tricks at burning green wood

[Paul Wheaton]

So here I am in a new place and I don't have near enough wood in.

And what I do have is wet. Or green.

And it has been raining to beat the band here for weeks. So even if I find the driest snag around, it's still gonna be wet.

So I'm shoring up on my strategies for burning green/wet wood.

I know that I need a super hot fire every day in order to burn out any potential creosote. I have that covered.

I've been working on trying to get a fire started in the morning with the smallest, driest wood and then tossing in the lousier stuff later in the day.

I've build a huge wood rack and keep it near the woodstove in the hopes that it will dry wood a bit for the next day.

I am tempted to come up with some metal to put on top of the stove that will allow me keep a stove load of wood directly above the wood stove. My thinking is that if it touches the woodstove, that would be too hot and could ignite. But with a couple of inches, that might be enough to not ignite. But my heebie jeebie factor is too high so far. I'm wondering if anybody has any advice about something along these lines: something where today's fire can dry out some wood for tomorrow morning.

[gideonprime]

We would put wet wood under the stove (it stands on legs) and next to the stove and burn it when it was drier. I recall as a kid bringing in wood that had ice and snow on it from the end of the wood pile and putting it near the stove to shed its excess moisture.

Never had any of the wood under the stove scorch or burn (until we put it in the stove that is).

Also, I recall leaning wet wood against the stove for short periods of time to help it dry.
I am sure there are people out there right now reading this and saying "Moron is lucky the house didn't burn up", but we never had a problem with in the house.


The nice thing about green wood is it takes forever to burn while seasoned wood will burn up quicker than money in vegas.

[-TWO-]

Wood dries alot faster if the pieces are stood on end.

[fishhead]

I always filled my basement to the ceiling so any remaining moisture would be long gone by the time it went into the stove. If you can I would bring in as much as possible.

[cfabe]

One tip I've found out to help getting fires started, particularly if you don't have great kindling is to buy some of those manufactured firelogs (duraflame) and cut them into smaller chunks. I used to use one chunk of that and some smaller logs to start the fire, no real kindling at all. Seemed to work well.

[shellyr44]

We have a wood cook stove and scrounged some burner grates from an old gas stove. When the wood is damp or wet we put pieces on the grates farthest from the fire and let them dry. Of course we do this only when we are awake and can keep an eye on them. We also stack small piles around the stove to dry up the wood.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I would say cut and split as much as you can and get it under cover as fast as you can. I have found that any drying time is better than none, even a week of seasoning seems to help. Split it small. There are some species which burn better green than others, namely ash, get it if you can, stay away from the oaks.

Any short term drying (ie a week on the porch, or 3 hours under the stove) will probably not add too much to the heat value of the wood (which is vastly improved with proper seasoning), but may dry out the outside enough to facilitate the initial ignition(preventing you from beating your head against the wall).

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by cfabe

One tip I've found out to help getting fires started, particularly if you don't have great kindling is to buy some of those manufactured firelogs (duraflame) and cut them into smaller chunks. I used to use one chunk of that and some smaller logs to start the fire, no real kindling at all. Seemed to work well.

You can make your own fire starters by placing cotton ball or two in a empty egg cartion and fill the hole with wax or paraffin put one of them in your stove and light it and you will have a blaze in no time.

[fishhead]

Studies have shown that wood dries out 10x faster through the ends of the wood than through the sides. That makes sense considering that wood is actually a bundle of straws.
You can see it in action sometimes by watching the water boil out of the ends of wood in the fire.

To take advantage of that position your wood with the end towards the stove.

[wyld thang]

we've used green oak, split it up and set it on end on top of the stove--but not if the stove is running hot(then it starts to smolder)

if the wood is just wet, you caN split it and it will be dry inside(unless it's rotten). I always keep a bucket of dry kindling inside. set wet wood on end around the stove like people said. really it's no big deal, it will dry out faster than you think.

[Laci]

Gideon, I started reading this phrase, and thought, "wow, if I said that, I know someone would call me an idiot, an accident waiting to happen". Then I read the next line and about drowned in a drink I was taking, lol. But, in our house today (as well as all the years I was growing up), we lean wood against the woodstove to dry. Obviously, we watch it so we don't burn up, lol.

Great thread, I was in the same situation last year, and since we're short on money this year, and don't have ready access to cutting our own wood, we're not in a much better situation this year. Thankfully, my husband works at a job where they throw copious amounts of pallet wood ends away daily, so he just brings lots and lots of pallet wood home to burn. We save nice, well seasoned wood for the evenings, and burn the think pallet wood durning the day, when we are more apt to pay attention. Lots of the pallet wood has been kiln dried, so makes great kindling. Hit up your local factories, and building sites for pallet wood. Around here, it tends to not be treated (guess it costs too much to treat it, thankfully!).

Marcy

"Also, I recall leaning wet wood against the stove for short periods of time to help it dry.
I am sure there are people out there right now reading this and saying "Moron is lucky the house didn't burn up", but we never had a problem with in the house."

[zukgod]

I live in Wa also, go to the local Home Depot or lowes and pick up some of there free palets. Use those to get your fire hot then toss your wood in there and it will burn. I would chop your wood as small as possible or it won't dry before summer. If you find a snag in the woods it will be dry no matter how wet it looks. Let me know if you need help.

Josh

[MorrisonCorner]

Ok, someone has to say this because this thread is surely being read by someone using wood for the first time this season and thinking "cool, I can burn whatever!"

BURNING GREEN WOOD IS DANGEROUS AND YOU CAN BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN.

Burning green wood as anything less than a percentage of the wood in the box and lowering the draft so it "smolders" is coating the pipe with creosote. Creosote is a highly flammable, explosive, substance which, if it ignites in the chimney pipe, will burn so hot the fire can crack a chimney or simply ignite the wood/roof around the pipe. People's houses will burn down this winter when creosote ignites because it will go up so quickly there isn't a prayer the fire department will get to you in time.

If you burn green wood you must clean your chimney "regularly." And in the years I've burned green that means I've cleaned that chimney once a week. If you're not prepared to clean every week or two then reconsider the green wood thing. Or put the fire department on speed dial.

This winter, in some areas, dry wood is going to be at an an absolute premium, and scrap wood (the pallet suggestion) is going to go to the most aggressive scrounger. So a lot of people are going to be considering burning wood that they might not ordinarily have thrown into a stove.

Burn hot, burn clean, and check the pipe regularly.

And since you are burning wet this winter, and obviously aware that that is an issue, spend the winter gathering wood so you don't have to do this again next winter.

[Wisconsin Ann]

One thing we've been doing with the fresh cut wood (had a couple of trees that had to come down last fall, and used them up over winter) was to put in 2 chunks of dry wood to burn first, then a chunk of green on the top. (we have a franklin type woodburner). by the time the dry wood was almost done burning, the former green wood was dry and burned nicely. Worked REALLY well over nights. a layer of dry, with green wood stacked on top.

Also, the greenwood was kept inside in a corner near the stove, the dry wood could be kept stacked outside the door.

[Pouncer]

Creosote is a real danger.....I agree with that completely.

We bought and installed a new wood stove this summer and have been using it for primary heating since. All the logs we got were fairly green, and it's been a serious chore to cut, split and stack it.

Up here, we have birch and spruce. Our answer to having a large, uncovered wood pile is stacking the splits so that the bark is always up. This helps shed rain and snow-my husband grew up on wood heat in the Fairbanks area, and this is how they did it all winter long. We have built a wood box in the garage that will hold just over about a weeks' worth, this gives it time to dry a little more as it certainly has been raining a lot this fall.

We are very very careful to make sure we get the fire really blazing at least once per day. Our stack is straight up, the stove is a new Blaze King that works on convection action, and so far...when we clean (once every two weeks) we get less than half a cup. Spruce is the creosote builder up here, so we use that sparingly for getting a fire up in a hurry. I am still playing around with the settings on it so that I will have a good bank of coals when I get home from work-about 12 hours after loading it in the morning.

[wyld thang]

yeah on creosote etc, but sometimes you gotta work with what you have, and there are tricks to getting by--like people said, cut the green stuff smaller, dry it out good indoors using your weapon of choice.

OP is in WA, what kind of wood are you using? If you can get a variety that really helps. You probably have a lot of fir--that's real pitchy and more creosoty, but good (when seasoned to get fires going and will burn hot and fast. If it's green it's a ***** to get going. Get some maple, oak if you can--we've managed to burn those green. Ash is fine green. Keep an eye or ear to the pipe, get the tools to clean it yourself.

If you can learn to make fire in the Pacific Northwet, you're doing good!

[wyld thang]

here's an article from a gazillion years ago you might have fun reading
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...DE&oref=slogin

[Paul Wheaton]

Wow! This is a lot of excellent information!

I really like the info on standing wood on end. It makes me think that I need to completely redesign how I store my wood. At least for this fall.

I guess I don't have the nerve to put wood on top of the stove, even if there is a bit of a buffer between the stove and the wood. Just too risky.

I think I am going to try to keep some of the wood a little closer to the stove to dry. On it's end.

As for the concerns about creosote: my understanding (nearly all of which has come from conversations on this forum in years past) is that if you burn a VERY hot fire once a week, you are quite safe. I've been burning one super hot fire each day I burn. If this is less than accurate, I would really like to hear more.

As for getting pallets and the like at home depot: my current rig doesn't facilitate that sort of thing very well. But I did spot some free scrap lumber once and filled up with that. That sure helped with getting fires started. Once a fire is started, I could throw wetter/greener stuff in and still keep a hot fire going.

Snags: I have my eye on a couple. I'm going to bring them in soon.

As for wood that we are using right now. One is an unknown broadleaf that was on its side and covered with moss. Another was a cottonwood that recently fell over. We recently took down a dying maple that we have almost all cut and stacked - but that wood is just too green still.

I have to say that one of the most useful things in this situation has been canned air. I bought a four pack at costco a few years ago. And there they sat, untouched for years. So now I've finished one can. And nothing makes a weak fire blaze like canned air. I tried the hair dryer with the "no heat" setting - it just fills the room with smoke and ash. The neat thing with the canned air is that it seems to have a really excellent focus point. I suppose a small air compressor might do even better.

[scorpian5]

If you are burning green wood that is creating creosote in your chimney why would you burn a HOT fire once a week or day or whatever and increase the chance of a chimney fire? Around here if you are in need of dry wood go to the woods find a dead still standing (most likely elm) cut it split it burn it. There is to much to lose burning green wood

[Paul Wheaton]

Seems to me that I've read here at least a dozen times that you want to burn a really hot fire to burn all of the creosote out. If you have 40 cold fires and then a hot one, then you build up a lot of creosote and then when it burns things can go really bad. If you have 4 cold fires and then a hot one, you've built up only a little creosote and when it burns, it's no big deal.