Beyond frustrated with this year's wood; will not burn right.

[Huntindog1]

I wonder about the meters. I wonder if they are calibrated for interior wood where a 0%is in reality 5% or something like that. I split and checked some 2 year CSS cherry I have been griping about and it was 10-12% on the fresh split and 12-14% on the exposed split...yea interesting but it has been a wet fall. I still get some sizzlers though and some loads that are cranky. 12-14% on the high end with marginal performance just makes me wonder if there is not something assumed built it on the meter???

My moisture meter has a option to select firewood. Its the one they sell at Lowes. Looks like its setting is for wood then one for building material.
For wood it goes from 5% to 50 %

 

[tyler-king]

Hey guys sorry for the late replies I've been busy!

Yes, I read it with it split and cut, ends and insides... all same numbers. Mine does not have an option for wood type. My wood is all spruce and a bit of split pine which I only use for kindling.

BUT I have good news. I have one large vent in my basement, I used a dryer tube to run the the heat 6ft over to the wood area and I set two rotating fans in front of the wood stacks like suggested earlier in this post... and its been cracking! Big cracks in the wood, noticed the moisture has dropped 2-3% and its actually burning better.

I'm in the process of making as much room as I can to bring more wood in from the sheds. Thanks everyone for the insights and suggestions. I'm definitely going to invest into a log splitter for next winter as well.

Going to make sure my supplier drops my wood off first thing spring this year... forget this hassle next year!

Thanks for the help guys! Satisfied finally.

 

[klxrelic]

Good to hear ya getting it straightened out. It was late September before I got my spruce cut and stowed in the basement. It was still fairly wet.

I split most of it up fairly small, and between the heat from stove (burning drier wood), dehumidifier, and fan blowing across the pile. it wasn't long , maybe couple weeks, before I was happy with it.

On a sidenote: Still trying to figure your avatar location....

 

[maple1]

Hey guys sorry for the late replies I've been busy!

Yes, I read it with it split and cut, ends and insides... all same numbers. Mine does not have an option for wood type. My wood is all spruce and a bit of split pine which I only use for kindling.

BUT I have good news. I have one large vent in my basement, I used a dryer tube to run the the heat 6ft over to the wood area and I set two rotating fans in front of the wood stacks like suggested earlier in this post... and its been cracking! Big cracks in the wood, noticed the moisture has dropped 2-3% and its actually burning better.

I'm in the process of making as much room as I can to bring more wood in from the sheds. Thanks everyone for the insights and suggestions. I'm definitely going to invest into a log splitter for next winter as well.

Going to make sure my supplier drops my wood off first thing spring this year... forget this hassle next year!

Thanks for the help guys! Satisfied finally.

Even better would be if you got next years wood dropped off now - if you've got the room for it.