Pinoak smoke is driving us out of our home!!

[Robert R]

I knew pinoak didn't smell the best when sawing but I figured it would just smell like oak burning.  We have an outdoor boiler.  It is usually downwind from the house but all day today, the wind has been out of the south.  It is miserable smelling, acrid smoke.  Is it really the pinoak or just that we are used to being on the downwind side.  If it is the pinoak, I have some maple, ash and walnut also.  Are any of them going to be sweeter smelling?  Good grief, my neighbors must hate me.

[beenthere]

Is it green pin oak? Maybe it isn't burning, but is just smoldering.  Anything else in there with it?  Wet trash, or other things that cannot burn easily? 
The trend to burn green wood in the outdoor boilers, will (IMO) tend to create a smoke that you don't want to be downwind of, regardless the wood type. :

[Robert R]

I cut the trees down a year ago but I just cut them and split them a couple weeks ago.  Seemed dry but I don't have a meter.  There is no trash in there.  The way the boilers function, they always do a lot of smoldering but the smell is really only intolerable when the blower kicks on and she starts belching out the smoke.  I threw in a few maple sticks and it has helped tremendously although they are definitely not season.  Cut about 2 to 3 months ago but are smallish.

[Gary_C]

The winter before last, I was working on a timber sale in the state forest and on the only county road going into the site there was a farm with a Daycare sign out front. Early every morning when we went in there was a very foul smelling smoke coming from his outdoor wood burner. Guess what he was burning early every morning?   

I have heard that some small towns have considered fireplace bans because people are burning their trash and other things.

One solution to the odor problem is to extend the short chimney up about ten feet so the smoke will mix more.

[ohsoloco]

And here I thought it was only me that was thinking the pinoak was stinky when ya burned it too.  I burn some in my woodstove, and it isn't very pleasant to be sniffing.  I cut and split a large pinoak log last winter, and I'll soon be burning it  :(  I think cherry makes for some sweet smelling smoke.

I still don't think my own smoke smells as good as someone else's  :  I was thinking it was like cutting your own grass, or smoking your own pipe tobacco...the other guy's always smells better. 

[Furby]

I still don't think my own smoke smells as good as someone else's : I was thinking it was like cutting your own grass, or smoking your own pipe tobacco...the other guy's always smells better.

I know I shouldn't..................... does that include outhouses ??? :

[pigman]

Daycare sign out front. Early every morning when we went in there was a very foul smelling smoke coming from his outdoor wood burner. Guess what he was burning early every morning?    :

Pin oak firewood ;) ;D

[Paschale]

I still don't think my own smoke smells as good as someone else's : I was thinking it was like cutting your own grass, or smoking your own pipe tobacco...the other guy's always smells better.

I know I shouldn't..................... does that include outhouses ??? :

:D :D :D :D :D

[Robert R]

I've spent the last darn near 15 years trying to convince the mrs that mine don't stink.  She begs to differ.   

[ohsoloco]

 :-\   Outhouses....okay that's pretty mild, I was wondering what kinda comments I set myself up for  :D

[Furby]

Well.......... I tried to keep it clean. ;)

[chet]

I generally try not to burn any of the Red Oaks green, if I do I mix it with generious amounts of maple, cherry, elm, hopbeam, or birch.

[ohsoloco]

I don't see too many clean outhouses, Furby  :D 

Maybe that's the problem, Chet.  I'm not into the pin oak too much right now, but am burning mostly red oak.  It's all been cut and split for about a year, 'cept for the slabwood that was cut probably in the spring...too green yet  ??? 

It was really nice when I got into the patch of cherry in the firewood pile last year 

[chet]

All the Red Oaks seem to have a very high moisture content when green. Even if you do get it too burn, much of the heat is lost turning the moisture in the wood to steam. Thus lowering the fire temps which directly relates to the acrid smoke.

[OneWithWood]

Not only is the moisture content high in the red oaks but creosote forms quicker.  When the blower kicks in and the fire gets hotter the creosote can ignite creating a very acrid smoke.

[rebocardo]

>  cut the trees down a year ago but I just cut them
> and split them a couple weeks ago.

The wood is most likely very green, probably close to 40% still. A tree does not dry out much in trunk or even four foot lengths much, especially if it had ground contact and/or was exposed to rain.

[ohsoloco]

OWW, is that even with seasoned red oak  ???  I'd say at least 60-70% of the firewood I burned last year was red oak, and by the end of the season there was a lot of creosote built up in the chimney.  I have at least that much RO in my pile this year as well, a lot of it was dead wood I drug out last winter.  Now that I have a thermometer for the stove I think I'm burning more efficient and cleaner fires. 

[Corley5]

Dad burned some wood out of three sugar maples that died from an unknown cause.  They were in the front yard and the power company cut them.  The wood from all three had a nasty acrid smoke.  One tree was cut a year before the rest and was fairly dry when burned, the other two were burned within a couple months of being cut.  We think the smelly smoke had something to do with whatever killed them.  The tops of all three had branches that intermingled and the disease spread from the east tree to the western one over several years.  Another tree that had the power line between it and the infected ones is as healthy as ever.

[Faron]

That red oak is not really fit to burn.  Drop off what you have and I'll dispose of it for you.  ;D

[ohsoloco]

I couldn't afford the gas, I'll just put a "giveaway" ad in the local paper  :D

[OneWithWood]

Ohso, when properly dried, RO can be a fine firewood.  It will produce a lot of heat and it coals out nicely.  Creosote is a function of moisture in the wood, heat of the fire and the temperature in the flue.  Green, red oak and maple contain more water than most other hard woods.