Selecting the best wood for your wood burning stove.

When it comes to choosing the best wood for your wood burning stove, not all woods are the same. Here we will look at the different kinds of wood that you can use and we will offer some advice making the best choices.

Moisture content

Moisture content is very important. ‘Green’ logs with a high moisture content will be difficult to light and they will produce much less heat as much of the heat that they generate when they burn will be taken up by evaporating the water that they contain when then goes up the chimney as steam.

They also produce much more tar and smoke because they burn at a lower temperature. This tar and smoke will blacken the glass of your door and it will also deposit gunk on the inner lining of your chimney which means that you will need to carry out more maintenance.

Seasoning and drying

Freshly sawn logs can have up to 60% moisture contents so in order to reduce the moisture content of your logs, it is necessary to either season them or kiln dry them. Seasoning typically takes two years and reduced the moisture content to 20% to 30% and kiln dried logs have a moisture content typically of 15% to 20%.

You can either season the logs yourself by keeping them in a place sheltered from the rain and that allows air to circulate freely. Alternatively you can buy pre-seasoned logs or kiln dried logs. Kiln dried are the most expensive; seasoned are cheaper and unseasoned are the cheapest.

You can get some idea of how dry your wood is from its weight.

Hardwood or softwood

Generally hardwood is the best choice but it does need to be properly dried or seasoned. Here is a table that shows how well different kinds of woods burn. 

 For more information on multi fuel stoves visit the Leeds Stove Centre: http://www.leedsstovecentre.co.uk/

Type	Details	Quality
Ash	Excellent wood; hot and slow burning. Best when dry.	Very good
Beech	Excellent wood; hot and slow burning. Best when dry.	Very good
Hawthorn	Slow burn with good heat output.	Very good
Thorn	Top wood for burning with steady flame - high heat output with minimum smoke.	Very good
Yew	Top wood for burning with steady flame - high heat output with minimum smoke.	Very good
Apple	Excellent wood that when dry bums slowly and steadily	Good
Birch	Hot burning but burns quickly in small quantities - can be burnt unseasoned.	Good
Cedar	Good burning wood with long heat output. Can crackle and spit.	Good
Cherry	Slow burner with good heat output. Must be dry.	Good
Hazel	Is a good but fast burning wood and produces best results when allowed to season.	Good
Hornbeam	Good burner but needs to be dry.	Good
Lilac	Good kindling wood and good burner.	Good
Maple	Good flame and heat.	Good
Oak	Good slow burning wood when dry.	Good
Pear	Good slow burning wood when dry.	Good
Plum	Good burner with high heat output.	Good
Horse Chestnut	Good burner in stoves but tends to spits - don't use in open fire.	Good
Pine	Good flame but can produce smoke and tar.	Good
Elm	Reasonable burner but must be dry.	Medium
Larch	Reasonable burner but must be dry. Can cause deposits.	Medium
Laurel	Good flame, medium heat output. Must be dry.	Medium
Sycamore	Good flame, medium heat output. Must be dry.	Medium
Sweet Chestnut	Medium output when dry but spits. Don't use in open fires.	Medium
Alder	Poor heat output and fast burn.	Poor
Chestnut	Poor burn, low heat	Poor
Firs	Poor burning wood with low heat output and causes deposits	Poor
Holly	Fast burning with good flame but poor heat output.	Poor
Spruce	Poor heat output and fast burn.	Poor
Willow	Difficult to burn	Poor
Laburnum	Very smoky wood - avoid,	Poor - avoid
Poplar	Very smoky wood - avoid.	Poor - avoid