How dry should "seasoned" wood be?

[Dave Arbour]

I'm new to this forum and somewhat new to burning wood. I bought this house a couple of years ago and it came with a wood-burning stove in the basement along with a cord of wood that had also been in the basement for about 5 years. I burned most of that stuff last year. This year I bought a cord of "seasoned" mixed hardwood and built a small storage shed next to the garage in order to keep under cover and outside. The stove did help to keep the house warm, but barely. I definitely used less oil. So, with this year's tax return, I just went out and bought a Jotul C450 fireplace insert for the Heatilator fireplace that came with the house. The fireplace opening had been blocked with piece of 2" styrofoam since I moved in. The Jotul was installed two days ago and I had a fire burning both nights now. After the 1st night (yesterday), I noticed the glass covered in a reddish-brown film that was extremely difficult to remove, though I found a razor blade with a little ammonia free glass cleaner worked best of what I had on hand to remove it. This morning I have the same situation. I've followed a number of threads on this Forum (great resource, by the way) and I know it's because my wood is too wet and I haven't been able to reach the proper temperature to burn the film off the glass . However, when I tested the wood with a moisture meter, a Mini-Ligno that I use for woodworking, I get a reading of 12%-14% on the ends of the splits and 16% along the length. Shouldn't this be dry enough? How dry should it be?

Dave

 

[oldspark]

Did you split the wood and check it on the fresh split, welcome to the wacky world of hearth.

 

[WellSeasoned]

Seasoned would after a fresh split should be ideally under 20% mc, not as cold holding it to your cheek, lighter in weight, burns right off the bat (should sound like a bat ) ..... Baseball, not the flying furry kinds that sleep upsiddowne, and make movies called twilight about. :shut:

 

[Woody Stover]

If that reading was taken on a fresh split, that's plenty dry. You're probably not going to be able to keep the glass totally clean; You'll have to clean it and start fresh occasionally. When I build a fire, I put some smaller stuff in the front near the glass and get it burning first. That usually keeps the glass pretty clean.

 

[Dave Arbour]

Thanks for the quick responses!
Readings were taken on the cord I purchased in October. It was delivered split and in 16"lengths, but I need to buy a splitting maul to split it further, which I intend to do, soon. Maybe sooner than I was planning.

Dave

 

[oldspark]

Yep it will have a higher moisture reading on the inside of the split.

 

[basod]

Use the damp newspaper/light ash method on cool glass. Way easier than cleaning with a razor.
Plus it's only gonna get sooted up again anyways

 

[bogydave]

Now you are learning why allot of us here work to get 2 to 3 years ahead.
We have CSS(Cut/Split//Stacked) , (off the ground on pallets) wood seasoning for over a year to be ready when needed.
I bet the 5 yr basement stuff burned well.
Most wood, 1 year outside in the sun & wind dries to below 20% & will be ready next burn season.
Some wood & some locations take longer.
After 2 years or so, the wood won't get much dryer than the average humidity in your area,
you'll learn to tell by how it burns if it's good & dry. Big difference for me between 1 yr seasoned & 2 yr seasoned. 2 yr burns noticeably better

I quit worrying about the glass on my stove, a hot fire & dry wood on cold days burns it off.

Get next years wood soon (Split & stacked) so it will be ready. Then get to work on the next years .
Buying "seasoned wood" means it will be ready to burn in a year, after you season it thru the summer
Good luck

 

[NH_Wood]

The dirty glass issue goes away with dry wood and good burning practices. A light haze is normal, but brown/black on the glass is less than optimal wood and/or poor burning practices (burning too cool, etc.). Cheers!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Dave. You have already learned why it is a good idea to be 2-3 years ahead on your wood supply, and that is good. Once you start burning wood that is 2-3 years in the stack you'll never want to go back. Also, it is best to stack the wood out in the open where wind will hit the side of the wood stack. Wind is your friend for getting wood ready to burn. We stack all of our wood outdoors. Split in sprig and stack immediately. Top cover (important! top cover only) the wood in the fall or early winter before snow flies. Late October we move the winter's supply into the barn so we don't have to dig through snow to get the wood.

The nice part of being 2-3 years or more ahead on the wood is that you won't need that moisture meter and you'll know your wood is ready. You will also soon learn that different types of wood will dry at differing rates. The reason for 2-3 years on drying is that some wood will take that long to dry. In addition, if something happens and you can't get wood some year, no worries as you will already have enough on hand. It is better than money in the bank.

 

[firefighterjake]

Gotta ask . . . 1) Where do you live in Central Maine since Central Maine could mean Lewiston/Auburn, Augusta/Waterville or Bangor depending on the person . . . and 2) You gotta explain "Knobby Goblin" since I'm wondering if there is a story here somewhere.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Dave Arbour]

I live in Augusta. The name Knobby Goblin is a name I found while researching wood stoves and fireplaces. It's a type of English chimney pot used to extend flues. I thought it was a pretty cool name.
Thanks everyone for your answers and suggestions. I'm already thinking of what I'm going to do for next year because of what I'm learning here.

 

[Kenster]

Welcome, Knobby Goblin. You'll learn pretty much everything you want to know about wood, burning practices, stoves, chainsaws, etc. on this forum.

I second the above mentioned glass cleaning procedure. Just get some wads of newspaper, dampen one, dip it in the ashes of the stove and scrub your glass. Works great!
Just don't get too hung up on clean glass.

Definitely get yourself a splitting axe. Check out the Fiskers line. You'll want to split down some of your larger pieces into smaller ones to get a fire going well.

Re: your moisture meter... sticking it in the end of a split or along the outside does NOT give you the information you need. Of course the ends and outside are going to measure pretty dry. You want to know what the inside measures and that requires the fresh face of a fresh split.

Cheers!

 

[Dave Arbour]

Got myself an 8 lb. splitting maul this evening, split a few pieces and found the moisture meter doesn't go high enough. It maxes out at 20. I have to say I'm not surprised after seeing how this wood is burning. I mean it's ok, but I know it would be better if it was dryer.
The ash, water and newspaper trick is absolutely amazing. I never would have guessed to give that a try. Whoever thought of that is a genius.

 

[Kenster]

A max of 20 is useless. Some meters have two settings, one for wood and one for detecting other moisture, such as in drywall or whatever. What kind of meter did you get?

Glad the newspaper thing worked. I learned that trick here, too.

 

[Dave Arbour]

It's a Mini Ligno, bought years ago for woodworking. At the time, I was more concerned with wood within a 6-20 % moisture content, so it's perfect for that. I just read in another thread that Lowe's or H/D has a wider ranging unit for around $30. I may check it out this weekend.

 

[Kenster]

Yeah, check out the "General" moisture meter at Lowes. Usually $30, often on sale for about $25.00. A lot of us have one of these. There are cheaper ones out there, like at Harbor Freight, but I hear reports that they eat batteries and the battery cost soon becomes a lot more than the initial cost of the meter. The "General" uses a simple 9v battery and for me, has lasted a long time.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_78059-56005...ture+meter&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151&rpp=24

 

[Oregon Bigfoot]

Yeah, check out the "General" moisture meter at Lowes. Usually $30, often on sale for about $25.00. A lot of us have one of these. There are cheaper ones out there, like at Harbor Freight, but I hear reports that they eat batteries and the battery cost soon becomes a lot more than the initial cost of the meter. The "General" uses a simple 9v battery and for me, has lasted a long time.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_78059-56005...ture+meter&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151&rpp=24

+1
I just bought one of those General moisture meters from Lowe's this week. I would also recommend it to anyone.

 

[rideau]

Never heard the newspaper/ash method. Will have to try. Once or twice a year if my window gets smoky and I don't want to wait for it to burn clean AND the stove is cool (hence=once or twice a year), then I wash the glass with a slightly damp green nylon scrubbing sheet designed and sold for cleaning non-stick pots - use those for lots of things. It cleans like a breeze (keep a to-be-recycled plastic container of warm water beside me and rinse and wring the scrubbing sheet in the water as I go). Absolutley no risk of damaging the glass (I'd be worried about a razor blade), and works like a charm. A bit more pricy than newsprint, but not bad. & years later am still on my original package. Keep it with the matches, that last seemingly as long....someday soon i'll have to buy my second box of matches. I've never had any sticky creosote like substance, so haven't tried anything really tough, but imagine this would work in that case as well.