Thread: To split or not to split....

Made my Monday finding this forum! New owner of an outdoor woodburner, about a month in use and love the heat!

My father in law and I both bought one. His is a step up in size but same manufacturer. We have an ongoing debate about split wood. I opt to split mine because I feel it burns better, cleaner and easier to handle. He throws whole green logs in. I mix, using a bit of both.

Are there any scientific or experienced advantages to splitting or fagetaboutit and cut 3' monsters?

Thanks!

Splitted ones dry faster and have larger surface to burn and all your reasons are okey! You have to teach your father in law (if it's possible ).

I find that a real rough split is best. A 12" log split in half will burn much better than if left whole. Be careful not to split too small or the wood consumption will increase dramatically.

Good points, thanks Husky. I'm trying to get to the point where I dont wake up in the morning to 150 degree water and an ash pile in the furnace. Finding the perfect ratio of dry to wet for an 10 hour burn is my goal. Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks Puumies but I'm trying!

Thanks again you guys.

You guys burning green wood is why places are banning outdoor wood boilers. If you burned only seasoned wood the smoke output would be greatly reduced. Treat your OWB like the oversized woodstove that it is.

yea you can just drive around and tell who`s burning green wood and who isn`t ,,,,that green wood really makes the outdoor units smoke ,,,,and not to mention all the build up you`ll have to clean off
i try to burn only the wood that`s been setting for awhile and well seasoned,
but that just my .02

Far more boneheads burning green wood in fireplaces and woodstoves.

You guys burning green wood is why places are banning outdoor wood boilers. If you burned only seasoned wood the smoke output would be greatly reduced. Treat your OWB like the oversized woodstove that it is.

Burning green wood makes very little differance in smoke output as the water is boiled off by the forced air draft after the first burn cycle. With my boiler humidity and outside temperature influence smoke more than wood.

There is nothing like dragging a newly felled tree up to the door of the wood boiler, hacking her up and throwing her in. It is almost the same feeling I get when I hunt and take home the kill.

'puck

Originally Posted by stipton

Good points, thanks Husky. I'm trying to get to the point where I dont wake up in the morning to 150 degree water and an ash pile in the furnace. Finding the perfect ratio of dry to wet for an 10 hour burn is my goal. Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks Puumies but I'm trying!

Thanks again you guys.

I have a Hardy and if it is above 25 degrees it only needs fed once a day. Sure I go out and poke it around in the morning. It sometimes bridges over if I use very large unplit logs, but never do I go out to a pile of ashes in the morning and I heat two houses with it. My dad is hooked to mine also. I have a 2,100 sq foot house and his is about 1,200 sq feet. It will go about 24 hours if I pack it full before I go to bed. If it gets really cold, then I feed it twice a day.

Another Hardy fan. I have had mine for two years and love it. I wish I had bought one years ago.

I have had mine for three years and as long as it holds up I really like it. My local dealer put an induction fan in his door. He cut a hole and welded on a flange, ran the power and mounted the same fan that is in the back of the burner. I have not talked to him in awhile, but his first thought was that it burned much more efficiently and I witnessed that it smoked much much less. I am going to talk to him at the end of the winter and if he had success, I will be doing the same over the summer with mine. I really don't burn that much coal and wood heating two houses and my garage. It saves me a pile.

I'm not too sure about cutting the door. It may void your warranty.
In the past two years I have learned if you burn good seasoned hard wood that makes and holds coals so there is very little smoke. Within five minutes of the blower coming on there is a roaring fire in the firebox. The only thing that comes out of the flue is heat. I burn mostly blow downs and standing dead locust and hackberry. The big stuff I split several times just so it's easier to handle and get into the door. Smaller cuts I split once. So far it has worked very well. This winter has been very mild but my power bills have been a fraction of what they were before the Hardy.

My dealer says no to voiding the warranty! Hardy sent him the door and the flange to try it on his. They will not sell a "kit" because their stoves are UL listed and with the induction fan out in the weather, they would not be UL listed. My dealer built a little roof for his induction fan and ran the wire in some flexable conduit.

I was just going to buy another door, but it was about $170.00 and I was not going to pay that. I wanted to do it for this winter, but I don't want to shut my stove down long enough to do it.