I know that the wood should be seasoned to 20% or less. I just bought a meter. What I had in the house yesterday read between 17 and 20.+. with most pieces reading 19. Yesterdays wood did not provide a good burn or much heat. What I brought in today read 20 to 21. Should a 1 point difference cause much problem? My new stove is not getting the job done. I can not get a hot burn out of it. I stopped by the stove store to complain yesterday. The first thing they asked was, "What is the moisture content of my wood?" Told them I didn't know, but it has been seasoned the same amount of time that I have always done for the last 6 years. The old stove had no problems with my wood. I bought a meter from them. They agreed that the stove should be doing much better and am going to come out Mon. and check it out. They did the install. Just trying to get my ducks in order. If they don't find anything a wrong, the old stove will be going back in.
It would help members to know what stove you're referring to, new and old Also, what species of wood are you using. (Willow?) Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
Also, remember to split the wood and take your reading on the fresh face. And that amount of time would be..........? Only asking because newer stoves pretty much require low moisture wood. Older stove will also benefit from that, but are better able to burn less than optimum wood. Hopefully, they'll be able to get you on the right track.
If you are not able to get the stove hot I'd bet the farm on wet wood. Like papadave said, the newer stoves won't perform on wood that older stove would eat. Buy a pack of ECO bricks (or the like) to try burning with your wood, or some kiln dried lumber cutoffs. (not too much though, it gets hot quick)
To answer some of the questions. New stove is a Buck FS-21. Old stove was a Rebel. Any information on this stove would be appreciated. Wood is a mixture: Ash, oak, walnut and some other. Mostly Ash. My son-in-law works for a land clearing company. He brings me firewood size logs in a dump truck and dumps it. I then split it. The wood that I am presently burning was cut and dumped 2015. I finished up splitting that load March of 2016. The wood was stacked. I tarped it when I brought it up to the house in Sept.
I'd blame the wood too. While you can burn less than optimal wood in a epa secondary burn type stove, it's pretty underwhelming. I've burned some dodgy wood just to see how it reacts with different air settings etc, and it just never gets up and goes. I figure I could survive a -15 C winter with horrible wood, but it seriously does not perform. It's slow to come up to temp, smokes and steams forever, and at best you get a fire, no secondaries or else short lived. Which goes out when you turn down the air too much. I recall a discussion at the other place where someone was wondering why just a slight percentage seemed to matter so much when "their" math couldn't account for it. They weren't as smart as they think they are though, the way they carried on. Think of it this way, 20 percent wood is awesome right, so why isn't 21 percent wood good? It's only 1 percent off, right? Well, isn't it actually 5 percent?
Yeah, we need details on how the wood was tested. But, that said, 1% shouldn't be the difference, especially if the dealer did the install.
Marshel54 I really don't think ash is full dry in 8 months.. I think if you took a piece split in about middle and pulled middle on mine if it's 16% outside it's over 20 inside.. example this piece of wood is 19 on ends and 21 In middle this is marginal wood another piece was lower trust me on cold nights it's the dry wood only... next year will be better one is ash one red maple both cut split stacked and covered for 12 months next year will be so much better!
Sounds so familiar. When I got my first epa stove, I was singing the same song. "Firewood burnt fine in my old stove, just not the new one." Gotta be the stove, right? You mentioned in your first post that the wood has been "seasoned the same amount of time that I have always done..." Well, just how long is that and for what kind of wood?
Yup! Too wet yet. Once you get some dry stuff (maybe next year) you'll get that stove dialed in for good performance.
Hopefully you may know someone that burns with an epa stove also and hit them up for an armload of good dry seasoned stuff just so you can see the difference.
Under a slipper. He couldn't move. Slippers are his kryptonite. Yeah, it's definitely the wood. It's just not dry enough. Borrow a handful of known dry wood, or eco bricks and try it out then.
We've all learned it takes more than a year to season wood for the new EPA stoves to work well. New stove loves 3+ year seasoned birch, 95% of the time, burning problems , It's the wood & you really notice the difference between 20% & 12 - 15 % wood
