Burning wood in my wood stove

37 chief · Nov 25, 2022

I cut up, and split some eucalyptus tree wood last fall. This wood is a fairly hard wood and burns great. I can buy Oak if I want to spend $350 a cord. I purchased a moisture meter, and the center of a large piece measures 23% moisture in the center towards the edge it measures 20 % or lower. I measured a years old piece. It measured 12% in the center. I guess all wood has moisture. I have only a few weeks of real dry wood left. I read it isn't a good idea to burn wood over 20 %. Any thoughts burning wood above 20 %. Stan

rustred · Nov 25, 2022

well i burned some birch not fully dried and it plugged my chimney solid. just a tiny hole on the centre of the pipes and the stove started smoking inside the house, so i knew what the problem was. birch wood is not all it is bragged up to be. tamarack is the best, next spruce or pine around here anyway.

used red MN · Nov 25, 2022

What is your chimney set up like? Brick with a clay tile and just a fairly short piece of triple wall over to the stove,
I would not worry about it if you occasionally build a hot fire to knock down the creosote build up. If your chimney is all triple wall and you do not have a way to keep an eye on the on the build up like a tee you can look up from the bottom, then I would have more concern.
Edit to add: If you have one of those catalytic deals in your stoves venting system I have no idea what the moisture can be. I was talking about older stoves that the flues gases exit the fire box directly to the stove pipe.

This post was edited by used red MN on 11/25/2022 at 05:25 pm.

RESLLS · Nov 25, 2022

Over about 18 isn't good. The lower the better. 15 to 16 I have found is great. Anything more and you'll be cleaning often or have a chimney fire. I've never burned eucalyptus so can't say anything about it. But oak, ash, maple and elm I learned to not go over 18% unless I had a hot fire with some dry wood with it. Also very much moisture and the steam will keep the flame low so lots of soot because the fire is cold.

BarnyardEngineering · Nov 25, 2022

if the alternative is freezing to death burn the wet wood.

I think a lot of the wood I had to burn last year was too wet which was part of my problem but i never had a problem with the chimney plugging or even getting much of a buildup.

$350 for a full 4x4x8 cord of oak is not too bad. Around here they sell by the face cord which is one 16" row of wood 4' high and 8' long if you have never heard of such a thing. Also called a Rick in some places i guess. But anyway they get 80-90 for mixed wood.

Stephen Newell · Nov 25, 2022

Wood with a higher moisture content than that will burn, it will just burn slower and not let off as much heat as dry wood. If you could burn some scrap lumber with it it will burn fine.

Jim in NC · Nov 25, 2022

My experience is no matter what kind of wood one burns, the dryer it is, the better for your chimney it is. Here in the farmhouse my dad was raised we had the chimneys rebuilt or relined in the 1980s. A chimney sweep relined 2 of the 3 chimneys. He said that dry pine, we like the spruce pine, will burn much cleaner than the finest damp hardwood. His advice was to get one of the round stove thermometers and put on top of the stove or the flue pipe to help one remember to burn the fire hot enough to keep the stove and chimney clean.

Johnhof · Nov 25, 2022

Haven't burned stove wood in years but continued to burn in the fireplace. Stove chimney was a problem, fireplace not. I believe that the extra draft going up fireplace chimney made the difference.

Leroy · Nov 25, 2022

Somewhere about 15+r_ years since I burnt wood but I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF A MOISTUR TESTER FOR WOOD. It was an air tight thermostat controled heater.

rustred · Nov 25, 2022

it will not plug up over night... it can take 2-3 months, of steady burning. and in the really cold weather it is worst. when i pulled the
pipes out and took them outside and hit the outside it all fell out. like crispy black tar.

37 chief · Nov 25, 2022

My Chimney is double wall stainless. It 90s into my garage then 90's up to the roof. I have a Tee at the bottom in the garage. I guess can keep a watch on it. Stan

cjunrau · Nov 25, 2022

I burn wet wood way to often. I do mix in dry to keep it hot. I have a very good stove and that smoke created from wet wood burns like gas. There is no smoke going out my chimney except on original making fire. Havent cleaned the chimney in 8 winters of burning wood. I look up it every year and its still clean and shiny stainless. Works for me.

37 chief · Nov 25, 2022

The moisture meter is a handheld device with two pins to stick onto the wood. Then by magic it display's the percent of moisture. I stuck it into a green branch it read 100 %, so I guess it works. It was less than 15.00. Stan

PJH · Nov 25, 2022

We had a chimney fire one night back about 1980. At that time we lived about a block and a half from the railroad, and we thought that a train was going by. Somehow I realized that there was no train. I went outside and the fire was shooting six feet out of the top of the chimney. We had an airtight stove, and I choked it down and the fire went down. The masonry chimney was so hot that you couldn't hold your hand on it, and it was still hot the next day at noon. We tried to only burn well-dried wood in that stove, but somehow we failed and had a chimney fire. We've had an outside boiler now for 24 years. It will burn fresh cut green wood - leaves and all - with no problem.

Russ from MN · Nov 26, 2022

I have a moisture meter, and I try not to burn anything over 20%. Before we left MN we were burning some wood that had been in a wood shed for over 5 years, it was about 15%. In N MN the average humidity is fairly high, most wood won't get below 15%, but light softwoods like cedar will.

Geo-TH,In · Nov 26, 2022

I'm blessed to have a young man in my neighborhood with a dump truck, chainsaw and an outside boiler. He doesn't care what wood I give him. He says it all burns and makes heat.
He cuts the wood and I load it for him.

I don't burn wood. I'm happy to

give it away. Best part it doesn't cost me a penny to get rid of trees I want removed.

showcrop · Nov 26, 2022

I have been a firefighter for 43 years. I learned from our former long term fire chief that it is not at all difficult or unsafe to burn wet wood. The key is to have a "friendly" chimney fire every day. There will be creosote build-up and it will build up much faster than many people think enough can build up in just a few days when hi moisture wood is burned with a low draft. To have a "friendly" chimney fire you simply feed it some dry kindling wood, with some paper if needed to get it going, then open the draft fully so that the fire carries right up out of the stove and well up into the pipe. If there is creosote there it will catch fire and continue the burn on up. Anyone burning a wood stove MUST have a mirror that they can insert into a clean-out to inspect the flue at least once a week. If there is no clean-out the stove is not safe to use.

Northvale PA · Nov 26, 2022

We live in an old farmhouse. Wood stove is primary heat. Have a metal liner up the old brick chimney and would do so even if the chimney was brand new. I clean it out once a month. Last year I burned some dead cherry branches immediately, since it looked dry.. not so. The pipe got clogged in about 2 weeks and I could barely get it clean. Was the most choked up I have ever seen. I actually had to ram a long pole down so the brush could get thru. We normally dry wood at least 1 full year, under cover. And split it smaller since we have a splitter. That helps dry it even more. So, be cautious and clean your chimney more often. I once started a chimney fire at my in-laws by accident and it was bad. Burning hot is not a substitute for burning dry. Good luck.

M-MAN · Nov 26, 2022

Some of ya'll sure have dry climate. Around here you're going to see 20 to 25 on the wood inside your house.

Around here any firewood cut the year before is considered dry. Before spring almost everyone will be burning green wood. It's not as hot but still serves the purpose. I don't understand some of you burning pine. Full of tar which makes creosote terrible. It's only used as kindling here. Seems to me like every wood burns different. I burned some green mimosa last week. Hard to get going but it burned completely. Nothing left but dust.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 26, 2022

Been burning wood in my 1975 house since 1977,Fisher Papa Bear stove,have never had my chimney cleaned.Each day when I start the first fire I get the stove up to around 600 degrees cleans out the
pipe and flue.Also the guy that built my chimney was very good at building them so they would draw well.No value in burning wet or green wood.

tomturkey · Nov 26, 2022

It requires quite a few btu's from your firewood to boil out the moisture/water. That water goes up your chimney as steam, then condenses on the cooler walls of your flue pipe. Taking with it the tar and creosote and other particulates from the burning process. If high moisture wood is all you have, you need to give it more air/draft at the firebox to have higher firebox temperatures and also higher flu temps, it boils off the water quicker and does not condense on the flu pipe walls(as much. Bringing cold/frozen high moisture wood in and adding it to the fire really cools things off, not what you want. keeping warm with wood heat...gobble

Burning wood in my wood stove

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