# yes or no can you burn pine safely if it is well seasoned?



## iceman (Sep 6, 2007)

i have been told yes you can burn pine in a woodstove/fireplace  and i have been told absolutly not
please help


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## Highbeam (Sep 6, 2007)

Yes. I've burned plenty.


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## nshif (Sep 6, 2007)

Pine is fine to burn as long as its good and dry ( 2 summers here ) its not the best wood burns fast and hot but burns. keep an eye on your stack for creosote but its never been a problem for me but I burn other wood as well.


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## TMonter (Sep 6, 2007)

I always burn 1/2 to 1 cord of lodgepole and jack pine at the beginning of the season. We have a spot in the woods where there is a huge slope of pine beetle kill and usually grab 1 load a year.

Pine is easy to season as it's a softwood, but just be aware that it's more hydroscopic than other wood types and should be kept out of the rain and snow.

My experience is that it does make more creosote than other wood types but as a start of the season wood it's fine.

This will be the fourth season I've burned pine in my englander 13-NCL and my Quad 3100i.


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## MrGriz (Sep 6, 2007)

There's nothing wrong with burning pine.  Pine does burn hot and fast, so you do have to watch how much you stuff in the firebox at one time.  It is also good for reducing a large bed of coals in the stove.  Just rake up a pile of coals and let a split of pine rip on top, it takes the pile down nicely.


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## hardwood715 (Sep 6, 2007)

> There’s nothing wrong with burning pine.  Pine does burn hot and fast, so you do have to watch how much you stuff in the firebox at one time.  It is also good for reducing a large bed of coals in the stove.  Just rake up a pile of coals and let a split of pine rip on top, it takes the pile down nicely.



Well said, Warren is the pine expert in my neck of the woods, I scored some really well seasoned pine from him, and burned it mixed with my hardwood. Does burn hot and fast but also
no excessive creosote build up if burned right.


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## BrotherBart (Sep 6, 2007)

Better not be anything wrong with burning pine.


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## hardwood715 (Sep 6, 2007)

Wow thats a nice pile of pine! Probably could lift it all up with a wheelbarrow if it could fit! Light and Sweet!


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## BrotherBart (Sep 6, 2007)

hardwood715 said:
			
		

> Wow thats a nice pile of pine! Probably could lift it all up with a wheelbarrow if it could fit! Light and Sweet!



Wind blows'em down. In the stove they go. I have found that pine creates more soot if I use the stack damper. Never had it create even fine crust creostote. Otherwise the draft blows the stuff right out of the stack and fertilizes the yard.

Probably one of those Burning Issues.


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## Harley (Sep 7, 2007)

Yes, Ice - nothing wrong with it at all - the key, as you said was properly seasoned (and that goes for any wood).  I think a lot of folks in the NE have always been taught (heard, told, whatever) that any softwood is a "junk" wood and you shouldn't burn it in a stove.  I think that's only because we've been a little bit "spoiled" with an abundance of hardwood in the area.

It will burn a little differently than what you are probably used to, so, yes make sure you are tending the stove well when you start using it.  You can mix it in with some of the harder wood, or if you have it in a seperate pile - just use that in the fall or late winter/spring when you want to take the chill out.  Either way - It's going to make heat, and if well seasoned (like all of the other wood), it's not going to cause any creosote problems.


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## North of 60 (Sep 7, 2007)

PINE is our OAK in the north.  PINE, POPLAR & BIRCH    90% PINE is our main heat.


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## wg_bent (Sep 7, 2007)

hardwood715 said:
			
		

> > There’s nothing wrong with burning pine.  Pine does burn hot and fast, so you do have to watch how much you stuff in the firebox at one time.  It is also good for reducing a large bed of coals in the stove.  Just rake up a pile of coals and let a split of pine rip on top, it takes the pile down nicely.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I got a bunch of it last year... so much I decided to pop a couple pickup's full off on Steve.  I used it just like McGriz said.  get a big bunch of coals, and load pine on top.. Heats the house for a couple hours, and the coal bed disappears along with the pine.   I'll check the chinmey soon, but there isn't any more build up on the spark screen that I can see.


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## Country Lady (Sep 7, 2007)

Maybe we're speaking of different types of pine.  Around where I live, I've been told many times, absolutely NOT, unless you want your chimney full of creosote.


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## VT-Woodburner (Sep 7, 2007)

I have about 2 cords of pine that I burn in the beginning of th eseason and at the end of the season when the stove doesn't need to go 24/7. The pime is good for getting the chill out of the house. But when I start the stove for real, the maple, oak, and beech are used. 

But I never heard of pine being a no-no. 
When I first started burning I was sold a partial cord of BUTTERNUT. I picked it up and it was heavy wood. I let it dry and put it into the stove. Boy! Does it burn fast! And I have never seen so much ash in my life! Pine, yes. Butternut, NO!


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## hardwood715 (Sep 7, 2007)

> I’ll check the chinmey soon, but there isn’t any more build up on the spark screen that I can see.




Warren , Did mine last weekend, hardly nothing up there, brushed down a little fine stuff, nothing more, Good luck to you my friend this season!!


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## elkimmeg (Sep 7, 2007)

Way back when old smoke dragon era of wood stoves I was told it ok to burn pine but only 15% mixed with hard wood.

 We are spoiled with all the oak around here.  no need to burn pine People around here cut it up and throw it away.

The key with any wood is proper drying /seasoning.  I think people equate pine with fast burning pitch. Properly seasoned pine has no pitch oozing out
 The seasoning eliminated the pitch.  Be carefull loading up a stove for overnight burns, till you learn how to control your stove.


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## hilly (Sep 7, 2007)

Speaking of pitch. I had a few pines removed that had a moth infestation which resulted in massive amounts of pitch being produced every few feet. It sat out stacked in the sun all summer and the pitch actually ran down my wood piles causing some of the pieces to stick together in a nasty mess. Everything is dry, but there is a coating of pitch on some of the pieces similar to syrup. I can't wait to throw those on a hot fire!


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## Rob From Wisconsin (Sep 7, 2007)

Pine a "softwood" ??
I've got some Red Pine that burns as well as some soft maple
that I have laying around. Sure, some pines & spruces are
fairly "soft", but others are just fine in today's high-tech stoves.
I wouldn't pass 'em up....

Rob


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## wg_bent (Sep 7, 2007)

Country Lady said:
			
		

> Maybe we're speaking of different types of pine.  Around where I live, I've been told many times, absolutely NOT, unless you want your chimney full of creosote.



No, I don't think we're talking about different kind of pine.  Sure some pine has more pitch oozing out of it than others, but the bottom line is that in today's stoves they burn hot enough to also burn the creosote off.  If you had an older stove that you damped down and let smoulder, you would get that, but things have changed.  People who told you that do not own a modern stove.

Burn the pine hot enough and it's just fine.


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## Highbeam (Sep 7, 2007)

"People who told you that do not own a modern stove."

That is very likely. Or their pappy told them not to burn it. Or they read it on the internet as Country Lady wrote even though clearly second (or third or fourth or fifth)hand info.

It's an old wife's tale. Like sitting too clse to the TV will make you go blind, you don't want to challenge it because who would want to be blind?


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## Dexter (Sep 7, 2007)

Hi:

Unfortunately, I can only scavenge occasion Ash, Oak or Locust from damaged residential trees after a windstorm.  99% of our wood is cut in the mountains, where the only "good" wood is Lodgepole Pine.  We heat our house exclusively with this stuff (seasoned 4 to 5 months if dead-standing beetle-kill with no needles, or otherwise 9 to 18 months).  'Chimney remains easy to clean, no creosote: slightly dusty, never coated, glazed or "patinad".

Regards,

Dexter


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## jjbaer (Sep 7, 2007)

elkimmeg said:
			
		

> I think people equate pine with fast burning pitch.




Best free firestarters in the world: a few pine cones with pitch on them......


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## jpl1nh (Sep 8, 2007)

Many of the pines are decent BTU producers.  The poorest heat producer per cord is white pine.  Check this link out: http://www.beselfreliant.com/heating/calculators/woodcalculator.htm.  Dry it well, don't snuff it out once it's burning and pine is fine! :coolsmile:


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## jkriebel (Sep 8, 2007)

I like to use pine to start my fire or get it back from being almost out. I don't see any harm burning it. If all you did was burn pine low and slow then you could get yourself into trouble.


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## jpl1nh (Sep 8, 2007)

jkriebel said:
			
		

> I like to use pine to start my fire or get it back from being almost out. I don't see any harm burning it. If all you did was burn pine low and slow then you could get yourself into trouble.


which is true of most any wood!


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## BrotherBart (Sep 8, 2007)

jpl1nh said:
			
		

> jkriebel said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Except of course in a Blaze King.  ;-)


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## North of 60 (Sep 9, 2007)

On low burns, Creosote forms in the stove @ the back but not in the flue. Ya and if somone was to help me if I was to end up with a stove fire, or somthing.


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## Willhound (Sep 9, 2007)

north of 60 said:
			
		

> PINE is our OAK in the north.  PINE, POPLAR & BIRCH    90% PINE is our main heat.



I'm with ya, NO60
I try to burn mostly white birch (5 cord in the yard right now, 5 more coming), but nothing wrong with nice dry poplar (our kind, not the crap down south) and pine. Mostly jackpine, but some spruce and white pine stubs here and there. Sometimes some tamarack (larch) and balsam fir also.

Willhound


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