Your 101 to Sweetgum Firewood

Sweetgum firewood is a popular choice for lumber because of its unique reddish-brown color with intricate white and black grain patterns. But what happens when you burn sweetgum wood? 

Let’s look at its fire-burning properties and compare it to other firewood. 

Is sweetgum a good firewood?

Sweetgum is a great kindling firewood that will keep you warm during shoulder seasons. It gives off a decent 20.6 BTU heat output with medium smoke and little creosote output.

The fire that sweetgum firewood creates burns hot yet fast because of its low coal production. On the bright side, you can mix it with other firewood to extend its burn time.

Seasoned sweetgum firewood is best used in fireplaces with a screen or closed doors to keep your home safe from the pops and sparks the fire will be creating. 

Here’s a breakdown of the physical and fire-burning characteristics of sweetgum wood.

Tree Name	Sweetgum
Common Names	• Liquid Amber • American storax • Hazel pine • Bilsted • Redgum • Satin-walnut • Star-leaved gum • Alligatorwood
Scientific Name	Liquidambar styraciflua
Family	Altingiaceae
Height	60 to 75 feet
Life Span	100 to 150 years
Type of Wood	Hardwood
Dry Weight (lbs per cord)	2,250 to 2,950
Green Weight (lbs per cord)	3,850 to 4,550
Seasoning Time	12 months
Heat Content (million BTUs per cord)	20.6
Resin Content	High
Splitting Difficulty	Difficult
Smoke	Moderate
Smell	Yeasty
Coal Production	Low
Creosote Build-up	Low

Fire Characteristics of Sweetgum Firewood

Sweetgum firewood is difficult to split, has high resin content and produces a moderate heat and smoke output, a yeasty smell and poor coals.

Let’s take a look at how each fire characteristic affects sweetgum as firewood.

1. Difficult to Split

Sweetgum is a challenging wood. It’s filled with interwoven grains, making it a very difficult task.

The best you can do is split sweetgum while it’s still green; otherwise, the wood will harden once seasoned. 

We recommend using a hydraulic splitter to get a clean and consistent splitting of sweetgum. 

2. High Resin Content

Sweetgum has high resin content that causes fire to crack, pop and spark while burning. 

Using this firewood for outdoor burning is best to prevent unwanted fires inside your house.

3. Yeasty Smell

Sweetgum wood has a yeasty smell that most people liken to beer. But don’t worry because as long as it’s fully seasoned, the drying process will tame the pungent scent.

4. Moderate Heat Output 

Sweetgum firewood produces 20.6 BTU million per cord, making it an excellent heat source during mild winter. It even matches black ash and douglas fir in terms of heat output.

5. Moderate Smoke Output

High resin content contributes to sweetgum’s moderate smoke output. 

As the firewood burns, the fire tends to evaporate the remaining moisture and resin in the wood, thereby releasing a medium amount of smoke. 

Although it has a mid-range heat output, sweetgum still burns quickly because it cannot sustain the heat without enough good-quality coals. So, this is not your firewood if you want fires to last overnight.

6. Low Coal Production

Hardwoods produce coal to extend its burning time, but unfortunately, sweetgum produces poor coal and burns fast that it cannot make the fire last through the night. 

A great workaround that you can do is to mix sweetgum with other long-burning woods to increase the heat output and extend its burning time.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Sweetgum as Firewood

We’ve rounded up the pros and cons of using sweetgum firewood. Check out the table below.

Pros	Cons
Moderate heat output	Prone to rotting
Good for kindling	Excessive sparks
Low creosote production	Medium smoke
	Difficult to split
	Fast burning

Sweetgum is an excellent choice of firewood to keep you warm during cold nights. You can easily ignite it and enjoy a 20.6 BTU heat output. 

It also produces little creosote, so you won’t have to worry much about the black, flammable tar filling your chimney.

When burning sweetgum inside your home, it’s better to place it in a fireplace with a screen or door to prevent unwanted fires because of the popping and sparks that its fire produces. It will also limit the spread of smoke throughout your home.

One downside of this firewood is its low coal production which causes it to burn fast. So, for optimum use, you can mix sweetgum with other firewood to increase its burn time.

Sweetgum is also a difficult wood to process. It has interwoven grains that make it hard to split and cause it to take at least 12 months to season thoroughly.

Finally, sweetgum is prone to rotting, so make sure the wood is fully seasoned before molds grow.

How does sweetgum compare with other firewood?

Compared to other popular hardwoods, sweetgum has a lower BTU, difficult splitting and poor coal production, which is why some find it not worth keeping in their homes. 

Here’s how sweetgum compares with other popular firewood.

Firewood	Heat Output (BTU million per cord)	Splitting Difficulty	Coal Production
Green Ash	20	Easy	Good
Sweetgum	20.6	Difficult	Poor
Maple	25.5	Easy	Excellent
Bur Oak	26.2	Easy	Good

How long should you season sweetgum wood?

Sweetgum firewood needs 12 months to be fully seasoned. After a year of seasoning, the sweetgum firewood will turn darker with cracks on end and its moisture level will go down to 15%.

It takes this long because the intertwined grains of sweetgum firewood cause excessive wood warping, limiting airflow. 

FAQs on Sweetgum Firewood