Wood that doesn't want to burn.

[clemsonfor]

Good question Eddie,

It did not burn good in Utah either. The wood stove in our new house draws it's combustion air from the outside (attic) so that would not be the case. In Utah I did have to have a house door cracked open because the house was so airtight.

I think snobdds hit the mark on why it doesn't burn good. I'm going to do my best to get all the old wood burned up. I'm hoping to build a new barn in the summer or the next summer and I'd like to get it stocked with new wood. New barn will be 69X96X14

When I said the wood was to long I meant;

I have to put it in the stove sideways and you guessed it, it always wants to roll or fall out when I open the door. All new wood I cut will go straight in endways. If that makes any sense.:confused3:

This is the wood we're talking about.

View attachment 632383

Is your chimney plugged? If the smoke wants to come into your houseuse all of a sudden I would double check that.

 

[EddieWalker]

Just to make sure it's the wood and not the fireplace, can you burn other wood in there without an issue?

I've never had wood that wont burn. A lot of the time I start my fire with scap wood from jobs that I do. I have 5 gallon buckets full of scraps. Framing lumber to hardwoods. They start real easy and quickly give me enough heat that I can pit fresh split oak in there and it will burn just fine. And I mean so fresh that I took out the treel and cut it I to round last week, spliit it today and burn it tonight. We have fires out on the back porch and in our wood stove almost every day.

 

[clemsonfor]

Just to make sure it's the wood and not the fireplace, can you burn other wood in there without an issue?

I've never had wood that wont burn. A lot of the time I start my fire with scap wood from jobs that I do. I have 5 gallon buckets full of scraps. Framing lumber to hardwoods. They start real easy and quickly give me enough heat that I can pit fresh split oak in there and it will burn just fine. And I mean so fresh that I took out the treel and cut it I to round last week, spliit it today and burn it tonight. We have fires out on the back porch and in our wood stove almost every day.

And if he was burning enough oak as fresh as yours I would bet that chimney is clogged up. That wet wood won't burn effeciently and will leave tons of creosote.

 

[cat fever]

Chimney is clean, wood cut this year burns just fine. All of the wood I burn is Pine of some sort. All wood is dead when I cut it, no green cutting. (it's to heavy):laughing:

 

[s219]

Did the wood burn fine when you lived in Utah? Is this just something that started to happen with the new house in Idaho?

My neighbor spray foamed his entire house and he said that it's so air tight that he cannot keep a decent fire going in his fireplace. If he opens a window to the house, the fireplace works great, but that's not practical in the winter.

Do you have a clear air vent to the stove to allow enough air in?

I doubt the problem is the wood.

We have that same problem with our new house, which is spray foamed and very tight. The fireplace has an outdoor air kit, which is basically a dryer hose that connects the outer fireplace box to a vent on the outside wall of the house. It draws in fresh air in a way that doesn't cause a noticeable draft in the room and the air goes into the fireplace and up the chimney. Without that, I don't think we'd be able to run a decent fire at all. I have considered adding a second vent with a variable damper (the current one is small and on/off with no fine control).

 

[ruffdog]

I burn seasoned oak, black walnut, ash, elm, mulberry, certain pine, larch, hard and soft maple and cherry. The one type of wood that I found that did not want to burn, even when dry was Little Leaf Linden. It was like it was treated with a fire retardant of some kind.

 

[orezok]

My new neighbor gave me about a cord of wood in the form of 10 to 15 logs that the previous owner had accumulated. The logs appear to be Eucalyptus which is what I used to buy in the past with good luck. Burns hot (once started which can be difficult) and lasts a long time.

The problem is that the logs layed on the ground here in the Mojave for at least 15 years. No doubt that they are dry. The wood cuts hard with a chainsaw (chain needs frequent sharpening) and needs a 37 ton splitter to split the more narly pieces.

BUT it burns at twice the rate of fresh Euc and is hard to keep going.

But since it was free, I値l keep using it.

 

[cat fever]

It was like it was treated with a fire retardant of some kind.

^^^^

This is funny. Whenever I get a piece that just smolders and tell my wife it's "no burn wood".

 

[Oaktree]

This is the wood we're talking about.

That wood looks really green. I like to stack mine outside (tarped) for a couple years before using it, and bring it into the woodshed in the fall. IMHO dries/seasons a lot better outside where air can circulate around it easily.