Smoking wood

[Gav73]

Bit of a bizarre one.  
 

I’ve been burning some beech in my wood burning stove this week and it’s been fine, however I gave some to a friend for his open fire and it doesn’t burn well, it just smokes.

 

There’s plenty of draw on the chimney (it’s recently had the a new, bigger cowl fitted giving it much more draw than it had), the wood is seasoned, he’s using plenty of kindling to get it going, but it just seems to start smoking once the kindling has burnt out. 
 

Anyone got any idea what could be causing this as I’m at a loss!

[Dan Maynard]

Beech is a bit of a slow burner, especially on an open fire goes better mixed with other woods.

[Squaredy]

23 minutes ago, Gav73 said:

Bit of a bizarre one.  
 

I’ve been burning some beech in my wood burning stove this week and it’s been fine, however I gave some to a friend for his open fire and it doesn’t burn well, it just smokes.

 

There’s plenty of draw on the chimney (it’s recently had the a new, bigger cowl fitted giving it much more draw than it had), the wood is seasoned, he’s using plenty of kindling to get it going, but it just seems to start smoking once the kindling has burnt out. 
 

Anyone got any idea what could be causing this as I’m at a loss!

I suspect the wood is not dry enough.  You can make it burn in a woodburner but an open fire may not have the right airflow.  If you have a moisture meter try splitting one of the larger lumps and taking a reading from the middle.

 

The other thing worth trying is using smaller pieces until a fire is established.

[Gav73]

It’s been moisture meter checked and coming out of 15-20%. Yes, could be that smaller pieces are needed until it’s established.  Cheers

[Gav73]

19 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Beech is a bit of a slow burner, especially on an open fire goes better mixed with other woods.

Good point 👍🏻

[Chipperclown]

Its all about the base!!

[Billhook]

13 minutes ago, Chipperclown said:

Its all about the base!!

 

[Billhook]

It's all about the bass, no rammel.   (Rammel being Lincolnshire slang for rubbish)

[Gav73]

Got to the root (or should I say roots) of the problem! 
The airflow was an issue - the room the fire is in has no vents, with the internal doors closed, the fire isn’t getting enough air. 
second problem was the amount of wood he had stacked in it - or should I say wedged! No room for any airflow. 
And final problem was that he didn’t fuel the fire until it was nearly out, and again overfilled it, which just made it smoulder. 
 

Would have seen the problems if I could have gone round to watch what was happening - damn Covid! Thankfully a quick video chat helped to resolve it! 
 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by Gav73