Can wood be too dry?

[woodchip]

I ask this as I have some wood I left in our glasshouse through last summer, and it now seems incredibly dry.

A mate reckons it will burn too fast and too hot, but I thought I could control the burn by reducing the air intake.

Has anybody used wood which has virtually no moisture in it?

 

[zzr7ky]

You are likely to be fine. I had a jag of many years dry wood. I mixxed it with 'normal' wood, but as long as your gaskets are in decent shape tightening down on the air should work fine. I just would not fill the stove full until you have tried it out a bit.

All the bestfrom the yon end of the pond,
Mike

 

[woodchip]

Many thanks, I'm looking forward to trying this wood as it's hawthorn, the hottest burning wood around these parts.

Might just try a little now and mix the rest in during January, shame to burn it all now and go back to birch when it's coldest !

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Can wood be too dry?

No

 

[ironpony]

yes, it will burn to hot almost like burning pallets or 2x lumber
hot and fast

 

[bsearcey]

I've just recently came to the conclusion that it can be too dry.

Here is my post about it if you feel like reading my issue and the responses.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/63879/

Basically the wood burned/ignited too quickly and produced too much smoke all at once and overwhelmed my cat clogging it up. Opening air up to it after this happened (even just opening the bypass damper) caused and incredible draft because the extremely hot smoldering wood was starved for oxygen. Mixing some less seasoned wood in with it has stopped the problem.

Some of the more "seasoned" burners emphatically disagree, but I can only go with what I have actually experienced.

 

[skyline]

I only had the 6 splits I oven dried from my experiment but with my non-Cat insert it was beautiful. Each piece ignited on a bed of coals after about 10-15 seconds,
I could push the damper all the way closed and still get a great secondary burn with a lot less smoke than normal. I figure less air and good burn = more efficient heating.

With the warnings of burning too hot, I'm not sure I want to try a stove full of oven dry wood with full air but I'm sure I'll try it and watch it one day.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I ask this as I have some wood I left in our glasshouse through last summer, and it now seems incredibly dry.

A mate reckons it will burn too fast and too hot, but I thought I could control the burn by reducing the air intake.

Has anybody used wood which has virtually no moisture in it?

Here we go again! It is amazing to me how often this question comes up.

So, I just have to state my opinion and back it up with some experience. After burning wood for over 50 years I can say without a doubt that I've never seen wood that is too dry to burn. So how dry has the wood been that we burn? I have no moisture meter nor any reason to buy one so I can not quote any percentage figures. I can say that we've burned wood that had been cut, split and stacked under cover for 10 years. I can say I know of someone who has burned 20 year old wood. Neither of us have had any problems whatsoever. We regularly burn wood that has been cut, split and stacked for 6-7 years and it burns wonderfully. We could also ask another member of this forum who came to our place to get some of that old dried out wood but he will also say it burned just fine.

So again, I will state that no, wood won't be too dry to burn. The only thing one would have to be careful with would be if the wood was split into very small pieces and then you might have to be very careful to not over-fire the stove. But again, we just don't have a problem with burning old dry wood and much prefer it.

Also, we do have a cat stove and I do not believe burning dry wood would produce an abundance of smoke to overwhelm the cat. Something else would have to come into play there to cause that. Simply put, dry wood will not produce more smoke than green wood; it will produce less.

 

[quads]

Can wood be too dry?

No

+1

 

[bsearcey]

Dennis. OK dry wood should produce less smoke then wet wood, because there is no/not as much water vapor for what smoke is generated to adhere to. I can agree with that. But no matter what, a piece of wood when burned will produce smoke. What I expect happened in my case is that instead of the wood burning/releasing gases at a slower rate (wood at bottom off gases first, then works it's way up the load in the stove), all of my wood began off gasing at (or close to) the same rate. This creates more smoke at once then would happen if the wood were not as dry. Like I said in my original post about my problem, the full load of wood I put in had been reduced to all coals in about an hours time. This is with only allowing it to burn with air open for 5-10 minutes, then shutting everything down. Same load of wood at a higher MC, might create more smoke over the entire burn cycle, but that smoke/gas would not be released at the same rate (bottom/up domino effect), giving the reburn enough time to process what is coming through. Like I've said I haven't experienced the problem since mixing my wood up.

Maybe it is a wierd combination of that particular wood (hackberry) + my cat stove + my blower + my liner system and connection + my cap + my split sizes + my normal operating procedure that caused it. If you took a load of my hackberry and put it in your setup and got it burning how you normally wood, it may be a perfect fire for you. All I know, is that it happened three times to me with the hackberry and not once since I've started mixing the hackberry at 14-16MC with other wood like oak and hickory at between 20-25MC.

 

[CTYank]

Impossible for wood to be too dry, for an EPA stove.

I do whatever possible to dry it out, and really love the results.

No matter the species- pine, sugar maple, black cherry, black locust, mystery wood.

No matter the purpose- kindling, build-up, slow cruise.

 

[oldspark]

Is it possible for the extra dry to off gas to quick and over load a cat or let some of the gases escape without being burnt is the secondaries?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Oldspark, if there would be too much gas or smoke, would it not just pass through the cat and up the pipe? That is not ideal but would cause no harm that I can see. I can say that there have been a few times we've gotten a bit more smoke than usual and at those times is when the entire cat is really a fiery red and the stove top gets pretty darned hot.

 

[oldspark]

Oldspark, if there would be too much gas or smoke, would it not just pass through the cat and up the pipe? That is not ideal but would cause no harm that I can see. I can say that there have been a few times we've gotten a bit more smoke than usual and at those times is when the entire cat is really a fiery red and the stove top gets pretty darned hot.

Yes I agree but some cat owners (one in this post) have reported problems with the cat being over whelmed and he thought the extra gases were doing it. This is more for the sake of the discussion and I think it makes sense, there are articles that talk about very dry wood causing creosote and if you tie all the loose ends together it holds water, just some thing else to keep in mind. It does sound like you have seen it with your stove, I have some elm that I did not think was too dry gas off the minute it starts to burn. Do I think the wood is too dry to burn, NO not at all just past its prime a little like me.

 

[billb3]

petrified wood doesn't burn well.

 

[oldspark]

petrified wood doesn't burn well.

It coals nice! :cheese:

 

[bsearcey]

petrified wood doesn't burn well.

It coals nice! :cheese:

Very funny!

oldspark. Thanks for taking up the discussion. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere on it. It is good to see that someone else can see/imagine that what I have described might happen. I don't know if anyone else would ever have my same experience for the simple fact that everybody's setup is different and any amount of variation could change the outcome.

 

[woodchip]

I don't know if anyone else would ever have my same experience for the simple fact that everybody's setup is different and any amount of variation could change the outcome.

This is one of the fascinating things with burning wood.........

The variables seem to be endless, everybody burns wood slightly differently (even variations in shape of wood can alter the flame slightly), so by the time you have factored in the chimney, dryness of wood, different burner, and different species of wood it is difficult comparing like with like.

Having had a thorough look at the other thread (thanks for the link) about dry wood, I understand a lot more about my very dry wood. I'll be burning it sparingly, and only when I'm about (officially so I can keep an eye on the burning, but actually so I can enjoy the extra warmth, something that I'll appreciate this cold winter).

Thanks for all your replies

 

[bsearcey]

I agree woodchip. I don't think anyone can ever know all there is to know about wood burning.

 

[tfdchief]

I laid up ends for my wood stacks with hedge over 20 years ago and never burn the ends. That way I didn't have to stack new ends...and hedge never rots. Well, last winter when it got real cold, I decided to burn some of that hedge since the ends were getting kind of rickety anyway. Wow, some great burning stuff. I am sure every stove and every wood is different, but for me, there sure isn't anything wrong with 20 yr + hedge. ;-)

 

[tfdchief]

I agree woodchip. I don't think anyone can ever know all there is to know about wood burning.

nonetheless, what kind of stove is that in your Avatar? It sure is a great looking stove!

 

[bsearcey]

I agree woodchip. I don't think anyone can ever know all there is to know about wood burning.

nonetheless, what kind of stove is that in your Avatar? It sure is a great looking stove!

Thanks tfdchief. The stove is a 1983 Consolidated Dutchwest Federal Airtight 224CCL. It was black when I got it last year, and I wanted a different look so I used Stove Bright paint (Mojave Red) and painted it. I was pleased with the outcome. It's kind of weird though because while the stove is cool the color is uniform Mojave Red all over. When the sides start getting in the 400 range the color changes to purplish plum kind of color. It's really strange. Once it cools down it goes back to the normal cooler.

 

[oldspark]

I agree woodchip. I don't think anyone can ever know all there is to know about wood burning.

nonetheless, what kind of stove is that in your Avatar? It sure is a great looking stove!

Thanks tfdchief. The stove is a 1983 Consolidated Dutchwest Federal Airtight 224CCL. It was black when I got it last year, and I wanted a different look so I used Stove Bright paint (Mojave Red) and painted it. I was pleased with the outcome. It's kind of weird though because while the stove is cool the color is uniform Mojave Red all over. When the sides start getting in the 400 range the color changes to purplish plum kind of color. It's really strange. Once it cools down it goes back to the normal cooler.

That sounds neat, all stoves and stove pipes should change color with the different temps, I know they will get red if hot enough but not what I want.

 

[spur0701]

I just installed an insert this fall and some of the red oak I've been burning was cut down when we built the house in Nov 2000....in the summer of 2001 I bucked it, stacked it on pallets, and tied tarps over about three cords worth.....and just split it last week, it's burning great.

 

[bsearcey]

Just last week I bucked and split what I believe was a Red Oak. According the property owners it has been on the ground for at least 4 years and standing dead prior to that. The entire outer sap wood had deteriorated leaving only solid heartwood. Average diameter of the hearwood was 22 inches. Which I need to posts some pictures of it because it was interesting on the inside. Anyway, after I split I checked the MC with my HF meter and it was reading OL. It didn't feel nearly as heavy as comparable sized pieces from a living tree split. I took some home and burned it, and it burned great. Some of the best burning wood I've had for longevity, coaling, and heat output. No indication of hissing or steaming from the ends. So although it burned great, felt like it was seasoned as far as weight, it still had alot of moisture in it according to my meter. I think the meter reads OL if MC is over 40%. I know the meter is working right because I get different readings on other wood. Unless it is reading way higher than true.