Don't ask me! I consider my $25 MM a piece of junk and worthless to be honest. I can measure the same piece of wood, in the same sport 5 times, and I will get 5 completely different readings most of the time. And I don't mean 18% vs 16%. I mean 12% vs 38% vs 22% vs 46% One day last year I spent a few hours researching MM's and found out there are so many variables to make them work correctly, temp of wood, type of wood, density of the wood, where your measuring on the wood.... the good ones cost hundeds ($500+) of dollars, not double digits. I do my mositer checking via the knock knock knock technique. I knock two splits together and I can tell most of the time if it's dry or not. Most wood thuds when hit when wet, and most ping when dry.
I got some for sale that's 4 years old so I am a wood seller.......... You just can't afford it at my prices and no one will buy it
Take a look at the firewood guy on spagnolia rd in farmingdale & check out the guy off of 110 next to homedepot. Its mountain high piles ! But I do agree that there's small operations who chop per order.
I would have to say you have a bad meter then, I get variances but not like that. The mentality of abandoning an instrument and relying on "feel" to judge moisture seems silly. Like taking the speedometer out of your car and just judge how fast you're going by how it feels. Or stop using a measuring tape and just "eyeball it". I've had wood that pings like a piano fork but was still up in the high 20's in moisture. I understand moisture meters are not perfect, and there are variables and circumstances that throw them off, but I still see them as a valuable tool to get a ballpark estimate and the one I use has been fairly consistent without large variances. OP, billb3 gave a really nice presentation on how most measure with a moisture meter. Try to split one of your pieces down the middle with an axe or maul and then dig the prongs in on the freshly exposed, split face, towards the middle of the split. That should give us a good idea of moisture content.
I have a HF MM (in fact a couple of them) and they work fine so dont base your opinion on one bad one.
Welcome to FHC tinman! Are you a firewood seller? Are you talking about in Nassau county?? common man, that is NOT considered LI!! I have seen that pile on the side of 110 your probably referring to. None of that wood looks seasoned. You use a speedo in a car???? Screw that, I just go by what the ticket the officer gives me says!! That's because the MM doesn't work!!
Well, well, well, I think its interesting some have so many problems with MM's, I was curious so I bought one and tried it on everything from construction lumber to green firewood to 3 year old fire wood and all in between and never had a reading I did not agree with. So using your logic since I have never had a bad reading all MM's are good and never give a bad reading.
I do also hear that it depends a lot on the temperature of the wood. For example, split one that has been outdoors today and split another one like it that was stored in the heated basement. Different temperatures and different readings. Remember they are not exact tools but are just guidelines. Even on very dry wood it can get interesting. We tried 4 MM on some dry cherry wood. All came up with different readings. They even got different readings when checked twice by the same meters. What I usually attempt to convey is that experience is still a good teacher and you will soon be able to tell if the wood is good or not without a meter. I also have never promoted the idea of hitting two sticks or splits together to listen to the sound. How is an inexperienced fellow to tell the difference in the sound? You can tell him it sounds like a couple bats hitting each other or bowling pins or whatever but he still has some learning to do and that comes with experience.
Good luck tomorrow, and I mean that! and I'm a Steeler fan. Only team I dislike more than the rat birds are the Patseys! This will be the rare occasion I'll be rooting for the Ravens. Should be a fun game to watch. Almost gals Balt beat the Steelers last week, cause the ravens have a better chance at beating NE, I think they match up better with them with that big D line.
