burning pine..

[ft. churchill]

It's the moisture in the wood that being burnt that causes the creosote formation, not the amount of pitch in the wood. It combines with the smoke to make a tarry deposit if the temperature is low enough in the flue for it to deposit. We never had a problem in Colorado (nor heard of anyone having a chimney fire). That is the land of burning lots of conifer wood. Burn seasoned dry wood only and you'll never have problems.

 

[russhd1997]

Best one I heard was "white pine is crappy firewood -- it doesn't burn"

:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

My neighbor just brought over some pine logs for me to burn in my OWB today! I don't scoff at free btu's especially when it's delivered! :msp_wink:

 

[BrokenToys]

As I mentioned a while back and apologize for reposting:

I have one uncle who burns all hardwood with a dampered stove, and have to clean his chimney out mid winter when possible or the creosote will plug it up. He swears it's fine and always remarks about how pine will clog your chimney with creosote.
I have another uncle [brother o 1st uncle]who burns pine along with hardwood ( 50-50 ratio or thereabouts ) in his non dampered stove and I don't even fuss with a good cleaning out his chimney because it's a two story gambrel roof house and steep and stuff like that; and in the last 8 years his flue has been damn near spotless. I do one pass up and down with the brush basically to hope someday can see some creosote and believe that pine is the culprit !!

Both have clay flues; both built by same people; and I have to agree somehow it has something to do with the damper and having excessive creosote buildup from cooler burns. Just going by what I see....

Myself; Pine/Spruce/conifer softwoods just stain my clothes with sap so I pretty much pass on it.

 

[Steve NW WI]

I stuffed the firebox full of pine before leaving for work today, first time this year the weather's been cold enough to justify an all day burn - we had a few snow flurries this afternoon. I came home with just enough coals to refire without a match. 10 hours, 20 minutes between loadings, intake air damped down to about half.

Granted, my old wood furnace has a huge (7 or so cu ft) firebox, I used about 5 cu ft to fill it, being cut 16" in a 24" firebox, but that's as good or better than I can do with box elder, my other "crap" wood here.

Speaking of box elder, I'll be on break from burning pine this weekend while I make some box elder disappear up the chimney, to make room for more pine in the wood room.

 

[artbaldoni]

The next batch of pine to burn.

Yeah, I know there is some oak in there too. Didn't want to just leave it in he woods...some folk say you can burn that too...:rolleyes2:

 

[Coldfront]

I burn pine as if it were any other wood, I have a stack and stove top thermometer and burn at 400 - 600f my stoves have no stove pipe damper just the air intake control. When I get my stoves burning to the temp I want you can't see any smoke come out of the chimney. I honestly haven't cleaned my chimney in almost 2 years. I look down with a flashlight and it is clean as a whistle all the way down. I am running very modern epa stoves with secondary burn.

 

[Morgan in AR]

dang it.

You all are making me want to go and cut up a pine tree just to see what it looks like. The only problem is I don't have a pine tree on the entire farm. I do have one in the back yard of a rent house, but it would probably take a skilled arborist to drop it. I think it's above my skill set. :msp_angry:

 

[turnkey4099]

You all are making me want to go and cut up a pine tree just to see what it looks like. The only problem is I don't have a pine tree on the entire farm. I do have one in the back yard of a rent house, but it would probably take a skilled arborist to drop it. I think it's above my skill set. :msp_angry:

There must be a pine or two in city parks, neighbor's yards, street right-of-way

Harry K

 

[1967 Tempest]

Ive been seeing a lot of pine on the side of the road. I might grab some. Split it now and comingle it in with the mountain of Ash I have.

 

[Vibes]

I'll burn Yellow Pine over Silver Maple anyday.

 

[svk]

There must be a dozen threads on this topic floating around this forum. Always fun to hear all of the wives tales regarding this subject lol.

I've got three cords of Norway pine that will be going through the chimney next winter.

 

[JeffHK454]

^^^ that.

I've got limited space dedicated to firewood and I fill it with the best stuff I can , I'd burn Pine if I couldn't find something better.

 

[MuskokaSplitter]

I wish i had more pine. Great for the morning and throughout the day. Hardwoods in the evening and night.

 

[flotek]

Pine is okay for taking the chill off but I wouldn't want it to be my only wood in the dead of winter . Yeah it can heat your house ( so can cardboard boxes and newspapers if you have enough) but it's the same amount of labor for a third of the btu of good hardwood .. it Coals poorly and leaves tons of ash . That doesn't stop me from burning it !...but it better be free and easy Pickens to bother with .

 

[turnkey4099]

Pine is okay for taking the chill off but I wouldn't want it to be my only wood in the dead of winter . Yeah it can heat your house ( so can cardboard boxes and newspapers if you have enough) but it's the same amount of labor for a third of the btu of good hardwood .. it Coals poorly and leaves tons of ash . That doesn't stop me from burning it !...but it better be free and easy Pickens to bother with .

People out here would gladly accept your offer to replace the pine/fir etc. THAT IS AVAILBLE here for good hardwood THAT IS AVAILABLE where you are.

Harry K

 

[unclemoustache]

Pine will make more ash than other wood but burns fast.

I see you've never burned Sycamore. I'm pretty sure Sycamore leaves more ash than there was wood to begin with!

I have about a cord of pine this year - I'd like to get rid of it as I now am getting tons of oak delivered for free!

 

[olyman]

I've been burning pine (actually a mix of different softwoods, probably some pine, some fir, some spruce) since late September exclusively. This is waste wood from work, 4' long 4x4s I cut down to 16". It's good and dry, burns hot, and leaves almost no ash. I really like it for this time of year. If need be, I can fill my big firebox on the old wood furnace full and get 8+ hours with it damped down, or get a quick warmup out of a 1/2 full firebox running hot and fast. I have an outdoor clay lined masonry chimney (aka creosote factory), but with the usual smaller hotter fires, it's cleaner than it would be burning hardwoods damped down.

Someone made a comment in another thread about this being something "poor people" did. I'm not independently wealthy, but I know that free wood that would otherwise go to waste, that takes almost no time to process and burns great, makes me more wealthy by not burning "good" wood when it's not needed, and keeping the furnace off. Ron White said you can't fix stupid, I'll add that ignorant is tough to deal with as well.

tho old post steve,,id add arrogant as well...

 

[olyman]

There must be a dozen threads on this topic floating around this forum. Always fun to hear all of the wives tales regarding this subject lol.

I've got three cords of Norway pine that will be going through the chimney next winter.

ok,,i want to see you put that thru the chimney..........

 

[zogger]

I see you've never burned Sycamore. I'm pretty sure Sycamore leaves more ash than there was wood to begin with!

I have about a cord of pine this year - I'd like to get rid of it as I now am getting tons of oak delivered for free!

Split it up real thin for kindling, bag it, sell it along with your hardwoods. Two bucks a bag maybe.