Moisture meter help

[acritzer]

Recently posted about something else and figured my wood isn't dry enough. Ended up buying a moisture meter, went out to my stack and tested a bunch of pieces. To my surprise I didn't find anything above 20%. I think the highest was 16 and most was between 10-12 or so.

Am I doing it wrong? Is it a bad meter? Or, maybe wet wood wasn't the biggest cause for my issues?

Thanks

 

[moresnow]

How are you testing at the wood pile? Procedure?

 

[acritzer]

How are you testing at the wood pile? Procedure?

Yes. Never mind. I read someone else’s thread. I need to test the newly split face. Not the ends.

Disregard. Thanks

 

[Riteway]

Also, bring the wood inside (overnight) to let it come up to room temperature before splitting and testing. Put the pins in parallel with the grain.

 

[tabner]

Also, dig the pins into the wood a bit. I find if I just touch the surface I get a much lower reading than if I dig the pins in a good quarter inch.

 

[stoveliker]

It's actually great you started a thread with this title. A lot of people will find it this way, and right in the first few posts get all the info they need. So thank you!

One more remark: press the pins in as far as you can. Just touching gives a high contact resistance, leading to measurements that are too low. You can even use an appropriately sized drill to make some holes about 3/4 of the pin length deep and the stick the moisture meter in. Of course that won't be what you always do, but in some dedicated mc measuring exercise, this gives best data.

Also, take a few measurements, and likely the highest is the closest to reality. (It's easy to accidentally measure too low, but hard to accidentally measure too high )

 

[stoveliker]

Hm. I just repeated what tabner said. I type too slow on my phone....