Free Moisture Meter

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oldspark said:
Well I dont need a MM (most of my wood is 2 years old or more) , or a tach in the car (you can tell by the sound when to shift) or a thermometer in the house (you know when its cold) but they are a nice tool to have, a elm tree fell over last spring at my place and had to clean it up before mowing began, some of it was dry enough to burn then as checked with the MM (amazed me) and it burnt well. It's obivious that some think they are a waste of time and money but some people can make good use of them.

Its funny how the same questions (and answers) come up here again and again. I dont have a "fancy" meter (got mine from Lowes for $30). When I bought my house and started burning again a few years back, I needed to be sure which wood was driest (was not yet ahead). It was a very useful tool for me when I needed it. Dont really even pick it up much,now.
Some say "never had it...never will". And thats fine for them. I live on a 60'x100' suburban plot. My house sits closer to the front, so there is a pretty large yard - relatively speaking. I have a 5 cord woodshed, and a wife who likes her yard to look more like "Better Homes and Gardens" than "Genes Firewood and sh*@h0le dump". It it HARD to season enough firewood on a small plot to stay at least a full year ahead AND keep the wife from offing me in my sleep. I need to find room for 10 cords (5 dry, 5 seasoning). It is NOT easy...and the MM helped me alot (only built the shed this summer).
If anyone is new to burning, or in a situation like I was (just moved and no "stock"), I'd say the $$ is worth the piece of mind. Just my .02 cents. :smirk:
 

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pen said:
I'd be willing to bet a case of beer that if one of those 10 year old splits of ash of yours were set outside in a pile where they received some moisture / wind / sun for a year that it would crack all to hell.

I really doubt it.

There's no way that a single piece of firewood or well-weathered lumber on my property is anywhere near cracked as badly as the wood in your photos, nor is any of it moldy like that. If it wasn't still 10 below out, I'd grab my camera and take some shots.

I had a bunch of firewood that was drying in my basement all last winter, and then left outside all summer in the rain and then brought back in to dry. It looked about the same as when I first put it out in the spring, bark tighter than it was on the tree. Pallets have rotted away after 4-5 years on the ground, but they never cracked and fell apart, nor did the wood that was stored on them look like it'd split in two if you dropped it. Last year I brought in some three year old ash that was stored on those pallets and it hardly had any checking going on at all. You can see it at the very bottom of the stack in my basement in the photo below. Blackened ends from mildew staining, but no cracks... and the bark is on there tight.

Longer time frame? Well, my white pine picnic table is well over 10 years old, with only the original coat of stain to protect it and it doesn't look like your wood, although it is starting to rot pretty badly. 17 year old deck is still in pretty fair shape, too, even though I never once applied a sealer to the wood. Even longer yet? How about wooden boats that have been in and out of the water, taking up water and then drying out again for 100 years and left out year round in some of the most inhospitable and varying conditions you can find don't do that. They may show cracks here and there, and they may rot, but they don't usually develop huge, gaping cracks in the planking, stems or keels, nor do they just fall apart unless they hit something in the water. I have a 60 something year old wood and canvas canoe that I am restoring, and it shows no substantial cracking anywhere. It probably spent its entire life out in the elements.


So, no, I have never seen that kind of destruction of wood once it has been thoroughly dried. Weathering damage will occur, but will be limited to the areas closer to the surface until many a year passes by.


Regardless of whether or not you see this occurring in your own backyard, I still maintain that the appearance of firewood can be very deceiving regarding its moisture content. If your wood has been out there for two years and it looks like that, it is safe to assume it's seasoned, but that is because we know it has spent the proper amount of time required, not because of the way it looks. How it burns may help a seasoned pro, but how's a newbie supposed to tell how his wood burns if he's never burned both known green wood and known dry wood to get some experince with the way they burn? Bottom line, if you are new to this and have a suspect pile of wood, the meter is probably the easiest way to tell if it is close or whether it needs another year in the stack. Even a cheap meter with no built-in species correction can easily differentiate between wood that is 20% MC and wood that is 30%.
 

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I cut 6 or 7 standing, very live, Red Oak this summer July/August time frame. Split and put in a big pile(not stacked) in the elements uncovered. After the first hard frost in mid November brought it into my 55 deg basement stacked, I ran a dehumidifier for 2 or 3 weeks then got the advice on hearth.com to put a fan in the room to circulate the air (this was the key to the drying). I'm burning this read oak with no problems right now. I need to get a MC meter and see what this red oak has for moisture but it burns great. This is my first year burning wood in my own house so maybe I will notice a big difference next year since I have my reserves cut/split for next year but I think it's close to as dry as I can get it. Does this sound like BS to you guys or do you think I just don't know the difference between burning green wood versus burning seasoned wood?
 
Battenkiller said:
pen said:
I'd be willing to bet a case of beer that if one of those 10 year old splits of ash of yours were set outside in a pile where they received some moisture / wind / sun for a year that it would crack all to hell.

I really doubt it.

I'm always willing to learn / share ideas. Lets go the other way with it. You are saying these weather conditions wouldn't make your wood split. If it's not the weather, what then do you think is making my wood split up? Most commonly, I burn Beech, Maple, Cherry, Ash.

pen
 
pen said:
Battenkiller said:
pen said:
I'd be willing to bet a case of beer that if one of those 10 year old splits of ash of yours were set outside in a pile where they received some moisture / wind / sun for a year that it would crack all to hell.

I really doubt it.

I'm always willing to learn / share ideas. Lets go the other way with it. You are saying these weather conditions wouldn't make your wood split. If it's not the weather, what then do you think is making my wood split up? Most commonly, I burn Beech, Maple, Cherry, Ash.

pen
As I stated above its the rapid drying of the wood, I found the technical terms for it on a site but not sure I can find it now.
 
Jutt77 said:
Why buy a moisture meter when your good ole multi-tasking multimeter will do a better job? https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/44360/

Reference chart on page 4 here: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr06.pdf

Moisture meter is faster and easier. Both will do what you need, but for $12 from Harbor Freight I'd rather carry something the size of a pack of chewing gum than a multi-meter, a hammer and a pocket full of nails. To each his own.
 
Battenkiller said:
Jutt77 said:
Why buy a moisture meter when your good ole multi-tasking multimeter will do a better job? https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/44360/

Reference chart on page 4 here: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr06.pdf

Moisture meter is faster and easier. Both will do what you need, but for $12 from Harbor Freight I'd rather carry something the size of a pack of chewing gum than a multi-meter, a hammer and a pocket full of nails. To each his own.

Does that $12 moisture meter adjust for species of wood and assist with building computers?
 
By going by looks I have some ash that looks like it should be 35% just cut last week ,but it measures 18%. you would never guess this without a meter or burning it. Not all dry wood looks as if it is going to fall in half or brown. ;-)
 
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