help buying "seasoned" wood using moisture meter

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Hello everyone,

We live in Chester County PA.
Basic story:
Formerly owned a FR Ben Franklin wood stove with cast iron folding front doors with low BTUs for decades. Now own the small Regency with cat-free standing stove in FR.
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Burn a mix of Ash, Cherry, Apple, some maple (had two trees fall 2023 summer storms). Ash cost $400 for 2 cords. This week a wood seller asked $600 for seasoned Oak! Instead, we might take another tree down for next year. Or look further out for less seasoned wood as in free?

Fire Box is small. Unless below 30F with my stove packed the cat is difficult climbing to active zone to engage it-then it slowly falls. This wood is below 15% MC.

Last winter ‘22 was its break in. It seemed to burn better and hotter. Different better wood last year too included slab wood well seasoned from nice neighbor. Catalyst glider jammed last year tech did work around but parts never replaced as said.

Cleaning was this May ‘23.

My stove brochure read 10 hours burn time (under perfect conditions) but it’s burn time is down to moderate coals to rekindle in 3-4 hours with an additional hour or so using cat last year.

I woke up almost middle of every night last season to reload. Dealer said he would speak to Regency Rep because my burn time is not the same in brochure. I realize multiple factors make up the heat. Dealer never sent replacement rear bricks that cracked in half last year so I found a link on your site and am ordering the pumice type. Also called Regency in CAN about heat, bricks, cat and rust on door hinges and single flue rust-I thought I paid for dbl flue.

Cape Cod closed well insulated design home with finished upstairs bedroom. We live mostly on main floor. FR ceiling fan works plus a med tall oscillating FR floor fan.

At 68 years for a female I am still pretty strong to haul the splits from the nightly covered huge wood pile to the house back porch where we have 3 racks to hold about 1 1/2 cords. Night porch wood covered and during rain or snow.

FYI: This week a wood seller asked $600 for seasoned Oak! Instead, we might take another tree down for next year.

Main concern is low burn time and moving heat from FR through kitchen through LR down hall to front bedroom.

Only option is turn up furnace heat or move small regency fire box to LR open fireplace then ask Regency dealer for a cost break on another FR medium wood stove. Originally thought my small stove was ordered non-cat. Thought that small box would heat entire main floor and dealer liked the idea of small box in FR. Not sure on next stove cat if dealer gives me a price break for another FR stove. I’m dreaming… on the price break. I see online prices with accessories and shipping is less.

That’s all. Just sharing.

Thanks for reading my post and for creating this wonderful and informative website.
 
No such thing as dry wood here. They all claim it's seasoned but I haven't found anything less then 30%. So I'm up on the roof a lot. Likely will be until I can get ahead or coal prices drop.
 
I keep asking and getting wierd looks when I ask what kind of seasonings they use.
Being in my 70's I am told I am well seasoned -what ever that means.
;lol
 
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Just curious how you get customers. word of mouth due to a solid reputation of previous sales? I understand the flip side of a difficult customer having worked both sides of sales. no , the customer isnt always right. many customers just SUCK and will never be pleased. I dont feel like wanting to verify a few splits would put me into that category. How else can I protect myself ? I would not reject a load if the wood was dry. I NEED wood so the only risk of refusal is if the seller isnt selling dry wood. The offer to visit was actually for the sellers benefit . They wouldn't have to risk refusal, loading , fuel costs, schedule slot, unloading etc. I also understand not wanting customers at you place and potential liability as again people suck and are generally morons.

This is more of an immediate issue as this is my first stove and had no prior wood knowledge. I have bought some green for the future . Unfortunately i have limited funds for wood this year after my stove purchase and if i trust the wrong seller i wont be able to have heat this year. So this is a high risk situation for me this year. Any tips to not find myself in avoid this customer label yet still ensure i am getting dry wood?
That is a risk we all take when buying wood. If you wait to buy until it snows and want to burn that wood when you get home, you are wasting you money. It would be like buying from 7-11. Wood needs at least one good season to dry, 2 makes a lot of difference. Even if the seller swears up and down it is seasoned, stack for one season. If the bark falls off, it is pretty much dry. Then when you burn that piece, listen for any hissing or snaps. Hissing and snaps (crackles) is moisture trying to escape. Don’t over think it. Good luck.
 
the guy i buy it from always tells me it's dry,split since june delivery is september i know it's not dry but no one else is either so i burn it next winter.first few years were a pain but have it under control now lol.
 
That is a risk we all take when buying wood. If you wait to buy until it snows and want to burn that wood when you get home, you are wasting you money. It would be like buying from 7-11. Wood needs at least one good season to dry, 2 makes a lot of difference. Even if the seller swears up and down it is seasoned, stack for one season. If the bark falls off, it is pretty much dry. Then when you burn that piece, listen for any hissing or snaps. Hissing and snaps (crackles) is moisture trying to escape. Don’t over think it. Good luck.

Actually the wood you buy from 7-11 is normally very dry, it just costs like $1000.00 for a cord. I agree with everything else.
 
Every seller I know splits in the spring, has it in a big pile til fall/winter and sells it as seasoned. The logs sit in log length for about a year before that but as we know on here it does not really start to season until its split. The wood still will need to sit a year or even 2 before ready to burn.
 
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Never hurts to stop and talk to a neighbor who has wood put up or is out running a saw... "hey, curious what type of stove you're running... got a minute to chat?"

In my neck of the woods i could probably make 3 calls to buddies within 5 minutes and have you squared away for dirt cheap just to keep the 'woodburner club' alive.

Worth making a new friend!
 
If you look at the wood drying charts it might actually be just a good buying wood that was cut/split in the spring versus the fall before.

But yeah two years is better

Posted in another thread. It’s talking about lumber drying, and 8/4 is the closest I could find to firewood size.

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