I have always tried to use only dry (low moisture content) hardwoods in our stove. But I also mix in dry pine. Others hace commented that this is not a good idea, but year after year I see no problems. I try to stay away from big knots and splits with heavy sap, but other than that, I throw in a couple splits of pine every now and then. We have a CAT stove. I check the combustor regulary and have seen no differencce in performance with the mixed loads.. Stove seems to be happy with the mixed loads. Come low temps in winter months the pine will be on hold. Those of you in the areas where pine is all you can get are probably getting a good laugh about now. Let's have a little light hearted fun with this thread.
The old wives tale about pine. Completely false and reflects a poor understanding of what wood creosote is. It’s not the sticky sap that causes creosote it is burning wet pine. The same goes for wet hardwood. Ironically people burn wet wood all the time.
Yep I am laughing. I burn pine all the time and only clean the stove once a year. Very little build up of ash and no creosote. It puts out just as much heat it just does not last as long.
Right now, there’s ash, red oak, maple and birch burning in my stove. Every load is mixed every time the stove is loaded. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Mix it up, wont hurt a thing. I spent three yrs in Eastern Wyoming and burnt mostly Ponderosa Pine. It was good and dry and had ZERO issues. Old wives tale indeed.....
Brother. I literally live in Pine, Colorado. Guess what I burn a lot of? I do mix in a fair amount of aspen, Doug Fir and city hardwood from my arborist buddy. But I burn a TON of Pine. Keeps the house and the misses warm. Very little creosote build up, when I clean the pipes.
This is my first year burning conifers regularly to supplement my hardwood supply (other than my regular practice of using "pine" kindling). After a couple stove loads mixed with spruce, cedar and a little white pine, I'm a believer. I wish I had known it was a bogus lie years ago, cooked up by someone that wanted all the pine to themselves. Conifers are very useful and widely available, in no small part due to the tired old lie about burning them. I'll always have some in my stacks now.
I don't think that the "pine lie" was so someone cold have all of it. I think it was just stupidity and not understanding that wet pine will still burn, unlike wet hardwood. Get that wet pine fire going and if there's creosote in the chimney, it goes up in flames.
Pine is fine! Burning half Doug Fir and the other is Oak right now. If I had pine it would be the starter wood with a bit tossed in now and then to liven things up. No problem with Pine here.
Only downside is you need more of it. Figure Eastern White Pine has 13.2 MBTU per cord, so 2 cords of EWP is about equivalent to one cord of White Oak, Hickory, Locust, etc. BTU wise. Even still it doesn’t last long like the others do for overnight burns, or coal up nicely. Now that I’m 3-4 years ahead I may only process a cord or 2 of Pine per year for shoulder seasons, and restarts.
I wish my neighbor was burning dry pine instead of the wet whatever it is he uses every year. Giant pile of new wood dropped off every year at the beginning of burning season. May as well be burning tires for all the smoke I have to drive through every morning.
Pine, i love it!!! Its not the sap in the wood that creates creosote, its the moisture, the sap just becomes fuel for a hotter more efficient fire. Burn dry wood!!! Not “ SEASONED “
A few decades ago, someone had cautioned me about the dangers of burning spruce/pine/fir wood. "You'll have a chimney fire for sure! Burns too hot" I asked them what do the people that live in the boreal region burn all winter? Where only spruce and fir are present?
I said that to my cousin when i told him i burn pine, he was like ahh ahh duh ahh i guess you have a point. Lol
im in the same boat First year using it. Mostly Blue Spruce I’ve definitely been missing the boat on lots of free wood heading to compost because it’s not hard wood. I’ve been mixing 2 to 1 or even higher ratio soft to hard. If the glass on the stove is any indicator, it burns clean.
If it's truly seasoned, it's fine. If it's still seasoning, that means it's not ready yet. The issue is that far too many people don't understand this. Especially those that buy wood to burn for that year. I like using the example of folks that are out west and only/ mainly have conifers to burn when someone mentions that pine is a chimney fire causer.
I burn 50% pine. In an OWB. 0 problems. Mix it in year round. When temps drop below 15 I have to burn straight up hardwood.