help: how long to dry wood in the house

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dyerkutn

dyerkutn

Feeling the Heat
Jul 11, 2011
289
Boston NW suburbs
Even after all the warnings on this website I still allowed myself to get ripped off with supposedly "kiln dried wood". It wasn't burning well so I tested several pieces with the moisture meter right after resplitting. The outsides measured between 20 and 27 and the insides measured between 15 and 20. I supposed if all the splits were split again they might burn from the split side but don't really have capability to do that right now.

So as an alternative, how long would it take these splits to dry once they are brought into room temperature? (Well the room is usually around 70 from the stove). They are medium sized--3-5" in diameter. I think they were somewhat kiln dried and looks like there are no bugs--the wood is very clean.
 
mellow said:
Are you sure your reading is not backwards, how can the outside be higher? 27% will still burn OK.
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You are right. I meant 20-27 on the inside and 15-20 on the outside if I am using the MM right. With my current wood I can have a blazing fire within a couple minutes with splits as large at 6-8" diameter laid on a hot bed of coals. With the new wood all it did was smolder and never really caught fire, even with the air wide open or on High.
 
As you can see in my avatar we have a nice size wood niche built into our hearth. The wood I store in there gets really dry in a few days since the stove heats up the huge thermal mass of my chimney (8'x4'x 30' tall). I tell myself I should burn out of this stockpile, but find myself bringing wood in from another wood storage bin in the screened room out back that I keep filled from my woodpile. When I do throw a log on from the fireplace niche it really burns nice and hot.
 
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When I was laid up, I brought about a 1/2 a cord in at at time to keep from having to hobble around outside and carry wood in.
I used several large plastic totes from Walmart, lid off, stacked splits in vertically then horizontal on top.
Within a few days they were noticeably drying, within a week, dried fairly well, within two weeks I would say they dried pretty nicely and took off well upon loading in the insert.
The added benefit was the moisture they lost, humidified the house a little bit.
The wood from the start was not the worst as far as wetness to start with, but was a bit more moist than I would like.
I do know in my situation, it burned much better even after the first week, and pretty dam good at two.
Just keep mindful of insects. I did not have any serious issues, but there was the occasional moth, fly, etc. When the bark started peeling, there were grubs under some of the pcs with bark on them. The insects burn just fine also.
 
Hogwildz said:
When I was laid up, I brought about a 1/2 a cord in at at time to keep from having to hobble around outside and carry wood in.
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Thanks for a ball park figure on the time frame---butif you were bringing it in as ready to burn wood wasn't the moisture level already low --
 
The moisture level was soso, I don't have or use a meter, I go by weight when I pick the splits up. And by how the wood itself burns upon reload.
I would say a week or two will bring a noticeable different in almost any wood. Even a few days will suck a bit of moisture out of the wood. My house is very dry. I usually run a humidifier.
Been too lazy to clean it and replace the filters so far this year. Some years the ol static crap starts, then I fire up the humidifier.
Get yourself a tote or two, and try it. Or stand a few on end on the hearth around the stove. I used to set some splits on end right in front of the insert. Just keep an eye on things, and even that will dry some. Do some experimentation before committing a shatload of wood inside the house. If it works, go at it, if not, nothing lost.
 
if you can stack your wood somewhere that you can have a fan blow across it it will dry quite fast .
Battenkiller has a few threads documenting the drying times.
Guy
 
Hogwildz said:
The moisture level was soso, I don't have or use a meter, I go by weight when I pick the splits up. And by how the wood itself burns upon reload. I would say a week or two will bring a noticeable different in almost any wood. Even a few days will suck a bit of moisture out of the wood.
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Great thanks

guy01 said:
if you can stack your wood somewhere that you can have a fan blow across it it will dry quite fast . Battenkiller has a few threads documenting the drying times.
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I will check this out
 
I think you would note a nice improvement in a week or two indoors. I have some surface wet maple and it is much better if I just give it a couple days indoors.
 
begreen said:
I think you would note a nice improvement in a week or two indoors
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That is what I was hoping BeGreen

dyerkutn said:
Battenkiller has a few threads documenting the drying times.
Click to expand...
Guy---that was quite a thread--gave me a headache--so much data and engineering type stuff--I could really only stand to peruse and read selected posts--and plenty of opinions--but I get the idea--I think in the end you just have to experiment with your own conditions and type of wood. Just wanted to see if the experiment was worth while. I brought a few different size splits in as HogWildz suggested to see how it goes before going all in. And I think I might choose the splits that do NOT have bark on them--just to be on the safe side!!
 
My first year burning I cut standing dead pine and Douglas fir. The mc of the fir was around 30%, and pine 20. I stacked it in the stove room against a wall, maybe a half cord or so at a time. I ran a fan in front of stove, 8 - 10 feet. And the mc dropped to 18 -25 in 1 to 2 weeks. The pine was around 15.
 
fire slave said:
My first year burning I cut standing dead pine and Douglas fir. The mc of the fir was around 30%, and pine 20. I stacked it in the stove room against a wall, maybe a half cord or so at a time. I ran a fan in front of stove, 8 - 10 feet. And the mc dropped to 18 -25 in 1 to 2 weeks. The pine was around 15.
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this sounds encouraging. I have hardwoods like oak, ash and birch but they are already split and partially dried so it should be somewhat equivalent
 
wood dryer.jpg
I was bored this morning so I threw this rack together. I'm sure this would be unsafe to do if left unattended, but I figure if I'm sitting close to the stove and can keep an eye on it I should be fine. I'm not sure if this would help add some humidity to the air too or not. I run the blower to which does help the rack from getting too hot.
 
Stacking ti loose with a fan to move air over it is the way to go.
 
The rack on top of the woodstove looks like it would certainly dry wood out, but it also looks like a house fire waiting to happen! I don't know about you, but no matter how diligent I am at keeping an eye on the stove before I know it the phone is ringing, the dogs are barking at someone arriving outside, etc. and I'm up away from the stove TCB. It wouldn't take long for some bark to dry up enough and drop off onto the stove top and then flare up and get those logs burning, as well. We've had some posts about people trying to pull burning logs out of the stove to haul outside for one reason or another, but in this case you'd have to be ready to act quick and multiple times! I think I'd set that rack a few feet off to the side of the stove and be prepared to give the wood a bit more time to dry out.
 
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I understand your concern. This is only done when I am sitting right in front of the stove with my laptop, or a book in hand. I really only do this during the coal stage of the fire where the stove top is 250-300 degrees. I only do it for a short period of time as well. Just enough to warm and dry the wood up so it is easier to light off. This wood is seasoned two years but moisture still gets to it.
 
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Late moving my wood to shelter this year. I cross stack in front of inserts and keep rotating it with wood brought in but not close to heat. Two days was the magic number for the wetter pieces. Now that I've had the wood in the garage it's just a few hours
 
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