# Home depot/ Lowes dry kiln wood



## micaaronfl (Mar 10, 2011)

assuming the answer is yes on here but looking for opinions. 

to make a long story short, purchased a cord and found out it wasnt cured. using HD/ lowes dry kiln wood. 

Assuming the oak cord i brought will be good for next season, what is the best moisture content 15-20 percent? also will it burn longer than the totally dried out kiln wood. i seem to be going through bundles upon bundles a night and thats with the flu closed.


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## Battenkiller (Mar 10, 2011)

micaaronfl said:
			
		

> assuming the answer is yes on here but looking for opinions.
> 
> to make a long story short, purchased a cord and found out it wasnt cured. using HD/ lowes dry kiln wood.
> 
> Assuming the oak cord i brought will be good for next season, what is the best moisture content 15-20 percent? also will it burn longer than the totally dried out kiln wood. i seem to be going through bundles upon bundles a night and thats with the flu closed.



Yes, 15-20% MC is the best stuff to burn, but the stuff you are getting from Lowes and HD probably isn't that low at all.  Whatever moisture content it is, it's a long way from having all the water driven out of it.  Kiln-dried firewood doesn't mean no water is present, it just means it was treated at high temps long enough to kill any bugs.


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## double-d (Mar 10, 2011)

This is some of the  poop that's out on the Internet about KILN DRIED wood.
 Our kiln dried firewood has always been bug and pest free.  We are now certified to legally transport our kiln dried firewood to areas that are quarantined for invasive species such as the emerald ash borer and the Asian longhorn beetle etc.
  With kiln drying, the firewood is placed in kilns and essentially baked to force the moisture out. Kiln dried firewood can be seasoned in a fraction of the time it takes to prepare firewood under normal conditions, which means that the time elapsed between felling a tree and selling burnable wood is very short. It also carries the advantage of being evenly seasoned; a common problem with wood left out to season is that wood in the core of the pile is still green when wood on the outer edges is seasoned. 
But do they really do it


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## k9brain (Mar 11, 2011)

[/quote]Yes, 15-20% MC is the best stuff to burn, but the stuff you are getting from Lowes and HD probably isn't that low at all.  Whatever moisture content it is, it's a long way from having all the water driven out of it.  Kiln-dried firewood doesn't mean no water is present, it just means it was treated at high temps long enough to kill any bugs.[/quote]

I bought some HD wood to see if my stove would burn hotter.  The large oak split in the bundle was as bad as some of my other wood.  The other stuff also didn't burn so well.  YMMV.


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## wkpoor (Mar 11, 2011)

Holy crap batman, HD/Lowes , that stuff is almost a dollar a stick. Way cheaper to turn on the furnace.


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## gyrfalcon (Mar 11, 2011)

micaaronfl said:
			
		

> assuming the answer is yes on here but looking for opinions.
> 
> to make a long story short, purchased a cord and found out it wasnt cured. using HD/ lowes dry kiln wood.
> 
> Assuming the oak cord i brought will be good for next season, what is the best moisture content 15-20 percent? also will it burn longer than the totally dried out kiln wood. i seem to be going through bundles upon bundles a night and thats with the flu closed.



I'm sounding like a broken record on this, but spend some time with The Google looking for a lumber mill in your area that's taken to selling bulk kiln-dried firewood because of the crash in the home building business.  A big lumberyard operation about 30 miles from me selling 20 MC firewood in bulk for $295 a cord delivered.  It's expensive, but not impossibly so, since you can pay local guys $250 a cord for supposedly "seasoned" wood that was just cut down a few months ago and not split or cut to length, and definitely not burnable in EPA stoves.  I cannot believe my lumberyard is the only one doing this!


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## North of 60 (Mar 11, 2011)

wkpoor said:
			
		

> Holy crap batman, HD/Lowes , that stuff is almost a dollar a stick. Way cheaper to turn on the furnace.



My thoughts exactly.


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## RNLA (Mar 11, 2011)

Most commonly available "kiln dried" firewood is anywhere from $400.00 - $600.00/ cord. I have a friend who is cutting, drying, bundling, off his property to restore the health of the forest. This wood is for sale at local stores for similar rates. The temps for drying are in the low 100's, the temps for pest and fungal sterilization are closer to the low 200's for a certain period of time. The only problems with this are the types of wood a person is trying to treat may vary greatly in the time required to properly "season" the wood. So I guess without getting too complicated, the HD/Lowes wood could work in a pinch but I would not make a habit of it. I have noticed a difference in the wood from the kiln and the wood from my rack. The difference is that the kiln wood is actually burning the way it should because it is dry or well seasoned. I will be paying very close attention to the storage of next years wood, as we all should, to insure it is as good as it can be. My advice would be to get as far ahead as you can and be thinking about what you do with your wood supply. No moisture meter required....


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## billb3 (Mar 11, 2011)

north of 60 said:
			
		

> wkpoor said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



maybe they are romantic / getting lucky / happy ending  fires


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## micaaronfl (Mar 13, 2011)

no i was more asking are the btu's alot less because it was kiln dried


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## Backwoods Savage (Mar 13, 2011)

double-d said:
			
		

> This is some of the  poop that's out on the Internet about KILN DRIED wood.
> Our kiln dried firewood has always been bug and pest free.  We are now certified to legally transport our kiln dried firewood to areas that are quarantined for invasive species such as the emerald ash borer and the Asian longhorn beetle etc.
> With kiln drying, the firewood is placed in kilns and essentially baked to force the moisture out. Kiln dried firewood can be seasoned in a fraction of the time it takes to prepare firewood under normal conditions, which means that the time elapsed between felling a tree and selling burnable wood is very short. It also carries the advantage of being evenly seasoned; a common problem with wood left out to season is that wood in the core of the pile is still green when wood on the outer edges is seasoned.
> But do they really do it



Interesting double-d. It begs a few questions, like at what temperature do you dry this wood? Do you use the same temperature for all wood? Do you use the same time for all wood? Like perhaps you dry some maple and then some oak. Same temperature and time?

It's been a while but it does seem to me there is some nice ash around Mio and Fairview. Is this right? How far out do you go for logs?


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## Como (Mar 13, 2011)

I did a rough calculation whilst waiting in Safeway and I came out at over $400 a cord.

Propane is cheaper, and that is about the most expensive option where I am.


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## cygnus (Mar 14, 2011)

My 1 bundle of 'kiln-dried' from HD came shrink wrapped in plastic.  All the bark was tight and moisture ranged from 30-45%!  A total waste of money.  In fact, I'd say it's fraudulent.


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## fatwoodfirestarters (Mar 14, 2011)

So many people sell wet wood it is very common.  We sell many cords a year where we live close to a major business with campgrounds close to national park.  This resort sells people wet wood every year and then their customers come to us for dry wood and they are not happy.  I can not believe the resort does this stuff to their customers many of who spend $1000+ with them.  The wet wood really messes up the whole trip of the customer and they go hope less than happy.


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## Wood Duck (Jan 3, 2012)

micaaronfl said:
			
		

> no i was more asking are the btu's alot less because it was kiln dried



In firewood you have a certain amount of potential heat in the wood. When it burns some of that heat is used to evaporate the moisture in the wood, and some is not converted to heat but escapes as smoke and gases, so what you get out is less than the total amount that is actually in the wood. In general reducing the amount of moisture lets you enjoy more of the heat, and burning more efficiently also allows you to enjoy more of the heat. Is that what you're asking?

Maybe you knew that and you're asking if kiln drying evaporates any volatile chemicals from the wood that would otherwise be burnable and so kiln drying would reduce the available energy. I don't think the kilns are hot enough to do that.


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## basswidow (Jan 3, 2012)

I've always been under the impression that it was the species of wood that gives BTU's and not it's moisture.  If you're not getting big heat from the Kiln dry and you're going thru alot,  perhaps it's a low BTU or soft wood?  

In my first year,  we bought wood that was "seasoned" - and found as most do - that was not the case.  We still burned it and supplimented in some kiln dry "hotstiks" to help it along.  At $ 8 a bag,  that stuff burns quick and can get pricey.   Good luck,  but I would search around for other options.


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## Jags (Jan 3, 2012)

Maybe this will help:
If you have a pound of wood at 20% MC it will have the same BTU content as any other pound of wood at 20%MC.  Doesn't matter if it was kiln dried or air dried.


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