basement wood drying test ?

[fullbore]

It's been two weeks of drying the "green" red oak, so here's what I found. Six 4" splits brought the stove to 500* in about 35 minutes(from coals at 300*). The wood was not hissing or spitting. The heat was moderate and the secondaries were strong until I tried to choke down about 75%. I returned to 50% air and let the fire cruise. I took one of the splits and took a moisture reading...15% on the outside. After splitting, 25% was measured inside. Overall, not too bad for only two weeks and it does correlate to the stoves mediocre performance. Another two weeks could get the wood down to 20% moisture; however, it is extremely unpracticle. I am somewhat impressed that the moisture content would drop that quickly in just two weeks time.

 

[Slow1]

It's been two weeks of drying the "green" red oak, so here's what I found. Six 4" splits brought the stove to 500* in about 35 minutes(from coals at 300*). The wood was not hissing or spitting. The heat was moderate and the secondaries were strong until I tried to choke down about 75%. I returned to 50% air and let the fire cruise. I took one of the splits and took a moisture reading...15% on the outside. After splitting, 25% was measured inside. Overall, not too bad for only two weeks and it does correlate to the stoves mediocre performance. Another two weeks could get the wood down to 20% moisture; however, it is extremely unpracticle. I am somewhat impressed that the moisture content would drop that quickly in just two weeks time.

I don't suppose you happen to have the moisture content at the start of the 2 weeks? I'd be interested in knowing how much was actually lost during that two week period.

 

[bokehman]

I don't suppose you happen to have the moisture content at the start of the 2 weeks?

I've got a pile of olive that is not ready yet. When the thread started in November I re-split a few pieces and it read 32% at the core. I bought a few full sized splits inside and left them about 2' from the stove. I just split a couple open and they have dropped to 29% at the core. But, guess what, I just took a couple of pieces out of the source woodpile and they too are down to 29% now.

 

[lexybird]

It's been two weeks of drying the "green" red oak, so here's what I found. Six 4" splits brought the stove to 500* in about 35 minutes(from coals at 300*). The wood was not hissing or spitting..

any chance you tired this on a practical piece of wood as 4" splits is kindling in my stove and shouldnt take very long to dry considering how small and open it must be

 

[fullbore]

The original moisture content was above 30% b/c it maxed out on my meter. I also have some larger splits 6" to 8" and 24" to 26" in length. That's probably larger than typical but the 5700 can handle large wood. Regardless, a drop of at least 5% moisture content in any size split of red oak in two weeks seems impressive. I originally suspected there would be a negligible change over the two week period. I also suspected that the oak would continue to burn poorly with temps around 300*. Conversely, the oak's burn quality was greatly improved. I have more of the same red oak outside and I'm sure that the meter will read at least 30%.

 

[fullbore]

Last night I burned the remaining red oak that I've been storing for the basement "test". After six weeks of drying, the largest 6-7" splits measured 22% (in the middle after splitting) on the moisture meter. The stove came up to 600* in about 25 minutes with a full load. No hissing or indication of low wood quality whatsoever. Ultimately wood will season much quicker in a warm, dry basement; however, it would be extremely unpractical. Storing a large quantity of wood in the basement may also change the results.