Wet Wood test

[Woodcutter Tom]

Yesterday when I stared a fire in a clean stove, I had quite a bit of smoke from the wood as I started the fire. I conducted a test today to help me determine if I need drier than normal wood for my stove. In the past I have not checked every piece, but the ones I have checked were never above 18% MC.

Stove: Pleasant Hearth WS2417; 1.2 cu. ft firebox
Chimney above top of stove = 17 feet.
Low MC = 12%
High MC = 15.2%
Most in the 14.1 % to 14.5 % range
Outside temp 30 F
Wind speed 7 - 13 mph.

All the wood in this load was brought into the house yesterday (from garage), then re-split this morning and measured for MC on the newly split side. I marked each piece with the MC on the end. I loaded the fire box with this wood. I placed three pieces E/W across the bottom. These pieces were laid on top of three N/S small piles of coals. The coals were not hot and did not effect the start up. The MC of these pieces was 14.4, 14.2, and 14.5. The remaining pieces were placed N/S. See the first picture. Newspaper was inserted into the cavity on top of the kindling. After the fire got going a bit, I inserted a few pieces to fill the gap.
From the pictures you can see water bubbling out the ends of the wood and you can see smoke. I did have more smoke than this yesterday.

My stove always has a cold right side. I recently replaced the door seal, and today I performed the dollar bill test. It did slide out from the left side with some tension. I may replace the seal again, this time with less cement. I think maybe I used too much, and as it squeezed out and hardened, it may be binding the door on the right, which could cause the left side to not fully close. I'll have to look at this more closely.

This fire never got above 410 F.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the water bubbling, and the smoke.

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

Now I have this. Very little secondary burn going on. Left front wood burned but back and right side not burned much.

Crack the door and I get flames going.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

My non-professional gut opinion tells me that maybe start fire with less wood with more air space might heat things up better. Once that burns down, you’ll have nice hot coal bed to work from.

 

[tadmaz]

Your moisture meter may not be working right, or you are not pressing the pins in hard enough? If you are getting bubbling, that may be 30% ish wood?

 

[Ludlow]

Are the meter probes parallel with the grain or perpendicular? That is wet wood. Your meter is a lyin' dog faced pony soldier!

 

[begreen]

Third-party gaskets can sometimes lead to a poorer seal than the OEM gasket. And the older style gasket adhesive can over harden the gasket if applied too heavily. If you are going to try a new gasket again, get the factory replacement and use RTV silicone to adhere the gasket.

 

[jetsam]

15% wood doesn't bubble out the ends and it catches like crazy, especially with a very small split size as pictured.

If you whang two dry splits together, they should ring, not thump.

 

[bholler]

Yeah either your moisture meter is wrong or your testing procedure is wrong. That wood is probably atleast 30%

 

[MAD MARK]

What moisture meter you using and on what setting? Mine has 4 settings and an initial 12% reading can end up being 32%

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

Here is the meter I have been using. The SBI. It does not show any type of model number on it. I am borrowing it from a friend who, I am sure, spent a lot more $ on it than I spent on my Tacklife.
The SBI only has one setting. I checked the battery and it is fine.
The Tacklife has 4 settings.
I press just about as hard as I can into the wood. I measure across the grain. (If the grain were my fingers, one pin would be in the index finger; one pin in the little finger. Measuring with the grain, both pins would be in the index finger. )

I just tested the same piece of wood. Results:
SBI: 12.5%

Tacklife:
Setting #1: 4.5%
Setting #2: 5.0%
Setting #3: 7.5%
Setting #4: 9.0%

The wood is walnut.

Both these meters could be wrong. What I am learning today is that the bubbles and smoke are more telling than the meter readings.

I appreciate the input.... especially........."Your meter is a lyin' dog faced pony soldier! "

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

Third-party gaskets can sometimes lead to a poorer seal than the OEM gasket. And the older style gasket adhesive can over harden the gasket if applied too heavily. If you are going to try a new gasket again, get the factory replacement and use RTV silicone to adhere the gasket.

I believe that I did use too much sealant. I overdid it. Only need enough to keep the gasket in the groove. Hopefully it will come out easier than the original sealant. Took lots of wire brushing; manual and on drill.

 

[jetsam]

That appears to be red oak too. When you split your room temp piece, if the color on the fresh split is a lot darker than the outside face, it's got a lot of water in it.

You'll be able to tell roughly how dry it is just by lifting it eventually.

Your tacklife meter is off the charts. You'd need a kiln and a long bake to get to those numbers- not achievable outdoors unless you live in a desert.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Are you testing wood after splitting it? That makes a big difference.

 

[bholler]

That appears to be red oak too. When you split your room temp piece, if the color on the fresh split is a lot darker than the outside face, it's got a lot of water in it.

You'll be able to tell roughly how dry it is just by lifting it eventually.

Your tacklife meter is off the charts. You'd need a kiln and a long bake to get to those numbers- not achievable outdoors unless you live in a desert.

That is absolutely walnut. Otherwise I agree completely

 

[Ludlow]

Probe the wood at 180 degrees from the way you are currently doing it. See what reading you get.

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

Are you testing wood after splitting it? That makes a big difference.

Yes

 

[tommyH]

If you don't see lots of splits on the ends of your wood then it is not dry. I don't care what the meter says. These prong meters are worthless in this situation.

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

Probe the wood at 180 degrees from the way you are currently doing it. See what reading you get.

Here you go: Pics are a bit blurry cause I'm pressing on meter.

FYI: When the prongs are in water, the meter registers 50%. Anyone else ever place the tips in water? What is your reading?

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

If you don't see lots of splits on the ends of your wood then it is not dry. I don't care what the meter says. These prong meters are worthless in this situation.

I had cut these pieces from 16" long down to 9 1/2 inches long on my miter saw so that they would fit into my stove N/S. The end you see is the cut end. It was easier to write on the cut end.

 

[bholler]

Here you go: Pics are a bit blurry cause I'm pressing on meter.

FYI: When the prongs are in water, the meter registers 50%. Anyone else ever place the tips in water? What is your reading?

Were they kiln dried or air dried? In water it should read 100% but the meter probably doesn't go that high

 

[Ctwoodtick]

If you don't see lots of splits on the ends of your wood then it is not dry. I don't care what the meter says. These prong meters are worthless in this situation.

Checking is one possible sign if dry wood, but doesn’t always occur. I’ve had wood come in at 20 percent with no checking at all.

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

Were they kiln dried or air dried? In water it should read 100% but the meter probably doesn't go that high

Air dried. Over the summer, out in the sun. Wood was stacked about 4 feet high, single row, on top of 6" x 10" x 16 foot long timber from old railroad bridge. Wood was cut down 4 yrs ago. Pieces were 12" to 20 " diameter and 8 to 12 foot long. I cut, split, and stacked in spring of 2019. The year before I cut and split some of the same wood. Those pieces I stacked in single rows on my blacktop driveway. I don't really remember if i had bubbles last year.

 

[bholler]

Air dried. Over the summer, out in the sun. Wood was stacked about 4 feet high, single row, on top of 6" x 10" x 16 foot long timber from old railroad bridge. Wood was cut down 4 yrs ago. Pieces were 12" to 20 " diameter and 8 to 12 foot long. I cut, split, and stacked in spring of 2019. The year before I cut and split some of the same wood. Those pieces I stacked in single rows on my blacktop driveway. I don't really remember if i had bubbles last year.

It is not physically possible to get that far below the average relative humidity of your area with just air drying. Your meter or testing procedure in inaccurate

 

[Woody Stover]

I measure across the grain. (If the grain were my fingers, one pin would be in the index finger; one pin in the little finger. Measuring with the grain, both pins would be in the index finger. )
I just tested the same piece of wood. Results:
SBI: 12.5%
Tacklife: 4.5%, 5.0%, 7.5%, 9.0%
The wood is walnut. Both these meters could be wrong. What I am learning today is that the bubbles and smoke are more telling than the meter readings.

The SBI looks like a re-badged General. My General seemed to work OK, before the battery connector fell apart. I've got a Harbor Freight right now, which was cheap, but it uses button-cell batteries and I've had to clean the connections a couple times to get it working again.
They say you should measure with the grain, not across it. But I've never found it to make much difference, on the species I've tested, where I've tested in both orientations (not often.)

Air dried. Over the summer, out in the sun....stacked in spring of 2019.

Was it getting rained on? I think some species of wood will absorb water more than others. Black Cherry seems to do this here, and the edges can sizzle a bit when you reload on some coals. Maybe Walnut is similar..? If that was the case, it could explain why, when you re-split and test, it tests drier in the middle of the splits.
But really, all those readings seem too low for air-dried wood in most of the country, including our area. The lowest I see here is about 16%.
The only wood I've found to get dry in one year here, is soft Maple. I never dried any Tulip (Yellow) Poplar, but it may dry in a year. I give Cherry two years, and would do the same with Walnut. I wouldn't expect to have dry Walnut if it was stacked one year ago..
Wind and air temp are much more of a factor in drying wood than sun is. I top-cover my stacks, leaving the sides open to the wind. Stack with rows perpendicular to the prevailing wind if you can.

That appears to be red oak

Might be time to get your eyes checked.

 

[maple1]

There's a sticky in the wood section about testing MC with a multimeter. I haven't tried it - but might be something to check out?