Wood size in an airight arch

[heus]

With my 2x6 that I recently sold, it burned best with wood pieces about the diameter of my wrist. I was wondering if I will be able to get away with regular sized splits (wood furnace size 4-8" across) in my new 2.5x10 with an airtight front and forced air. It would be nice if I could split all of my firewood (for house and evaporator) the same size. I have not done a test boil yet to see.

[nymapleguy607]

You would still want to split your wood small. The small pieces will give you alot of flame that will make the flue pan boil hard and the syrup pan. Larger wood makes more coals and only makes the syrup pan boil hard.

[waysidemaple]

I've got a 3X10 intensifier and found that small defiantly get hotter. I was burning a lot of ash bark wood that was about 40" long and maybe 1" thick by 4" wide, it would get hot in a hurry but my firing times were still every 6 to 10 mins. Later on in the season I ran out of that wood and went to ash splits that we're more like regular fire wood but still 40" long. They burned around 200 degrees cooler but my firing times went to every 20 to 25 mins which was nice since I'm the only one in the shed boiling, pressing, changing papers, and bringing in more wood. I'll be sacrificing that 200 degree difference this year to get the added time between firing. With an air tight arch I think you can get away with burning bigger stuff and still getting pretty good rates.

Scott