Old Black Sabbath (Oslo500) don't really care what I feed it as long as it is dry wood in the 30%and under but I do have a more primitive set up than most and I DO CHECK my flue on a regular basis thru out the burning season. When we have winters like I have had in my neck of the woods where temps were at or below -30° for weeks at a time I was actually eye balling the tars on an old trailer I got out back to throw in the stove come spring.
Tossed an ash round on top a little while ago but the oak is just hot..lol.. love how it coals compared to the ash and maple..
No doubt. I'm lucky that I had my father in laws stack for our first year burning. What you're saying is exactly the reason I want to save the nice splits from that scrounge till next year. I'm a sponge when I listen to people with experience like yourself..
That's good advice but don't ignore the fact that for some woods (dead, quick drying, ect.) a year is going to be as good as it gets, so many variances that its hard to put numbers on time frames and moisture contents. How you stack it and where you live can make a big difference also.
Thanks for the pics! I have 1.5 cords of white ash that is right at 20%MC. I shouldn't need to tap it until December at the earliest so it has 2 more months to dry further. Hoping its down into the teens by then. So everyone agrees 19% and under is primetime and anything 20%-25% is burnable but more creosote and less BTU? And 26% and over should only be burned if extremely despearate?
I've got some 3 year CSS oak that I moved to under the porch. I also moved some 1 year CSS oak. The 3 year stuff felt like balsa wood compared to the 1 year stuff. It might have even been 2 year seasoned, I cant remember now .
I forgot to add- I also burned the same amount of wood both winters, but the second winter (last winter) but it was a LOT colder than the winter before. I would have expected to burn 1/4 to 1/3 more.
That's the way I see it. A few years back I was hurting for dry wood so I stacked half a cord of 25% White Ash, split small, in the house with a couple of fans blowing on it. I could see a rise in the relative humidity in the house, and the wood was down to 20% in a couple of weeks. She didn't say much but I don't think the wife was a big fan of this approach.
Lol.. The stuff that's a little wetter than I'd like is kinda buggy so it's staying outside. Burned like a charm when mixed with the super dry stuff. 24% is the highest I used. One split mixed with one or two dry ones.
Another question while I'm at it.. I have a stainless pipe running out of the stove into the insulated stainless liner. There is some slight gold or bronze discoloration to the outside of the pipe. I used to work with a lot of stainless and I know it can discolor a little with heat like cookware does. It's not leaking for sure but has lost it's nice finish. Is that normal?
From what I've seen, yes. If you never got the pipe very hot, I don't know. It's hard to never make a mistake, though.
I have an ir one on loan from my dad that he uses in steel mills to check refractory temperature in furnaces and ladles. Haven't seen anything abnormal. Highest I saw was 500 but generally runs about 375.
Very true. It is not that the cat stove is more particular but high moisture can and will harm the catalyst, especially the ceramic ones. This is the reason it is recommended to not turn the cat on immediately when reloading the stove or starting with a cold stove. Leaving the bypass open when reloading allows that excess moisture to go up the chimney rather than through the cat then up the chimney. But if you have very low moisture wood, sometimes you can flip the cat on within 5 minutes rather than the normal 10-15 minutes. But of course this also depends upon the stove and flue temperature.
Thank you for the reply. In all seriousness, coming from you, I feel a lot more at ease about it. I read your wood primer thread a few weeks after we bought our first house and that's the reason I have firewood all over the place here. Getting very close to a three year plan now.
Totally unrelated to the moisture content of my wood, but I actually got a steal today from Lowe's. Originally went in to buy a bagger for my tractor which was a clearance steal by itself, and the manager asked me if I wanted this dump cart for $40.. Well yeah! Apparently someone bought it and assembled it wrong so they returned it. Normally it retails at 200 and I'm normally the moron that pays 200..lol..
No doubt. It was perfect timing too. My stacks are far enough from where I split that it's a pain with a wheelbarrow. I've been looking for something like this.
