looking for opinions just for fun

[grizzly708]

Just saw this on line and wondered what y'all thought of it. I was told not to burn pine no matter what?Best burning wood firewood see what ya think.

 

[ponyexpress976]

No, you shouldn't burn pine....EVER! All pine you get should immediately be sent to either myself or Zogger.

In all seriousness, pine is just fine to burn. The real downside is the density. It burns up real fast so its better for a shoulder season fire or getting things going first thing in the am.

 

[Mac88]

He's dead on on some things, a little off on others. Yea, we burn pine, even southern yellow, if we have it.

 

[southpaw]

Old wives tales have made me a lot of money through the years and kept plenty of my buildings warm too......keep the tradition going please I love it.

 

[howellhandmade]

Looks like the author found a sale on exclamation points.

Sorry to hear the bad news about white oak. :rolleyes2:

 

[ft. churchill]

If it wern't for pine we'd all be cold west of the Great Plains.:msp_biggrin:

 

[Uncle John]

Millions of folks have nothing but pine, spruce,etc to burn!

 

[Fred Wright]

Like so many urban legends, it's a half-truth. The same story has been applied to sweetgum.

In truth, pine (and gum) have high resin content. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be used as firewood no matter what. Rather, they need to be fully seasoned before burning.

 

[Steve NW WI]

"I read it on the internet, it must be true."

The guy in the link is from the northern CA coast area, where softwoods are a common fuel, temperatures are moderate, and there are (danger: assumption being made) probably a lot more recreational/supplemental heat burners with open fireplaces than full time wood heat only users with stoves and furnaces.

Most of what he says is loosely based in fact, and filtered through his opinions and personal experiences. It'd be by no means a bible for the serious woodburner in much of the country, and would be laughed out of most of the upper midwest hardwood country.

As far as softwoods go, good dry pine/fir/spruce in a fire that's not being choked down is no problem at all. I've been burning pine since mid-September and the chimney is clean as a whistle. I'll be switching over to denser hardwoods as the temps drop, but will keep some handy for when I'm around to feed the stove more often, and will burn more of it next spring as well. All woods have their place in my stove, although some are more preferred than others. I like the matchlight qualities of pine to get quick heat in warmer weather, when I'm just burning a fire once or twice a day, and the "good stuff" when I have to keep the stove going 24-7 and I'm gone to work for 12+ hours.

If I listened to everyone who said a certain kind of wood wasn't worth making into firewood, I'd be pretty limited in my choices.

 

[russhd1997]

There are a bunch of hardwood snobs up here where I live and because of that I get a lot of free pine. I burn it in my OWB and I like it. I like to burn the pine and other softwood during the day and hardwood overnight. Mixing my wood like that helps keep the build up of coals under control. The trick to burning pine or any wood for that matter is to make sure it is seasoned well.

 

[Mac88]

Question: What kind of pine is that?

Answer: It's a firewood pine.

 

[zogger]

Just saw this on line and wondered what y'all thought of it. I was told not to burn pine no matter what?Best burning wood firewood see what ya think.

Well, what he says, burn dry wood, period. Stack correctly. If you can get several years out, all the better. A minimum I would think is two full years out so your wood goes through TWO summer's drying.

Best I have ever seen was some hardwood, not sure of species, way in the middle of an all open sided wood shed that was 15 years old. I have no idea what it was, but compared to most wood people burn, that would have been like something ridiculous like five hundred to a thousand buck a cord quality. Two chunks clanked together sounded like a marimba. Not just "metallic" but actually musical. I would imagine they got that dry in much less than 15 years, just saying, they were that old and not deteoriated, just as completely dry as outside wood could get.

The other thing with creosote is, we all know you need a good draft and a hot flue. Well, what the heck does running a damper do to that idea? Nothing, it screws it up royally. No damper, load smarter as to size and species, adjust incoming air correctly (which is more than enough "damper"), better burn, more heat and less creosote build up.

If one of the stove manufacturers wants to chime in with some bonafide measured with equipment results of some thermodynamic studies showing dampers actually doing anything positive, I'd like to see it. I'll be happy to eat some nice juicy crow pie, but I want to the see that study,, not just a "well, everyone just knows you are supposeed to run a damper and..." Nope, that's not a study and the plural of anecdotal is not data either. And I mean as regards burning efficiency and keeping the chimney/pipes clean, not that you can make a load last longer, I mean, BTUs into the living space per measured unit of wood.

I think you can do everything you need to do with a heater with loading smarter and the air intake and these modern designs where all the methane gas coming from the wood is actually given the time and area and air to burn inside the box.

To me, if dampers worked, you'd see the car companies putting dampers on engine exhaust systems to get more mileage and more power. They don't do that. (talking four strokes now) At most, reclaiming wasted heat with a turbo. And they do that because they run pistons and not something like a turbine. They are going to great lengths now to squeeze mileage and ponies out of fuel, yet not a one of them has some sort of damper on the exhaust, outside of the cat, which is ..dubious to me as well. I think the fuels and intakes could still be made better so that cats are needed for air quality. You certainly don't see any track vehicles running exhaust restrictions.

The best with an engine is open exahust, equal length (and insulated) tubes, and crossovers if you are running multiple banks of cylinders. Wood heater is an engine.

 

[howellhandmade]

Damper, no, intake regulation, yes. When folks say "damping down for the night" that usually means closing the air intake, which is kind of like closing the throttle on a carbed engine, closing the butterflies. I think it's a good point that you can close the intake too much and not get a clean burn, but the instructions on my insert say not to run wide open either. For overnight burns I try to set it just open enough so that the secondaries are going.