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We have a 5kw wood burner, professionally installed a few years back. It’s connected to a stainless liner inside the chimney. The stove is a Clearview Pioneer.
It’s always been a little sensitive if you use even slightly damp wood - out first delivery was seasoned logs, and they were next to useless unless you ran it full open all the time.
Anyway, we found a good source of very dry wood and all has been fine, until a couple of weeks ago when our usual supplier closed, and I had to get wood from a different source. I went to a local firewood supplier (Bristol Firewood) who sell dried hardwood logs in nets. I bought ten bags, and the first couple burned fine.
This latest bag, however, we’ve really struggled to get the logs to burn. They’re clearly not wet - sound and feel bone dry (sodding moisture meter gave up the ghost!!) and in any event they’re guaranteed by the company to be less than 15%.
They’re hardwood - possibly ash and/or oak if you believe the company, and seem s lot heavier log for log than our old supplier, which might have been softwood.
Can a log be too dense to burn easily, even if dry? If not, any other ideas?
The logs are stored in the garage - could they be “rehydrating”?
Chop one open and measure the moisture content. Buy a meter from Ebay. I guantee they’ll be wet inside.
They will absorb water from the air.
Oak isn’t that great a firewood unless cut small imho. I’d try splitting the logs smaller - it may help if it is oak or they aren’t as dry as they should be.
Fire triangle.
If the new logs are heavier because denser, like an oak log would be, you need more oxygen and/or heat. Achievable by making them smaller to increase available area to oxygen when stove is fully open, extra heat would be something that more readily gives up its heat like softwood. This is why mixed loads are better, softwood builds enough heat for efficient hardwood burn.
Yes logs can rehydrate, they'll only ever be as dry as your storage allows.
Chop one open and measure the moisture content. Buy a meter from Ebay. I guantee they’ll be wet inside.
I guarantee they're not. I know the difference between wet and dry wood, and the supplier is legit: https://www.bristolfirewood.com/fuel/kiln-dried-logs/
The issue is that they are clearly bone dry, but not burning well.
I suspect Timber has it. Out comes the hatchet then!
I suspect Timber has it.
*coughs*
We have a clearview Lovenholm and when I'm burning really dense stuff (eucalyptus, for example) I always make sure I have some lighter wood in as well. The eucalyptus is from a neighbour and I didn't split it on receipt and now it is literally as hard as iron - so the logs are 10-12cm dia and are a bugger to burn completely. I don't change the air settings, just make sure there's other fuel in there cut smaller.
Similarly peat can be slightly problematic, but I wouldn't know about that being a good boy and everything.
wet wood, or... when did you last sweep the flue? Is the stove rear vented and into an elbow? you could have had a little soot fall that is partially blocking the elbow and subduing the stove. pop the baffle out and hoover out the elbow. likely wet wood though.
Do you have a good, deep ash bed? Or keep it clean?.
I'm burning some lumps of vintage oak fenceposts at the moment, square blocks 6x6x8". I always pair it with some softer wood otherwise the stove starts to die. Good tip for checking your wood is seasoned is to look at the grain, most wood will crack/split across the ends as it seasons. No cracks, probably still wet.
Or, it's not oak. Some wood is a bit fireproof even when dry.
Are you trying to burn one or two logs on their own or are you burning them on a bed of embers? Without embers it's difficult to get logs to burn.
likely wet wood though.
Typical STW response! Did you even read the OP or responses? It's NOT wet wood.
Are you trying to burn one or two logs on their own or are you burning them on a bed of embers? Without embers it’s difficult to get logs to burn.
Just doing what we have done before - pile of kindling, then small logs, then bigger ones when there's a good pile of embers.
Mrs Gti happened to mention yesterday that she's struggling with some wood we are burning; says it seems very slow to light and sluggish to burn. It's not damp.
I've had oak before, it definitely benefits from being chopped up smaller tbh.
It’s NOT wet wood.
With the greatest respect, you're probably right..... but you can't be sure without splitting and testing it with a moisture meter.
Real hardwoods take twice as long to dry as softwood - and then there's the fact that there are many different types of hardwood with differing properties. For example, balsa is a hardwood but it's quite different to oak!!
There's a reasonable chance that your supplier cooks the wood for the minimum time it can get away with (because time is money) and you may have some bits that really needed much longer in the oven.
Also, as has already been said, hardwoods like oak take some getting going and are best burnt alongside some faster burning softwoods to get it going. Trying to start a fire with oak logs would not be a good experience.
On the subject of starting the fire, everybody should be using the upside down method as shown in the video below - way better than kindling > small logs > bigger logs.
Christ that kid in the video is a bit bloody slow at the homework thing, probably mentally stunted from his mum feeding him huge platefuls of sugar.
I'm burning some dried hardwood logs on my 5kw stove right now. The logs are really big/chunky and with this batch I find I need to run it fully open unless it's really hot (I've run out of soft wood to supplement it). It's f..... Freezing here so that's not such a problem.
Maybe it's not wet wood, but it seems you are unsure what wood it is, you've not split it open and tested it, wet wood is the cause of most burner trouble and your symptoms fit. If I offended you I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention.
I've burnt a lot of Oak, all air dried myself. I agree with all the suggestions above about making it burn, but also know that 3 year seasoned, truly utterly dry, it burns happily but sometimes 2 year seasoned, 18% MC on a fresh split face... Burns sulkily.
Too dense? No. It's not that.
ive found that large dense logs need to be split down into smaller stuff to keep the same settings and heat output. I only use stuff about 10cm dia for this reason, (4kw fire) whereas my brother has a 20kw stove and only burns stuff of 20cm dia with lots of air, but he also heats water and radiators off it. I thought it was just that he was lazy in preparation or the bigger stuff doesnt fit in my firebox well.
Can you stack the wood next to the stove for a couple of days before burning to get it really dry?
I packed a load of supposedly seasoned wood into the bottom oven of the Aga and condensation actually dripped out of the door!
Unless you have a really tall chimney and huge amounts of draw why wouldn't you run a stove with all the air vents fully open for the first half hour of running? You get more complete, hotter combustion with less pollution.
..... but much less heat into the stove itself as it's mostly flying up the flue (in the same way that heat from an open fire does).
I just get mixed loads in and season well. The dense types do slow burn and are only good on a hot established fire. In fact i just fired it up, I just stack the wood by rough density so I don't really have to think about it. Loving the logburner btw.
Update - got another bag from the batch and split the logs before burning. This time it’s going great guns so I think the issue was indeed the logs were too large.
Christ that kid in the video is a bit bloody slow at the homework thing, probably mentally stunted from his mum feeding him huge platefuls of sugar.
More likely to be the fumes from the wood burner.
The supplier guaranteeing moisture content means nothing. We use another bristol firewood supplier and the last batch was well over 25%. We gave them a call and they said they'd replace.. ok but not ideal when you've unloaded them and put them in the store.
Check as soon as they arrive imo
2 small logs burn better than one big one because .... I can’t remember.... but it’s true honest
But when it’s cold like this, I pack it full and burn top down