Redgum Firewood – (What You Don’t Know)

Looking for a perfect firewood choice?

Redgum might be your best shot. Redgum firewood is one of the most widely used firewood species.

It is a dominant firewood species in Australia and is now common in southern California.

In this article, you will learn all the relevant details about redgum firewood.

What Is Redgum Firewood?

Red Gum firewood is a versatile, dense, long-lasting firewood that is excellent. It’s high-quality, with high heat production and a low smoke emission rate.

To add on, it has a magnificent smell and is fast growing as well.

Burn Qualities of Redgum Firewood

Heat Production 

Redgum has a reasonably high heat production rate. It produces 34.5 million BTUs per cord, aside from being among the hottest burning wood species in the States.

The high heat production rate is a credit to the fact that it has a high oil content.

Additionally, its coals are excellent and ideal for overnight heating and cooking. Redgum does not leave behind much ash, contrary to many wood species. 

Firewood burning

Firewood burning

Smoke Production

If you hate high-smoke-emission wood, redgum wood could be your perfect solution. When seasoned correctly, its smoke emissions are minimal.

Unseasoned redgum wood causes sparking and popping from the oil pockets inside the wood, thus causing more smoke.

When burning redgum indoors, you can use indoor screens or glass doors to prevent smoke from wafting to other parts of the house.

However, it’s not recommended to burn redgum wood indoors.

Burning redgum leaves and inhaling their smoke is not wise. Thus, it would be best to separate leaves from the firewood before burning them. 

Seasoning Time

Redgum has a low sap content (compared to other woods) and more oil content.

For proper wood seasoning, you must lower its moisture content to below 20%.

However, it’s not advisable to burn unseasoned redgum wood because this increases the likelihood of oil seeping from the grain spaces.

Contrary to this, reducing Redgum’s moisture content may take a long time because it has a high oil content, making drying difficult. 

Seasoning of redgum may range between 18-24 months, depending on the storage design and the environment. It dries up faster in windier and hotter places.

If you need to monitor the wetness of your wood, use a General Tool Moisture Meter to check the moisture content.

To use it, insert the sharp pins into the wood and extract values ranging from low, medium, and high indicators.

redgum tree

Burning Smell

When burnt, redgum produces a magnificent smell, similar to VicksVaporub.

Moreover, depending on your perception, you may find it sweet and medicinal. 

Colorful leaves of redgum tree.

Colorful leaves of redgum tree.

Creosote Buildup

If you season your redgum wood appropriately, burning becomes easy and efficient.

Conversely, failure to season your redgum wood increases creosote build-up due to the additional fats in the wood. 

Chimney with creosote

Chimney with creosote

Splitting

Redgum firewood can be extremely difficult to break, especially after seasoning.

Its stringy fibers firmly twist together as the wood dries out, making splitting tedious.

For easy splitting of the wood, experts recommend splitting it 5-7 days after felling the tree and splitting wood into its early stages after tree felling grants oil and moisture to leave the wood before fibers twist.

However, if your firewood is past the splitting window, use a log splitter to dismantle the tough grains quickly.

Comparison to Other Woods

I compared redgum and other top tree species. These are my findings.

WoodBTU (Millions/cord)Ease of SplittingCoal
Redgum34.5 Easy (when wet)Excellent
Oak, Bur26.4EasyExcellent
Hickory28.5HardExcellent
Apple27.0MediumGood
Birch20.8MediumExcellent

Conclusion

In conclusion, redgum firewood is one of the most popular wood species in the US due to its good heat production quality.

Furthermore, a low smoke emission rate and a magnificent burning smell, and we cannot ignore that.

If you want to learn more about Redgum firewood, kindly contact us and get more enlightened.