Russian olive firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Russian olive is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 25.0 million BTU of heat (26.4 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks Russian olive 289th of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned Russian olive (20% moisture) weighs about 4,060 lb (1,840 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 4,870 lb (2,210 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 0.69. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, Russian olive needs at least 10 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 Russian olive 5 out of 10 as firewood: a good choice.

Similar firewood

Other species to compare with Russian olive:

• Yellow birch: 25.2 million BTU per cord
• White ash: 24.6 million BTU per cord
• Red oak: 25.5 million BTU per cord
• Pin oak: 25.7 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