Firewood Optimum moisture content can wood be too dry?

[90cummins]

I have a 40 year old Thermo-Built wood furnace with a forced air heating enclosure connected to a SS insulated chimney.
It easily heats my 5 bedroom house and the flue temperature is generally less than 200 degrees.
I give it a HOT SUPPER at least once a week to keep the chimney clean.
I'm no stranger to wood that is green or not quite seasoned but I've never found an issue with wood that is (too dry)!
My wood is stored in the cellar in the same area as my hot air furnace so after several weeks it is extremely dry and it is very easy to quickly start a fire from scratch and get heat output.
Is there such a thing as fire wood that is too dry??

Thanks 90cummins

 

[om21braz]

I have a 40 year old Thermo-Built wood furnace with a forced air heating enclosure connected to a SS insulated chimney.
It easily heats my 5 bedroom house and the flue temperature is generally less than 200 degrees.
I give it a HOT SUPPER at least once a week to keep the chimney clean.
I'm no stranger to wood that is green or not quite seasoned but I've never found an issue with wood that is (too dry)!
My wood is stored in the cellar in the same area as my hot air furnace so after several weeks it is extremely dry and it is very easy to quickly start a fire from scratch and get heat output.
Is there such a thing as fire wood that is too dry??

Thanks 90cummins

Not sure about hardwoods, but pine with a moisture content fit to make furniture (roughly 8%) will burn very hot and very quickly. Used to get a lot of scrap pine from furniture factory. You'll have thought you put cardboard in your stove. Hopefully you'll get some better answers than my minimal knowledge.

 

[goeduck]

I do not store my wood inside the house so I am limited by what moisture content it stabilizes at outside. It seems to be species specific but on average around 16% on my meter and that seems to be perfect. Not too flammable but at the same time is not hard to keep a fire going.

 

[dstig1]

If you used kiln dried wood (hardwood furniture lumber), and a full load it could burn hot enough to damage your stove. But you typically can't get to those moisture levels via air drying, even indoors. I burn a lot of scraps of white oak from my wood shop but never a full load of that. I throw a few WO lumber scraps on top of regular firewood. Free heat and a place to get rid of it as long as I don't go overboard with it.

 

[oosik]

When we burned wood - it was all pine. Stored outside in a covered wood shed and dried for at least two years. Two wheelbarrow loads at a time - brought in the house. Stacked into a steel tube "wood round". It was dry enough that a farmers wood match held to the kindling in the wood stove would start the fire. Very small amount of kindling - no newspaper.

Once a week I would let the fire reach maximum burn and clean out anything in the SS chimney. It probably could have become a problem if I kept feeding the stove and left the damper wide open. I never tried. After the fire was going good - close the damper down and I always had a nice fire.

Our firewood was about as dry as possible without some type of kiln drying system.

 

[Jstpssng]

I have some wood which I feel is too dry, if that was all that I have it would be impossible to keep a fire through the night yet the house would be well over 100 degrees, a couple of hours after I went to bed. I also have some not quite seasoned enough, which was cut a year ago but not processed until October so the two balance each other out well.

 

[EddieWalker]

I rotate my wood so it doesn't sit for more then a couple years. I just burn oak. Before I did this, I would get my wood from the closest area and leave the wood that was farthest away. When I stacked wood for the next year, that older stuff would get buried, and the same thing would happen again the next year.

I finally got around to burning that older firewood and there was no weight to it, it just turned to ash when I put it in the fire. So yes, in my opinion it can be too dry, and it's not worth burning or even having any more.

 

[52farmer]

Hardwood can become too dry I believe, from past experience of 25 years of burning.I used always stay 1 year ahead which seemed to work best.Some would ash, silver maple probably dry the fastest, oak,hickory takes much longer to air dry.Most people in this area burn wood that was cut in spring and then complain its hard to start and keep burning in December.
My son has some in his basement near the wood furnace that is probably 4-5 years old, almost burns up like newspaper with very little heat output.

 

[goeduck]

The little bit of hardwood I get seems to go punk much faster than our Douglas Fir. You just have to get it burned up faster and can’t let it go as many years. Good heat though.

 

[4570Man]

The little bit of hardwood I get seems to go punk much faster than our Douglas Fir. You just have to get it burned up faster and can’t let it go as many years. Good heat though.

What kind of hardwood do you have? I don’t have much fir, mostly white or black pine but they’re sorry firewood. Soft maple might compete on levels of bad but at least it’s not sticky. Oak last way longer. Here’s a load of pine I dumped off a couple weeks ago because I didn’t want it.