How wet is wet wood?

[Englishteacher]

After complaining on this site all last year about a poor burn in my Jotul 3cb, I finally took the advice here of trying a different wood supplier. I did this year and the difference is remarkable. Much hotter and secondary burn which I could never get before. It is obviously better seasoned than the wood I had used in the past.
Which brings me to my next question. Now that I know my wood is properly seasoned, how important is it to keep it dry as I store it outside. If well-seasoned wood gets soaked with rain, how long does it take to dry to where it will burn efficiently again? Is it simply a matter of a couple days of winter sun and wind, or longer. Are the moisture contents of green wood comparable to moisture content of wet, well-seasoned wood or are these two different things that are not comparable?

 

[jotulguy]

The best set up is one that allows the sun and wind to hit the pile but is covered on top. That will stop the water from laying on the wood and still allow air flow. Have you ever seen a hand made wooden cutting board after someone soaks it in water to help clean it? They warp and buckle and that is after they are treated with oils not to allow water to get in. Its the same theory with dry wood, if its dry do you best to keep it that way.

 

[DAKSY]

Get yourself a moisture meter so you can check your wood stash.
Burn that wood that's less than 20% moisture - preferably 16-18% - & you should be good to go.
Otherwise you'll waste all the energy in your wood just boiling the water out of it.
PLUS you'll be creosoting the crap out of your system.

 

[robertmcw]

I got a Harbor Freight one and it cost about $14.00.

Robert

 

[vvvv]

30% MC wood has 90% of the useable heat content of 20% MC wood............epa stove is designed to burn 15-20% MC wood

 

[gohabsgo]

When stoves go through EPA testing, the moisture content of the cribs cannot be above 25%. So most stoves are really engineered to burn wood with a moisture content below 25%.

 

[Battenkiller]

When stoves go through EPA testing, the moisture content of the cribs cannot be above 25%. So most stoves are really engineered to burn wood with a moisture content below 25%.

Actually, I believe it has to be between 16-20% wet basis - equivalent to about 20-25% dry basis. Dry basis is what you get when you use either the oven-dry or moisture meter methods to determine the MC of your wood. So, you could say that EPA stoves are designed to run using wood that is between 20-25% MC as read on a standard electrical resistance moisture meter.

Oh... welcome to the forum, gohabsgo.

 

[stejus]

Green wood (wet) is wood with little fibers that contain water. Seasoned wood is the same wood with the fibers dried out. These are like straws filled with water but at a microscopic level. It takes time for all this moisture to evaporate out of these fibers. This is why split wood stacked with lots of sun and wind will dry faster than rounds in the same setting.

When wood gets wet from rain, the moisture is on the outer shell of the wood and will not be absorbed into these fibers. The water content is absorbed into the bark for the most part. Any water absorbed into the wood will dry off within a day of sun and wind. Winter adds a challenge when the water freezes onto the wood.

Keep the wood top covered at this point and you should be fine. I drop the tarp sides down when I know there will be lots of wind and rain or a Noreaster heads our way.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

How wet is wet wood? That is really a loaded question.


My first little piece of advise is to quit buying wood when you need it. This is not like buying oil or gas. Wood has to have time to dry so the wood you buy this year should not be burned until next year. However, you have to burn it this year now because that is how you have purchased it. Do yourself a big favor now and buy next years wood ASAP.

That said, wood will store outdoors very well. There are only a couple keys to doing it properly.

1. Do not let the wood touch the ground. Lay something under the wood, like landscape timbers or any poles (some use old pallets) to stack the wood on. This allows air under the wood rather than letting the wood contact the wet ground.

2. Stack the wood so that wind will hit the sides of the piles. Stacking in the sun is great too but wind is even more important than sun for drying purposes.

3. Keep the top of the pile covered. Never cover the sides of the piles or the ends. Cover only the top. Tarps work but work very poorly. Something solid works better. We use old galvanized roofing. I've seen some use old pallets and then cover the pallets with a tarp and that might be passable but can be an eyesore.

I also am not a fan of taking a lot of wood into the house or garage. Once you see ants, moths, powder post beetles, termites, cockroaches or whatever taking up residence in your wood, you too will probably not take much in the house at one time. Leave it out in the cold. Store some on the porch if you can keep it covered. That said, some do take lots of wood in their homes and claim to have no problems with it. I won't take that chance.


Good luck to you. Please don't forget, buy next years wood now!

 

[Englishteacher]

Great informative advice. Thanks to all.

 

[firefighterjake]

After complaining on this site all last year about a poor burn in my Jotul 3cb, I finally took the advice here of trying a different wood supplier. I did this year and the difference is remarkable. Much hotter and secondary burn which I could never get before. It is obviously better seasoned than the wood I had used in the past.
Which brings me to my next question. Uh . . . maybe I missed it . . . but what was the first question . . . of course I'm not an English teacher. HehHeh . . . sorry . . . couldn't help myself . . . I'll behave now. Now that I know my wood is properly seasoned, how important is it to keep it dry as I store it outside. Answer: It's not really all that important . . . if the wood is seasoned it will stay seasoned . . . that said . . . wet wood doesn't ignite all that easily . . . while it would dry out in a few days of sun . . . if you're starting to burn right about now I would recommend top covering the stacks of wood . . . it will allow wind and sun to continue to season the wood, but keep it dry from rain/snow/etc. If well-seasoned wood gets soaked with rain, how long does it take to dry to where it will burn efficiently again? A few hours to a few days . . . depends on the weather conditions (i.e. how windy or sunny it is outside.) Is it simply a matter of a couple days of winter sun and wind, or longer. Are the moisture contents of green wood comparable to moisture content of wet, well-seasoned wood or are these two different things that are not comparable? As another member mentioned . . . there is a difference between green wood (i.e. unseasoned, does not burn well) and seasoned wood that is wet (i.e. wet from rain or snow) . . . if given the choice of having green wood that is dry or seasoned wood that is wet from rain I would take the seasoned wood every single time.

 

[firefighterjake]

After complaining on this site all last year about a poor burn in my Jotul 3cb, I finally took the advice here of trying a different wood supplier. I did this year and the difference is remarkable. Much hotter and secondary burn which I could never get before. It is obviously better seasoned than the wood I had used in the past.
Which brings me to my next question. Uh . . . maybe I missed it . . . but what was the first question . . . of course I'm not an English teacher. HehHeh . . . sorry . . . couldn't help myself . . . I'll behave now. Now that I know my wood is properly seasoned, how important is it to keep it dry as I store it outside. Answer: It's not really all that important . . . if the wood is seasoned it will stay seasoned . . . that said . . . wet wood doesn't ignite all that easily . . . while it would dry out in a few days of sun . . . if you're starting to burn right about now I would recommend top covering the stacks of wood . . . it will allow wind and sun to continue to season the wood, but keep it dry from rain/snow/etc. If well-seasoned wood gets soaked with rain, how long does it take to dry to where it will burn efficiently again? A few hours to a few days . . . depends on the weather conditions (i.e. how windy or sunny it is outside.) Is it simply a matter of a couple days of winter sun and wind, or longer. Are the moisture contents of green wood comparable to moisture content of wet, well-seasoned wood or are these two different things that are not comparable? As another member mentioned . . . there is a difference between green wood (i.e. unseasoned, does not burn well) and seasoned wood that is wet (i.e. wet from rain or snow) . . . if given the choice of having green wood that is dry or seasoned wood that is wet from rain I would take the seasoned wood every single time.

Forgot to mention . . . less you think I'm being snarky here . . . you may note that my own replies lack proper sentence structure and punctuation . . . EB White is probably turning over in his grave!

 

[Wood Duck]

I think the answers here are pretty thorough, but I'll say that bringing seasoned wood in from a pouring rain is really no big deal - it will dry very quickly and burn great. Bringing wood that has been in contact with the ground or in a mouldy wood pile under a tarp is a different story- it really isn't just wet on the surface, but soggy. Wood will absorb moisture, but it takes time - weeks or months in contact with constant moisture, not just a few days of rain.

 

[Battenkiller]

Wood will absorb moisture, but it takes time - weeks or months in contact with constant moisture, not just a few days of rain.

I used to think exactly that, but now I'm not so sure. A few weeks ago when we had that killer rain here, my basement got flooded and a lot of good boards sat in a few inches of water for only a few hours. The end grain soaked up enough water to swell up pretty good. I dried them off and flipped them end-for-end to let the wet ends dry while I fired up the stove to dry out the rest of the shop.

The next day I took several readings about 5" away from the ends and the meter maxed out (mine goes to 42%). Two days later, the same ends were still well above 25%, while the dry parts of the boards were in the 12% range... which is probably where this wood was originally. It's been a few weeks now, and they are finally back to normal (12% MC). This was some pretty dense hard maple, ash, oak, and a few walnut planks. If I hadn't purchased the meter last season, I would never have found this out.

So my revised take on this subject is that wood probably seasons just as fast or faster uncovered, but once it's there you should do everything you can to keep it from getting wet. Two weeks is a long time to wait for my good wood to get good again. I'd be curious to hear what other people who own moisture meters find with their firewood that's been rained on for several days. I wasn't about to split these valuable boards just to get an inner MC reading, but I suspect that the very long drying period meant that the wood was thoroughly soaked at the ends.

 

[oldspark]

Dunking wood is much different that a spray job?

 

[Battenkiller]

Well, if it rains all week, that's a lot more contact with water than my wood got in a few hours. It wasn't like it was sitting at the bottom of a lake or anything, we're talking about a couple inches for maybe four hours max. Plus, firewood has end grain exposed at both ends. Water exits and enters end grain many times faster than it does along the sides, and the drier it is, the faster it takes up water.