I hate Red Oak

[wood-fan-atic]

IT completely depends on climate , and how you stack. Im on Long Island, and have LOTS of red and white oak. I stack in single rows,six feet high,on pallets. Stuff I was sure wouldnt be ready til next year (18 months c/s/s) is in the high teens on the MM,and burning real good in the stove right now. Granted, it is split on the thinner side(3-5" thick), but it is what it is. I have tons of ash for next year,so Im SURE that the 2-3 yr. old oak will be gr8! I guess what Im trying to say is, there are variables to consider, and one mans 3 yrs. is another mans 18 months! Burn on, brotha!

 

[Battenkiller]

Oak takes more than a year, usually. It's what I have the most of, so I deal with it. I'd take ash or maple over it if I had a choice, just for that reason.

I usually do have the choice, and I've always avoided red oak like the plague because of the above mentioned reasons, but I got stuck with half a cord of red oak last season, cut and delivered by mistake in November. I brought it all inside and stacked it near the stove. Luckily, the season ended before I had to put any in the stove, but it got a real good jump start in there. Most of it was already down below 30% when I stacked it outside again in April, in the best sun and wind on my property.

Boy, now I see why some folks like this stuff so much. I've been throwing in one massive split every 3-4 hours, and it sure does throw out a ton of heat. I haven't bothered to split any and check the MC, but this is superior firewood. I'm getting fantastic secondary burns going on in the mysterious back chamber of my VC judging by the sounds of things. It just roars when I shut that bypass.

I just may buy a log load this winter and salt it away for a couple years from now. Patience was never one of my strong points, but this stuff is really worth the wait.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I hear you, it just takes more forethought than I can often muster

 

[Wallyworld]

Where do people keep their wood piled anyway? I burn oak, my property is loaded with it, I buy it when I can , I have 8 cords of tree length oak sitting near my woodshed right now, it was cut toward the end of last winter early spring. I'll start cutting it soon and by spring it will be in my wood shed. I fully expect to burn it with no issues next fall. I use an old Sunshine stove, built in Maine back in the 70s or early 80s, I throw a few sticks in first thing in the morning, leave it wide open for awhile, fill it full when I leave, do the same thing when I come home after work. Maybe its my stove or stainless chimney that allows me to get away with only 1 year seasoned red oak?

 

[oldspark]

IT completely depends on climate , and how you stack. Im on Long Island, and have LOTS of red and white oak. I stack in single rows,six feet high,on pallets. Stuff I was sure wouldnt be ready til next year (18 months c/s/s) is in the high teens on the MM,and burning real good in the stove right now. Granted, it is split on the thinner side(3-5" thick), but it is what it is. I have tons of ash for next year,so Im SURE that the 2-3 yr. old oak will be gr8! I guess what Im trying to say is, there are variables to consider, and one mans 3 yrs. is another mans 18 months! Burn on, brotha!

Been singing that song ever since I joined the site, only a few people seem to agree with us. :smirk:

 

[Stump_Branch]

HATE RED OAK

Gasp...don,t you dare.

 

[billb3]

the oak in the pic almost looks like it has been thrown in a cold stove.

 

[oldspark]

the oak in the pic almost looks like it has been thrown in a cold stove.

Hard to tell from the picture but it almost looks like there is not enough coals to get dry oak going.

 

[Slow1]

Where do people keep their wood piled anyway?

I keep mine wherever I can - I have stacks along my property line and in the back. I don't have a whole lot of space though... No good location for a shed unfortunately (offset requirements being what they are).

I burn oak, my property is loaded with it, I buy it when I can ,

Hmmm- property loaded with it but you buy, must be more to that story eh?

I use an old Sunshine stove, built in Maine back in the 70s or early 80s, I throw a few sticks in first thing in the morning, leave it wide open for awhile, fill it full when I leave, do the same thing when I come home after work. Maybe its my stove or stainless chimney that allows me to get away with only 1 year seasoned red oak?

The difference is most likely your stove. The key being how much air you are feeding through it and how it generally is designed to burn the wood. Your stove burns the wood and gets the heat from the primary combustion - i.e. burning right on the wood as the flammable gases exit the pieces. You provide it more air and generally burn hotter right on the wood. A greater volume passes through the stove and up the flue - more heat goes up keeping the draft strong and pulling more air in. You can keep the wood well fanned this way and burn pretty clean - the stack stays good and hot too and thus as long as you don't turn things down to lower the heat output of the stove the chimney can stay pretty clean - it is too hot to condense. The downside of this is that a relatively greater amount of heat is leaving the stove to go up the stack instead of being kept in the room/house.

More recent designs of stove (so called "EPA/EPA2" stoves) are designed to utilize secondary combustion and other techniques to burn the smoke from the wood - somewhat different design. But the bigger functional difference is that the stoves use less air and effectively keep more of the heat in the room and not headed up the flue. Thus the flu runs cooler and less air enters the stove (less oxygen being fed in). So if the wood isn't as dry then you just don't have the combustion air being fed into the stove to keep the fire hot enough to burn well. The wood won't burn as hot with a greater percentage of the heat going into boiling off water in the wood before the wood can actually burn. Thus the stove temps won't get up high enough to ignite the secondary burns and the stove just doesn't get cruising like it should. Then folks open up the air more to force it to burn better and essentially burn it in 'pre-epa style' and end up making more smoke that isn't being burned and it gets cooled in the stove and the lower airflow (remember this stove can't pump as much air as older stoves did) and lower flue temps end up actually making for a worse flue creosote build-up. This cycle can be avoided entirely by burning wood that is dryer - the magic number being around 20% since that is what they are designed for. With the exception of some unusual conditions or very dry climates it is generally agreed here that most of us just won't get living oak down to 20% in a year.

Now some folks will conclude that "these new fangled stoves are no improvement over the old reliable ones that aren't so picky about wood" - and perhaps there is a point there if someone is unwilling to change their fuel. However, if someone switches to a newer design of a stove AND only burns wood with 20% or less MC then they will be rewarded with significantly reduced wood consumption and likely cleaner burns. Results being a cleaner (and thus safer) flue with less effort. More heat (in the home) for the same amount of wood or less wood for same heat depending on how you look at it. Either way it is a win.

One does have to teach an old dog new tricks though it seems. I have a friend burning an older stove - I'm doubtful that I'll ever convince him to change his burning processes. He does pretty well with his stove - I don't believe he chokes it down and I've never seen plumes of smoke from him so he is burning reasonably clean. I don't think he is unsafe - sweeps his own chimney on a regular basis. However I know he is burning more wood than he needs to be but he doesn't see a problem with the amount of work he does. I imagine that if he ever swapped out his stove for a new design he would very likely be one of those folks really upset with it classifying it as just another worthless mandate like the low-flow toilets everyone loves to hate.

 

[Cascade Failure]

IT completely depends on climate , and how you stack. Im on Long Island, and have LOTS of red and white oak. I stack in single rows,six feet high,on pallets. Stuff I was sure wouldnt be ready til next year (18 months c/s/s) is in the high teens on the MM,and burning real good in the stove right now. Granted, it is split on the thinner side(3-5" thick), but it is what it is. I have tons of ash for next year,so Im SURE that the 2-3 yr. old oak will be gr8! I guess what Im trying to say is, there are variables to consider, and one mans 3 yrs. is another mans 18 months! Burn on, brotha!

Been singing that song ever since I joined the site, only a few people seem to agree with us. :smirk:

I for one tend to agree.

 

[Wallyworld]

Hmmm- property loaded with it but you buy, must be more to that story eh?


.

I don't have the time or energy or cut and drag it out of the woods. Its easy to buy wood in Maine.

I have a new EPA Jotul that I don't use much, its at camp. I haven't used it much but I know it throws some heat. As far my old stove goes I never clean the chimney as there is never anything in it. I check it but I see no reason to brush it when its barely got anything in there to brush. Whatever is in there falls off over the summer. In my masonry chimney its a slightly different story but I still don't get much build up. Speaking of that its almost time to fire up that chimney I need to get a mirror in the clean out and check it out.

 

[oldspark]

Hmmm- property loaded with it but you buy, must be more to that story eh?


.

I don't have the time or energy or cut and drag it out of the woods. Its easy to buy wood in Maine.

I have a new EPA Jotul that I don't use much, its at camp. I haven't used it much but I know it throws some heat. As far my old stove goes I never clean the chimney as there is never anything in it. I check it but I see no reason to brush it when its barely got anything in there to brush. Whatever is in there falls off over the summer. In my masonry chimney its a slightly different story but I still don't get much build up. Speaking of that its almost time to fire up that chimney I need to get a mirror in the clean out and check it out.

I am with you 100%, my old stove never formed any creosote to speak of, if you burn them correctly they actually burnt fairly clean, a lot of people have a lot of assumptions and little facts to back them up. Just because a few people burnt the old stoves incorrectly doesn not mean we all did.

 

[RoseRedHoofbeats]

Well listen to you lot piss and moan! You could be ME with a scrawny .3 acres to live on and surrounded by PINE PINE PINE nothing but PINE. And cottonwood. =P

~Rose

 

[DiscoInferno]

Pine seasons in 6 months easy. (Well, if those 6 months include summer.) It's about all I'm burning right now.

 

[Slow1]

I am with you 100%, my old stove never formed any creosote to speak of, if you burn them correctly they actually burnt fairly clean, a lot of people have a lot of assumptions and little facts to back them up. Just because a few people burnt the old stoves incorrectly doesn not mean we all did.

Agreed - you can note that I have never accused older stoves of being dirty in and of themselves. In fact I won't even say that newer stoves are inherently cleaner. Both can be clean or dirty depending on how they are operated and the fuel you put in them. However I will state that I believe that given the right fuel - this being dry wood - newer stoves can be run more efficiently than older stoves over a wider range of conditions. Efficiency here being defined as a higher percentage of the heat potential of the wood staying in the home. I could be wrong of course, but at this time based on my reading and understanding this is my current conclusion.

If you are looking to burn red oak in a year after cutting and burn clean you are more likely to have success in an older pre-EPA stove all other factors being equal. As in everything though - there are exceptions, I just wish my climate was one of them as it seems in my yard one year isn't enough to do it for my stove. I CAN get it to burn clean but it sure is a lot more work mixing it with other wood and giving it a lot of air on reloads to get the load up to temp. When I put in really dry wood I can just drop it in expect the whole load to be flaming within minutes with air at 2, one year old oak won't do that for me.

 

[Badbob]

The nearest school to me is called oakridge lots of oaks around here. I understand back in the forty's or fifty's the hole area burned to the ground so most of the trees are about 50 years old so we have lots of them to cut on peoples property from overcrowding most people think of capecod as beaches and dunes but it is mostly forested with oaks and pitch pine. Cut split and wait 3 years and you will be rewarded

 

[louieva]

I'm curious about the 3 years to season Red Oak. Anyone ever take moisture content readings after year 1, year 2 and year 3?
I guess I'm just impatient. Still it'd be interesting to see what the MC readings are.

 

[Dune]

The nearest school to me is called oakridge lots of oaks around here. I understand back in the forty's or fifty's the hole area burned to the ground so most of the trees are about 50 years old so we have lots of them to cut on peoples property from overcrowding most people think of capecod as beaches and dunes but it is mostly forested with oaks and pitch pine. Cut split and wait 3 years and you will be rewarded

So you are in Sandwich, huh? Lots of good oak up there. The pine burns real good too. I am in Yarmouth.