Firewood...What Lasts The Longest?

[Roupin]

I hate having to toss in a new log every half an hour. What's the best type of wood for the fireplace? I'm looking for something that would burn a looooong time.

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[RunInColorado]

Not to be a smartass, but you could convert it to a gas log and then you would never have to replenish the wood. I think the duralogs burn for an hour or so. As for natural wood, I couldnt tell you. Maybe the fire is roaring too much and you should let it move to coals a bit more?

[ClayJ]

Generally the harder and drier the wood, the longer it burns. Look in your local paper or weekly for firewood supply guys; call one up, and ask him what the longest burning wood locally available is - he'll tell you.

You may or may not wish to convert to woodstove-front, pellets, or an alternative fuel source.

Open-face fireplaces tend to not be very efficient -- but they are easily converted these days with a number of readily-available and relatively inexpensive inserts. I'd consider investing just a little bit of time checking out the possibilities if I were you.....

[session]

Originally Posted by RunInColorado

Not to be a smartass, but you could convert it to a gas log and then you would never have to replenish the wood.

You'd also get not nearly as much heat, no nice smelling firewood, and none of the beautiful sounds that a natural fire provides.

Down with gas fireplaces.

Originally Posted by ClayJ

Look in your local paper or weekly for firewood supply guys; call one up, and ask him what the longest burning wood locally available is - he'll tell you.

They'll likely tell you that the longest burning firewood is whatever they have in stock.

[Torquey55]

Up in NY we used to get apple wood from local orchards when the growers replanted trees. We saved it all summer to get good & dry for the long winter. It burned pretty slow and had a subtle fruity fragrance.

[RunInColorado]

you also dont get a mess and it turns on with the flick of switch. But I agree, wood fired is better.

[revstriker]

Originally Posted by session

You'd also get not nearly as much heat, no nice smelling firewood, and none of the beautiful sounds that a natural fire provides.

You are correct on the smell and the sounds, but not the heat. Gas fire places can be very efficient for putting out heat. It all depends on what kind of gas logs you get, and what kind of firebox you have. As with most things, you get what you pay for.

[ClayJ]

Originally Posted by session

....They'll likely tell you that the longest burning firewood is whatever they have in stock.

In my experience there are usually at least two woods available for fuel from the local supplier in a given area. Some areas of the country will be able to offer four or five. Wouldn't hurt to call three or four and ask....

I use orchard fruit woods in my smoker for smoking -- and have found them to calculate out at a much higher cost-per-cord than 'firewood'.....

[Brunelleschi]

What's happening Clay?

[ClayJ]

[Brunelleschi - I know...I have not been a very good little TWIT, have I?
Been dang busy...no excuse, I know]

[dacbiet]

Any hardwood should work well for you. I use hickory and mesquite wood for my outdoor smoker with great results. Avoid pine and eucalyptus wood. I've heard of some people getting rashes being exposed to smoke from pine wood.

[Roupin]

The fireplace used to be gas and it just felt like I was sitting in front of the stove. Completely useless.

There is nothing like a real wood fire. I've been enjoying it for the past few years but am completely sick of the softwood I was usually finding at all my local stores. I looked around everywhere today for either Apple or Cherry wood, but couldn't find either. However, I found a load of Oak which I'll be picking up tomorrow morning.

[vraa]

Why use logs? Just toss small children in there.

[ClayJ]

I was going to suggest oak in my first post, but wanted you to have the possibility of finding something else if something else was actually out there depending on where you live. Make sure that the stuff is dry. Stack it so it gets good and dry. And if you're going to stack it up against the house - don't. Leave at least enough room for you or another full-size person to get between the stack of wood and your house.

Make sure that you have a good-condition or new firescreen on your fireplace too, to keep embers from popping out onto your floor or an eye.

Now - have you had your chimney swept and inspected prior to starting to burn that stuff in your fireplace? Seriously - burning softwoods like pine can coat the inside of your chimney with deposits that can be ignited by the burning of the oak - and house fires are no fun for anyone.

[Roupin]

Thanks for the tip. I'll check out the insides tomorrow.

If the neighborhood goes up in flames, I'll post a pic

[ClayJ]

HAHAHA! Wild pics -- but I really don't want to see them!

Just something to check when you switch from pine to oak......

[Roupin]

Just thought of this...looking into the chimney kinda sounds like an endoscopy...

[Mister Brenton]

I just took delivery of a half cord of hardwoods. (meaning I had to spend 2 hours stacking the mess). Any hard wood will do, but I have no idea what you can get in Encino. Around here, we have natural forests full of Birch, Oak, Maple, etc that can be culled and split if you want to put the effort into it. The $5 bundle from the store wont last an hour.

All of the tree removal services around here are happy to sell you bulk wood at discount prices (they need to get rid of it from the tree jobs).