What moister meter?

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Machria

Minister of Fire
Nov 6, 2012
1,071
Brookhaven, Long Island
Now that I have a stove on the way, I need to pick up a moister meter. I did a search on here and did not find any discussions about which moister meters are the best/work properly. A google search shows them from $19 to $300 and up. Are the $29 units at Home Depot any good? They had one for $50 that had no prongs on it, do those work?

What should I get?
 
I have a basic one with two prongs that I got at HD for 29 bucks......Works well and does what it does. I wouldn't spend 50 bucks on one unless I needed it for work or something......It is cool to have but it is not doing anything other than satisfying my curiosity about moisture of my wood......After I split and stack and it sits for a year it is ready to burn. really don't need it. get a cheap one.
 
Not to be a smarty, but it is pretty easy to tell with your hands after a year or so. You learn to feel how much it weighs, how quickly it cools your hand, how it sounds.
Wet wood will not warm your hand and will be very heavy, and dull sounding. Dry wood will feel warm after holding it for a few seconds, will be much lighter than it was when wet, and will ring like a bowling pin when struck.
 
The General and Harbor Freight models are pretty common here.

I had the General and have since "Paid it Forward " to another Forum member. :)
 
Not to be a smarty, but it is pretty easy to tell with your hands after a year or so. You learn to feel how much it weighs, how quickly it cools your hand, how it sounds.
Wet wood will not warm your hand and will be very heavy, and dull sounding. Dry wood will feel warm after holding it for a few seconds, will be much lighter than it was when wet, and will ring like a bowling pin when struck.

I hear ya, I can pretty much tell already. But it would be nice to have to check exact levels, burn times, different woods.... my woodpile is a mix of EVERYTHING. ;)
 
I have a basic one with two prongs that I got at HD for 29 bucks......Works well and does what it does. I wouldn't spend 50 bucks on one unless I needed it for work or something......It is cool to have but it is not doing anything other than satisfying my curiosity about moisture of my wood......After I split and stack and it sits for a year it is ready to burn. really don't need it. get a cheap one.
I presume you don't have oak?
 
I got mine from Omega Engineering, omega.com

I like it :)
 
The moisture meters are good toys; I have a harbor freight one. You'll probably use it 3 times.
 
Do you want it for reference or really want to know within 1 to 2 % the moisture content of wood?
Reference only get a cheap one, HF, Lowes, HD

Really want to know get a good professional one.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Selecting_a_Moisture_Meter.html

"OK": a HF, Lowes or HD one will give you a reference

"Good one": 48 species of wood, temperature compensated:
http://www.professionalequipment.co...d-moisture-meter-j-2000/wood-moisture-tester/

"Best" :season most CSS wood species 2 years, 3 for oak. Last 6 months keep it dry/out of the rain/snow, Good to go. Will be about as dry wood as you can naturally get in your area ;)
 
I don't know why people think it takes forever to dry oak. It has a lot of open pores and that helps drying time.

Not forever.
Everyone has different oaks, conditions, locations & dryness specifications. Dry to some is not dry to others ;)

Where do you season yours?
1 member in Texas had some dry in less than a year.
 
I don't know why people think it takes forever to dry oak. It has a lot of open pores and that helps drying time.

I split two cords into fairly small splits and stacked them on the highest, sunniest spot on my lot and it took two years to get to 20%, Ive had thicker splits stacked in a different spot take 3 years, you may be lucky with your oak species and climate, mine was mostly red with some white oak.
 
Where do you season yours?
1 member in Texas had some dry in less than a year.

That may have been me, but that was an unusual year. Deep, deep drought in Texas combined, in this area with over a 100 days of temps above 100 degrees, many of those days up to 108-110, with lots of strong, dry wind. I was getting water and pin oak from fresh cut to 17% in less than ten months vs the usual three years. And this wood was not split into slivers six to eight inch splits at 20 inches long.

So, it all depends on your local climate and weather (there's a difference.)

What a difference a year makes! Seventeen inches of rain in 2011. Just over 40 inches so far in 2012. We may have broken 100 degrees only once or twice all summer. Everything around here is nice and green. Well, except for millions and millions of dead trees throughout the state, due to last years drought. It wasn't too bad on my property but there are a couple of nice, big pin and water oaks way out in the woods that I have my eye on for some cold weather wood working. I'm about four years ahead as it is. No more scrounging for me, at least in the foreseeable future.

As to the original question.... my $30 "General" MM from Lowe's gives me 'good enough' reference points.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Ken
 
I've got some Pin Oak that was Hurricane Irene (August of 2011?) blow-down. It was processed within 2 weeks of that storm and is now testing at 19-20%. It was double-row stacked on a paved driveway, in the sun and where it gets good wind exposure.
 
Sounds like that Pin Oak is good to go. Enjoy the burn.
 
I've got some Pin Oak that was Hurricane Irene (August of 2011?) blow-down. It was processed within 2 weeks of that storm and is now testing at 19-20%. It was double-row stacked on a paved driveway, in the sun and where it gets good wind exposure.

Yep, all my Oak from Irene is fine alreay also. I was just discussing this topic this morning in another thread. I've never seen oak take very long to season. It gets a bad wrap around here!! ;)
 
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