firewood diameter

[tbear]

Hi Everyone,
I've spent alot of time "reinventing the wheel" over the past few years...(previous to finding this site). Something that I've noticed and am wondering about is: Does the diameter of the firewood used make a differance in the boil...and/or does it make a differance in the boil rate? What I've seemed to notice is that the smaller diameter firewood burns with a better "flame" as opposed to the larger diameter makeing more heat and coals. It kinda appears to me that the smaller diameter firewoods flame licks the bottom of my pan better creating a better boil and a high boil rate. Is there any truth to this or have I been staring into the steam too long? Thanks! Ted

[Bucket Head]

Your observations are correct. Smaller pieces are what you want. Generally "wrist" size pieces are good. Big pieces, or large slab wood pieces are like throwing a blanket on the fire. They prevent the fire from hitting the pan, and it takes more to ignite and burn them. Also, criss-cross the pieces when you fire. That allows air to get to all the pieces better.

Steve

[Miles M]

Hi, yes the diameter of your wood does play a big role in your boil rate. For myself
I find that if I keep my wood smaller in diameter and about 18 inches. long I can get
a better boil and I can boil more per hour then what my pan is rated for, instead of 4.5 gph
I can get 6.5 to 7 gph on a good day.
Thanks

[seclark]

Steve and Miles are right about smaller wood being better.I now cut my wood at least wrist size or smaller and find it is a lot better flame and a lot better boil.

[tbear]

Thank you! It's sounds like common knowledge...of course it took me two or three years (sugar seasons) to "learn" it. Thanks for comfirming "my" theory. As soon as time allows I'm going to run a cord of wood through the splitter again. While we are talking wood...I understand that differant firewoods burn hotter than others...but does it make a taste differance (as far as the syrup goes) on a leaky (not all smoke goes up the stack) cement block arch? Thanks again! Ted

[SugarSquirrel]

i may be wrong, but i believe it depends on the size of the arch. i have a 17"-42" arch, and i burn smaller pieces, and my friend has a 4-7 and puts whole logs in the firebox and it boils better than mine. correct me if im wrong.

[Mike in NY]

I started shortening my wood this year. If you place it right I can put a 38 inch stick in my arch. But this year I used mostly 16-20 inch wood and fired more often,keeping the fire under the front pan and pushing coals back everytime you reloaded. I think it worked better, we used less total wood and had steadier continous boil.

[steve J]

I spent most of this year experimenting with wood and wrist size is best but I found that hemlock slabs alone even thou split down to wrist size was not nearly as good as mixing it with an equal amount of hardwood wrist size. Seem like the blower really generated a lot of heat from the hardwood coals vs a lot of flame from just the hemlock.

[sap retreiver]

On my 2x4 i use wood about a foot long and mix it like you said about 50-50 soft and hard. the longer wood in the back just sends more flame up the stack. I'm not one to monitor stack temps and box temps but the red neck scientist in me says this works best. Keep the fire in the front and let it run across the bottom of the pan, no sense wasting wood, I like working up wood but not that much. Oh ya I split it down to about an 1 1/2'' more surface area more heat. Sap on

[PerryW]

When I started running my 3x10 twenty years ago, I cut my wood 30" long (the length of the grates). Over the years I have reduced the length down to 16-20". I agree that the longer wood does seem to send more heat up the stack. Longer wood also caused ashes to build up just in back of the grates. I split my wood so it's about the same size as a 3" of 4" PVC pipe. If you can't pick up the piece with one hand, it's too big.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y235/perryW/SugarWoodPileSmall.jpg

[buckeye gold]

I may be nuts, but I decided this year that my wood needed to be 2/3 of my firebox in length. I agree longer wood waste heat. If my theory hold water you can figure your wood size to any arch. For example a 36" firebox ideally would use 24" wood. As to diameter, Rarely use anything over 4".