Kiln dried wood

[Jaison]

I’ve recently bought kiln dried wood (2 cords) from a family owned farm. It burns nice when conditions are right (gonna see if my cap is causing draft issues soon) and while the outside is 4-13% moisture, the inside on a lot of pieces are 22-28%. Anyone else have this issue with kiln dried wood?

I thought it was just bad luck, so I bought a bag of kiln dried wood from a reputable dealer who sells bags in store. Tested the outside of a large split - 3-5%. Inside, 28%. What’s up with that? Though again, When conditions are perfect, they still burn nice.

 

[Dieselhead]

Kiln dried is more for killing surface bugs under the bark than drying it seems when it comes to firewood. To split wood and throw it in a kiln for such a short amount of time considering the split size just can’t physically dry it out in time to be profitable for the companies. 1x trim boards etc at your lumber yard are a lot thinner and dry quicker but wood that’s 5”+ thick would take a while.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I’ve recently bought kiln dried wood (2 cords) from a family owned farm. It burns nice when conditions are right (gonna see if my cap is causing draft issues soon) and while the outside is 4-13% moisture, the inside on a lot of pieces are 22-28%. Anyone else have this issue with kiln dried wood?

I thought it was just bad luck, so I bought a bag of kiln dried wood from a reputable dealer who sells bags in store. Tested the outside of a large split - 3-5%. Inside, 28%. What’s up with that? Though again, When conditions are perfect, they still burn nice.

do you have a wood rack near your stove so the wood can sit in the same room as the stove and dry out? I really don't know anything about kiln dried wood. I've never used it, but my guess is they either didn't kiln dry it completely or they stored it improperly. Those are just my thoughts.

I wouldn't burn anything higher than 20% as you're going to guck up your stove and chimney with creosote and cause more problems than you need.

 

[Jaison]

Yeah I do. It’s crazy because they all say the wood is below 20% and ready to burn once to get it. You’d also expect such a thing from a supplier that sells wood from stores. I got it from Big Y.

 

[Burnin Since 1991]

I have pretty dry wood from a local tree company/ firewood seller and all the splits come in 12-16% (warmed split, split and measured the fresh split, vertical pins...)

I have a wood rack about 2 feet from my stove and I rotate my wood so that most of it has had 48 hours or more to come up to temp and dry just a bit more.

 

[Jaison]

Not bad. Here’s my set up. It’s burning pretty good, I’ll have to get more wood from the guy I had last year, same as you splits were around 14-19% on a split piece. Big pieces too, he just ran out of wood but he’ll have more dry wood in January. This should do for now

 

[Jaison]

Also, is the wood knocking even accurate anymore? All the wood sounds hollow, a light clink. But the moisture meter doesn’t lie…

 

[Jaison]

WestEndFirewood is the company I bought from Big Y by the way.. the wood they sell in the store is the same, but under “The Hearth Warmer” lol

 

[bigealta]

Kiln dry is just to kill bugs as said above. Inside won't be dry unless it is seasoned long enough.
Burning in an open fireplace is where you can get away with burning the wetter wood and why the sellers can get away with saying it's ready to burn. It's still going to cause creosote in the chimney but they are long gone by then.

Buy any wood very early and stack it to dry as soon as you get it. Then you will have control of properly seasoning it.

 

[Nordicbynature]

What is considered to be the moisture content? The highest measuring value, or the average value for a certain size or anything else?

I came over some unsplit rounds, that have been stored in a barn for years. Don't know for how long, because the old guy had passed away years before I helped the lady to clean out her barn and she didn't know. But could have been 10 years or more.

When I split and measured them, they had low mc on the outside and in the high 30s in the middle of the rounds.

I noticed, that they dried out very quickly after splitting. Almost had feeling, that the moisture was just waiting to be released. Or somehow the low mc parts could level out the high mc in the previous center.(before splitting)

The high mc was located in the core of the splits. It was very visible, where the high mc was.

 

[bigealta]

It is amazing how long unsplit logs can hold moisture.

 

[Nordicbynature]

It is amazing how long unsplit logs can hold moisture.

I believe people storing rounds are not lazy to split, but are not happy to stack for storage after splitting.

In Germany it is common to split in 1 meter (40 inches) length and temporarily stack for drying. These long splits are really easy to stack. Unfortunately 1m log splitters are not easy to find 2nd hand.

Much later they are prepared and cut twice to 13 inch length for stoves.

 

[stoveliker]

The drying of the 30% after splitting the round was surface drying. If you split the split in half again, it'd likely be near 30% again.
I take the max value as the mc because any measurement error will be giving a lower mc reading.

 

[Nordicbynature]

The drying of the 30% after splitting the round was surface drying. If you split the split in half again, it'd likely be near 30% again.
I take the max value as the mc because any measurement error will be giving a lower mc reading.

Possible.

But depending on the species and weather/climate the split wood (soft wood) can dry within two weeks, if it is stacked on the most ideal day.

As as mentioned by others before; it must be split.

 

[Jaison]

I know I only keep smaller rounds unsplit, mostly for overnight burns.

 

[Turbo89]

Yeah I do. It’s crazy because they all say the wood is below 20% and ready to burn once to get it. You’d also expect such a thing from a supplier that sells wood from stores. I got it from Big Y.

I’d call and complain, company like big Y may make it right?

 

[Max W]

Some years back before I bought, considered or even heard of using a moisture meter for firewood I bought a cord of “kiln dried”. It didn’t take a meter to know that the larger pieces were not well dried. Still, I don’t believe sellers of kiln dried firewood in Maine do it for insect prevention as the state does not recognize kiln drying firewood as an accepted treatment to destroy insects.

 

[Jaison]

I’d call and complain, company like big Y may make it right?

It was mostly for my own experiment - I ordered 2 cords kiln dried from a family owned farm. While the first couple inches are definitely below 20% (and they’re very hollow sounding when knocking together) the inner core of the larger pieces are sitting at 22-30%

I tested kiln dried wood sold at Big Y and tested their big pieces out of curiosity and it sat at 28% with the outside sitting as low as 3%. Their website claims their kiln dried wood is best for wood stove usage.

 

[Dieselhead]

Once in a blue moon when we camp I’ll buy the package of kiln dried from the camp store if we run out of wood I usually bring and it’s typically a disappointment. It burns well for about 20 min then slowly dies down and starts smoking and hissing as it hits the damper center. I imagine that is a lot of what you have going on.

 

[Jaison]

Once in a blue moon when we camp I’ll buy the package of kiln dried from the camp store if we run out of wood I usually bring and it’s typically a disappointment. It burns well for about 20 min then slowly dies down and starts smoking and hissing as it hits the damper center. I imagine that is a lot of what you have going on.

Usually when draft is terrible, that’s correct. My Lopi Answer is not an easy breathing stove and if conditions are not perfect it’s very unforgiving. Past couple days have been easy and I’ve been getting great secondary burn, I just figured I’d give my two cents on this kiln dried wood and see if people had same experiences. I guess I know now not to cheat on my other firewood supplier who air dries his wood in a building, my average split last year was below 20%.

 

[stoveliker]

Some years back before I bought, considered or even heard of using a moisture meter for firewood I bought a cord of “kiln dried”. It didn’t take a meter to know that the larger pieces were not well dried. Still, I don’t believe sellers of kiln dried firewood in Maine do it for insect prevention as the state does not recognize kiln drying firewood as an accepted treatment to destroy insects.

That's not what this page, with link to a .gov site, says.

Maine - Don't Move Firewood

Maine prohibits the entry of all types of out-of-state firewood unless it has been heat-treated to at least 160°F for 75 minutes and is packaged and

www.dontmovefirewood.org

Indeed, here it says it has to be heated:

Emergency Order Restricting Transportation of Firewood Into the State of Maine: Forest Health & Monitoring: Maine Forest Service: Maine ACF