I just finally, after wanting one for years picked up a moisture meter from Lowes and immediately tried it out with surprising results. My oldest wood was cut this spring, early. The first stuff I cut and spilt I've moved into the basement and it's a combo of sassafras, maple, and grey birch. This all measured between 9 and 13 % moisture content which I was happy about. Next I went to the wood shed and measured the stuff I'll be burning by late December through early Feb, this is mixed beech, oak, white birch, and a little sassafras mixed in...I split this stuff and stacked it immediately in the wood shed to dry with the heat and breeze and it all measured no higher than 14%. I went down the the stacks from older to newer selecting a few test pieces to split and test with the meter and everything I have is below 20...I think the highest I got was an 18 on the stuff I don't plan to burn until spring. Finally, I got to a stack that was two year old oak logs that was just cut into sections and split...I consider this too wet to burn and am planning on burning it next year as long as my other stuff holds out. For the heck of it I tested a few of these pieces and they were at 25 to 26 % moisture. I thought they'd be a higher number and am thinking by spring they could very well be burnable. I'm kinda surprised with the readings I'm getting but I'll take it. I always worried that my wood wasn't truly ready yet but it seems it is. I do split on the small side so that could help them dry out quicker. Anyway, this meter is pretty fun and I'm going to use it to experiment with different drying methods to see which one is most effective. Again, my method is to split a piece in 2 and immediately measure the fresh split side by sticking the two probes into the grain of the wood. Do my findings seem to be in line what others find with wood that's only 7 months down to 3 months old?
New to using a moisture meter
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Grisu
Minister of Fire
Your method sounds ok but your readings surprise me. I am not that far from you and haven't got maple down to 10% within a year. Actually, most of my maple reads 12 to 15% even after 2 years. Have you set your MM to measure wood, not building materials?
I made sure to set it to wood and not building material (mine has a little icon you select). I made sure to test several pieces from each stack. I'm guessing my conditions are good and drying technique is too?...my wood does get full sun all day during the summer, and a decent cross breeze. What should a fresh cut green tree read for moisture? I may drop one out back just to test. Neat little tool, glad I finally bought one.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
I haven't fooled with all those different species, but your birch numbers are believable. Split small with good sun exposure and good wind exposure and covered on top I have mixed birch measuring 12-13% on the sunny side of my seasoning rack and 16% from the shady side. All the birch in my shed right now came down in Sep/Oct 2013, got split over the winter while it was frozen and seasoned over the summer of 2014 only. I got five cords of logs coming any day now, those i will process over this winter, season next summer and burn next winter.
NB: for best results the two test pins on your meter should most likely be inserted parallel to the grain of the wood.
FWIW Alaskan birches and spruces should be slightly more than 50% water by weight in a freshly felled sap up healthy tree. Thus a five pound piece of green wood should have slightly more than 2.5# of water in it and slightly less than 2.5# of wood. Split and stacked off the ground this same piece of wood should be down to near the fiber saturation point (+/- 30% MC) in about two weeks with good sun and wind exposure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre_saturation_point
I can't help you with all those other hardwoods you get to pick from. I "know" that soft maples season faster than "hard" maples, but I don't know which are which.
NB: for best results the two test pins on your meter should most likely be inserted parallel to the grain of the wood.
FWIW Alaskan birches and spruces should be slightly more than 50% water by weight in a freshly felled sap up healthy tree. Thus a five pound piece of green wood should have slightly more than 2.5# of water in it and slightly less than 2.5# of wood. Split and stacked off the ground this same piece of wood should be down to near the fiber saturation point (+/- 30% MC) in about two weeks with good sun and wind exposure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibre_saturation_point
I can't help you with all those other hardwoods you get to pick from. I "know" that soft maples season faster than "hard" maples, but I don't know which are which.
Kevin Dolan
Burning Hunk
My moisture meter must be metric because I can't get wood below 20% in one year split stacked and in full sun lol.it usually takes me over 12 months to get ash close to 20% and so I season my wood for two years before burning. If it works good for you.
HotCoals
Minister of Fire
Mine has some icons I can see for a few secs when i turn it on but all I have is a off and on button. Can't access anything.
I didn't know there would be a diff between things like drywall and wood..news to me.
Were you measuring fresh splits or did you just take splits you had and stick the MM into it?
Make sure the pins are pushed as hard as you can into the wood. My findings are more like Kevin and I'm also from SW Ont. We' ve had a really wet Spring/Summer/Fall so how much rain/dampness you've had will make a dif. Also, small splits and typo of wood are the determining factor. I can get some wood easily under 20% in one summer but others are 2-3 years.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
How far off the ground are you guys starting your woodpiles? I used to just lay pallets on a gravel pad. I came into some cinder blocks. I put the cinder blocks under the pallets and it has made a "big" difference for me but I don't have numbers to put on that impression.
bbeals
Member
Yep, I got one like that too and while it measures moisture, I find that it is easier to put the wood in the shed (after splitting), wait two years, then burn. You can chase moisture all you want, but at the end of the day , you have to burn what you have. Focus your efforts on staging, storing and drying wood. They do make "good" moisture meters, I just don't have one. Mine is from lowes and I don't trust it.
HotCoals
Minister of Fire
Yep.
I buy my wood in the spring then stack it out back and it won't get burnt til the following season.. Wood that was already there from last spring will get moved to the basement in late fall for burning. I still like to check it before I burn it..ocd I guess..lol.
My method has always been to start cutting in the spring...mid March after malpe syrup season winds down. The first two stacks I make are the ones that will come into the basement, and be burned first so that's a mix of fast burning stuff...birch and sassafras, with other small stuff mixed in. That stays out in full sun until late August and then I move it in as long as it hasn't been rained on recently. All my stacks are put on small branches from trees I cut. Next I make one stack in the woodshed on pallets where it'll get sun and wind all summer. My woodshed has a metal roof so it stays warm in there all day and works well for drying. All my other stacks go in the driveway on branches so they're off the direct ground, and they stay in full sun. In Sept, I put the oldest in first and the newest in last so I burn the oldest stacks first and work down to the newest stack. My goal is to get 6 rows in my shed, plus 2 stacks in my basement. The ones in the shed are 12 feet long and over 6 feet high in the back, about 4 or 5 feet in the front. I have no idea how many cord this is but I've always guessed at about 3. I have a Fireview stove, and it likes shorter and smaller splits so I do split on the small side. The stacks I'll use for Jan - Fed have the largest splits of red oak to get through the long cold nights. This has been my method for the past 13 years. I've always got great heat, and no moisture hissing wood and a very clean chimney so I've always used that to gauge that my drying method is working well for me. It's rare, but some years I have a small amount of wood left over so that goes down in the basement in the spring and then the cycle starts over. This moisture meter is pretty cool because it confirms what I'm been left to assume all these years. I've tried drying stacks in a "pyramid style" stack before and it seemed to work really well (lots of air flow and the wood is stacked open grain up so the sun bakes it). I'm going to do this again next season so I can measure the splits and see if it really does work as well as I thought it did.
Kevin Dolan
Burning Hunk
Danno77
Minister of Fire
Someone already said it, but I didn't want the concept to be lost, but make sure you are measuring WITH the grain on your MM. Also, take a reading from a couple of inches from each end and from dead center. Average those all together. That gives you a better idea of whole split moisture content.
If you get really bored (or are some sort of a nerd) then take a split and measure it with your MM, then do this:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/superwalnut-or-just-plain-ol-bw.75225/
If you get really bored (or are some sort of a nerd) then take a split and measure it with your MM, then do this:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/superwalnut-or-just-plain-ol-bw.75225/
Thanks, I actually did measure with the grain, and in several spots on each piece I tested figuring it would naturally be drier toward the ends than in the center. I try to apply pressure with the probes to get them into the wood grain but they really don't stick too far into hard wood. I may try to "speed dry / season" a stack next year with the use of a fan and take monthly measurements with my moisture meter. I can think of a few drying experiments I want to do!
DanCorcoran
Minister of Fire
I suggest you Google the mfrs' website and read the owner's manual. Sometimes you change from wood to masonry by holding down the on/off button, or pressing it twice in rapid succession, etc. They're all different.
At the very least, you should be able to switch between Centigrade and Fahrenheit readings....
HotCoals
Minister of Fire
Thanks,I'll do that!I suggest you Google the mfrs' website and read the owner's manual. Sometimes you change from wood to masonry by holding down the on/off button, or pressing it twice in rapid succession, etc. They're all different.
At the very least, you should be able to switch between Centigrade and Fahrenheit readings....
i have the same General moisture meter from lowes. If a log is listed on the screen it is set up for wood. In a stack of bricks appears its for building materials. There is a separate button to change it from building materials to wood.
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