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Woodsure Certified Logs – What Does This Mean?

Our kiln dried logs are Warmsure Certified

Today we received our Ready To Burn Certificate of Approval from Woodsure who are part of HETAS – confirming the sample of logs they tested from us were less than 20% moisture.

In fact, the batch they selected at random when put through the oven dry method of moisture testing came out with an average of less than 11%. This is the most accurate method of determining moisture content.

It’s important to point out that our logs have always been less than 20% moisture due to the automatic kilns used to produce them – it is practically impossible for any to fall outside of these parameters.

However, we do realize that as users are becoming increasingly educated on the benefits of kiln dried logs and with the Woodsure certification becoming an industry standard that provides consumers with the confidence in the quality of firewood they are buying, we felt it important to be a part of the Woodsure scheme.

Thank you for your time and if you wish to read more about Woodsure please visit their website below:

Best wishes,

— Peter
Founder
Logs For Sale Ltd

Benefits of Using a Stove Thermometer

A stove thermometer will let you know how efficient your fire is operating in real-time 

Stove ThermometerStove thermometers generally attach to your flue pipe by a magnet mounted on the rear, and provide instant feedback in how hot your fire is burning.

Avoiding creosote by burning within the optimal temperature range

Stove with vents damped/closed down too much produces flue temperatures in the 100-200 degree Fahrenheit range.

These temperatures do not sufficiently combust your fuel or logs, leading to creosote build up within your flue and chimney.

Your fires should be kept burning anywhere between 300-450 degrees in general – this minimizes creosote build-up and ensures you aren’t wasting your logs.

Most stove thermometers like the ones we stock will have 3 clearly defined zones, from the “creosote” to “best operation” and “too hot” – this ensures you can easily add less or more logs and control the oxygen to your fire to keep your stove within the best operating range.

Relevant product: View our Safety Essentials Pack which includes our stove thermometer

 

Safely Burning Kiln Dried Logs

As we are now in to the burning season and we find many customers are relatively new to wood burning I would like to offer some advice in burning kiln dried logs safely and efficiently.

The aim is to get your stove above 250 degrees Fahrenheit as quickly as possible within the optimal temperature range for complete combustion, and then maintain an efficient clean burning fire.

Avoiding creosote build-up

A very slow-burning fire in a modern, airtight stove with vents damped/closed down too much produces flue temperatures in the 100-200 degree Fahrenheit range.

These low temperatures do not sufficiently carry all of the unburned, combustible gases into the atmosphere. Instead, they condense along the walls of the stovepipe and your chimney as creosote.

This is why your fire must consistently produce enough heat to remove these gases as your logs burn and why it’s important to bring your initial temperature up quickly.

Tips for building your fire and using your vents to supply enough oxygen

Building and maintaining an effective fire requires burning the right amount of fuel, good fire-building practices and oxygen control using your vents. Obtain the best efficiency from your wood burning stove by following these practical steps:

  • Always use kiln dried logs in your stove, never part-seasoned or damp wood
  • Open all air vents to begin
  • Start fires with firelighters and dry kindling – allow 5-10 minutes for the kindling to burn fiercely warming your flue and creating a strong draw before adding *any* logs
  • Burn hot, bright fires and start with a few smaller logs
  • Arrange your logs in such a way that allows air between, without overfilling your stove
  • Keep your air vents fully open and do not reduce until your stove is operating higher than 300 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 15 minutes, then do so gradually at intervals – this will slow the burn and ensure more heat remains within your stove and less escapes up your flue. Closing your vents before this will starve your fire of oxygen during the warm-up phase and delay complete combustion – wait until significant heat can be felt from your stove before reducing airflow, especially when burning ash or oak logs. Never completely close your vents or attempt to close them too far and always re-assess how your fire is burning and adjust when necessary
  • Let the fire burn down to glowing embers before reloading or until your flue temperature begins to drop toward 300 degrees Fahrenheit if you have a stove thermometer
  • Reload by adding at least 2 logs each time – avoid adding one log at a time and opening your door too frequently as this will drop the temperature of your stove
  • Open your vents slightly for a short period after adding more logs to help combustion and then reduce slightly after a few minutes
  • Never leave your stove damped down heavily overnight – this will lead to hours of incomplete combustion and is the single biggest cause of creosote build-up. Instead, open your vents before going to bed so your fire burns clean overnight
  • Have your chimney or flue swept before the start of each season to remove any deposits – if you follow these guidelines, your chimney sweep will be delighted and commend you on your skills and choice of logs!
  • Install a carbon monoxide alarm and place it high up in your room 15cm below ceiling height. Make sure any alarm you buy is marked to EN 50291 and has the British Standards Kitemark
For safely operating your stove within the optimum temperature range to avoid incomplete combustion, consider purchasing if you haven’t already our Safety Essentials Pack which includes the following:
  • Stove Flue Pipe Thermometer
  • Safety Rated Stove Gloves
You can read more and buy this pack on it’s own online – it will arrive by parcel courier within a few working days and is a good investment to ensure your fires are burning safe, efficiently and clean.

Are Firewood Crates Getting Smaller?

Over the last few years we have noticed a trend within the online firewood industry were many companies are shrinking the sizes of their large or full crates.

We have seen our main competitors reduce the size of their large crates by up to 35%, meaning the end customer who may not realise the change of dimensions will not be expecting to receive a crate much smaller than previous years.

Not only does this make the logs more expensive when it may appear cheaper, but means customers must purchase again later in the season when their logs pile runs out much sooner than normal.

Why are companies shrinking their large crates?

There are 2 reasons:

  1. Reducing the size while still referring to the crate as large/full lends to the illusion that it’s better value for money, allowing companies engaging in such tactics to compete with each other in a never-ending war of reducing the size of their crates and trying to appear cheaper than each other
  2. Costs of raw materials are rising – it is a fact as many of our customers will know that the cost of sourcing raw materials and producing kiln dried logs does increase somewhat each year, as demand for properly kiln dried logs grows. By reducing the size of crates, companies can appear to still be retaining the same value as previous years when in fact this is not the case.

Why we will never shrink the size of our large crates

We feel both these reasons for reducing the size of large crates are misleading and can only lead to unhappy and confused customers.

We know those of you who purchase large crates do so for the sheer volume of logs and value it represents in comparison to smaller crates, and expect the same size crate each year.

Ultimately we believe in transparency and if rises in our production costs dictate a small price increase then we would much rather be honest about this and adjust the price than shrink our large crates.

We encourage customers who are tempted by or see cheaper priced large crates elsewhere to always check the quoted dimensions against ours.

— Peter
Founder
Logs For Sale Ltd

Kiln Dried Birch Logs – Beginners & Casual Users

Birch logs are the perfect choice for newcomers and casual users

Kiln Dried Birch LogsKiln dried birch logs make excellent firewood – they catch fire quickly and warm your home faster than the other hardwood species, making them ideal if you use your stove or log burner primarily in the evenings or at the weekend.

We recommend birch for beginners and casual users as it’s so easy to get your fire roaring with very little effort or skill. Not as dense as ash or oak, birch logs burn slightly quicker, releasing their heat faster, with very little kindling required at all.

Quick tip for starting your fire with birch logs – instead of using firelighters, simply pull the bark of birch away and use it in a similar fashion to firelighters, as the oils in the bark make it an excellent firelighter and will help the logs catch fire with only a small amount of kindling required.

All of our products are available in Birch – simply select the species before adding to your cart.

We also sell kiln dried ash and oak logs for more intensive use – please visit our homepage to learn more about the various species that we offer.

Further reading: Birch vs Ash Logs – Heat & Other Differences

Kiln Dried Oak Logs – Ideal for Intensive Use

Oak offers a longer burn with more heat output

For customers that use their stoves intensively throughout the day, we have introduced kiln dried oak logs this year.

Oak offers the longest burn of any of the hardwood species and burns extremely hot. For this reason, they are well suited if you are an experienced user or if you use your stove intensively and find you burn through logs fairly quickly.

One of our crates of oak should last you much longer than our ash logs, off-setting the additional expense and making them much better value in terms of calorific content, due to the very high density of the wood. This is the reason oak logs weigh significantly more than birch or ash, even when dried down to the same level of moisture content.

When building your fire with oak logs, make sure to use smaller pieces and have your stove burning well before introducing medium to larger pieces – oak will take longer to light and burn with a small flame, but once established will produce more heat, last longer and need far less tending to.

All of our products are available in oak, though you must select the species before adding to your basket – follow the links below or visit our homepage for more information on the various species that we offer:

Further reading: Advice for Burning Ash and Oak Logs

What Our Small Crate of Logs Looks Like Loose

Our Small 1m3 Crate emptied in to an IBC cage to demonstrate the difference between stacked and loose volumes
Our Small Crate emptied in to an IBC cage to demonstrate the difference between stacked and loose volumes

To demonstrate the value in purchasing our crated firewood, we emptied the logs from one of our Small Crates in to an empty IBC cage.

Traditionally in the UK firewood is sold in builders bags or “loose” loads from tipper trucks – while our small crate may look small, due to the fact it’s 4 rows deep of logs and neatly stacked it actually holds a significant amount of logs – approximately 1.28m3 of loose logs.

We recommend our small crate for casual users, and one should see you through the entire winter season.

If you use your stove more intensively, consider our larger Extra Large Crate.

Advice for Burning Ash and Oak Logs

We would like to offer some advice for burning ash and oak logs in your stove or wood burning appliance.

The main point to keep in mind is that ash and oak are a very dense species of wood (oak being more dense than ash), meaning there’s a lot of wood fibres contained within the logs; this is what lends them to burning for such long periods when compared with other softer species of hardwoods such as birch, and all of the softwood varieties.

As they are so dense, this means putting slightly more thought in to building and lighting your fire, although not so much with logs as dry as ours, but worth noting when building your fires none the less!

Building your fire with very large and chunky logs likely won’t catch fire very well – we recommend building your fire up with firelighters, kindling and smaller pieces of logs before placing larger ones in to your stove or burner, and to have your fire burning for a good 5-10 minutes before even thinking about picking up a larger piece.

The larger pieces (in diameter, as our kiln dried logs are always cut to 25cm exactly though vary in width) come in to their own once your fire is established and you want a long lasting fire that needs very little tending to. Each log should burn for up to an hour or more each, and as each log produces over 4kw per hour, you shouldn’t ever need more than 2 logs in your stove at a time – allow the logs to burn down to glowing embers before placing more logs on the fire.

You will not need to add more kindling or firelighters when adding new logs to your fire once it is established – frustrating fires that are difficult to light and sustain are now a thing of the past.

If you follow this advice, burning ash and oak logs in your stove or log burner will be a joy – a much different experience if you are used to burning softwood or mixed loads. Of course, it is the moisture content in your logs that ultimately dictate how easy they light and the heat produced.

Further reading: Kiln Dried Oak Logs – Ideal for Intensive Use

The Best Logs for Pizza Ovens

When choosing logs for your pizza oven, the priority should be the moisture content and wood species followed by the size of your logs – thinly cut logs are essential.

Pizza ovens require logs that are low in moisture content to eliminate smoke generated by the fire – no-one wants pizza that tastes like it’s been sat on a bed of ash!

moisturefrontThis makes kiln dried logs the best option when buying logs for cooking, providing the moisture content is less than 20%.

Thinly cut logs like our specialized pizza oven logs will ensure you can create small, easy to light fires that reach your ovens desired temperature quickly, giving your pizzas that crisp and tasty wood-fired base.

Warning: Using logs that are too thick or high in moisture will lead to incomplete combustion and you will struggle to achieve or sustain the cooking temperatures required.

Unlike compressed waste sawdust products such as briquettes that may contain chemicals and binders, real logs don’t generate excess dust or ash that can land on and ruin the taste of your pizza.

The species of wood determines how long the logs burn for – only use hardwoods such as birch, ash and oak to avoid fluctuations in cooking temperature.

Use some of our natural firelighters to establish your fire with a handful of kindling before adding your logs to create a long sustained fire that will cook your guests’ pizzas within minutes.

The art of cooking delicious wood-fired pizza with professional results and becoming a master “Pizzaiolo” is effortless when using the correct type of wood and size of logs.

Our thinly cut mixed hardwood logs are perfect for using with pizza ovens – we deliver our nets of wood for pizza ovens nationwide to residential customers and supply wood fired pizza restaurants all year round.

Follow the link or thumbnail below to view our specialized pizza oven logs in easy to handle nets:

Please contact us if you have any other questions about our logs or using them to cook with.

Winter’s Just Around the Corner

Our firewood being collected for delivery to customers homes throughout the UK
Our firewood being collected for home delivery to our customers throughout the UK

We have seen our first snow fall for the season today at our base in the East Riding of Yorkshire, as we send our kiln dried logs everywhere in the UK from customers down south in Brighton right up to Scotland and everywhere in-between.

With the forecasters predicting a long, hard winter, we’re working hard with our supplier to ensure we’re in full stock for the winter to ensure our logs are always in stock and ready for immediate burning.

Thank you to all of our current customers and we look forward to supplying you all throughout the winter season.

Best wishes going in to the winter from all the staff here.