Moisture Content for Newbies

Here is a little trick to illustrate how much moisture is really in that "Dry Wood" you were sold:

1. Use chainsaw to shave off 3-4 inches off your too-long splits. Remember, the ends are the driest...
2. Dump end chunks into a Rubbermaid trash bin until you can figure out where to put them. Put lid on to keep rain out.
3. Forget about them for 3-6 weeks during dry, unseasonably warm February/March.
4. After remembering they are there, remove lid and find a dripping condensation on lid.
5. Be amazed, then let wood dry for another two years.

Unlikely that anyone who's been reading here would be "amazed" that they were sold wet wood.
I wonder how much condensation you would see with say 18% wood compared to wet 25% stuff...

When I was a newbie, I was SURE my wood was dry--that's why I came here with smoke/soot problems. Everyone has to start somewhere!
Actually, those splits had been sitting for nearly a year, just not stacked.

MM would be easier?

But not as much fun...science project for the kiddies?

You need to talk to battenkiller.

Speaking of BK . . . has anyone heard from him lately? I know he's probably been busy with the move and all, but you think he would have checked in here with us.

Good post, fireb. Reminds me of my first year of burning, WAY before discovering this site. I bought 1/3 cord of "seasoned" mixed hardwood in splits. Stored it in the garage right away. The garage windows all winter had heavy condensation or ice (when it got real cold out) all winter. I could barely maintain a fire with it. Good advice from those who know at hearth.com set me right and now burning is a joy instead of a struggle.

You know what they say--a picture is worth a thousand words. I wish I had taken a photo of the "rain dome" in there!

I used to wonder why my wood would burn so poorly, and I figured a lot of it was an old pre-EPA insert. Looking back a big piece of the equation was in all honesty poorly seasoned/dried wood. I just posted on another thread that I recently purchased a moisture meter and now I check stuff all the time. My neighbor has a living tree (elm I think) that I measured while showing him the meter, and it measured in the low 30s% . All of that said I still don't think I would have expected to see condensation on the lid. I may try that with one of those clear plastic storage boxes just to see.

Did you split the "living" tree open and measure the inside, or just stick the meter in the bark? Because a living tree should have a moisture content much higher than 30%.

Some of the low-moisture woods such as White Ash and Cherry will have close to that. Not sure about Elm though...

Like Carbon_Liberator said, unless you get inside the tree, you will get a false reading. My green splits will get a reading of 30, but when I re-split, it goes off the scale. My first experiment the the General MM was barkside--21%, inside after splitting 35%

Is this the same wood you used for the bag experiment? What kind of wood?

We tried sticking it into the back but it wouldnt register. The he pulled out a pocket knife, peeled back some bark to the exprose greem wood and that gave us the reading.

I was bucking an American Elm (36"dbh) a few years ago that had went down in an ice storm a year earlier, the saw dust was so wet you could feel your leg getting damp through your pants.