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.
The below table shows which woods are suitable for your wood burning stove.
Choose from our collection of wood burning stoves.
| 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 |