VERMONT WOOD HEAT: Woodstove Magic

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More Woodstove Magic
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More Woodstove Magic

by Daryle Thomas

I hate to get off on the wrong foot. So let me offer a bit of opening advice: "They ain't nothin' magical Îbout burnin' a woodstove."

That takes a big load off of my mind. Should anything I say in the next few lines strike you as a trifle abnormal, you may rest assured that it is only the perception of abnormality. No magic, no hocus pocus. Operating a woodstove is simple, straightforward and easy.

How many times have you heard the phrase "airtight woodstove?" Talk about the perception of abnormality. There is not, nor never has been, any such thing as an airtight woodstove. Think about things that are airtight. A Volkswagen Beetle floating on a pond. The refrigerator on the back porch. A vacuum. But not a woodstove. Air has to be going in to make the fire burn.

"Sell me a woodstove like my neighbor's. She can open the door, and no smoke comes out!"

"Nothing is wrong with your stove," I say.

"Listen, I've been burning wood longer than you've been alive. Smoke comes out when I open the door, something's gotta be wrong with it."

"It's your chimney, it's probably an outside installation."

"How'd you know?"

"Before you go to open the door on your stove, open the air intake wide. When the stovepipe thermometer reads at least 200 degrees F., you should be able to open the stove door without smoke spillage."

"What if I don't have a thermometer on the pipe?"

"Buy one!"

The perception here is since the smoke is coming out of the stove, something has to be wrong with the stove. Understanding that the stove is only as good as the chimney is a necessary perception with wood heat. In simple terms, if the smoke is going up the chimney, it won't be coming out into the room.

Burning Issues in Wood Burning
Look out! Here comes an abnormality. You can't burn green wood in any woodstove. Dry wood doesn't burn, either, but let's work on the green wood perception first.

A German physicist named Fahrenheit developed a temperature scale on which water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. The book, Fahrenheit 451, touches on the priceless information that, if one wishes to burn a book, one must heat the book to 451 degrees F. Years ago, as a fledgling Boy Scout, I would bet my fellow scouts all the money in their pockets that I could boil water in a newspaper cup over a campfire. Soon all the money in their pockets was in my pocket. The perception that the paper cup would catch fire is every bit as erroneous as thinking green wood burns.

Any chemist will tell you that all the water must be consumed before the paper will heat up past 212 degrees. Since the paper won't ignite until it is heated over 450 degrees, the water will boil before the paper burns. Guess what happens to green wood? Green wood is up to 50 percent water. That's right, campers. All the water must be boiled out of the wood before the remaining fibers will be heated to their ignition point. Just like the paper cup, the temperature of the wood will not rise above 212 degrees until the water is gone. Bear in mind that creosote forms at temperatures below 300 degrees F. So while you are most assuredly not burning the green wood, you are producing creosote.

While we're at it, dry wood doesn't burn, either. It sublimates. Say what! Next time you haven't got a great deal to do, watch what goes on in the woodstove carefully. If you look closely, you will see that the flames don't actually touch the wood! The stick of wood is the storage chamber for volatile gasses. When the wood is heated well into the 450 degree range, these gasses are driven off and ignite. After all the volatiles are driven off, the wood becomes charcoal. Charcoal is flammable, which is why it glows red in the firebox.

When all that can burn in our once handsome chunk of wood has burned, we are left with ash. Some ash is required to insulate the hot coals and preserve them for the morning reload. Too much ash chokes out the fire, and must be removed. A sure sign of too much ash is the inability to place more than two tiny pieces of wood into the firebox. Do yourself a favor and take out the ash.

Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Down
Many woodstoves come equipped with ash recovery systems. Fancy words for ashpan. And just as useless. An interesting observation is that people who demand ashpans are usually too lazy to dump them every day. They wait until the pan is overflowing, which takes about a day and a half, and leave about half the ash in the ash pit. Can't get the ashpan back in the stove until all the ash is out. So they grab the Electrolux and the next thing they see is about a foot and a half of fire shooting out the tail end of the vacuum. If you gotta have an ashpan, do yourself a favor and buy a second pan so you can switch them before they are full.

It's far easier to shovel out a woodstove, usually about once a week. People have the perception that the stove has to be stone cold to shovel out the ashes. Only if you are using a paper bag to transport the ashes. Put on a pair of protective gloves. Use a steel pail, and load it with whatever is in the stove. Dump out everything except for a shovelful or two of hot embers. Here we go with perception, again. Don't worry about the hot embers that will be tossed with the ash. If you put all of them together, they would barely equal a three inch stick of firewood. If it really bothers you, dump the ash in one spot. Sift out the charcoal chunks when the snow melts and use it in your Hibachi during the summer. Remember that a handful of real charcoal will last as long as a whole bag of Kingsford.

I hope you are beginning to see that there really isn't anything magical about woodstoves. When things go wrong, as they will, look for a simple, obvious answer before buying a new stove. Use dry wood, it heats up to the ignition temperature much faster than damp or green wood. Take out the excess ash on a regular basis, leaving some to make the fire last longer. Anytime something seems wrong, remember your woodstove is only trying to tell you something. Look for the obvious, no matter how obscure, and burning wood will be easy.

Daryle Thomas, proprietor of the Hearth & Cricket Stove Shop in East Wallingford, Vt., has been a regular contributor to our journal for a few years now. The staff of the Vermont Weathervane sends Daryle and his loved ones the warmest of wishes for a joyous holiday season!