Use Dry Firewood (rentals, house, tenants)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I'm sure everyone has seen that advice, even the newest residents. Here's a good reason why: dry wood burns cleaner.

I just had the chimney sweep out. He cleaned my house and my rentals and my son's rentals.

The stove pipes at the rentals were full of gunk. They had to be scrubbed. The spark arresters were jammed with junk and barely letting any air through. They had to be scrubbed.

At my house, the brush just slid down the stove pipe, not encountering any resistance. There was nothing on the spark arrester. I use only wood heat. My wood stove is used a lot.

The difference is that the tenants always cut their wood in the summer and burn it that same winter. My firewood, that I am using this year, has been stacked at my house for nine years. Wet wood produces a lot of creosote and other gunk to coat your stove pipe and collect in your spark arrester. That creosote in your stove pipe can catch on fire and cause a fire in the stove pipe. That ruins the pipe and might even set your house on fire.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Another bonus, well dried wood produces almost no smoke. With wet wood, you can see a lot of smoke coming out of the top of the stove pipe. At my house, if I walk outside and look, I can see the heat waves distorting the air, so I know that the wood stove is burning, but there is no visible smoke.

I suspect that is something that the neighbors appreciate.

[Heidi60]

Okay, are we all invited to make S'mores at your home? My fireplace isn't fit to use so I can't have a fire because of all the cracks.

Enjoy!

[crazyme4878]

Alas, we are stuck playing catch-up, if you will. First year we used what the last tenants left behind, which was pretty horrible all around. Ordered seasoned stuff last year and still have some leftover. Ordered enough this year to last three years or so. It takes time.

[Larry Caldwell]

Dry wood also heats much better. If you burn wet wood, you have to boil all that water up the chimney, and that is a huge amount of heat going to waste. When you burn dry wood you don't need anywhere near as much of it.