Pine splits; burn better when re-split

So a bit over two years ago, we had some pine trees taken down at our weekend house in Southern VT: I burn pine

Cliffs, wood was cut, split and stacked by October. It's been seasoning ever since.

But this year, it hasn't been burning that well in my stove. It would light up, but then I'd get the dreaded "Styrofoam block syndrome". Basically, it lights off fine, but kinda fizzles after that. What happened to the classic, hot and fast burn my kindling gives off?

Not to get too nerdy about the stove...but it's a 6" pipe, quick straight run, then a 90 into an 8" external chimney, that does a 90 straight up...and the external chimney doesn't clear the roofline. So not a great setup. But it works. I've got the Euro intake plate in the stove and that helps.

So, I re-spit some of the splits. It's like a different wood. For the latter part of last weekend and most of this weekend, I've been burning mostly pine, with some hardwood mixed in to keep the coals going. It doesn't take much to keep the stove chugging along at 500F. If I put more than a few splits in, it'll easily go past 500.

So...lesson learned. The stove likes small splits. I've had this setup since 2009 and I'm still learning new things.

 

Sounds like a need for a moisture meter also. I can’t believe I have gone so long with out one, sure does take the guess work out of it.

 

Small splits of anything are easier to burn. If I start a fire with just kindling and bigger splits, they will start but it takes forever to really get up to temp and stop smoking. So I try to avoid it when I can.

 

It seems to me it does not matter if it is pine or some other wood that the stove needs to be up to temp if I want to put in larger splits and want it to take right off and burn good.

 

What if you thrown some small stuff under the big?

 

I have seen the same, particularly with pine. But once you get her going.. look out! I always keep a mix of small and large splits with pine, since I use it often for shoulder wood where I'm starting the boiler frequently.

 

That can help.

 

It sounds like it’s still not dry in the middle. It would be interesting to see what the moisture content is in a fresh split piece. Do you have a moisture meter?

 

I do have a moisture meter. I'll do a test next weekend on some of the bigger splits.

You are correct Dennis...chimney setup is not ideal. It was there when we bought the house, so we just used it. Maybe someday we'll upgrade. But being a weekend house, cost is a factor.

I will say, with these cold temps, splitting that pine was ridiculously easy. It just popped apart.

 

The battery on my meter was a bit flakey this weekend. But I was getting readings at and under 20%.