Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

Nephew was renting the (small ) home when I was there visiting. I have no clue where the (light weight) wood came from. I was staying there for free -so best not question anything. After reading the responses to my earlier post, I guess there is more hardwood out west than I imagined.

 

Bought a second home in Sonora CA in June. I'm new to wood heat (we have propane as well) so I've really enjoyed prepping for winter. Had 2 cords of Almond wood delivered, and had about a quarter cord of soft wood left over from the previous owner. Almond wood seems plentiful due to all the almond orchards in the central valley. Had the chimney swept, and a few practice fires in the stove.

 

Welcome to Sonora!

 

Thanks. I've been camping, fishing, backpacking etc. up 108 since childhood. So when we started looking for a place in the mountains, Sonora & Twain Harte felt like home.

 

I’ve procured my own wood for the stove in east Texas and far western Washington.
There are BTU listings by species and the numbers surprised me for Doug-fir. The difference however, seem to be how much more 2nd growth fir I use than Southern oaks. (Winter temperatures are oddly comparable!) I used twice as much for a winter that lasts about a third longer up here. So not 2:1 qualitatively just takes twice the effort to get through winter.
I like keeping about a cord of 3-5” vine maple in Washington and yaupon in Texas for overnight. Both readily available, burn hot and slow, and a nuisance for silviculture.

 

Im sure some of you were wondering where i was gonna put that much Wood.. “Bend over & ill show you” Whoops wrong thread.. ha my Shed is next to my Conex so my lil pile is 12L x 8’6W x 8H…
Made 6 rows my wood length is 18ish, im usually avg row a month.

 

First fire of the season.

 

Right next to your "Beer-fridge"? - I am guessing!

 

Yup. Gotta stay Hydrated while keeping 3 fires going..

 

Good evening everyone. I was giving the old Russo a once over, getting ready for this week which will have me making the 1st fire of the season. I pulled off the top glass inspection cover, the gaskets were gone again. I seem to get about 2 seasons from a new set of gaskets. I have been using some Mr. Gasket high heat gasket material, I can't find anything else to use. The manufacturing company is still in business, but they don't have anymore of the material that was originally used and couldn't offer any advice as to what to substitute the original material with.

 

At our cabin.

 

I use Rutland brand stuff.
https://rutland.com/

 

I got it fired up about an hour ago, it is a good night for a test run. Tomorrow it will get to freezing, I will get a fire going when I get home and heat the house up to keep the heat pump from running nonstop. So far, so good.

 

My liner install done. Waiting for the top cap since it was a plate with liner holder clamp I needed the matching cap. Anyway between cleaning the terra cotta chimney to final install took 7 hours. Not bad for a one person job. lol. Also about 6 inches of the liner can be seen and was thinking of wrapping it in black header wrap. What you think?

 

So i started my first fire with the new liner and black pipe last night and it's hooked up to an outset stove and I got smoke inside he house. After like 10 minutes it cleared up but would first startup and heating the liner for the first time cause it to smoke like that? Like machining oil burning off? It was a bluish smoke. Whatcha think?

 

I got a little bit when I first fired up my setup (double wall duravent pipe). I think it is normal burning off whatever is left from the factory and just oils from your hands.

 

I'm going to burn again tonight so fingers crossed. I got a smooth wall liner and man it's tough and I thought I put a hole in it somewhere. But these things are tough.

 

Im no expert but I think youll be ok. With it being a blueish smoke I do not think that would be from the fire itself. Its fairly normal as far as I'm concerned to have some smoke/ odors when lighting a new stove or pipe for the first time.

 

we put in an insulated liner a few years ago, and it's made a world of difference. this also included new connector pipe for the woodstove. i THINK we did have a bit of odor from it the first few burns, but not terrible.

 

Also, for those with a fireplace installed stove what did you use to cover the open damper space? I have a piece of 1/4" Hardie Backer board and it's flame resistant. what did you all use?