll stick to burning dry wood.
Sometimes you have to work with what you've got but sometimes the right tool for the job certainly comes in handy especially when considering time is money and what is your time worth.
Even cutting in the spring and having it dry for the long summer will work well, did that for 20 years or so and never had any sizzlers or creosote problems and it was the only source of heat. My 2 son in laws both heat their shop with wood and cut in the fall, I dont even bother trying to teach them as I am sure they think it's not necessary.
