Red maple firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Red maple is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 22.3 million BTU of heat (23.5 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks red maple 362nd of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned red maple (20% moisture) weighs about 3,620 lb (1,640 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 4,340 lb (1,970 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 0.61. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, red maple needs at least 9 months to dry to about 20% moisture.

Wood dries faster once it is split and stacked with air around it. A moisture meter on a fresh split face tells you when it is ready.

How it burns

• Ash: low
• Coals: high
• Burn time: long

We rate red maple 4 out of 10 as firewood: it burns, but denser species give more heat for the same work.

Similar firewood

Other species to compare with red maple:

• Norway maple: 23.5 million BTU per cord
• Silver maple: 19.3 million BTU per cord
• Striped maple: 18.8 million BTU per cord
• Black walnut: 22.3 million BTU per cord

Where these numbers come from

The heat and weight figures come from our firewood tables, worked out the same way for every species at 20% moisture. See how we calculate them.

Questions