It’s an idyllic image: you come home from a long day of work, take off your wellies, and curl up by the fire with a good book. For those with a logburner in their home, this relaxing scene can be a daily reality. However, choosing the right logs for your logburner is critical to ensuring a safe, pleasant and cosy experience. When purchasing logs, consider the characteristics of wood from each tree species. Certain wood species are ideally suited to home burning, while other species are best to avoid.
Ideal Wood Types
Oak, ash, and maple trees provide the best wood for indoor logburners. Oak wood burner logs are known for their density and slow burning qualities whilst they consistently generate maximum heat. Similarly, ash and maple logs produce long, steady burn times without smoking too much or clogging the inner workings of your logburner. If you can’t find one of these three wood types, cherry, beech, and hawthorn wood are also good choices.
Woods to Avoid
Evergreen woods such as pine, fir, and cedar contain a high amount of resin, causing them to smoke excessively. Burning resinous woods also creates an oily substance called creosote, which can wear down the inner workings of your logburner over time. If you regularly burn evergreen logs, you may have to clean your logburner more frequently. Softwoods such as aspen and birch also cause problems because they burn inefficiently, meaning that your logburner may generate less heat while burning these woods.
Note that for any type of firewood you use, you should ensure that the logs are properly seasoned before burning. Many commercial lumber companies season their logs by drying them outdoors or in a kiln, producing low-moisture wood that burns more consistently. However, if you buy or harvest unseasoned wood, make sure to stack and dry it outdoors for about six months before using it in your logburner. If youre new to owning a wood burning stove or fireplace, we recommend you try out different woods so you can see the advantages and disadvantages of each up close. You can then see what works best for you. You may not always want slow burning logs if you only want to light up a quick fire in the evenings, so do try out different types of logs and really get a feel for how they burn. Another important component of lighting a fire is kindling sticks. These are incredibly important in terms of helping the logs start the burning process, and they’re very cheap too. You can buy these online or from your local fireplace shop, and they’ll ensure you’re not spending half an hour or more trying to get your logs to burn.
So there you have it, these are just some of the pros and cons of different types of wood, but as always, speak to your local fireplace retailer to better understand the logs that are right for your stove and your needs, they may just have the right type in stock, making the process of burning wood a whole lot easier!