Will cold wood read high or low on moisture meter

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illini81

Feeling the Heat
Apr 7, 2017
376
Southeastern CT
I have read that you should check the moisture of your wood at room temp, just after splitting a piece. If you check it when it is cold, will the moisture meter read high or low?

Just curious, because if I buy some wood from a dealer, I won't be able to have him wait around while I bring a few splits up to room temp...
 
low. The other day I did a test to see what the difference was. A cold piece, freshly split measured 0.1%.
The same piece warmed up to 65º read 7.1%

*fair warning, this was 1 sample, I would not say every piece will be a 7% increase
 
Thanks for the reply. That's what I figured. Bummer. I bought 2 cords of wood from a guy. He claimed it had been seasoned for a year and a half. That's the oldest I could find. He dropped off the first cord while I was at work. As soon as I drove up, I could tell it wasn't seasoned - smells like red oak that has recently been cut/split. I checked with the moisture meter - getting 22-26, but that's cold.
 
that's not bad for oak, in another year and half you will be good to go!
 
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Arggggh. We're texting back and forth.

Me: When did you split this wood? It isn't seasoned. I tested it with a moisture meter. It's not even close to seasoned. I'll pay for the cord you dumped, but I don't want the other one.

Him: It was uncovered. Sorry you're not pleased.

Me: Yeah, but when was it split?

Him: Last month.

Me: I thought it was seasoned?

Him: Its been cut a year and a half.

...
 
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Dobish said:
that's not bad for oak, in another year and half you will be good to go!
Click to expand...

Yeah but that's cold, so it's probably around 30%. Also, I tested some smallish splits, because I was hoping that there would be at least some of it that's burnable... the larger ones are definitely higher.

Thanks for the optimism though :)
 
illini81 said:
Arggggh. We're texting back and forth.

Me: When did you split this wood? It isn't seasoned. I tested it with a moisture meter. It's not even close to seasoned. I'll pay for the cord you dumped, but I don't want the other one.

Him: It was uncovered. Sorry you're not pleased.

Me: Yeah, but when was it split?

Him: Last month.

Me: I thought it was seasoned?

Him: Its been cut a year and a half.

...
Click to expand...

my crystal ball said something like this happened. It is a lot easier for people to store the wood piled up in rounds, and get around to splitting it when they can get a buyer. Very few places will split and stack it for a long while. Every so often they will rent a big processor, get a huge pile, and repeat the process.
 
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Well the guy turned out to be very reasonable. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him I didn't want the wood, since it wasn't seasoned. He said to just keep it. I thought that wouldn't be fair to him, so I ended up paying him $120 for the cord he had already delivered, which is a typical price around here for a cord of unseasoned, split wood.

Lessons Learned:

1. It's just about impossible to get seasoned wood in the middle of the season. I've been looking for a few weeks now.

2. My moisture meter saved me from paying $450 for two cords of unseasoned oak. Instead, I only paid $120 for one cord of unseasoned oak.
 
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I think it’s important to point out that there really is no legal definition of seasoned wood. To the folks on this forum it means sub 20% moisture content, but it’s not fair to assume that every wood seller knows that’s what you’re aiming for. To a lot of old-time-type wood burners, seasoned wood simply means that the tree has been down through a summer. There are old stoves and open fireplaces that would burn that wood with the amount of air through them and the smoke out of them.

The absolute best question to ask a woodseller is “how long has the wood I will receive been split?” An important follow up, though, would be to find out if it’s been stacked or piled.

I’m glad you and the woodseller worked out something reasonable. I just thought it might help to know that he really was probably being pretty honest with you coming from an area of not being an expert on the running of EPA stoves.

The general advice is plan on buying green wood if you buy and season it yourself. That way you know it’s done properly.
 
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A lot of these wood dealers think if they cut a tree down its started seasoning, when you call to order they cut and split the logs and call it seasoned since whenever they cut the tree down. As you have found out you have to ask when did you split the wood, if they're honest about when they split it you can take it from there. Your guy sounded reasonable so you got a good price on wood that you can use in the future.
 
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It will always test lower cold...how much wood can you store on hand at any given time? I would get as far ahead as possible so you know what you have...
 
DuaeGuttae said:
I think it’s important to point out that there really is no legal definition of seasoned wood. To the folks on this forum it means sub 20% moisture content, but it’s not fair to assume that every wood seller knows that’s what you’re aiming for. To a lot of old-time-type wood burners, seasoned wood simply means that the tree has been down through a summer. There are old stoves and open fireplaces that would burn that wood with the amount of air through them and the smoke out of them.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I kind of realized this after the fact. I had seen so many people post on hearth.com that "seasoning doesn't start until the wood is split", so I figured firewood dealers would follow that principle as well.

DuaeGuttae said:
The general advice is plan on buying green wood if you buy and season it yourself. That way you know it’s done properly.
Click to expand...

I have about 10 cords of green wood that I have scrounged. Three cords have seasoned for about 1/2 - 3/4 of a year, and the rest is either freshly split or in rounds. But since this is my first season with the stove (purchased in Oct), I'm still low on seasoned wood. I bought 2 cords of seasoned wood at the beginning of the season. I should have bought more!
 
EnglanderandHunstman said:
just curious if you saw this guy on craigslist? i am in southern RI and have had problems finding anyone reliable in southern RI/Eastern CT.
Click to expand...

Yes, on CL. I've been looking for a few weeks. I had the idea last night to call a local hearth store to see if they had anyone they would recommend. They recommended a guy who is going to deliver two cords today. Unfortunately he is west of me (in Deep River), and so probably too far to deliver to you. Maybe try calling a hearth store near you to ask for a recommendation?
 
Tar12 said:
It will always test lower cold...how much wood can you store on hand at any given time? I would get as far ahead as possible so you know what you have...
Click to expand...

I can store quite a bit. I'm in the process of getting ahead. I'd like to eventually have about 16 cords (burn 4 per yr), but it will probably take me a few more years to get there. Right now I have about 10 cords that is almost all oak (very common in our area). I am going to start looking for pine...
 
illini81 said:
I can store quite a bit. I'm in the process of getting ahead. I'd like to eventually have about 16 cords (burn 4 per yr), but it will probably take me a few more years to get there. Right now I have about 10 cords that is almost all oak (very common in our area). I am going to start looking for pine...
Click to expand...
Thats a good plan!
 
It's hard to do, and takes a few years to build up a well seasoned stash that you can burn knowing that you have unseasoned wood drying out for the future. It took me three years of collecting and scrounging before I felt comfortable.
 
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I scored about 3 cords of seasoned wood by word of mouth.
I asked my friends and co-workers back in spring of 2016 if they knew anyone who wanted to get rid of firewood because they quit using wood to heat their house, moving, etc.
The wood I got was already cut and split in 2013. It was from a widow who's husband was the wood heat enthusiast and after he passed she didn't want to mess with wood anymore.
 
I would love to be able to buy green oak for $120/cord. Here in southern Maine it's around $210/cord green.
 
Chimney Smoke said:
I would love to be able to buy green oak for $120/cord. Here in southern Maine it's around $210/cord green.
Click to expand...
we are closer to $300 for a cord here...
 
armanidog said:
I scored about 3 cords of seasoned wood by word of mouth.
I asked my friends and co-workers back in spring of 2016 if they knew anyone who wanted to get rid of firewood because they quit using wood to heat their house, moving, etc.
The wood I got was already cut and split in 2013. It was from a widow who's husband was the wood heat enthusiast and after he passed she didn't want to mess with wood anymore.
Click to expand...

I found 4 cords of 3 year seasoned wood on CL for 50 bucks a cord. Similar situation. Unfortunately I was the second guy to respond to the add... Very sad.
 
I've only bought wood once (1 face cord about a month ago) and it was from a dealer outside of town I've been driving past since I was a little kid. He's been there forever, and it's a huge operation. They claim it sits in log form for 1 year, then it's split for 1 year before it goes out for sale. They have heaping piles on concrete under cover. The mixture was mostly ash, with some oak, shagbark, cherry, hard maple and black locust. I was extremely pleased with the face cord I bought for $75 and it looked more like 2+ year splits to me. The shagbark and oak was in the low 20's for moisture content and everything else 20 or under. I wouldn't mind finishing out my season just buying wood from them just to stretch my personal stash to next year but I hate buying wood.

Most people in my area claim wood is seasoned but really it just means they split it in the spring and therefore it's ready for fall. Sometimes I'll text dealers from CL just to see who's selling what and I always ask when it was split.
 
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