I had to work all weekend, 7 days straight and she was a good woman and reloaded the garage wood staging rack for burning inside. Well she accidentally filled it with wood from the wrong pile . I couldn't be upset since she took the initiative and even knew not to grab from the green wood pile, but still it was too wet. I kne it as soon as I got home and grabbed the first piece to reload. Naturally, my first thought was that I would have to unload the rack and reload with dry wood but I got out the old moisture indicator and it was reading a constant 25% on the inside of numerous pieces if the ash. I figured well, one rack won't hurt too bad. The point here thought is WOW what a difference dry (20% or less) vs 20%+ makes! Noticeably less heat, had to run it nearly full out to keep it at proper chimney temp, blackened glass, and woke up to a cold stove . The 15% cherry I have been using all year has been awesome! Haven't cleaned the glass yet! I can close the air inlet feed all the way and the secondaries take over per design. Just another sad story of wet wood. She learned her lesson too when she was cold and couldn't see the fire anymore
Can't fault her for trying and a lesson was learned. Short of completely removing and replacing with dry wood, I would just frequently bring in small amounts (wheelbarrow load) of dry to supliment the damp stuff till you get it down to where it wouldn't be to much of a chore to empty and refill with seasoned wood.
Things happen, but not end of the world. If your glass is still dirty I have a good recipe to clean it nice and pretty again! Get your dry stuff shuffled back in...
That is a great comparison on the difference between what some would consider just a small percentage difference. Thanks for the info.
And the real reason here is not to be lost either. Everyone, be sure to number your piles! You know, "This is number 1"...."This pile is number 2"....err...ummmm...maybe I should rephrase this a little. Hang on just a minute!
At least she figured that if it was cold, you’re probably not going to have to let on about it. Yes lessons learned and hopefully its about control for her too. We always try and talk to our spouses and significant others but in truth, its learning either way. The next time this 7 day workfest happens again, you’re likely to be ready and so will she! At this point its the more planned lesson. If she values being warm, she’s likely to listen more now that there’s a result on the stove.
Took us a while to get it all communicated out also. Lots of show and tell. The big learning lesson for my wife came from it being Cold , 40 below and she couldn't get the wood stove going. I was on The Slope at the time. I asked her where in the shed she got the wood. Then she remembered I'de told her about the different ages of the wood in the shed. She finds the dry stuff now !
All in all I'm very lucky. She lives splitting, and had mastered stacking - we have been doing that for years. Now that that she has her very own living room and burner to stay cosy at, she's even more into it. She just told me the other day that she wants to learn how I light off the fire so easily on startup. Before long, I might not get to use my stove at All! Yeah, my main point of the post though was how much of a difference a few percentage over the 20% mark makes. I think to years back when I didn't know any better and wonder how I got by. Used to split wood with a friend who's dad didn't like dry wood - it burnt up too quick. He wanted the not so dry wood so it would last all night. Needless to say, their entire house always smelled like creosote and they had a number of chimney fires.
Xylene works great! Flashes off fast too. I use it to get stickers off some of the new windows I install at work. Never thought about using it on a cold stove. Great tip
First off it is great to have a wife that wants to help! Good for her. Just a slight bit more learning to be done but that never stops! The biggie is the difference in the moisture of the wood. Most never get to experience what you have so only have a vague idea of what that 5% really means. Now take that 20% and drop it to 15% and bingo! Another huge difference. As for those who want more moisture to hold that fire at night, perhaps they never learned that stoves are made with draft controls for a reason and that reason is not just for lighting off a fire but for controlling the entire burn.
Me neither! I have had to bring a msds sheet to a customer before. I was bombarded with carcinogen questions.
The pre EPA stoves liked dry wood also but many in the past ignored the fact and you still see posts to this day that people think the reason their chimney was full of creosote was the pre EPA stove. I had a pre EPA stove for 25 years and never had any more creosote then I do now.
