I am using the one that came with my wood furnace from MFP.com. Seems accurate and consistent. I don't think it is high quality necessarily. I have no idea if it is available separately. The one I had before was a 10 buck one from ebay. It was almost impossible to get the same reading twice in the same spot, but did generally reveal what I wanted to know.
Moisture meter
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Yeah that's the one.
General Tools & Instruments Digital Moisture Meter
Item #78059Model #MMD4E
Was cutting wood all day so I get to take a fresh reading in the morning. I think it's defective, I emailed General to see what they say. At least it was Amazon so I can return it for an exchange.
General Tools & Instruments Digital Moisture Meter
Item #78059Model #MMD4E
Was cutting wood all day so I get to take a fresh reading in the morning. I think it's defective, I emailed General to see what they say. At least it was Amazon so I can return it for an exchange.
My "Dr Meter" Branded 912 model seems to be reasonably good.
Eyeballing a FLIR MR55 though.... I want to monitor not only firewood, but check sheathing moisture levels over time in my house and cabin I'm building.
Has anyone used the FLIR?
Eyeballing a FLIR MR55 though.... I want to monitor not only firewood, but check sheathing moisture levels over time in my house and cabin I'm building.
Has anyone used the FLIR?
Just picked up a TackLife Moisture Meter. Tested it on a piece of pine I just cut, split and stacked three weeks ago. Pouring and sometimes even spraying sap when first split. Testing it on the face of the split pine, 18% in one spot, insert the pins again in the same piece of pine, just 2 inches to the right of the first spot, 38.6%. Repeated a couple times with the same results. Hopefully I can get my money back on this.
Gotta test at room temp on a fresh split. Split 3 weeks ago is drying on the surface... Bring it inside overnight, resplit and test the fresh surface in the center. Ends and exposed faces season faster.
Holy cow, that surprises me. Everyone says the key to drying firewood is air circulation and sun and air circulation being number one! And your results are even better? Sheesh, that sure messes with my mind, lol. Is that shed real hot like a kiln? Any idea of temp achieved inside?
Simonkenton
Minister of Fire
As you found out the test results can vary wildly even within a fresh split of one piece. That why I'm puzzled about mine, every freshly cut log from a recently cut down Douglas fir tree that I split a few weeks ago comes out 20-30%. Even making another split and testing again, or doing another piece.
Wow, GREATLY appreciated. Did what you suggested, oak that was on the front porch for 3 (or 4?) years was 12.6%. Ash measured 18% outside last night, then did what you said, and what was split and on the back porch for 2 weeks measured 32%, and a just cut ash that was split yesterday measured 32.7%. Big hardwood that was laying for years (bark fell off when rolled), grabbed it and split and stacked on back porch 3 weeks ago (not oak, not sure what it is, maybe poplar) measured 37%. A hardwood piece from last year measured 17.6%. The pine (actually split and stacked 32 days ago) measured 40%.
I'm in no rush, lots of seasoned wood and I don't bother firing up the stove until it gets below 64. Picked up the moisture meter for fun after reading a wonderfully informative thread at hearth.com:
Does wood season quicker in winter, since it’s dry? Weird...
wood dries in summer and winter------- thats the correct answer.... which one will it dry faster, --- depends on your geographical location... personally, in my area you cant convince me wood will "season" more or less in the summer... our weather typically starts getting nice around end of may...
www.hearth.com
The posts from woodgeek were especially good - "This also explains why indoor winter drying is so effective--high temp and low RH 24 hours of the day. We should expect 3x faster rate due to high temp and low humidity, and another factor of 2x for 24 hour versus 12 hour drying. A week inside can dry wood as well as 6 weeks of dry summer days, or maybe 8-10 weeks of actual summer weather. Seems about right in my experience--I can (at least adequately) burn almost any wood that's been sitting in my house for two winter weeks--equiv to a full summer of outdoor seasoning."
After reading the post from woodgeek, I decided to get the moisture meter to see how that would play out in my house. Just for fun, lots of seasoned wood on my porches, and lots more split, elevated and stacked away from the house.
Thanks again for the post, a very nice Thanksgiving present.
Yeah I'm going back and forth with the General folks now. It was a little under on the calibration check so I'm waiting for their reply. I got it to read 40% when I tested some wood I just brought in and split that was out in the rain for a few weeks. Nothing else I tested was over 25%. Maybe we have the driest doug fir in the world lol.
Well after an exchange with General support and clarification from them on the sensor calibration (it was reading 18.0% instead of the 18.3% they say it should, which is within the limits they say are correct) I'm pretty sure that most of my wood is under 30% moisture. I'm gathering cut logs and cutting up a large maple right now that has been down for 3 years, the ends that were already cut and have been out in the rain are pegging the meter (50%) and the interior of the fresh splits is always under 10%. Reading some more I believe that the circumstances under which I store the split wood are drying it relatively fast. I have a barn and I stack it cross ways in 2 areas separated by framed dividers that are paneled with plywood sheets 1/2 way up then fence wire to the ceiling. They both have doors on the sides and I generally leave them open in the summer and closed in the winter to keep out the rain. The eaves are open, it has a hayloft that gets to broiling temp in the summer, and the front barn doors are long gone. The front faces south and virtually all of our weather comes from the SSW, so wind always is flowing through. We have had breezy, very hot, very dry summers for 5 years or so lately, so I'm thinking that what I cut in the fall-winter is drying enough by the following fall to be burnable. It's not unusual to get a couple months of 80-100 degree highs and 60 days without rain. The bad good news is this tree is so huge (it has to be 150 years old) that I'm out of space and need to get some pallets and a cover to store the rest outside against the barn. Any recommendations for a cover? It doesn't need to dry fast but I'd like to get something that I can use for live wood if I have to. All I have right now is one of those brown woven plastic tarps that come with the stupid open tents that break or fly away with a wind gust lol.
Some of the guys use rolls of rubber roofing and screw it right to the wood pile at the overhang with a plywood gusset.
I have my name & # with a couple of roofing contractors for if they have a rubber roof tearoff so I can get used stuff. It's too windy at my house for plastic woven tarps - they tear & shred, and I've tried old plywood chunks weighted down which still blows off. I'm also looking for a good, cheap "redneck" solution.Lol I was think of something less than $50. Already cruising Craigslist for pallets
Yeah me too but rotting away in a year out in the weather is our problem here. I can put up with the occasional wind gust that sneaks around to the leeward side of the barn
I wonder if the roofing underlayment stuff (what used to be called tar paper) is worth a shot. I have a leftover roll and it's soem kind of reinforced "fiberglass?) not the old actual paper stuff. The strips would have to be glued together somehow though.On the subject of rotting wood, had a dead birch tree that I got tired of looking at (dead almost 10 years, so a mess), split and in the house now for over 2 months. Outside of the wood reads 8.9%, inside of a fresh split reads 33.2%. Was NOT expecting 33+ % as it's been inside the house this long. It throws some heat, and happy to be getting rid of it. Having doubts about the speed of indoor winter seasoning of wood at this moment. Going to wait 2 months before I check the green ash again instead of 2 weeks. Also put newly cut and split red oak in the house. Will check that versus the same red oak on the porch at the end of March. Moisture content of the red oak reads 38.9% today.
Yes from what I've been reading if the humidity in your house is as high as outside it doesn't matter where you dry it out. FWIW the large maple that I cut up was down 3 years and a fresh split is reading under 10%. I'm gonna let the ends and outside dry off before I try it. Years ago I got a truckload of ship timbers for free, they were soaking wet most of the way through. Put in in a nice stacked pile in the garage and left a small heater on it for weeks. It didn't do much at all so I moved it to the barn. Started burning it about 8 months out and it burned OK but still not that great. I swore it was dried out and there was a bunch of Korean pine in there, it's beautiful stuff so I made a couple mantlepieces from it for my fireplaces. I planed down 4 pieces, doweled and glued them together and routed the edges and sealed it. As you might be able to guess it started warping inside the house and pulling apart after 6 months or so.
Must have been a beautiful mantlepiece for 6 months. Hopefully you took some pictures.
After one month inside the house versus outside one the back porch --->
Poplar - 35.4% and 37.6% (you could smell the moisture in the poplar from across the room).
Ash - 31.7% and 33%.
White pine - 40.5% and 41.6%
So for my location and set up, I need to keep planning in advance and make sure I have wood on the porch for at least 9 months, those 9 months being spring / summer / fall.
I'm at home this winter, I like things cooler, and a compromise has been reached where 95% of the time the temperature in the house is in the 64 to 68 degree range. It is tough to exaggerate how much more wood you burn when you have the house at 72 degrees versus 65 degrees. It looks like I'll be through February before getting to wood that has been on the porch for less than 3 years.
Very pleased with the TackLife Moisture Meter (Model # MWM03). Great price, and perfect for measuring the MC% of firewood.
The white birch that had been standing dead for about 7 years, split and in the house over 3 months now, stacked 2 feet from the wood stove, 31.9% MC. Lesson learned, unless you are cleaning up your own property, not worth the time & energy cutting splitting & stacking certain species of wood (white birch, poplar, pine, aspen) if you don't get to it as soon as it is dead / down (that is, if you have plenty of oak, ash, etc.). I read in a Norwegian forestry publication that their study concluded that if the wood is not taken care of somewhat early after it is down, the wood never seasons as well as it should.
The white birch that had been standing dead for about 7 years, split and in the house over 3 months now, stacked 2 feet from the wood stove, 31.9% MC. Lesson learned, unless you are cleaning up your own property, not worth the time & energy cutting splitting & stacking certain species of wood (white birch, poplar, pine, aspen) if you don't get to it as soon as it is dead / down (that is, if you have plenty of oak, ash, etc.). I read in a Norwegian forestry publication that their study concluded that if the wood is not taken care of somewhat early after it is down, the wood never seasons as well as it should.
