Why not burn seasoned soft wood in log burners

[Tippin Alaybye]

Temperature and airflow are the most important. I really only burn waste spruce slabs cut into stove size chunks. If you do it wrong you get repetitive strain injury stocking up the stove. Get it to correct temp, make sure stove is full ( not a single log in the middle which is my wife’s favourite [to save wood]) and shut off air and it will burn hot for ages.

[openspaceman]

15 hours ago, Paddy1000111 said:

For what it's worth, I burned some coniferous stuff (about 10 years ago now) and be it not dry enough or something else the tar went up inside the chimney and then got wet which activated the acid in the resin. It rotted through a brand new chimney liner in >2 years. The company replaced it for free and said they haven't seen that happen before so it can't be that common! 

Probably nothing to do with it being softwood more to do with a smoudering fire  of damp wood dumping pyroligneous acid up the cold chimney such that it condensed. SS depends on a thin film of chromium oxide forming to resist  air getting to the iron and rusting it. Chromium oxide  reacts with acid, exposing fresh chromium and iron to oxidation.

 

Long ago I posted a picture of a 316 ss rigid single skinned flue perforated like a colander, the fix was actually to insulate it to keep the flue gases above their dew point.

 

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Edited February 12, 2021 by openspaceman
grammar and link added

[eggsarascal]

11 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Probably nothing to do with it being softwood more to do with a smoudering fire  of damp wood dumping pyroligneous acid up the cold chimney such that it condensed. SS depends on a thin film of chromium oxide forming to resist  air getting to the iron and rusting it. Chromium oxide is reacts with acid, exposing fresh chromium and iron to oxidation.

 

Long ago I posted a picture of a 316 ss rigid single skinned flue perforated like a colander, the fix was actually to insulate it to keep the flue gases above their dew point.

Thats exactly like I would of put it.

Edited February 11, 2021 by eggsarascal

[Paddy1000111]

Maybe the chimney company will see this  

[difflock]

I commented way back in 2013 near the start of this thread.

To repeat, and thereby hopefully spread the gospel a little.

I been burning exclusively dry conifer, a mix of Sitka and Lodgepole, for say minimum 15 years, and the flue has never been cleaned nor does it need cleaning.

It still "pulls like a train"

It has never been cleaned since we moved in for the winter of 1996, but I started by burning birch off the overgrown roddens, before switching to the windthrow conifer. Which is air dried only, for 1 season before moving into a shed during a dry period sometime during the following spring/summer/autumn.

 

But I dont fiddle with the air setting, I leave it full on and add sticks as needed.

Edited February 12, 2021 by difflock

[Ontario Firewood Resource]

Regions above a certain latitude and/ or altitude only have softwood trees. Whe you see mountain pictures, notice that all the trees are softwood? Mmmhmmm! Importing hardwoods is too costly considering the relatively low value of the wood compared to its shippable weight. Softwood must be dried properly