burning softwood.???

Griffbm3 · Jan 23, 2008

He had some points, but WOW...

Okay, on the front of secondary burns, he was spot on... Glowing red pipes have nothing to do with air in (inlet) but they have everything to do with exhaust out. If you have ever been in a house that was on fire, this would make a lot of sense as the term flashover comes into play. That is why they vent fires in houses, to EXHAUST them.

But WOW, that got ugly. I did see his point though. I will admit, I burn some pine to get 'er going in the morning. Hardwoods all other times, and I go outside to check on the color and density of the smoke out of the chimney. Maybe that's my OCD kicking in, but I climb a ladder, and knowck the build up off the chimney cap too.

I can talk science all day long, but when I watch the fire in my woodstove, my brain melts. Thank-you for the knowledge, sorry it was bundled up in so much anger... Have a good night everyone.

Jason

redprospector · Jan 23, 2008

musch said:
Boy did that go off the rails!
I was enjoying the discussion, and think it is a valuable one, but sure descended in a hurry.

It seems to me that many people obviously burn pine safely and effectively, but those of us that have woodstoves should ALL consider the risks of a chimney fire.
Is it safe to say that if you have hardwood available, pine should be used sparingly, if at all??

I find the idea of using pine to be more dangerous to start a fire, because of a cold flue, the most interesting one presented, as it does make sense.

A new question - How often do you guys clean your flue, and how much do you burn??

That guy is what my dad would have called an educated idiot.
Like I said; I've been burning Pine for well over 20 years with no problems, just use your head. Pine isn't any more dangerous than any other type of wood, sometimes it's the guy feeding the stove that's dangerous.
I clean my flue once a year, and I burn anywhere from 2 to 10 full cords a year depending on how cold it gets. It's been a while since I've had a 10 cord year, lately it's been 5 or 6.

Andy

turnkey4099 · Jan 23, 2008

I did learn one thing about BTUs. I am very obviously delusional about how hot poor wood will burn. I burn almost all willow which is about as low as you can get on the btu/lb scale. Therefore I am wasting my time turning the damper down when I see the stack thermometer pegged. It is obviously impossible and I should just ignore it.

Ooops. I should have labeled that sarcasm.

Harry K

Tesen · Jan 23, 2008

blackdeath said:
so was the final verdict its safe to burn if you burn it hot mix with hardwood and keep an eye on you chimney or was i totaly wrong for all these years

I think the biggest thing is to check your flue as often as you can; pine provides heat so use it. My personal preference is to try and mix in hardwood with the pine I burn and to keep the flue clean and inspected. I have a 2000 sqr foot 1880's home, so I keep the fire going hot to keep the house up to temp (the flue gas is quite hot, as the blueish tint around the top of my tripple wall suggests

).

Tes

Tesen · Jan 23, 2008

Griffbm3 said:
But WOW, that got ugly. I did see his point though. I will admit, I burn some pine to get 'er going in the morning. Hardwoods all other times, and I go outside to check on the color and density of the smoke out of the chimney. Maybe that's my OCD kicking in, but I climb a ladder, and knowck the build up off the chimney cap too.

That is not OCD it is common sense; I also check the smoke that is emitted from my flue. If you've had your stove for a while and you rarely change your wood mixture, any differences in exhaust from the flue is notable and obvious, makes one go "hmmmm" and figure out what is going on.

Cleaning the cap and checking that nothing is blocking (you can get ice build up around the cap if you've let the fire go out) is important. If the exhaust cannot flow up the stack, it is going to find the path of least resistance.

Tes