Burning uncured wood

37 chief · Mar 18, 2020

Getting to the end of my wood pile. I have some wood cut and split, that's about 3 months old. I throw a couple pieces in the stove a few times a night. I read about burning not completely dry wood. I don't remember the problem. what does it do to the stove? Stan

kcm.MN · Mar 18, 2020

Green wood can cause a few different problems. Probably the most common are 1. excessive carbon build-up inside the chimney, which is mostly a problem with woods high in pitch, like Pines, Cedars and Spruces. 2. Some woods have natural elements that, when burned green, can cause a more acidic substance which can eat away at components in your fireplace or boiler. This is especially bad for brick chimneys.

I have burnt fairly green wood in an outdoor boiler before, but only when mixing with other seasoned wood. The more moisture your wood has, the less heat it can provide, as the heat from the fire has to first dry the green wood before it can continue burning.

Janicholson · Mar 18, 2020

Well said. Jim

37 chief · Mar 18, 2020

I didn't mention I still have dry well seasoned wood, that makes a good hot fire. I just add a few uncured pieces, to make my wood supply last a few more weeks. Stan

Poppa Noel · Mar 18, 2020

You will still get the same result. Green wood is green wood

Mike(NEOhio) · Mar 18, 2020

If you're using an air-tight stove with a thermostatic damper, uncured wood will give you more creosote buildup in the flue and chimney. Moisture driven out yields less heat from the stove then condenses when it cools in the chimney. Helps to burn it hard.

kcm.MN · Mar 19, 2020

As far as the particulates, yes. But when it comes to the actual burn, it's much better to mix with seasoned.

The more moisture in the load of wood, the more difficult a time to burn. So if mixed with seasoned wood, some of the BTU's of the seasoned wood will go towards drying the wetter wood rather than for heating the house. Still, it can make the difference between lasting the season with what you have or running out.

https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-and-moisture/
Here's a good article that discusses moisture content in wood. As stated in the article, there are 2 basic kinds of moisture found in wood; "free water" and "bound water". Free water is near the surface and is the first moisture to be lost from wood as it dries. I would think that most of Stan's green wood has lost most of the free water already - not all, but most. He's in a pretty dry climate, IIRC.

Bound water is trapped deep inside. When lightening hits a tree and the wood explodes, it's the bound water that converts to steam, blasting apart the wood fibers.

In any case, I likely wouldn't put more than a 1:1 ratio of seasoned vs. green AT MAX! Would be best to stay under a 2:1 ratio, dry vs. seasoned.

kcm.MN · Mar 19, 2020

(quoted from post at 21:59:09 03/18/20)Helps to burn it hard.

Very much agree!

JayinNY · Mar 19, 2020

Burning un seasoned wood causes creosote in a chimney, you waste more energy trying to burn the moisture out of green wood than the heat you get out of it.

dzc3 · Mar 19, 2020

The wood we used was almost all "green" the creosote everyone is concerned about is a chemical in the wood "green" or dried. Dried lights easier and burns quicker. The key to green wood is to open draft and burn it hot. The moisture will cook out quick and leave you with dry wood. The stoves we used were not considered air tight, so maybe that's one of the reasons it worked so well. Not rocket science.

Texasmark1 · Mar 19, 2020

On the creosote buildup, there are chemicals at places like big box stores that you can toss on your fire to help your flues stay clean when burning green or other undesirable kinds of woods.

paul · Mar 19, 2020

The moisture goes up with the smoke and wants to coat the chimney more so as the water wants to condense out. A proper chimney, and a hot fire once a day, help keep these effects lower.

My understanding is ash wood can burn wet and not have as much problem with this as other woods. Low btu wet woods on the other hand are worse than average.

The trouble now is warmer weather you might not need a hot fire and try to get by with wet woods and keep the fire low. That keeps a constant coating going on the chimney. If you have already done so be careful. You don?t want a thick coating on your chimney to dry out and catch fire when you really stoke up with good hot fire.

If you don?t have the build up, then making a good hot fire once a day dries out and removes the thin coat you get every day without an issue and no buildup.

Without knowing what you got, it would be irresponsible to say what to do at this point.

Billy NY · Mar 19, 2020

Not completely green if cut and split 3 months ago. I dont know much about Eucalyptus wood, but some species like black cherry, even recent dead elm will dry out considerably in that amount of time. Also consider where you are, not so cold or humid there, good drying conditions. Fresh cut and split will be much worse. Also, bring in the next round or 2 of what you'll burn, put by stove, will help immensely. That and keep the flue temp up, dont choke off the fire too much. I can mix in wood with higher moisture and never get any creosote to speak of. I wont burn fresh cut wood still laden with sap. My worst enemy is time, most of my wood is dead when cot, but with water moisture that needs to dry out. I can put pieces near the stove with no checking on ends and by morning is plenty dry. I've got numerous stacks of 8' sticks near the house that is small diameter to finish season, I cut and cover, bring inside a bunch, in a few days it's very good to burn, some is ready as is, other needs to dry, I mix, keep flue temp up and check my stack for excess smoke, adjust damper and combustion air accordingly or it will make lots of smoke. I am very attentive to not smoking out the neighborhood. Once a new fire gets going, it clears quickly, all about paying attention to the firebox

BarnyardEngineering · Mar 19, 2020

Yeah, it's not like he cut down a growing tree and shoved it into the wood stove.

Burning three month wood with fully cured wood won't cause any appreciable issues.

showcrop · Mar 19, 2020

To control creosote build-up burn it out of your pipe every day by loading some dry wood then opening up your dampers and letting it roar so that the fire will carry up the pipe and get the creosote burning. "Have a friendly chimney fire every day"

Calvin Innes · Mar 19, 2020

Unless you see no water coming from the ends of your wood while burning, it is wet and will cause creosote buildup. That being said, stack temperature plays into it substantially. A stack remaining above 140 degrees will collect much less creosote than a cold one. A cold stovepipe on the outside of a shop or house is the worst of all with an air tight stove, all the moisture condenses in the flue. A well warmed flue in the house (as opposed to the exterior) remains much warmer and gathers less creosote. The simple cure is to monitor the flue and clean it frequently with a brush or old tire chains. Here in northern Maine virtually everyone in town uses wood with few issues. They all clean the flue regularly... or the houses are no longer here, wink, wink. My 2 cents.

Russ from MN · Mar 19, 2020

Wood that is more than 20% moisture will cause more creosote, but it depends on the type of stove your using and how hot you run it. We have a very efficient Jotul stove with a thermometer on top, and it says creosote up to 400 degrees. Your doing the right thing by mixing the green wood with the dry. If you don't have a moisture tester you should get one. Spring is just around the corner!

teddy52food · Mar 19, 2020

The one in the quart spray bottle is the best for the money.

buickanddeere · Mar 19, 2020

. I keep a 3-7 days of wood infront near the stove to dry out of it isn t completely cured.

jacksun65 · Mar 19, 2020

Amish use wood that is not as dry to bake with. Gives less of a heat spike and longer burn.

Stephen Newell · Mar 19, 2020

It burns real slow and doesn't give out much heat plus it tends to coat the stove pipe with pitch.

INCase · Mar 20, 2020

as others have said below

and... as noted the moisture going up the chimney. which is also taking heat with it as it takes some of the BTUs that would heat your house to convert the water to vapor and the vapor goes up the flue = $.

this is one reason why nat gas for powering major power plants isn't as great as they would have you believe. more moisture naturally and of course you have to turn that into vapor as well instead of using those BTUs for turning generators.

showcrop · Mar 20, 2020

(quoted from post at 11:47:13 03/20/20) as others have said below

and... as noted the moisture going up the chimney. which is also taking heat with it as it takes some of the BTUs that would heat your house to convert the water to vapor and the vapor goes up the flue = $.

this is one reason why nat gas for powering major power plants isn't as great as they would have you believe. more moisture naturally and of course you have to turn that into vapor as well instead of using those BTUs for turning generators.

INCase, water is not combined with the propane going into the combustion process, Propane occurs naturally with other petrochemicals and is separated from natural gas or crude oil during the refining process, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Its many uses include powering vehicle fleets and agricultural equipment, to heat the air in hot air balloons and to dry crop harvests. It's chief uses in homes are cooking and water and interior heating. Though it may seem paradoxical, propane combustion produces water vapor as a byproduct -- the result of simple chemical reactions. Same as in your truck. :wink:

Burning uncured wood

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