# why can't you burn Duraflames in a wood stove?



## kwikrp (Mar 4, 2009)

Does anyone know the reasoning ?


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## rphurley (Mar 4, 2009)

I know they don't seem to produce much heat.  To me it seems like burning a big, dirty crayon!


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## karri0n (Mar 4, 2009)

There are two reasons, both having to do with the wax in them.

reason 1. They outgas very quickly and burn HOT because of the wax, and can very quickly and easily overfire a stove, even at low air control. Turning the air control all the way down to try to prevent the massive heat can starve the fire for air, causing smoke, which will condense and coat the chimney/flue/chimney cap.

reason 2. The condensing smoke is signifigantly worse than creosote, as it contains wax and will ignite more easily and burn hotter than creosote, making for very dangerous chimney fires.


I do use small chunks of duraflame logs as fire starters.


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## Highbeam (Mar 4, 2009)

I use one to two wax logs per year in my stove. I chop them up into small golfball sized chunks for an excellent matchlight firestarter. Beside my stove is a coffee can full of these balls. 

I wouldn't think of burning a whole log. Wood works just fine.


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