# What kind of wood?



## sage_morgan (Dec 18, 2005)

I asked some guys working on my house who was good to buy wood from, for a woodburning stove. They gave me a name, and one asked: what kind of wood do you want?

I said Dry, I don't want to gum up my chimney.

Are they talking about something else? I like maple or hickory, but I don't feel to picky about what wood.

What else do I need to know? I'm using a Glorious Windsor woodburning stove.


----------



## pheasantplucker (Feb 20, 2007)

You want "seasoned hardwood". Wood that is still green is heavier, and can lead to a buildup of creosote. That promotes a chimney fire. Hardwoods like maple, oak, ash, hickory are not filled with resins like the softwoods such as pine and fir. Wood should be seasoned for at least a year, but two or even three is better. You can look online or some books contain tables that will show you how many BTUs are available in every cord of wood. A true cord (a rare thing) is 8x4x4. Many places sell a face cord or by the pickup or by the ton. Splitting wood (by hand) is enjoyable but sometimes hard work (depending on the type of wood). Sycamore is notorious for being almost impossible to split. Splitting can be more easily accomplished when temperatures are below freezing. Do not burn osage orange in your stove. It burns much too hot and will damage your stove, and be a fire hazard with all the pops and sparks. Some woods have a pleasant aroma. Those would include apple and hickory. Good luck and enjoy the stove. My wife and I had fires this past two days at our cabin. Nothing better than the penetrating warmth of a good wood fire on a cold morning.


----------



## sage_morgan (Dec 18, 2005)

I know about wood heat, only the guy in charge of it is leaving the household. "Seasoned hardwood" is what I believe I needed.

Maple is what we are used to and Hickory smells totally like food, yum. I have read about osage orange! (here)

I have split before. I'm no good, but I split only a wee tad of wood, too.

Thanks for your answer!


----------



## mink (Feb 10, 2005)

you dont say where your from, up here in new york maple and beech seem to be the top wood. my farm has maple, beech, black cherry, birch, poplar,ash,bass wood,and assorted evergreens..........mink


----------



## ricky (Jul 31, 2006)

you want ash in NY it's ready to burn without seasoning. it rates about in the 50% range as far as btu's go that means there is better wood and worse. generally 1 lb of wood has 8600 btu's so it does not matter if its oak or pine it still has the same btu per pound. ash and beech is what i would look for. oak and maple all so good but needs seasoning. Lived in NY for 30 plus years and we burnt and sold many a face cord of wood.


----------



## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

We burn wood and peat and coal.

We also burn wood pellets that have soaked in kerosene, have been drained and are dry [mostly we use these homemade 'BBQ briquettes' to help light wood that has a lot of ice in it.]

We burn hardwood, we burn softwood. We burn seasoned wood and we burn green wood.

Our stove has a very large secondary combustion chamber, which may account for most of the creosote and tree saps being combusted.

Also the stove pipe is straight vertical with no bends, so if anything did form in the stove pipe perhaps it falls back down into the secondary combustion chamber where it burns.

This past summer, I took the entire system apart to clean it. The stove pipe was very clean, it had no built up creosote.

I know that creosote does build up on some fireplaces. I have seen chimney fires, and I have cleaned previous chimneys that we have had.

Is it possible that some stoves burn hot enough that no creosote can leave the firebox?

It seems to me that there are more variables then simply the moisture content of the wood.


----------



## sage_morgan (Dec 18, 2005)

I'm near where Ia, Ne and SD come together. The commonest wood available seems to be maple. ... and there are two 90 degree bends in the chimney.


----------



## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

With 90 degree bends in the stove pipe, I would not risk creosote. Don't do it.

Dry maple should be fine.


----------



## Guest (Nov 27, 2007)

ET1 ... what kind of stove do you have? I haven't seen many with secondary combustion.


----------



## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

FourAcreFarm said:


> ET1 ... what kind of stove do you have? I haven't seen many with secondary combustion.


A two-barrel stove, made from two 55-gallon drums. The bottom drum has been lined with an inch of ceramic-fire-clay [refractory cement], has a cast iron door and iron feet. The second drum has a bottom fitting in the back to bring hot gasses from the lower drum in, and a stovepipe fitting on top, it is fitted with two fresh air intakes which take the fresh air in from in front of the stove, to the rear of the stove.

The drums are gotten here for free at a local pastry factory.

The fittings are available from Northern Tool store on the WWW.

All together it cost me under $200.

This fashion of wood stove is rated at approximately 200,000btu.

We burn wood, peat and coal in our stove.

I also have the upper barrel [or secondary combustion chamber] wrapped with coils of 3/4 inch copper tubing. We circulate water from our thermal bank through these coils.

Our home's floor has a radiant heat loop, which is supplied by this woodstove, and is also supplied by a propane water heater.


----------



## WindowOrMirror (Jan 10, 2005)

Rock Maple and Shagbark Hickory are great. Most oaks and maples are good. Hardwood better than softwood (in general)


----------



## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

With Dutch Elm making a comeback the last few years, there are a lot more people burning elm this year that haven't burnt it before. Today I heard of the third person this winter who filled their stove full of elm and ended up with a warped stove out of it.


----------



## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

ET 1 SS, nice setup. Are you using some sort of pump to circulate that hot water? How much tubing is involved in your radiant heat setup?


----------



## robin f (Nov 26, 2007)

ET1, wow, no way could I get insurance on my house if i installed that, I'm sure its just too homemade (looking) for the insurance company, :nono: not saying i would not like to use this, but i know i would not get insurance, though i do like the water heater coils idea.


----------



## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

greg273 said:


> ET 1 SS, nice setup. Are you using some sort of pump to circulate that hot water? How much tubing is involved in your radiant heat setup?


Thank you.

I have two 'Taco #7' pumps. One is the circ pump for the radiant floor loop, the second pump is the circ pump for the stove to thermal bank.

Our radiant floor loop has 600 foot of PEX Oxygen-barrier tubing underneath the subfloor.

The first pump takes a suction from a propane water heater and pushes the water through one loop which is our heated towel rack by the jacuzzi, then through the floor loop, then through the thermal bank, then back to the propane water heater.

The second pump takes a suction from the thermal bank and pushes the water through the stove coils, then back to the thermal bank.

Both pumps are 120VAC and powered by an inverter, the inverter is connected to a deep-cycle marine battery, which is on a trickle charger. I can lose power for a few days, but we still have heated floors and a heated towel rack.


----------



## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

robin f said:


> ET1, wow, no way could I get insurance on my house if i installed that, I'm sure its just too homemade (looking) for the insurance company, :nono: not saying i would not like to use this, but i know i would not get insurance, though i do like the water heater coils idea.


Steel buildings are easier to get fire insurance.

And of course they are way cheaper to build too. The down side is that they look like a steel warehouse.


----------

