Can wood be too dry?

[jrems]

Hi guys , I just got a cord delivered of kiln dried wood. It's beautiful stuff. All cut exactly even with a huge wood processor. It's been in the kiln for 2 weeks and was loaded into the truck right out of the kiln. When it got here the inside of the splits was still warm. I can't belive how light even large chunks of oak were. I double checked my moisture meter in 5 large splits( after splitting in 1/2) it's reading 0% moisture. The guy told me this load was drier than expected and recommended mixing in other wood less dry. He said it's normally 7-10%. When I loaded the first piece I'm glad I had a leather glove on it caught fire in my hand before I got it all the way into the stove. I have never had wood this dry any recommendations burning it?

 

[claydogg84]

I would agree with the seller, mix it with other stuff. Sounds like its going to char and start out gassing quite quickly. Should have some really nice secondaries with that stuff. Maybe do a couple test runs without a full load to make sure the stove doesn't run away on you.

 

[jatoxico]

Once the wood equilibrates you'll probably get a truer idea of what the moisture content is. Mixing dry wood with wet is a good way to get by w/o running out of wood. If you have any marginal wood do it, if you have good air control you may find you just have to shut the air down tighter than you've had to.

Don't load the stove up chuck full of the kiln dried though until you get a feel for what you're dealing with. Very dry wood can out gas all at once like a full load of kindling so there's a risk of overfire.

 

[Ashful]

Sitting outside, it will come back up to ~15%, but that may take several months to a year. For now, mix with greener wood.

 

[Cburke]

Yea be careful with that stuff talking from experience I loaded my stove full of kiln dry oak and there was no controlling it. Temps well over 800. Lesson learned won't do that again! Great wood to get a load going from a small coal bed in the morning.

 

[tsquini]

That is way too low to burn by itself. If you are not careful you will over fire your stove. Take is advise mix it with other higher mc firewood. If someone sold me wood at a mc of 10% I would not be happy. Stoves are design to burn wood around 20% mc.

 

[billb3]

I'd test it again when the split temp stabilizes.
My MM is affected by temp.

 

[milberl]

Be careful .

 

[jrems]

I have been very careful. It offgasses so quickly by itself. I have been using one to two small splits of the dry stuff and a few 20-30%mc splits on top. It seems to be controllable that way.it's much drier than the pallet wood I had been using as kinding.