Log Splitters n Firewood

[likeemfast]

Looking for info from some of you guys who burn firewood for home heating. Bought a new old home this past summer and the oil man has delivered twice already this winter. Have a big old wood fireplace in the house and i will be definitely using it a whole lot more next year. Any recommendations on log splitters? Also im stock piling oak already for next year in 18" to 20" lenghts, i had a bunch of trees taken down around the home, have heard and read 1 year to 5 year drying time on them, what drying time do you use? My previous homes have all been natural gas, this oil stuff is expensive. I sit in the home and listen to the furnace kicking on and off and see $$$$$$................ Thanks in advance for any info

[dhoundman]

Oak or any hard wood is best cut on split when it is green after setting for 12 month it is very hard to split or cut .( hard wood) So when spring come cut those trees you have droop this winter and split them and stack some place so rain cane not get on it. As far as logg splitter carefull on the hoses make sure they are in top shape they are not cheap to replace.
The best motor is a Koler second best is Briggs n Straten ( might be spelled wrong) but you now the one. as for the pump for the Hydralics you will want to do a little research cause thier are a lot out thier and most new once are very cheap. Just keep in mind you get what you pay for and never but till you have down somw research. Or you will get burned.
HAST MAKES WAST

[Will05]

I too have oil heat and understand your frustration!!! It sucks spending all that money on oil. I installed a wood stove insert in my fireplace this year and haven't used a drop of oil all winter and it has been cold here!!! I have an MTD 20 ton log splitter that I use. My father bought this piece of equipment 20 years ago and it still runs like a charm!!! It has a briggs and Stratton motor and as I said is 20 ton. We have not put 1 penny into this unit other than changing oil and a new pull cord. I have never had a problem with it starting no matter how cold it is outside. I would suggest this unit to anyone who asks about these!!! My father just bought a new splitter and he bought another MTD but his is 22 ton he says the one I have seems stronger(I assume like everything they made them better 20 years ago) He has had his new one for a year so far and has no mechanical issues. I live in Maryland and he lives in W Va. and we both use about 4 cords of wood each per year and neither of us uses our oil!!! Even if I buy wood it would still be cheaper than oil last year I spent over 2500.00 in oil and this year I will spend 0.00!!! Good Luck with the stove

[mybeagles]

I purchased a Hot Blast central wood stove from TSC. About $800. Hooked directly in where the furnace was. Carried the furnace to the road and scrap metal guys picked it up. Heat 1800 sq foot house and my wife keeps it 70+ all the time. I keep bedroom window open most of the time.

Purchased the Husky 22 ton splitter from TSC. A must have if your cutting 30 cord wood a year. Dry wood burns much hotter than damp. I put wood in basement where wood stove is and it's real dry. We burn mainly Ash because it's dead everywhere you look

[sammiller03]

spend the money to get one that goes vertical and horizontal. it really saves the back and get a 25 ton over a 22 ton this is one time when bigger is definatly better. dont know what coal prices are in your area of the world or if an outdoor furnace is in your budget but thats the route i went. coal is 100% easier than wood.

[begles]

split it by hand, you will get two heats out of it. LOL thats what grampaw always said.

[MaineDogs]

If you have a fire place and not a wood stove, i would not waste your time and money. A standard fire place burns the woods and sends the heat out the chimney. when drafting, the fire place pulls heat from the back side of the house and will leave bed rooms cold. A fire place is nothing more than a one room heater and something to enjoy while sitting by the fire drinking a beer. This is one of the reasons wood stoves have a damper in the flu, this causes the smoke to slow its exit and to heat up the fire box so it will reflect heat.

http://www.carolinacountry.com/index.ph ... -woodstove


Oak needs extra time to dry than many other hard woods, i recommend cutting and leaving out where the sun can dry it. i like to lay thick braches on the ground to stack the "cut to length" peace’s in single file rows. with each row facing south-east to allow maximum sunshine to aid in drying. wind is a big help with drying wood too. stack the wood in rows in a sunny spot with a tarp over the top. Wet wood is different than green wood, don’t worry too much about rain showers as long has its not sitting in mud. Dry and wet will dry up quickly inside in the fall or completely onder cover, but green wood will not burn good.

[sbadger]

I got a wood burning Central Boiler burn about 10 ricks a year and its outside has lines under ground ,has to places for pumps heats up to 5000 Sq feet ,can heat my house and garage ,have a 28 ton log splitter vert or hori 14.5 briggs motor ,its a 5036 model can fill it up in the evening at put a couple logs in the morning will last all day,has a 24x24 door opening ,48 inchs deep,buddy has a bigger one 6036 and he heats his house, garage and apartment,has 3 pumps www.centralboiler.com

[Casey Harner]

I will take a picture of my dad's we usually cut three semi loads a year. I like splitting it by hand, but dad getting up in age likes to use the splitter. I use a spitting maul, love the workout it gives me.

I cut a load of sassafras for my soon to be father n law, he has a wood stove and fireplace. Sassafras pops a little and his wife loves the sound of it.

I personally like burning cherry, it smells great!!

We use wooden pallets to keep the wood off the ground. I agree with Maine, oak needs time to dry, we usually keep the wood on a ridge so the wood dries up.

[NCSportsman]

You'll need a wood burning insert if you want to gain any useful heat from your labors of cutting and splitting...

Another option is to have an add-on heat pump installed in conjunction with your oil furnace. The heat pump will typically do the heating down to 30 degrees, then the oil furnace will take over the heating duties...

Where in Pa do you live?

[likeemfast]

Enjoying the reading while I'm helping a buddy move...... I now live in Boiling Springs ..... Will get back on later ...... Thanks guys ...... It's very much appreciated

[Swampman]

Built my own splitter over 25 years ago.
I made it with the wedge on the ram, should have patented it because they are all made that way now.

Wood splits easiest when frozen and let dry a minimum of one year after it is split.
Green wood will burn, but takes so much of the heat to dry it while burning which is heat loss to your house.
You don't have to cover it until about a month before winter. I stack mine in the open until Oct., then cover it up. the more it is exposed to air, the better it dries, don't worry about rain in the summer, it is more important to let air get to it.

The most important reason for drying it before burning is chimney fires.
Green wood creates a lot of soot which builds up in the chimney flue and will ignite and there is no way to put it out.
Also, be sure to clean the chimney at least once/year.
Don't burn soft woods either such as pine and cedar, these will almost guarantee you a chimney fire.
It is ok to use as kindling to start the fire, but not as the fuel source.

As someone else stated, fireplaces are aesthetic, it you want to use them as a heat source, purchase a sealed insert unit that you place into the fireplace opening so you can control the draft and make it an efficient heat source.

FYI, oil has the most BTU's compared to natural gas and LP.
Old houses are drafty and have many cold air leaks, shore those leaks up and your oil will be more efficient as well.

[warddog]

I am in the process of installing an outdoor wood fired hydronic gasification boiler. I have NOT completed it yet but have made a pretty good dent in it considering I've done it ALL myself. I have the trench dug. pipe insulated, buried in the trench, concrete slab poured. boiler set, water lines hooked up to it as well as the electrical. I had to drill an 8" hole in my concrete basement wall that was 8" thick to run the pipe into the basement from outside which I have done. I have ran 3/4" pex pipe so as to make a loop going from the outside boiler into the basement to the hot water heater heat exchanger then to the furnace plenum where I am now getting ready to install a water to air heat exchanger and then return the pex pipe back to the outside boiler. I have a heat pump as my main source of heat with electric back up on it and when the back up comes on it runs the electric bill sky high. My intent when I'm finished is to heat both my hot water and my house with the outdoor gasification boiler and have my heat pump ONLY as a back up to that in the winter. I'm hoping to be able to turn the electric hot water heater off all together and have the boiler heat the house to the point of the heat pump never coming on. I've got to cut the furnace plenum to install the heat exchanger in it and hook up the PEX lines there and then figure out how to run the fan blower in my furnace without the heat pump coming on so as to force the air through the heat exchanger being heated by the boiler. I've been cutting downed trees for years here on the farm as I just hated to see them go to waste even when I had no intentions of burning wood but that and the $600.00+ electric bills in the winter time sparked my thought of installing a wood boiler. I have a barn and shed full of cut, split and seasoned wood from over the years so I'm ready once I can get this ole butt working on finishing up the installation. I was using a heavy home made three point log splitter that I ran off of my 34 HP tractor hydraulics all these years BUT found it was way too slow and got a 22 ton horizontal/vertical self contained store bought unit that I found barely used on craigslist for $500.00. I will say that this unit does NOT have the power that the three point had but is much faster once you learn to take smaller bites. The three point you could hoist whatever size diameter log I had onto it and place it right in the middle and it would split it BUT this 22 will not do so with red and white oak. It will split it but as I said you have to position it so as to split it in small bites.

[likeemfast]

I have found out that with a 3" or so bed of old ashes and i also don't use a grate to elevate the wood off the floor of fireplace, I can get a real good bed of coals that fill that room plus the kitchen and living room. It's throws good heat and I can turn down the thermostat in the living room to 67 and it does not turn on much at all, all day. Have to also close all bedroom doors upstairs or it gets cold up there. I'm trying to manage thru this winter with just the fireplace but a insert ( I believe) over the wood stove or central boiler is the wife's choice for next year. 1st couple fires with a grate just made house colder. Found that out the hard way.

I got some big stuff cut up that's green and not split, only cut down 7 days ago. Getting ready to negate as much oil usage as possible next year. He's digging in my pocket right now more than I like. Will be all oak and some cherry hauled down from my dad's place.

Thanks for info on splitters also, definitely helpful. I'd rather use modern technology with a good gas powered engine than a manual wood splitting method. I get enough workouts with my 10 and 7 year old, don't need that on top of it. Thanks tho

[adirondackjoe]

likeemfast, this is a subject i happen to know a little bit about being in the tree business for 42 years and owning my own company for 34 of those years. i don't know about the wood stoves themselves but wood and splitters i'm kind of an expert. as for the firewood, any hardwood you split in the spring will fine to burn in the fall. i've split and sold thousands of cords this way. no complaints. now to the splitter. the one we use has a 6 way wedge and cost 25000. probably a little more than you wanted to spend. any one the other guys mentioned are fine. swampman, its a good idea to put the wedge on the ram but guys been doing that around here for 40 years. good luck likeem.