Low maintenance wood fire

[Dottore]

Working at the cabin these past weeks I've been experimenting with wood fires that don't require stoking and rearranging every 15 minutes.

The best I've come up with is a presto-log and a dry piece of alder side by side. This gives great heat, and will burn as in the photo below for 3 to 4 hours in an open fireplace without any input from me.

Anyone here have any other suggestions? I know olive wood burns forever - but there's precious little of that in these parts.

[livi]

Good thread just in time (see Docīs pissed thread)!

I am experimenting with what I got, which is not much. I have oak, pine, birch and aspen. Seems I have to poke it and add more wood every hour or so.

[LakeCleElum]

Need more info....Where you at and what kind of wood do you have access to? I have wood stoves in all three homes. For me, Maple is the only hardwood around and burns the longest.

I warm it up quickly with a little cedar kindling (old shakes), add some "Wood-Ruf" roofing material (kind of a fiberglass coated masionite), squirt on some old motor oil.....(don't snitch me off to the EPA?).....and add hardwood after I have a rip-roaring fire going.....

[id10t]

I get a bed of coals going with smaller stuff (wrist size and smaller) and then put on single large chunks of oak, adding every hour or so. I tend to keep it this way to make it easier to die down so I can go to bed...

[john70t]

I read somewhere that if the fire is too small, and the chimmney is too tall and wide, the rising air cools down, stops, and can reverse the flow-with a very bad outcome.
Not sure of the engineering specifics, but it may be something to consider.

Make sure to clean it regularly and don't burn the treated or painted lumber.

[kstar]

Originally Posted by livi

Good thread just in time (see Docīs pissed thread)!

I am experimenting with what I got, which is not much. I have oak, pine, birch and aspen. Seems I have to poke it and add more wood every hour or so.

Poke it? Add more "wood"?

Uh oh.

Best,

Kurt

[livi]

Originally Posted by kstarnes

Poke it? Add more "wood"?

Uh oh.

Best,

Kurt

Poking and adding more wood to the stove sounds funny to you?

[Dantilla]

Being near the coast, I've cut down a couple Magnolia trees that were causing problems in the yard. Burns hot and long. We have a fire pit in the back yard. I burn Magnolia only when I know it will be a long evening, or it takes way too long for it to burn down.

I use Douglas Fir for shorter fires. I also have Alder. I burn the Alder just to get rid of it.

[Tobra]

oak, almond, walnut. all burn a long time and generate a lot of heat. As I recall oak is the best. Almond is nice because it does not leave much ash

[NICKG]

i have been experimenting too. i find that maple burns the best too, but if you put in oak and close tha damper, letting it burn during the day, like say 3 hours or more, you get a big coals. then turn the damper up and toss in a fresh chunk of oak. that is how i get the longest consistent heat.