Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Central Boiler => Topic started by: Scratch on December 11, 2019, 11:07:29 AM
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My brother is getting a new stove and is considering an Edge 750 to replace his 22 year old CB 6048. He is concerned about using non seasoned wood in the Edge though. He doesn't always have time to cut, split and season his firewood and sometimes has to burn wood that isn't quite dry enough. It doesn't burn as well, but it sometimes happens for him.
He was told by the dealer that you pretty much NEED to burn only seasoned wood in the Edge. Is there anyone here with an Edge that does occasionally burn not fully seasoned wood, with good results?
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Hi Scratch - I don't have the Edge 750, I have the Edge 550 but both units are gassers and operate under the same principal(sp?) so I'll give you my $0.02 worth. This is my second season heating my home with the Classic Titanium Edge 550 HD. This past fall I used some less than desirable wood, the moisture content was way over the 20% I usually burn. The results are it's much harder to keep a good coal bed, which is a must in the gassers. I had a dickens of a time keeping the coal bed deep enough. Due to the higher MC (moisture content) you'll have a lot more creosote build up which may gum up the works. You'll burn more wood due to the need of burning the water in the wood. The Hx (heat exchanger) may need more, constant cleaning due to the creosote buildup. Roger
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I switched from a similar stove (5648) to an edge 4 or 5 years ago. They do burn differently. As with any gasifier, they prefer dry wood. I've burned semi-seasoned stuff with mixed results. It works but its not ideal and results can vary greatly depending on how green the wood is and how much of it you burn. Mixing some in with dry stuff works much better then a steady diet of unseasoned. I've read the new design with the stepper motors replacing the solenoids are more tolerant of unseasoned wood, but I've no experience with these.
The good thing is he'll be burning a lot less wood and hopefully can get ahead on the wood pile. Once you get ahead and can burn seasoned wood, these stoves are awesome.
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We could never get ahead with our conventional, once we went to a G series its a lot easier to get ahead since you’ll be burning up to half as much.
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I had a 750 HD installed this May. I was able to source 4 cords of seasoned wood along with 6 cords of greener wood, stacked in my woodshed for the 6 months since then. I hoped to get through the winter with only 5 cords total used, so I started out burning each load with 80% from the seasoned stack and 20% from the rest. I am very satisfied with the performance of the 750 on this mix. Then I noticed that my burn rate was probably going to have me run out of seasoned wood well before the end of winter and I switched over to about 2/3rds from the seasoned pile with the rest greener wood. Burn performance has gone down quite a bit based on peak reaction chamber temperatures (I was getting above 1500*F regularly, now occasionally getting above 1200*F). I think it would be nearly unusable if I were burning 100% from the greener stack. I will be splitting my wood a bit smaller to see if I can get back up to my 4:1 performance on this 2:1 mix. I would be very concerned about creosote buildup and needing far more wood than otherwise, if stuck with only unseasoned wood. Perhaps if split very small and managed carefully one can get away with greener wood, but I would agree with the dealer here.