soft vs hard wood

[Mark-NH]

I have always burned dry pine in my 2 1/2 x 6 1/2 arch but I wonder if I'm missing something. Would mixing in some hard wood make for a longer, more even burn?

Thanks

[Jim Brown]

It would help with out a question! And you would not have to 'feed it' as often
jim

[Fred Henderson]

Holy cow, all soft wood. You must never get to sit down. Say nothing about how long between firings.

[brookledge]

Yes try mixing a little hardwood in. If you use a mixture it will give you a better boiling rate.
Every time you feed the fire the softwood will ignite faster than the hardwood and give you quick heat and then the hardwood kicks in and burns longer than the softwood.
No matter what you do big chunks that burn to slowly will slow your boiling rate down. So you need to split your wood. More so with smaller evaporators than larger ones. In either case its the oposite of a wood stove or furnace where you want to put in big chunks that burn slowly and give you alot of coals. In your evaporator you need flame moving through the flues. Some have tried using coal but its not efficient by itself.
Another factor is what you can get your hands on for wood. I have a neighbor that has a small lumber mill and he puts all the softwood slabs on his truck and gives them to me free because he has no other use for them.
Keith