Moisture meter arrived today and I couldn't wait to see if I have any wood enough to call "properly seasoned" for my first year burning this upcoming Winter. I felled, bucked and stacked my Hickory in Nov 2013. I didn't get it split and stacked till February 2014. My oak was felled, bucked, split and stacked in Feb/March 2014.
I went back to the pile and picked up a hickory split sitting on top of the stack facing the Sun and breeze. I split it open with my ax and took my first reading from the inside of the split. 9%! I was encouraged but was wondering if my MM was possibly off. I've never heard people on here talk about moisture that low.
I walked around to the back of the stack that doesn't get as much sun and breeze. Split another hickory split from the middle of the stack. Pushed the prongs in pretty deep in and inside read 12%. So now I really wanted to see if the oak in the stack was ready too as I split everything pretty thin. Pulled an oak split from the middle of the back. Split it and took a reading. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!... 30%
Oak's not ready. At least I know my General brand MM is giving me sane readings. I went back to the hickory area of my stack and took several more readings from various areas of the wood pile. Nothing registered over 19%. Several were quite low. 16%, 12%, but nothing under 9%.
So I've got about 2 1/2 cords of well seasoned firewood! Woohoo!
I've read so many posts where Freshman stove burners are told, "You'll get even better burn times when you're burning truly seasoned wood." I always felt apprehensive that our first year would leave my wife with a cold house and disappointed in our wood stove decision. I'm optimistic now that we'll have a warm cozy first Winter with our new Jotul F55!
I'm still wondering if my technique is wrong or something. Do you guys/gals get readings down as low as 9%?
I went back to the pile and picked up a hickory split sitting on top of the stack facing the Sun and breeze. I split it open with my ax and took my first reading from the inside of the split. 9%! I was encouraged but was wondering if my MM was possibly off. I've never heard people on here talk about moisture that low.
I walked around to the back of the stack that doesn't get as much sun and breeze. Split another hickory split from the middle of the stack. Pushed the prongs in pretty deep in and inside read 12%. So now I really wanted to see if the oak in the stack was ready too as I split everything pretty thin. Pulled an oak split from the middle of the back. Split it and took a reading. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!... 30%
Oak's not ready. At least I know my General brand MM is giving me sane readings. I went back to the hickory area of my stack and took several more readings from various areas of the wood pile. Nothing registered over 19%. Several were quite low. 16%, 12%, but nothing under 9%.
So I've got about 2 1/2 cords of well seasoned firewood! Woohoo!
I've read so many posts where Freshman stove burners are told, "You'll get even better burn times when you're burning truly seasoned wood." I always felt apprehensive that our first year would leave my wife with a cold house and disappointed in our wood stove decision. I'm optimistic now that we'll have a warm cozy first Winter with our new Jotul F55!I'm still wondering if my technique is wrong or something. Do you guys/gals get readings down as low as 9%?
