IS stove, wood scheme

i take it the catalytic stoves burn differently from the secondary combustion stoves and that they thrive on low moisture content wood. i'm going to find out either way with the IS coming in june for next year's heat.
this goes against a lifetime of wood burning experience. you would always want some dry wood when loading heavily, with wetter wood on the top, otherwise the whole thing would incinerate in short order.
how do you handle your wood storage schemes, is it a two year rotation, or what, when do you cover, etc.
this is a novel thing to get one's head around. i am already making provision for some extra storage space.

 

Not to reopen the debate but a lot of people say that cat stoves perform much better than non cat stoves with marginal wood:

http://blog.woodstove.com/2012/01/catalytic-combustors-wet-wood.html

As far as drying wood, I am a big believer in getting as much sun as you can. I tend to leave mine uncovered with airspace and as much access to sun and wind as I can, within reason.

 

I top cover as soon as I stack it, try to get 3 years ahead "The 3 Year Plan"
What stove were you running before?

 

Always a trade-off.
I used an older air-tight stove for a few years, but knew right away that wet wood just doesn't do much.
Any stove should run better with dry wood.....my old Ashley did, and so does the NC30.
I'm with Unhdsm on the sun thing. I can get Oak down into the 20% and under MC level in just over 2 years when I stack in the sun and wind. More is better, but unless I cover it (which I don't do), it can start punkifying after about 2.5-3 years.
I stack everything in an open field for as long as possible, then during the longest stretch of warm dry weather I can find (waiting for this weather can be a fairly long process), I load the shed with the oldest stuff.
Experiment when you get the new stove, but I'll bet it'll burn at least a little better with dry firewood.

 

I'm on a 4 year rotation plan - and yes definitely top covered after the first 6 months or so.
My cat stove loves dry wood - burns slow and hot. I have uncovered one problem with what I believe is wood that is TOO dry.
If I load the stove less than 1/2 way and choke it back too far, I get the perfect air/fuel ratio to produce a violent lid lifting, spark flying, smoke alarm inducing EXPLOSION due to the
heavy outgassing. Full loads don't behave this violently, and neither do less dry small loads.

 

I have 3 - 4 year wood that is all very dry and have no issues with it in my IS stove. I can easily get 10 - 12 hour burns.

I agree with be others that the sun helps with seasoning. I have both topcovered and not. Mostly topcover now.

 

getting the last few burns out of a jotul 500 oslo. i may well go for the 3 year plan which sounds like a good thing.
here's my setup and it makes a difference for moisture content. the stove is in the foyer with a floor to ceiling wood rack behind it against the wall. you walk in the door, turn, and the wood goes right there. the rack is divided into 3 spaces with one small space at the top for kindling and small splits.
the wood is used in rotation so the stove has had an opportunity to bake on each area for a number of days before it's used. it's not a definitive answer for having the proper MC for a catalytic stove, it just helps and makes a difference.
you guys are taking me to school with this. it's new territory.

 

This is your best bet . Just keep adding to your stash until you are 1,2,3.... years ahead. If you can do it in one year, even better.
Storing wood close to the stove for a few days will dry off surface moisture, but little else.

 

Why didn't I do it sooner? I ask myself the same question.
I grew up burning the way grandpa did, it "worked" so why change. Now I'm 5 years ahead, burning in an efficient cat stove and life is so much better.
Water doesn't burn.

 

That makes some good sense, Dennis. But I'm not convinced yet. According to a well known Blaze King technical contact (I think you remember him) they did some testing on their cat stoves and found the following:

"Our studies of this suggest that when burning fuel that is below 12%, it's not a bad idea to also load some 18% fuel. This typically fixes the issue."

Let's not forget about Texas Boy - he burned bone dry ancient wood and had stove moving backpuff explosions.

 

Cut lots of softwood to mix in. My silver maple seriously impressed me in the Ideal Steel. You will notice certain woods will do better than what you expect. For example my white ash seems to do better for me then the white oak. In my Quadra Fire that would not be the case. Grab any and all firewood types you can and be ready for a great performance.

 

My thoughts....

You will have a hard time getting wood 'too dry' on this side of the Mississippi, and possibly anywhere, for a properly controlled catalytic stove. I wouldn't hesitate to load my Blaze King full of anything. Moisture content or size of splits. Excessive draft or unusual weather conditions may play a role, but maybe not. My sister's BKK is on 26' of straight up pipe, and it has never overfired. It may somtimes burn hotter than desired and blow through a load faster than mine, but it's never gotten out of control.

Non-cat stoves with unregulated secondary air can be a different story.

What really dry wood does allow me to do is burn at an extremely low rate in the shoulder seasons, and still get clean, complete combustion. I don't notice much difference in the dead of winter, but 4-5 yo oak burns FOREVER in the spring and fall.

 

this is the kind of stuff i was looking for... the advantage in the shoulder season.
i will find out when the IS gets used next winter. however. during cold weather and full time burning, the stove saves a LOT of wood as it can easily be rekindled at 14 hours and better. it would take less than 2 loads each day. it's just not a whole load of wood. then it will particularly sip in transition weather.
interesting subject to say the least. i can't get to 4 and 5 year old wood but will set some extra storage space up and do what can be done.

 

As many have commented on with regards to the 3 year plan, this is my third season doing it and I have to say it works best for me and my situation. Once a year you have to replace what was burned the previous season and your good to go. Questionable wood such as oak can be put aside if more time is needed but I have found that 3 years is enough to get that under 20% mc as well.
chucker , congratulations on your new IS! I don't think you'll be disappointed at all in the performance of this stove compared to your Oslo.
I'll be curious to see what medallions and colors you chose.

 

i went charcoal body with moss green fenders and door, no ash pan, no design cutouts, the top is smooth no inserts, no andirons. with the jotul 500 the ash pan was a PIA needing a glove or pot holder to use it and with the IS it seems to generate little enough ash as to not raise to an issue. plus one door seal gets eliminated. the progress was what originally caught my eye but in time the IS looked like the guaranteed simple plan so the simple theme is in effect.
one downside is we have to get out to the flea market this weekend and search out an ash shovel. this as well as a shorter poker, we have this old coal stove poker that is incredibly long, something 30"-34" could replace it, or even down to 24". with these types of items vintage is preferable. our tools no longer fit the circumstance.