# Wood Burning



## Back2Basix (Dec 24, 2015)

So I'm positive this has been brought up in the past, i did search but i also didnt want to bring a 5+yr old thread back from the dead.

Aside from conifers, would it be safe to burn any type of dry seasoned wood (main concern being creosote)?? 

I get that harder wood provides more BTUs but efficiency of wood aside, is there any reason not to cut, split, season any number of tree species that fall around the property while "cleaning up" my woodlot?? Though my woods are mainly Oak, Maple, and dead Ash; there are many unidentifiable species to me. Lots of cotton woods, a few sycamores, lots of swamp willow, hickory, and a few other trees yet to be identified to me over in the "Aborist" portion of HT Forum


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

It really depends on your stove, flue and how you operate it.
I heard all the "rules" about wood burning for years before I installed my old school "Fisher-type" stove.
Glad I experimented and found out what works for me.
I burn everything and burn it hot, with a triple lined flue with the two 90 degree turns within 5 feet of the beginning height. After that it's straight up over 20 ft. so the draft is excellent.
Then when I get a great bed of coals and ready for bed, I throw on the big logs (usually hardwood) shut the damper a little more than halfway and completely close the 3 intakes on the door, essentially a smoldering burn.

By the textbooks, I should have massive creosote, but every year I clean the flue, I get less than 1 handful of dry powder in my hand. This year I cleaned the stove pipe coming out of the stove and got about the same amount, after 3 years.
YMMV.


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## Back2Basix (Dec 24, 2015)

I installed a new EPA cert. US Stove with secondary burn (non catalytic) 2.1cu ft box, 89k BTUs. This is my first season burning and just like you mention, i burn a HOT fire while we're awake/home and then load it up and shut it almost completely for over night. I know i waste a lot of wood burning so hot, but I'd rather waste wood than worry about creosote.

Kinda excited to get my chimney cleaned this spring to see how this creosote thing works out.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

We burn a mixture of hardwood and softwood.

If it is not seasoned yet, you will have a hard time getting it to burn. With a nice fire going, seasoned wood tossed on top will light nice. But 'green' wood may or might not light.

I clean and inspect our stovepipe once a year.

In the past 12 years, we have had 3 or 4 times when the creosote started burning. So long as your stove-pipe is in good shape it is not really a problem. It burns for an hour and it goes out.


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

Back2Basix said:


> I installed a new EPA cert. US Stove with secondary burn (non catalytic) 2.1cu ft box, 89k BTUs. This is my first season burning and just like you mention, i burn a HOT fire while we're awake/home and then load it up and shut it almost completely for over night. I know i waste a lot of wood burning so hot, but I'd rather waste wood than worry about creosote.
> 
> Kinda excited to get my chimney cleaned this spring to see how this creosote thing works out.


That's a good point. It's your house, you're wood and your time.
I probably use a little more than I should, but my wife like the house about 10 degrees warmer than I do so I just made a bigger wood pile, lol.
She also insisted I get a chimney brush and clean it after the 1st year, which is how I've discovered how little there is by burning a hot fire. That's what keeps the creosote to a bare minimum even burning a lot of pine.


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## Back2Basix (Dec 24, 2015)

farmrbrown said:


> That's a good point. It's your house, you're wood and your time.
> I probably use a little more than I should, but my wife like the house about 10 degrees warmer than I do so I just made a bigger wood pile, lol.
> She also insisted I get a chimney brush and clean it after the 1st year, which is how I've discovered how little there is by burning a hot fire. That's what keeps the creosote to a bare minimum even burning a lot of pine.


Is it hard to sweep/clean DIY?? Though i hate to climb up on our roof (like a 10/12 pitch), if i can save myself a few $100 bills, I'm all for it. I'd think i could just removed the fiber board in the stove and let everything fall into the box and scoop it out.

Stupid me though installed my single wall stove pipe to where i can't remove it to inspect. In time I'll cut it out and replace it with those "extendable" ones to make cleaning/inspecting easier


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

Back2Basix said:


> Is it hard to sweep/clean DIY?? Though i hate to climb up on our roof (like a 10/12 pitch), if i can save myself a few $100 bills, I'm all for it. I'd think i could just removed the fiber board in the stove and let everything fall into the box and scoop it out.
> 
> Stupid me though installed my single wall stove pipe to where i can't remove it to inspect. In time I'll cut it out and replace it with those "extendable" ones to make cleaning/inspecting easier


It isn't hard for me and my roof is a 12/12 pitch..........but I never leave the ground. 
This is another case of ignoring "conventional" wisdom and thinking about your individual circumstance.
Everyone says it's better to run the flue indoors thru the roof. This is for maintaining the flue temperature, but I don't like cutting holes in my floors and roof and I don't like water leaks. That's why I spent the money for triple wall SS.
So I ran mine thru the wall on the first floor and straight up the outside two more stories.
The last 90* turn has a clean out on the tee, about head high.
I take off the cap, insert the brush, add the extensions as I go and the residue falls in the bucket below. When I'm done I look up the pipe with a flashlight and see a nice shiny flue.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

Chimney sweeping is really easy


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Back2Basix said:


> I know i waste a lot of wood burning so hot, but I'd rather waste wood than worry about creosote.


The only time you're "wasting wood" is when you let those unburned gasses go up the chimney in the form of smoke.

It's most efficient to burn them inside the stove and heat the thermal mass.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I close off the air intake at night, Was told not a add a damper in the pipe as it isn't needed with this furnace. When morning comes the house has coold a little bit so I add in the wood and burn the first load hot so any creosote drys and falls down into the clean out T. I can stand behind my furnace and clean from the bottom up or go on the roof and clean from the top down. I go on the roof every spring when I am close to stop burning mostly to make sure the cap is clean.


I might get a coffee mug of dry creosote ash after a whole winter of burning when I clean in the spring. Been my experince of lots of smoke for about a 1/2 hour morning first hot fire.











 Al


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## Steve_S (Feb 25, 2015)

Replying to this generically for other possible readers coming along later.

The only point not covered in this thread pretty much is dryness. I use mixed hard & soft wood as I'm in mixed bush, this spring, I'll cut & split next years batch, once cut & split into the back of my woodshed it goes and current dry is front of shed. Stacked open to allow for air drying. Never ever think of using roots, that's where Pitch comes from and if you want creosote that will give it to you. Sap is the nasty and some woods are worse for it, Maple for example is best cut before sap runs in spring or after like fall is best. Even having wet wood from rain water going into the stove will increase the creosote buildup. Lastly and surprised no mention, punky / rotting wood, wood that is going soft or mouldy even should not be used in a wood stove, that's campfire wood, your asking for problems. One thing I'm sure you know but another reader looking at this later may not, whatever you do don't throw crap into that Stove to burn, they are not incinerators and will not only cause havoc with the reburn tubes it will put "stuff" up the chimney adding to potential fire risk... plastics, coated papers etc = bad stuff.


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## gilberte (Sep 25, 2004)

In addition to the dryness of your wood, whatever it may be, I believe your chimney has a great deal to do with the ability of the stove to burn well. If it's straight and not overly long, good. If it's very long with several bends not so much.


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## anniew (Dec 12, 2002)

Having been in a non-woodstove fire, I am overly cautious about burning the woodstove. I can clean it from the bottom of the outside run, which is like another poster said...the chimney goes up about three feet from the stove, then a 90 degree angle, through the wall, then another 90 degree angle, and on up past the roof line. The cleanout is where the horizontal pipe (after it goes through the wall) meets the second 90 degree angle. When I am burning wood for the season, I clean out the chimney including the part that is inside the house, every 3-4 weeks. It may be overly cautious, but it certainly can't harm anything.


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## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

On my woodstove now for three years...and no creosote whatever...went up a few times while summer to clean but an inspection bottom up and down...nothing besides black walls and no build up...
Ran brush through it but the amount was only half an ashtray, so i limit it to visible inspection before i make my way up on roof again for nothing


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## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

Having lived with wood stoves for heat, cooking and hot water, using 100+ year old stoves and whatever metal flue happened to be available, my general rule has become "If it fits, burn it." Including conifers. You just have to deal with the maintenance.

Was it safe? Probably not as safe as the government would want us to be, but it worked fine. And had for a century. And I've been through creasote chimney fires. Except for gaps in a chimney, they're not as bad as a lot of other fires. Empty a fire extinguisher into the fireplace/stove then get to cleaning.

And after a few years of that I would never go to a wood stove for anything other than casual ambiance again. Too much work for too little gain. Some parts of the homesteading life aren't for me. 

Jeff


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## Murby (May 24, 2016)

Back2Basix said:


> I installed a new EPA cert. US Stove with secondary burn (non catalytic) 2.1cu ft box, 89k BTUs. This is my first season burning and just like you mention, i burn a HOT fire while we're awake/home and then load it up and shut it almost completely for over night. I know i waste a lot of wood burning so hot, but I'd rather waste wood than worry about creosote.
> 
> Kinda excited to get my chimney cleaned this spring to see how this creosote thing works out.


I've been heating my home in Michigan for almost 10 years with wood. I have an Enviro Venice 1700 with stainless afterburners and a forced air fan. My brick chimney has a stainless steel liner and rises about 14 feet.

I have placed a thermocouple on the inside of the stove and at the exhaust stack discharge on the roof and have done a ton of scientific research on burning wood.

What you are doing is fine. 

You burn hot during the day, which incinerates any creosote, and you smoke a bit at night because you trade temperature for longevity while you sleep. In other words, you don't need the home to be as warm at night while you're under blankets but you do want the stove to provide some heat all night so you can avoid having to fill it at 3 am.

This is very normal and won't hurt you a bit. And yes, if the wood is dry, you can burn any common wood of any size or shape so long as its not pressure treated. You can even burn kiln dried lumber.. although you want to be careful with that as it burns really really hot. I burn about two or three face cords of kiln dried lumber per year.. but I never fill the stove up with it, I just add a few pieces to the normal wood here and there.

Also, even if you burn wood using the worst practices imaginable, (wet wood burning slow), you're not going to burn down your home if you clean your chimney every year. The only thing that will happen is that it will make the job of cleaning your chimney a pain in the ass because creosote (the kind that wants to ignite) is very difficult to scrape off the walls of the chimney.

At the end of a burning season, when you clean your chimney, what you should see is a build up of light fluffy "rice crispy" style carbon. It should be dull, not shiny and it should break off easily and turn to a fine dust. If its dull, and comes off easy, you're doing well.. if its shiny and you have to scrub or it comes off in large chunks, then you're doing something wrong.

When I clean my chimney pipe, I just push the brush all the way down, then pull it out.. one time, and the entire pipe is clean again.

One semi-reliable way to tell how you're doing is to simply look at the glass on the door.. if your glass is sooting up, so is our chimney.. if the glass is being cleaned by a hot fire, so is your chimney.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Ok we have an Fireplace Insert with Steal Liner, have a Blower. Been to many places when we was in the Mountains all we had was Pine and Aspen but still used it with Coal.

Here I try to use Seasoned Oak. Clean my Flue in middle of the season.

This will be first time in years heating about half the Winter with just Propane.

big rockpile


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