Facecord Price-Too High???& New Stove

[johnnywitt]

Hi! I'm a Newb to burning wood & to this Forum. I just got a High Valley 1500 insert with the 2Cats. Wish I would have gotten a bigger insert already, but oh well, live and learn. I Don't think I would get another catalytic stove because it needs wood thats real seasoned, which takes awhile at the humidity levels in my neck of the woods, also we have mostly oaks, which tends to season kinda slow. Anybody got any advice on how to run this cat insert with wood thats not all that seasoned. I've been starting the stove with the hickory and then putting on the oak thats not all that seasoned. Its hard to get the stove up to cat temps of 500 F to ignite the cat. I'm also wondering just how much the cats are doing for me. I do know that when they're not running the stove blows a lot of smoke out the chimney and when they are running it barely blows any. I know that this pleases Al Gore, but honestly, I don't care about anything except heating my house and burning less wood to do it. With the unseasoned wood, should I just keep the bypass on the cats open? Learning to run a woodstove is kinda like learning to play a musical instrument, in a way.

Also, I'm in the North Georgia Appalachian Mountains and everybody out here wants 75-85 bucks for a 16"-18" facecord. I'm 2 hours north of Atlanta on the Tennessee/North Carolina State Lines- way out in the sticks. I hear People on this forum selling full cords for 200 or less. There's nothing but hardwood for miles and miles around here. Am I getting ripped off here? I gotta pick it up and haul it for that price too. Mostly its red oak. Bought some seasoned 2 year old hikory and got charged $95 for a 16" facecord (sure makes it easy to light the stove though).

[wkpoor]

Don't know about your stove.
As for the wood issue....the term facecord is alot like the term rick to me. It can mean different things in different areas. If its what I think it is 2/3 of a cord and its all oak and hickory than you did real good. If its a 1/3 of a cord than it sounds a little on the high side. But asking whats wood worth is like asking whats a used car worth. Too many variables to nail a blanket response.
Generally speaking around here a cord of mixed hardwoods is 130-150.00 and I said mixed. If I were selling all oak or even all ash I might up it a bit for the premium quality.

[BlueRidgeMark]

Hi, Johny! Welcome to the site!


Now, GO AWAY! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! THIS SITE IS ADDICTIVE! LEAVE BEFORE YOU GET SUCKED IN!!!






Okay, as for the wood, nobody can really tell you what's a good deal, except people in your area. Prices vary so much from one place to another that an opinion from Ohio or a comment from California really doesn't mean anything.


Speaking of not meaning anything, that describes a "face cord". That's not a legally defined term, so it means anything anybody wants it to mean. The only legitimate term is "cord", and it means 128 cubic feet of tightly stacked wood, usually 4x4x8, but any arrangement that yields 128 cubic feet is good.


Since you are new at this, you might find yourself buying wood this winter. Keep your eyes and ears open, and you might not buy wood again. I'm at the northern end (sort of) of the Blue Ridge, which is very much like where you are, and I don't buy wood. I've gotten so spoiled, I turn down free poplar. There's just too much good wood available for free. Keep an eye on Craig's list, and the side of the road after a storm. Around here, the power company crews leave what they cut, knowing wood scroungers will clean it up for them. Also, see if you can find a log processor in your vicinity. I get all the wood I can haul from one that's on my way to work. Check this out:

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=66226


If you can find a deal like that, you'll turn down free wood, too!


Between that and keeping my eyes open for roadside freebies, I have plenty for the cost of hauling and splitting.

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=74150

http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=75237


Can't help you on the stove. I've never run a cat, and from what I've read, I don't think I would choose to. You'll get a lot of different opinions on that, though.

[Wolfcsm]

Do you have the room to store 2-3 years of wood? If so, you might want to consider cutting your own and seasoning it yourself. When I lived East of Atlanta, I had about 10 cords of oak and hickory cut into firewood length but not split. Had it up off the ground and stacks seperated so air could circulate. Bought a roll of thick plastic sheeting at Home Depot to put over the top of the piles. I split the next years wood in the spring and covered it also. By the time the wood was ready to go in the insert I had it was well seasoned and burnt very well.

I used 8' landscape timbers to stack the wood and put them on 16" concerte blocks, to give the space for air to circulate.

Never had a problem with finding wood that people wanted to have removed.

Hal

[bejay]

I think by definition a face cord uses the 4 ft height and 8 ft length deminsion but is only one log deep and cut at 16 inches would only be 1/3 of a cord, if 24 inch logs were used it would be half a cord. not a real good way to buy wood unless length is factored in.
if cutting it yourself isnt an option would think you could find a better deal if you looked around a bit.

[Cambium]

Yeap...very addicting!

We get $250 per cord in my neck of the woods. Usually not mixed. People like to know what they are burning..

[Highbeam]

You can sell wood by the banana and it's no different than using the unit of "face cord". The only correct measurement of firewood is the cord.

As long as everyone knows what each other is buying/selling then you should all be happy.

If you can get that load of wet wood up to 500 without the cat engaged then it should have boiled off the water. Meaning you will need to run in bypass mode a lot and yes, you risk damaging the cat.

I would probably just run in bypass mode all the time until you can pick up some dry wood.

[toddstreeservic]

try mixing some pallet wood or seasoned pine in with the oak. You should get a hotter burn and it will burn the moisture out of the oak.

You still need to be careful about creasote buildup and possible chimney fires with Cats as they tend to smolder more and don't burn clean(kind ironic).

[johnnywitt]

Thanks for all the replies. I plan on getting a Husky 346xp with an 18" bar pretty soon and I'm sure I can utilize some of the excellent advice that I've gotten so far and get some wood. I might just have to run in bypass a lot this season till I can get ahead of the curve for next year. Guy that I'm getting wood from has some seasoned 2 year old logs that he splits as needed. I tell him to try to give me as many outside pieces as he can. It burns faster but will let me run the cats.
Learned a lot about running an insert right here. Amazing that they don't put this stuff in the manual on how to run your stove. When I cut my own wood should I cut it short enough to be able to stick the logs straight in, or cut them longer and just put them in conventionally. I can put a 16" log straight in and a 20-22 inch log in conventionally.
How do you fellas get creosote build up off your glass? I tried wet newspaper and that worked OK on some of it, but the crystalized creosote my wife put on the edges of the glass while I was gone is pretty bad. Someone said to just take a razor knife scraper to it, followed by the wet newspaper & elbow grease method. Again, thanks for the warm welcome to the site.

[Cambium]

Originally Posted by johnnywitt

How do you fellas get creosote build up off your glass? I tried wet newspaper and that worked OK on some of it, but the crystalized creosote my wife put on the edges of the glass while I was gone is pretty bad. Someone said to just take a razor knife scraper to it, followed by the wet newspaper & elbow grease method. Again, thanks for the warm welcome to the site.

I just use wet paper towel. Seems to work perfectly. I do it once a week but there's no harm doing it each day to see the flames clearer.

[BlueRidgeMark]

Originally Posted by bejay

I think by definition a face cord uses ...

Don't start. There IS no definition for face cord. If somebody brings you a bucket of sticks, and says it's a face cord, then it's a face cord.

Period.

[bejay]

straight from the encylopedia while it may not be a legal measurement of wood it does have a definition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_cord

[logbutcher]

A Simple Truth.......
A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard or reserve – is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America," for an amount of “Up to and including my life.”

That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.


Thanks...worth remembering for next week's Veteran's Day. Too often forgotten.

Wood: start getting it yourself. It can be fun to bust your a$$. And when it has a clear payback, even better. Plenty of ideas here, do a search.

[bore_pig]

What??????????? Good post, but for another thread.


Around here a face cord is 1/3 cord. A lot of wood is sold that way. My parents pay about $40 per face cord not delivered.

[BlueRidgeMark]

Originally Posted by bejay

straight from the encylopedia while it may not be a legal measurement of wood it does have a definition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_cord

Wikipedia means NOTHING.


There is no jurisdiction in the United States or Canada that defines face cord as a legal measure of wood sale.