Moisture Meter Recommendation Needed

[Parallax]

I'm new to wood burning and my stash of well dried wood is running down. I've got a shed loaded with ten cords of recently cut and split Doug fir but it's just been drying a few months. I'm wondering what moisture meter to get. They seem to range in price from $20 up to several hundred. I can't imagine how there could be such a huge range. I just need something that will get the job done.

 

[Grisu]

Harbor Freight has a simple one for ~$20 bucks. Not sure how accurate it really is but fresh cut wood is usually OOR while my 2 year ash measures between 15% and 18%; hence I assume the numbers are in the right ballpark. A few % more or less won't matter much anyway. No reason to get a woodworker-grade one for firewood.

 

[Parallax]

Thanks. How dry does wood need to be for burning in a Blaze King?

 

[Jon1270]

Here's an inexpensive model with a good reputation. I think it's sometimes available through Home Depot or Lowe's.

The standard recommendation is that firewood be at or below 20%. If you have no choice you can push that by a few percent, but it won't be any fun if you get into the upper 20's. To get a meaningful reading you'll need to re-split a piece so you can do the check on a freshly exposed interior surface, because surfaces that have been exposed for a while tend to be much drier than the interior. Electronic meters are inherently inaccurate at moisture contents above roughly 28%, so meters with scales that go higher (some read up to 65%) are only making the roughest of guesses.

 

[Rossco]

I got a Sonin Unit, Seems to be consistent.

(broken link removed to http://www.sonin.com/sonin-digital-moisture-meter-50218/)

Price is a little higher but can be had off ebay for cheap.

 

[KD0AXS]

I got this one from Lowe's. Seems to work good. It think it was on sale for $25 when I got it.

 

[dougand3]

+1 on the General. Seems to work fine. $29 when I bought.

 

[nmcqueen469]

Another vote for the General from Lowes. I use it and it seems accurate enough for firewood purposes.

 

[NHcpa]

I like the above digital read from General. I got the same mfr but with led light display for $22 from Ace.

 

[Parallax]

Cool. Thanks for the recs.

One last question. What do I do if my dry wood pile (under half a cord at this point) runs out and the ten cords of Doug fir isn't dry yet? Am I back to running electric space heaters until the fir is ready?

 

[dougand3]

Am I back to running electric space heaters until the fir is ready?

You can augment wet wood with pallets or 2by lumber scraps (non pressure treated) or ecobricks / equivalent. Check chimney for creosote more often if burning wet wood.

 

[BKVP]

We conducted a review of moisture meters (voluntarily) for the EPA and state regulators. Here is a pdf file with our review. This may help.

 

[Parallax]

Thanks Doug; very helpful.

BKVP, thanks. Based on that and what others have said, I'll pick up the General. Seems like good bang for the buck.