moisture meter - what is a good metric?

[DianeB]

OK - heard mention of these on the board - never had to worry as the old mama bear burnt everything. Jotul not so much!
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER®-Digital-Moisture-Humidity-LCD/dp/B005N6EFP2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I am sure it will come with directions - but for you "seasoned" guys out there, are these any good and should I be burning if moisiture at 10/20/30/40%??

 

[James02]

OK - heard mention of these on the board - never had to worry as the old mama bear burnt everything. Jotul not so much!
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER®-Digital-Moisture-Humidity-LCD/dp/B005N6EFP2/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I am sure it will come with directions - but for you "seasoned" guys out there, are these any good and should I be burning if moisiture at 10/20/30/40%??

15-20% is the general rule...

 

[DexterDay]

20% is good... Below is better

BackwoodsSavage has wood that makes the meter read backwards!

 

[Shadow&Flame]

I think Backwoods has a kiln in his backyard...

 

[DianeB]

I have had some wood that has been in our barn for a couple of years, up on pallet - can't wait to check it. Cord wood coming in a few days, mixed hardwoods supposedely seasoned. Can't wait to check that as well.

 

[pen]

I moved this thread over to the gear room. There are many varying opinions on this topic.

Here are the results of a search for "moisture content" that may be helpful. https://www.hearth.com/talk/search/2859558/?q=moisture+content&o=date&c[title_only]=1

pen

 

[milleo]

I have had some wood that has been in our barn for a couple of years, up on pallet - can't wait to check it. Cord wood coming in a few days, mixed hardwoods supposedely seasoned. Can't wait to check that as well.

Make sure you test it on a fresh split surface....

 

[DianeB]

2 split cords delivered today. seasoned mixed hardwoods split. We split a couple and the reading was 21-22%. Not 20% but probably not so bad.???comments invited!

We split a few of what we had stored in our barn, 16% for the apple tree we lost in March. 14% for an old maple that came down last Fall, also stored split in our barn on pallets - we have approx 2 cords of the barn stored splits. We will use that first in our new Jotul F400.

We will stack the new wood under our deck with only the top layer covered, we usually drape the whole thing in a black tarp to "cook" it, but will try in the new way and see what it yields - probalbly will only drape it when we get our snow.

We use approx 3 cords in the winter so we are only one cord ahead. Gotta get going for next year since I don't have my smoke dragon any longer

 

[MasterMech]

Sounds like you're going to be able to witness first hand the difference between dry wood (the 21-22%) and really dry wood. Make sure you report back in January.

 

[DianeB]

Sounds like you're going to be able to witness first hand the difference between dry wood (the 21-22%) and really dry wood. Make sure you report back in January.

hope that 22% wood dries out a lot between now and January !

 

[MasterMech]

hope that 22% wood dries out a lot between now and January !

20% is the threshold generally considered "acceptable" and under 25% will do ok, just not great. 2% to go, I think you'll be fine this winter, plus you've got some super dry stuff to mix in so your average moisture content per load will be well under 20%.