Can wood be too dry?

[sappy]

I've found the drier the better, as Dennis always states. As long as the wood has substance to it, not too punky.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Learn this Rake Your Coals Forward Technique that alot of people use.

The reason to rake the coals forward is to have more room in the back of the stove to load a bigger log on the bottom of the stove and not load it on hot coals. This gets you a longer burn time. It also gets you more head room to load more wood in the back of the stove were there are no coals to load on. Then the stove kinda burns in a front to back fashion and not all wood burning at once. The small stuff in the front takes off rapidly on the front hot coals up by the air inlet and gets your temps up quickly in the stove so as once the temps are up in the stove up can get the air shut back down and get the stove set for a long nights burn mode. With not so good wood sometimes it takes a while to get temps up before you can get the stove shut down for the night and by then you have just burnt up a bunch of your wood trying to get that temps up but you need all the un burnt wood you cant get so as to get a long over night burn.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/rake-coals-forward-and-stove-start-up-pictures.80659/

Not sure how I missed the memo on this method but holy crap batman, what a difference it makes! I usually spread the coals out evenly, load up, wait for it to catch and once steady, damper down and go to bed. At 6am, i wake to a cold house, around 60 degrees with the oil furnace just kicking on, no coals and the blower on the stove off.

Not this morning! After reading ths post late last night, I used the rake forward method. Woke up warm, thought the furance had been running but NO! It was still 68, the stove blower was on and there we SO many coals, they fell out onto the hearth stone when I opened the door! We are burning mostly ash css about 8 months now and the splits fired RIGHT back up this morning! No paper, fatwwod, kindling, NOTHING but splits! This is genius! THANK YOU! I now have a decent overnight burn in my tiny little stove and it was 30 degrees last night! Not too shabby

 

[Hearth Mistress]

And....it wasn't a fluke. That same load from 6:30 this morning burned until almost 1pm! To think of all of the wood I've wasted over the last year, oh the humanity! I loaded it up again when my flue thermometer hit about 350 and BAM shot right back up again, I love this method! It's been about 2 hours now and it's still coasting around 700. This has changed my life, really. I even called my husband at work to tell him of my new method and it's results and while he was no too enthused, when he gets hime and it's warm in here, he will be impressed I'm sure

 

[etiger2007]

And....it wasn't a fluke. That same load from 6:30 this morning burned until almost 1pm! To think of all of the wood I've wasted over the last year, oh the humanity! I loaded it up again when my flue thermometer hit about 350 and BAM shot right back up again, I love this method! It's been about 2 hours now and it's still coasting around 700. This has changed my life, really. I even called my husband at work to tell him of my new method and it's results and while he was no too enthused, when he gets hime and it's warm in here, he will be impressed I'm sure View attachment 86638 View attachment 86639

Mistress, when your load burns down and the only thing that remains in the stove are the two back logs you placed on the brick, do you get a smokey burn? Please let me know. I quit doing this because I found the late stages of the burn where dirty and had blueish smoke coming from the chimney top. Mines a non-cat so it wont eat up the smoke when the temps drop Thanks.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Mistress, when your load burns down and the only thing that remains in the stove are the two back logs you placed on the brick, do you get a smokey burn? Please let me know. I quit doing this because I found the late stages of the burn where dirty and had blueish smoke coming from the chimney top. Mines a non-cat so it wont eat up the smoke when the temps drop Thanks.

No, Granted I've only done this twice now but the wood in the back eventually turns to coals too. This is the status now from the 1pm load, ghost logs and coals in the front but back is still going, flue temp at 500 still, totally dampered down for almost 3 hours now. I left a nice layer of ash on the brick too, figured it would insulate the logs, not sure it that made the difference. My stove small and is non cat too but doesn't burn smoky until it gets below 200, then I open to reload and get a face full of smoke. My glass is pretty clear and the bricks are always white so I have to think it's burning efficiently since I don't get sooty build ups and my chimney sweep was impressed for a new burner, just fluff in the pipes, no creosote build ups. I also make sure I put "the good wood" back there to get a longer steady burn time. Try it again, I swear, I can't believe these results!

 

[etiger2007]

No, Granted I've only done this twice now but the wood in the back eventually turns to coals too. This is the status now from the 1pm load, ghost logs and coals in the front but back is still going, flue temp at 500 still, totally dampered down for almost 3 hours now. I left a nice layer of ash on the brick too, figured it would insulate the logs, not sure it that made the difference. My stove small and is non cat too but doesn't burn smoky until it gets below 200, then I open to reload and get a face full of smoke. My glass is pretty clear and the bricks are always white so I have to think it's burning efficiently since I don't get sooty build ups and my chimney sweep was impressed for a new burner, just fluff in the pipes, no creosote build ups. I also make sure I put "the good wood" back there to get a longer steady burn time. Try it again, I swear, I can't believe these results!View attachment 86645

There have been times when I would check the stove after doing this and the bricks where clean and then there where times the back bricks where black. My wood is around 17-22% moisture. My splits have also been reduced to coals when I would get up at 4am. I will try this again with some black locust tonight stuffed in the back and see what happens. I will also try this again tomorrow to monitor the end of the burn during the day. Thank You

 

[rideau]

There have been times when I would check the stove after doing this and the bricks where clean and then there where times the back bricks where black. My wood is around 17-22% moisture. My splits have also been reduced to coals when I would get up at 4am. I will try this again with some black locust tonight stuffed in the back and see what happens. I will also try this again tomorrow to monitor the end of the burn during the day. Thank You

I have a cat stove, and no problem with a dirty burn at the end of the cycle with this method.

With a non-cat, you might try pulling the back log forward an hour or two before the end of the burn, so it gets washed with more air. Could add a smaller splt at that time too, to give a bit more heat while the last log and coals burn down, since you'll have the stove open anyway. I'm pretty sure that would stop the smoky burn.