Moisture Meters

Looking to buy one and they range from $550 down to $11. Please give me your opinion on what I should be looking for?

I bought one from Amazon for around $20. So far, it seems to be doing just fine, but I have only had it for a month. It has no problem telling me which wood is the trouble wood, and the furnace confirms it.

http://www.amazon.com/DUSIEC-Handhe...qid=1361148188&sr=8-2&keywords=Moisture Meter

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-mini-moisture-meter-67143.html

This is what I bought and all I did was change the batteries out for Duracell it works good.

Pete

I have the Harbour Fright meter. I think it works okay, but having never used any other (more $$) meter, I have nothing to compare it. You have to push the probes in to the wood as far as you can to get a good reading, but it was cheap and as far as I can tell, accurate enough.

Peace,
- Sequoia

Change the batteries to a better set it works far better that way.

Pete

I'll have to look on Azamon for better batteries. Fry's Electronics (best place around here for batteries) didn't have the size, and all Harbour Fright had was a card with assorted sizes of button batteries.

Peace,
- Sequoia

at the risk of becoming known as a total curmudgeon ..... what's the point of MMs for firewood ? It's either ready ,or it isn't . If Your MM says "nope ,it ain't ready " then what ? Jeez guys , just stack it for 2-3 years and it'll be good .
Curmudgeon rant over

Cause everyone else has one so I wanted one too.

Because not everyone has the luxury of a full on 2 year in advance supply for a number of reasons...better to burn safe than burn sorry.....seriously, it is just to make sure as a newer burner that the look and feel of ready wood is really ready...I started this thread wondering why some MM were 550 and some were 11bucks....so far no one has given that answer and so for under a fin I can just make sure the wood going into the stove is good to go at least until I get a better feel for things.

From what I have seen most come from China, so you may as well get one direct from China on Ebay for $11 with shipping. Get a dual probe, easier to jam into wood than 4 probes. The HF one looks good enough. I have never seen one in the HF store here though, so shipping would be $7 more..

As for wood being ready or not with time, that is not always reliable in the PNW. I have some stuff that has been out there for 2 years and it is not "dry" yet. My alder is dry after 8 months, but I want to check it anyway.

So,does the MM make wood "season " faster ? To have properly burning wood is all about planning beforehand . If You CSS your wood with enough time for it to dry properly,a MM is not needed . If You don't , the MM will tell you to wait until the wood is ready to burn .
In short , work towards having the luxury of having decent wood to burn .

All this talk about moisture meter forced my hand! This morning at my local hardware store I had to buy one, a General MM1E. The two ranges are 7-15% and 16-35%. It uses a 10 LED display.

Most of my stacks are between 12 to 15%. Some touched 11%. A real impulse purchase, thanks guys!

You know what I'm gonna say: "The best device for checking the moisture content of your firewood is a multi-year calendar."

Ok curmudgeon. All I was doing is asking a for a little bit of advice from people that had experience. I am sorry I am not an expert like you, it takes time you know. Your rant against my question is not helpful here, it is not wanted here, when you see a question you do not like because you think we are idiots, you must know that you have the option not to answer it...just skip by it and chalk it up to an idiot asking an idiotic question....someone as experienced as you are must be able to exert a bit of self control by now I would think?!

Or a felt tip pen

I think I'm gonna add "and a felt tip pen" to my mantra! Thanks for the idea!

Your point being ? I didn't call you a name ,or insult you . If You took offense , I publicly apologize . Feel better ?

Now may I open a CAN worms here
I did this a few weeks back,but ask here for details here this is what I was told

readings need to be taken on fresh splits ,read on inside

wood needs to be like room temp not Cold

I have the same model ,instructions don't tell you this, at least the ones I got didn't

cheers

No I do not...every once in a while someone comes across with a holier than thou attitude. That is just not helpful. This site has been awesome and 99.9% of the posters here are truly well meaning people here to help....guess you are just in a bad mood or in that .1%

The moisture meter is good for people like me that are in their first year of burning with 2 year stacked wood available, some of which is oak and some of which is locust. Threw the locust in the furnace, and it burned like CRAP. Actually, buffalo chips would have burned better than it, so strike that. It burned horribly, if at all. A moisture meter later, I found out that locust split and stacked since August 2011 still had 37% moisture content. The oak from the same time period had 24% moisture. So, oak it is now. Ran out of my poplar and other crap wood, so I need to burn something that didn't dry in 6 months to a year.

If/when I get 3+ years ahead, I will be more than happy to use the moisture meter for target practice.

Thank you

Yeah, but before you get on Nixon too much, he has been really helpful on here a lot of times. So, both of you go to your corners and wait until I say you can come back to play. lol

My Boss is a curmudgeon

Don, I'm not trying to be arrogant . Nor do I think that I'm in any way superior to you . I was just trying to say that firewood takes TIME to season . a MM is useless in that regard .Season Your wood for 2 -3 years ,and you'll be happy ,so will your flue .If I rubbed You the wrong way , I'm sorry . The internet makes it hard to come across the way we intend at times .

This last apology seemed more sincere than the first attempt...I am good to go.