And yet, they help newby woodburners ID dry wood everyday. Wonder why all new stoves come with MM now? Must be because they are "worthless"
I agree Tim. I picked up a cheapie Horror Freight MM just for curiosity. I found my 2-3 year wood was ready as I'd though. Glad I didn't spend a bunch of cash to scratch the itch. Now that I have almost 100% oaks, I will still check a split or 2 just to see. In that aspect, I'm glad I have the tool.
I've been burning wood all my life, I've found that even when you think that a batch of wood is ready to burn, that the MM will let you know if it truly is. It's not just a newbie tool. If you don't have 3 years of wood supply on hand, and are already on a 3yr or more plan where the wood will be all but guaranteed to burn because it's been stacked and covered 3 years then they are a useful tool. It's also useful to know where the wood is at in the state it is in seasoning. For example I was gifted a couple trailer loads of bucked dead standing elm in spring. I figured it would be good to go this winter if I wanted to burn it. Once I split it, I then saw it was in the very low 20's for MC. That just verified that it would be totally set after a summer of drying after splitting and stacking it.
Wait, wait Brenda ! Look up veritas. "All new stoves come with MM now ? " And I'll love you in the morning.....The check is in the mail. Which "ALL" ? Since when ? What's "worthless" ? You must be smoking that funny weed again. Veritas. Stick away with that tool. Most of us will do right by our firewood; and have for decades. P.S. It's why I don't like to use oaks. It takes "my oaks" when available, at least 3 years covered to burn dry....sometimes 4. When seasoned, two splits knocked together ring like a baseball bat, they are grey, and the ends have large splits. Experience, common sense. Firewood here: a mix --softwoods, Red Maple and Paper Birch for shoulder; ash, beech, hard maple, yellow birch for winter. Simple.
I'm thinking because of your itty bitty bar dilemma that the wood you must be cutting would be to small to prevent the pins on the meter from protruding through the other side anyway.
Big difference between mostly dead and all dead? I was foolish enough to believe it to be a binary situation
I've cut dead standing oak and green oak. The bottom half of a (long time)dead standing tree will be heavier due to higher moisture content than the top half. I call it "rain wet" (for lack of a fancy technical beyond bound/unbound term) as it dries out pretty darn quick, even in the middle of Winter. ( Winter here, which may be different than Winter there) I've also found green oak loses the first half of its moisture content pretty darn quick, but after that it just slows right down to next to no progress. Frustratingly so. Dead standing oak is why I bought a moisture meter. Mostly just to document how fast the heavy dead standing oak was drying - under cover.
Cutting on the base of that 199yr old massive red oak produced so much moisture it ran out. Been laying on its side since early spring they said.
If i was 199 i'd be laying on my side too! Great that you took the witness cookie. Another new term ive learned on here. Ive seen oak drip water like that. One at my epic honey hole score did that.
I did not need a moisture meter to let me know that my wood was ready to burn however i was interested in just how good my system is for drying my wood. some times it’s just nice to have data. I think my system works great!
This! ^^ I too was confident, the meter just confirmed. Now if I have anything that’s questionable, I just split it apart and see.
Lol! Right. The tree was diseased and not a healthy blow over, as you saw from the last two rounds. But it still had so much moisture it ran out.
Oak is one strange wood for drying. The heavy grain portion has larger fibers that work like straws and dry some Of the wood fast, then the rest of it is so dense it takes three times the wait. I’ve left fresh split wood on the blacktop of the driveway With a tarp on overnight and the amount of condensation under the tarp was amazing. It takes about two weeks in the summer sun to burn off a lot of that initial moisture. Seems to help the wood dry faster. I also think freezing by overwintering expands the fibers and makes it easier for the splits to dry. As far as the manufacturers supplying moisture meters I think it’s because all new stoves have either a Cat or burn tubes which don’t work as well with high moisture content wood. It also absolves the company somewhat when you call up and complain the stove isn’t working right and they ask you what’s the moisture content of the wood you’re burning...Uh oh. My MM helps in that I can at least see where the wood is starting from and how where it’s stacked makes a difference in drying time. I don’t have a lot of space and I’ll usually add two cord from a local supplier that I know has been seasoned for a year. It gives me a leg up because I don’t have space to start a three year plan. I also think it depends where you live. In NY, our climate is considered mid-continental humid, if I remember. It’s always humid in summer and fall and even early spring. The other day it got up to 98% humidity. Winter is the only really dry time when it can go down to less than 20% at times. I’ve had 3+ year old wood that still sizzled. It’s not an exact science. I’m just trying to get close. I just saw how long this was. Sorry for the rant.
I like it too. Except the other day one of the needles spun off and luckily I saw it happen! Screwed it back in and good to go. I think I'll go and put a drop of loctite blue on it *right now* so that doesn't happen again. Who knew the torquage one generates when checking MC with a meter!
