How can this be?

[SeattleRider]

Ok so I picked a moisture meter from Lowes tonight, came home and tested it on the splits that I put in the garage couple of weeks back.

So this is a tree that I cut and split no more than two weeks back and the meter is telling me moisture content is at max 24% at the ends and inside it is around 18%.

Is this pretty normal or am I missing something?

 

[oconnor]

Sounds odd to me. What does it read in a piece of 2x4? Try something wood around the house that you can poke that is known to be dry.

 

[SeattleRider]

Sounds odd to me. What does it read in a piece of 2x4? Try something wood around the house that you can poke that is known to be dry.

Just tried it on a 2x4 and the reading is 13%.

 

[gzecc]

Could be right. This is a soft wood? What is the reading on the palm of your hand? There are always unusual conditions.

 

[Seanm]

Standing dead conifer?

 

[SeattleRider]

Well it was a conifer but don't think it was dead, the split wood looked healthy and had enough green on the branches. I will try the wood from other trees stacked outside in the morning and take the palm reading as well.

Does this mean this wood can be mixed with dry wood and burned?

 

[Seanm]

Well it was a conifer but don't think it was dead, the split wood looked healthy and had enough green on the branches. I will try the wood from other trees stacked outside in the morning and take the palm reading as well.

Does this mean this wood can be mixed with dry wood and burned?

Sounds weird. If the needles were green then I would say it will take until next year before you should burn it if c/s/s right away and top covered and off the ground. I burn almost nothing but conifers and if it was 24% even on the outside I would be leaving it for another season. The moisture readings you are describing sound like a dead tree that has dried and then been exposed to the elements ie rain which I know is not the case with your situation. Also just checking but are you testing it on fresh cut splits not on the two week old split rounds?

 

[Paulywalnut]

Should be a fresh split you're testing. Sounds like you tested a few weeks old split in the garage.
Try that again on a piece just split and poke it with the grain.

 

[BillLion]

Could be right. This is a soft wood? What is the reading on the palm of your hand? There are always unusual conditions.

What should the palm of your hand read?

Assuming I don't need afresh split on that one.

 

[Paulywalnut]

34-39 percent. I always thought we were 70 percent liquid.

 

[blades]

Just so you know testing a piece of frozen wood, or that below about 40 degs F will give false readings. There temp. range specs listed somewhere in the manual that no one reads. So that said bring a piece in let warm to room temp ( thats going to take about 24hrs to warm all the way through, split and check fresh faces at that point. checking the outside has no bearing on the inside.

 

[Paulywalnut]

^^^ Yes what blades said exactly^^^.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ok so I picked a moisture meter from Lowes tonight, came home and tested it on the splits that I put in the garage couple of weeks back.

So this is a tree that I cut and split no more than two weeks back and the meter is telling me moisture content is at max 24% at the ends and inside it is around 18%.

Is this pretty normal or am I missing something?

Don't waste your time testing the ends. But even then, unless you've had some recent rain, the end should not be higher than the interior. Did you re-split the wood before testing?

 

[SeattleRider]

I did re-split and the reading was close to 29% So all in all need to wait a few more months.