Do I need a new meter or could this wood be that dry already?

Maybe it could be. What kind of wood is it? It sounds like it's been in a furnace all summer! Try burning a piece and see what happens!

East of you we had the same kind of summer. White and red oak 20" splits stacked in May are down to 20% in resplit centers. I believe you had a kiln like drying experience this summer and your meter is correct.

Then I would say it's ready to burn! We had such a hot summer here in Virginia that even some of my oak feels ready to go. I really don't like the 100 degree days but they sure dry out the wood!

Well I'm in the NE and we've been wet but my wood has been reading drier than I expected also. Try some web searching and posting and see if you can connect with a home inspector in your area to compare your meter to their big buck one for comparison. I'm a real estate agent so I've been able to compare my $30 Lowes one to the big buck ones and it matches and I've seen way faster drying on my wood this year than what I expected. I'm new to all this since last year but my experience so far has been open air drying is fine, screw the covering and such, low tech is better and nothing beats time ..... and of course be sure when you measure do it with fresh cuts/splits and average it out over 6 pieces or so..... don't turn this into something Einstein would trouble over... its wood... it dries... deal with it Quote me on that if anyone wants I repeat......... its wood... it dries... deal with it

I just had a similar experience. Although in MA our summer started off dry and hot, the second half of August and September have been cool and wet. I had cut down some trees 4-6 months ago, mainly oak. I've split some of it but most of it is just stacked rounds waiting to be split this fall. This is next years wood at the earliest. Well my curiosity got cranking and I went to Lowes to buy a moisture meter..... split some rounds through the middle and took some readings!

2-3" diameter, 16" long OAK rounds - 19-23% (I'll burn these this shoulder season)
6" diameter, 16" long Oak rounds - 24-27%
12" diameter, 18" long Oak round - 28-36%

3" diameter log legnth rounds, cut at the middle point and measured at the fresh cut:
Ash - 22%
Black Cherry - 22%
Oak - 22% - 29%, the 29% was a thicker 4" round

I'll cut up the log length 3" rounds in the next month or so and burn them during the spring shoulder season. The larger oak rounds were much drier than I expected. Although no where near burnable I expected the unsplit rounds to be 40+ percent! Looks like the oak might be ready for next year if I split it this fall.

We always talk about wood taking a year or more to season, but that is under average conditions in an average woodpile, and most of us are talking about the northeast or northern edge of the US/southern Canada, where climate really isn't great for drying wood. If the Hackberry was out in the sun and wind, up off the ground, during a hot summer in Oklahoma, I think it could definitely season as fast as you think it did. In a kiln, oak seasons in a few weeks. A few months in Oklahoma might have the same effect.

i think its because the lack of having all the ozone layer there...in years to come it will be even easier to dry ur wood...in some cases oak in 2 months..lol

BJ64 said:

The wood is in question Hackberry. It is a real white colored wood inside with a modest density. It seems to dry much quicker than Oak in "normal" years.

Click to expand...

My experience with Hackberry has been about like ash, drys quick.

For sure there are different drying times for different types of wood as well as in different climates. I can imagine wood drying fast in Oklahoma for sure with the hot and dry. Seems that 110 is about the hottest I've been in and do not like it at all even with the low humidity but I can easily imagine it drying wood quickly.

On the other hand, even in climates like ours, some wood will dry amazingly well in 6 months; that is, get it split in the spring and it will be ready to burn in the fall. But we still have that problem with oak drying slow....