Must have been a pretty grim experience, you have my sympathy, glad you survived it. I've seen a couple of chimney fires, helped to put one out. Not funny the way the fire runs away, drawing air from anywhere it can. Where I come from (England), 'seasoned' means correctly dried. That is to say it's not correctly seasoned if it's not dry. Here in France firewood is sold still wet, and you are supposed to get it in advance and dry it yourself. So you get folks running out of wood and trying to burn wet wood, with all the attendant problems. I have two modern stoves with smoke re-burning factilties. I agree that this makes the chinmey much cleaner, but the ash is very different. It's much finer, and I've heard that it can be really bad for your lungs. We managed fine with our old stoves when I was a child, and I sort of wish that I'd invested in that type though they're hard to find in good condition here. I tend to mistrust modern technical developments until they've been tried and tested by people actually using them for some time.
The old style stoves are not hard to find I perchased a new ittalion cook stove that runs exactly like my 50 year old cook stove that I retired . I perchased it 2 years ago and they sell many models of this stove so am sure you could find one that suits your needs. They are called Nordica stoves.
Here goes Bob ( the bill is in the mail ) : 1. Know how to season firewood. 2. Stack it JUST top covered, or best, build a woodshed ( this is mandatory if you use wood stoves for 100% heat.) 3. Catalysts are very sensitive to unseasoned wood. Non cat stoves are less so. 4. Know how and when to know when your firewood is ready WITHOUT a tech gadget: Checking, color, ringing sound when banged together, experience. Meters vary anyhow. 5. Burn hot fires. Don't close primary air too soon. 6. If you buy firewood never depend on whether it is selling seasoned; it varies. Buy it green in Spring. Bill may be in the mail.😁
Good advice. Glad you and your house survived a chimney fire. So I guess you were a bit lucky. I let my firewood dry for about three months and then it's below the 20 percent thanks to the wind. Cheers
I have seen a couple chimney fires. It means your chimney needed cleaning out of creosote buildup. And as you say ,don't burn wet wood to make more creosote. I cover all my stacked wood.
In my area if you are paying over $300 per cord and you also have to stack it, drag it into your house and burn it. You might as well just use a different energy source. At that point the wood cost too much. I get all my own wood.
I don’t target those who actually want to heat their house with a wood stove. They purchase from providers who are selling much larger splits. I purposely split smaller and easier to work with for people who use it mostly for fireplaces and outdoor pits or smokers. I sell in 1/3 cords or smaller.
I'm not sure how much a cord is, but 300 sounds cheap. I'm in the UK and they're charging £150 for a tonne builder's bag! Fills about a row n half in my store. Woods gone through the roof here, I only buy if I'm desperate. I live on a boat so it's my primary heat. Thanks for the post, I'm off to get a tester!
@@ScottMason-ss8ww When I say 300 is too much I am not disrespecting the folks who sell it. I wouldn't process a cord and sell it for 300. It's a lot of work and not worth it to me.I enjoy processing it and I am fortunate I live in an area with endless supply of okay firewood. I get that their are people who can afford 300 for a cord for decorative or a small place to heat like a boat etc but for someone who is trying to save money heating their home with wood the $300 per cord makes it unaffordable. With the extra work still involved, the mess, the impact on air quality and so on, at that price you might as well be paying the energy bill instead.
@@truckguy6.7 no mate.. It seems cheap to me living in England. I know there's a fair bit of wood in a cord.. I think? Price of wood is sky high the last couple of years. Now the government are talking about banning wood stoves!! Talk about a nanny state! We better start worrying about the Russian a few miles away before banning wood stoves. I source my own as much as possible, but can be hard work when disabled.. I only split a few this morning and was fucked in no time! Regards from 🇬🇧
I just got a wood stove and I'm still in the process of installing (having to work full time and manage other stuff around the house means not a lot of time) but I got a bunch of wood during summer. My trick was to split it super small in hopes it can dry faster. Right now some of what I'm testing is at 0-5% which I'm honestly surprised because it was like 30%+ originally. I need to split it again but I split it so small already that I was able to put the prongs close enough to the middle so I'd be surprised it's more than 10%. Moisture meter is a must if burning wood! Once I'm better organized I want to have a good rotation so that I can burn stuff that's seasoned over a few years. Then I can probably get away with keeping the logs bigger.
Sounds good but please be careful not to split too small. You can over fire your wood stove. Larger pieces burn slower without getting too hot. Small splits can get away from you and today’s stoves don’t let you shut it all the way down. They get really hot 🔥 Thanks for commenting :)
That's the general rule. My stove is small, Morso 6143b, and as such my wood is small, and seasons more quickly. If I split a piece a second time I am down to kindling. 😆
Another thoght would be to split it into smaller pieces that can then dry out. When I purchased wood the pieces were too big and didn't have the capacity to dry out.
Thank you. I typically split smaller so they’re easier to handle. They dried enough in a few weeks. Ash dries pretty quick when it’s been dead a while.
The question i have is how is it that our ancestors were able to burn without regard to moisture ? Back in their day EVERYBODY was burning wood so i do not think they were able to season wood for 10 years? Our Great Grand Fathers just cut down a tree stacked it and probably used it within months (or at most a year or so) ? But its not like everybody burnt their houses down right ? Glad to hear you did not torch your house down btw.
Thank you for your response. Firewood usually only has to season for one year. If it is cut, split, and stacked in such a way, that water doesn’t continue to soak it, it will be ready to use, usually within a year. Our ancestors used fireplaces. It’s the woodstoves that cause so much creosote.
Glad your house didn't burn down, but it's clear that you're not educated on this topic. Wet wood is different than green wood. Wood thats been standing dead isn't "seasoned" even if its gone through 4 of them. Wood also dries perfectly fine in a big pile, as long as air can flow through it and you give it an appropriate amount of time, which varies by species and split size. Go watch "In the Woodyard" and he specifically talks about how he doesn't stack anymore. An example: This year I processed an oak tree that blew over several years ago and was still attached to the root ball. It was over 30" diameter at the trunk. Even though you'd call it "seasoned", it will likely be at least 2 years after cutting/splitting/stacking this year until it's actually ready to burn. Rule of thumb is that oak dries about 1-1.5 inches per year from all sides. Pretty hard to dry the center when its 15" away from the outside, right? Oak is a slow drying wood, but the point remains. I also processed some ash that was laying on the ground in a swampy area. Dead for years, but just wet. A few weeks later after being split and stacked, the ash was ready to go. That would have never happened if it were green.
Back when this happened, I was definitely not educated. But that’s why I made this video. Most aren’t educated and throw wet wood in their stove. Question; if you have wood that is dry/seasoned down below 20% moisture, split ready to go, and it get’s rained on for a couple days; does this mean it is no longer seasoned or just wet? BTW, I enjoy watching ‘In the Woodyard’. Watch it often :) 👍
@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 Look up "bound water" and "free water" in wood. Bound water is chemically bonded to the cells, and takes significantly longer to evaporate. Free water is more easily released, and can change even as humidity changes throughout the seasons. Wood is considered seasoned when the internal moisture has evaporated to a level > 80% gone (aka 20% or less moisture content). This doesn't happen until a significant amount of the bound water is gone. As the moisture evaporates, the cells shrink. Ever see a nicely seasoned piece of wood with a bunch of checking/cracks? That's caused from the cells shrinking. The other thing to remember is that wood is a porous material, some moreso than others. So even if the internal cellular moisture has evaporated, when wood is exposed to water say through rain, the wood can absorb the water and become wet quickly, but can also subsequently be dried fairly quickly as well. That water isn't bonded to anything, it's just filling the space in the wood pores.
Thank you for your question. The tree, although dead for two years plus, was left outside, uncut and unsplit. So, the outer edge was dry, but the inner was not. I hope that makes sense. The sap was gone, but the rainwater was not.
I split my wood as soon as I cut it or asap. I hate wood that is seasoned in the round. The fibers seal up and the moisture can only escape from the ends. Harder to split green but the payoff is better. Split it small
I got a cord delivered from a landscape guy (who also owns a firewood processor). He claims it was "almost seasoned." I think the reality is he just fired up the processor the day before and the logs sat whole for a year. My other concern with wet firewood is what happens if someone throws a few wet splits on and leaves the fire unattended? 30 minutes or so later, that fire will be over-firing. I keep thinking of installing a probe thermometer with over fire alarm but haven't looked into that much yet.
Now that I’m selling firewood, I’ve learned a heap. I just received two full truckloads of oak. I can guarantee that when I cut into them, even with how they’re stacked in the sun and wind, they’ll be above 20%; usually closer to 30%. Thanks for watching!
@@markd9105 I had a bunch of issues against me. I didn’t cut and split the wood early enough, it rained horribly that fall, and then it was stacked in the shade. My definition of wisdom- I wis dom, and now I know better 🤪
As it should. There’s a lot of effort, machinery, and other costs, wear and tear on vehicle, saw, splitter… The fly by night market place bandits sell cheap but lookout for what you get. They also usually don’t stay in the firewood business for more than a couple years.
@@Skinnymoose In the law of supply and demand, if the supply is greater than the demand, some of the suppliers quit and pursue something else. However, some will scratch their head and pursue a different clientele. I don’t target people who want to heat their home with a wood stove. I target those who want smaller amounts, typically 1/3 of a cord or smaller. This allows me to get what I believe my work is worth. Keep in mind tho, that this is a fun side job, not my career.
You almost lost your house because of a sub par chimney... It's not the wood's fault. I have a regular 6 inch pipe.. and in the attic it has an 8 inch pipe around it. So it's basically a double wall setup, but it's just not insulated. If mine gets full of soot, I just burn a hot fire and leave the damper open and it will burn all that soot out of the pipe with no issues. Even if it catches fire inside the pipe, it doesn't hurt anything......... So moral of the story, stop relying on old brick or rock chimneys and just put a metal pipe inside of it. My stove is just a classic 55 gal drum.. but I welded in a plate in the top, so that it catches all the heat before exiting the flue. I burn all kinds of different wood.. some will be running and dripping and steaming out the ends of the logs.. Doesn't matter at all; like I said: I can just cook the soot out of it any time I want.. but normally I leave the damper mostly closed to capture all the heat and only let it breathe just enough to keep a steady burn. Get a metal flue; they're not that expensive
Sorry, I have to disagree. When creosote catches fire it spews hot burning coals out of the top, landing on the roof and catches the house on fire. I do totally agree with lining the ceramic chimney with proper piping and insulation. I have a new set up in my house using a very hot burning @quadrafire stove. The brick and ceramic chimney has 6” piping with thermomix chimney insulation. I now have zero to worry about👍 Thanks for your input tho.
@@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 Well I have mine sticking up about 6ft over the peak of the roof.. It looks a little funny and tall. But any sparks I've ever seen coming out of it were completely fizzled out before they ever touched the roof.. Also, just get a metal roof.. it's superior anyway. :)
1 last thing I forgot. If your burning wood straight thru until you clean out ash. Especially if your are burning low and long. Every morning before you load it up. I burn hot small fires to burn out the crap on overnight burns for an hour before building coals to fill it with wood. 1 or 2 passes with the brush in spring and it's good. House stove was in the basement and went 2 stories and an attic to get out. 3 more feet above roof line.😉
You have been vey lucky as to not have had a chimney fire my friend. Your the type of person that I try to reach Clean your chimney way way way more offten then that. At the bare minamum once a month. Just a warning, you will have a chimney fire only cleaning it out once a year, unless you are only burning it once in a blue moon over the winter. Good luck.
@@dog_guy-c8x Burning seasoned oak and Ash. The stove in the video is a new one in my 2 story barn. It is my 4th in 3 different buildings over a span of 40yrs. The one I put in the basement of the house up thru 2 levels and an attic ran 24hrs a day from November to March for 36yrs. Once a week we would clean ash. In May I disconnected the pipe from the stove and cleaned it. Put a brown paper bag on the end got on the roof. Cleaned it like a gun barrel. Never had oily soot. Always just a light coating. Never had more than a 1/4 of a bag of soot in those paper shopping bags. Never burn pine. Don't have to. No luck involved. Followed the stove manufacturers instructions. These new epa stoves suk.
@@ClearlakeDr still think your lucky. Right now all I burn is pine and poplare that is the type of wood on my land. The creasote that comes off it is like talcom powder . I find this type of creasote less dangours. When I used to burn maple cherry beach ash I used to get a shiny creasote from that type of wood now that is dangours. When it catches fire its like a rocket. Anyway still think you have just been lucky. Have a great day.
@@dog_guy-c8x Thanks. Hope it holds. I did a short this last winter on a Hot morning burn to flush the chimney pipe. Which I do every morning after an all night burn. Just to show all the creosote that dried and burned off. Had a fresh overnight snow. Your could see it all in the snow.
@@Mightiflier by splitting it and allowing wind to get to it. That Ash had been dead and cut down for two years but wasn’t bucked and split. Even tho it was dead enough for the bark to have fallen off, the inner was still in the 30% range. Once split and stacked where the wind could dry it out, it dried fairly quick. Thanks for commenting.
@@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 I spent a couple of hours earlier today, splitting wood for next November, simply because our town had a storm with 90 mile an hour gusts over a week ago, plenty of firewood stacked along the roads here. Thanks for your response, I always wondered if the wood HAD to be split earlier in the season, now I know. Thanks!
I’m not sure exactly how long it was split. It was a very rainy late summer and fall, and there was no sun shining on it. This is why I suggest having a meter. I was a novice back then and wish someone had shown me.
I will tell you exactly why your chimney caught on fire. Clean your chimney for crying out loud. Now I dont condone burning wet would by any means and of course season your wood, through that moiture metor away. Clean your chimney. I here so many people say I clean my chimney once a year or twice a year that is bull shit. I have used wood heating all my life 50 plus years now. First and formost pay attention to when fueling the fire dose the smoke leave the fire box fairly fast? If not it is time to CLEAN your chimney. I no its a pain in the ass but I clean my chimney every month if I am running the stove fairly hot. If I am running the stove moderatly I clean it every 3 weeks and if I am running slow fires in it I clean it ever 2 weeks period. This needs to be done no matter what kind of fire wood you burn, trust me I have burned it all. Again I no it sounds like a pain in the ass but take it from an old fart that sleeps well at night CLEAN your chimney.
@@dog_guy-c8x my chimney was clean just a few weeks earlier. My secondary burn catalyst was trashed and my wood was wet. It gummed up in just a few weeks
@@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 Well as I said in that few weeks it clogged up. I have already said I do mine sometimes in 2 weeks cause that is how fast it can build up regaudless of the type of stove you have. For me its a no brainer I get up in the morning have already assesed that I am cleaning the chimney the fire is out from the night before , clean it bang done and no worries . I am not trying to be an asshole am really just telling you what has been true all my life. Have a great day.
Gets into other stuff. What type of flue did you have? Did you have soot accumulation in the flue? How hot are your fires? I just see a green log as a regulator log to cool the fire. Show pictures. Let us learn. I'm surprised they don't have temperature regulators on wood stoves yet. I think everyone can over fuel their wood stove to get it and their flue to burn too hot.
We had an internal masonry chimney built with the house. 9x13 terracotta flue inside of concrete chimney blocks. It worked great for 15 years until the secondary burn went bad. That in combination with wet cherry gummed up the chimney in a matter of a few weeks. I was working 7 days a week at that time and couldn’t keep up with everything. That’s why I have several videos on having a heart attack 👍 I was thinking just the other day, why don’t they have an option with wood stoves to set an internal thermometer that adjusts the air intake? Great minds…
@@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 I hang a remote wireless temperature sensor above the wood stove to gauge the heat of the stove. I'm happy just using it to produce moderate supplemental heat in my basement.
@@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 I use a “Digiten WTC200” thermostat to turn a box fan ON and OFF pointed at my wood stove in my basement. After the wired temperature sensor reaches say, 90 F at the rafters above the stove, I turn the fan ON. After it returns to say, 73 F I turn the fan OFF. Saves me from waking up in the morning to shut OFF the fan which would be blowing on a cold stove. That device has separate settable ON and OFF points and acts like a thermostat. Normal “thermostats” only have a one fixed ON or OFF point separated by just 1 or 2 degrees. You also have to let the stove burn for a while before turning ON the fan, otherwise the fan would disperse the heat in a still cool room and the fan would shut OFF. The wider settable ON and OFF points make this device work for my application without the fan cycling ON/OFF.
Did you split it and actually check? I always thought the same but recently another youtuber actually split the wood and checked. It appears the moisture leaves the split wood from the center to the outside. His test results were the opposite. Dryer in the middle on all pieces he split.
That’s because people believe age is all it takes to dry firewood. If you leave it in the round how is moisture going to leave? That may work on softwoods in Alaska but not these hardwoods in the lower states. Split them green so the fibers open up. Stack in single rows outside take advantage of windy season and the hot,dry summers than move it out of the weather in the fall. Wood needs airflow to dry not just age!
I'm going to assume... which is almost always the wrong thing to do. But if your stove catalyst worked as the damper as some do. Regardless of what the owners manual says install a regular damper in the pipe a foot above the stove. I have heated my house my garage and my barn with wood for 40yrs. The garage and the barn until last year was with a 50gal drum barrel stove kit. Learn how to clean your chimney if you haven't yet. Lastly chimney fires are common have a couple of five gallon buckets handy and a ladder close at all times. Any and EVERYTHING you may need to get on the roof to knock the cap off and pour the bucket of water down the chimney. I also was a Firefighter for 11 yrs treat fire as the beast that it is. Never allow it out
The crazy thing is, my chimney was clean just a month previous. I inspected it. I could go down below it and put a mirror through the clean out opening and see every mortar joint. It was clean. The build up happened within a few weeks😳
@@simplelifewithrobertpusate294 That is unusual. But I think I see your venting a wood stove into a standard chimney and not a pipe liner in the chimney. Most stoves require a 6 of 8in pipe for proper draft. Still very interesting. I have for years burned not fully dried Ash and Hickory at night because it burns slower and just cook out the crude in the morning as stated earlier. Stove had a plate on ash tray infrastructure of door to remind me to burn out for and hour every day. Hopefully it never happens again. I can only imagine the fear of maybe loosing your house. Or worse. Enjoy everyday. 🙋♂️
@@henryhenry5897 it was only two years + dead and cut into rounds. It was only split a few weeks. Someone already taught me the difference between seasoned and just wet in the comments👍
Agree that wood does not look weathered at all. No discoloration. I can tell you my wood that has been drying for 2 years is unrecognizable compared to when it was newly split.
EVERY CENT PERFECT RE chimney fire and moisture meter. Been there and done that. Also got cat. stove so as to gain extra BTUs from burning the smoke. Further. Physics can't be fooled, be sure to use the meter correctly, Also 'seasoning matters only to guitar builder;GET THE METER!!
