Blowing Bubbles? Liquid Soap method?

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Bster13

Minister of Fire
Feb 24, 2012
810
CT
I've read some old posts about "blowing bubbles" or using the "liquid soap" method for testing if wood is dry or not. Can anyone provide any more info? Not getting anywhere fast. thx.
 
You just smear the soap on the end of a split and then blow hard into the other end of the split. Like blowing into a straw. If the wood is dry the soap will bubble a little bit as the air passes through the wood.
 
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Does this apply to most wood species? Dishwasher soap ok I assume? (thank you)
 
Dish soap is the right stuff. If the wood isn't dry you just end up blue in the face. Yep. Any species. Wood is made up of tubes that conduct water. If the water is gone air can pass through them.

A cheap moisture meter is a lot better and you don't have to hide behind the wood pile when you use it so that your family and neighbors don't laugh at you for kissing your wood splits.
 
Ok, I have a cheapy moisture meter. The correct way to use the meter is to take a split, split it in half again and measure in the middle, not the ends, correct? With that said I'll measure some of the freshly split/cut stuff and compare it to my "old" stuff and hopefully grab the same species to minimize variables.
 
Count me as extremely skeptical of the 'blowing bubbles' method. Heck, one way to test the difference between red and white oak is that you can blow bubbles through red oak but not through white, and that applies regardless of whether the wood is dry or not.

Electronic moisture meters are nearly worthless at anywhere over the fiber saturation point (around 28-30% MC). They're of no use for freshly-cut wood. That said, you do need to check freshly split surfaces, because the exterior dries out very quickly. There will be a gradient, wettest in the middle and driest at the ends. The average MC will be somewhere in-between those extremes.
 
I guess if a split is over 30% and the moisture meter cannot accurately read above that no sweat, as that's not something burnable anyway. We'll see.
 
I guess if a split is over 30% and the moisture meter cannot accurately read above that no sweat, as that's not something burnable anyway. We'll see.
Yep. Below 18% is getting real good.
 
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