njburner said:Thanks for the info, Todd: that's interesting.
I have been leaving the ash in because the Fireview manual recommends an inch of ash. But I may well go your route and clean out the ash: that would certainly help mitigate some of the problems I've been experiencing with smoking wood.
I did a bit more splitting today (of large existing splits: 4"-6"), and none of the new splits had moisture content over 20% according to my moisture meter. But the reading fluctuates wildly within a given split depending on how hard I push the tines in, and the range of readings is the same over all kinds of wood (birch, maple, ash, oak), so I suspect I am not getting accurate info about the true moisture content.
Yeah, clean the ash out if your only burning a single fire per day it will help. My moisture meter does the same thing and my directions state to only push the tines in 3mm. I don't think you need to push them all the way in.