Help Diagnose! Low temps that I can't maintain!

[Wood Duck]

You're not going to be able to dry out the whole split very much in an hour or two on the stovetop. I bet you can dry out the outer layer that is touching the stove, but not the inside. Cracks int he wood indicate that the outside is drying faster than the inside, which is exactly what you'd expect with the wood on a hot stove.

If you can stack the wood indoors for a week or two you can probably make a much bigger difference than an hour on the stove. A fan blowing on the wood is a great way to speed drying, even if the wood is in a cool basement or garage.

I would expect the wood to vary a lot in moisture content. Some rounds were probably in contact with moist soil, some maybe on a dryer spot. Even within a single round, the bottom is probably wetter than the top after two years in the same spot.

 

[KSgrown]

I would expect the wood to vary a lot in moisture content. Some rounds were probably in contact with moist soil, some maybe on a dryer spot. Even within a single round, the bottom is probably wetter than the top after two years in the same spot.

I would tend to agree with this. This makes me wonder if the meter I got is not so good. When I take the reading on the interior of a split, more often than not, it registers 32%. The meter says that it max's out at 35% for hardwoods, but I wonder if I'm either already hitting the max or for some other reason, it likes to tell me everything is 32%. I will get lower readings on the exterior of the split and sometimes (not very often) on the interior too, but hardly ever does it go over 32%. Maybe a max of 35% in Doug Fir is similar to a max of 32% in Walnut?

Needless to say, I need to take back this pinless moisture meter and find one with actual pins for measuring the levels. It is definitely more suited for finished construction projects or home inspection and not for firewood.