Nicholas62388 it won't harm anything but your pocketbook to get one. The real question is, "Do you have to spend the dollars on one?" Perhaps also, "Do you know the right way to use one and can you even believe it when you get a reading?" I've seen answers all over the place on this forums about the "proper" way to use them and that you absolutely have to have one, etc, etc. I like to bring back some memories of splitting some wood one time and using no less than 4 moisture meters. None of them agreed and one was an extremely expensive unit (commercial) while the others were purchased from various places either on the Internet or in stores. Then to add to the confusion, someone who claimed to be an expert ran some tests and came up with a totally different number. So, my natural question was, "Which do you want to believe or should you believe any of them?" Personally I thought it was a useless test and I knew what the wood was. No, I did not know what the moisture content was nor did I even care! I have burned wood most of my lifetime and have never used a MM nor do I ever have intention of using one. I simply burn dry wood. End of story.....almost. Fortunately I have enough experience so that I know what my firewood is and how long it take to properly dry it. Not to bring up soom other really big factors in this equation: What type of wood is it? When was it cut and at what length? When was it split? How was it stacked (and this is one huge factor)? The splitting and stacking of the wood is perhaps the biggest part of the process. It needs to be split as soon as possible and it also needs to be stacked (PROPERLY) off the ground and in the wind. Sun is good but wind will do the job very nicely even if it doesn't get any sunshine but the sun can shorten the task too so we can not discount it. Also, it is not enough to "stack" the wood. We see people throw wood into a pile and think it is fine. It is not. The outside of the pile may dry but not the interior. Also, especially if you need wood to dry the fastest, split it smaller and do not stack it against a building or anything else. Stack it out in the open where it will get air circulation (wind). If you stack it against a building (or inside one), you are blocking the air circulation and therefore hindering the drying of the wood. There is more and I could go on but won't. I just hope you get the right idea. I also hope you subscribe to the 3 year plan because it works. And as I've said and have been quoted, one of the best MM you can get is a calendar. Good luck.
Yeah thats pretty wet. How long ago did it die do you figure? Was it in a shady forest? I have my eye on two lodgepoles that I was going to drop sometime soon. If I remember I should let you know what they come in at. I get larch yearly that is standing dead that is below 20% on the meter but near the base of the tree is almost always over 20%.
To piggyback on Nicholas' comment, wind is a huge factor in drying times. I used to work for a company that sold railroad crossties. The green ties were stacked very high, like 40' tall or so in long rows. From a distance they looked like huge Legos. If there was a decent breeze, the temperature between the rows was probably 15 degrees cooler than the air temp. On summer days it felt great. Not so much on colder days
Getting ahead is def the best thing to do, but in your current situation a MM can be a good guide to let you know what is ready to burn now. If you get through this winter make it a goal to double your wood cutting and stacking each year until you are 2-3 years ahead. that will help the most.
I have the same meter that you posted. If you pick up a split and try to test it with a moisture meter on the outside it will tell you the moisture content on the outside only. What you want to know is the moisture content on the inside and the only way to test that is to split the peace and test it on the inside right then and there smack in the middle, a split might read 10% on the outside but 30 35% on the inside. You can check other areas of that piece to see how far in it has dried to the proper content. Yes I think it is a tool worth having
If you don't CSS oak, that plan works very well. Even if you are ahead of the wood game, it's nice to know how different species dry, and how much moisture they have in them to begin with if dead standing, pre cut, or on the ground.
My ryobi uses my smart phone. You can label and take pics of the wood. You can choose between a few types of wood too. You can store all of your wood cache in your phone. Very smart. Date, time , humidity, description, and most importantly. A picture. Which tells a thousand words. Iirc it was $~30. It's an amazing tool.
This is an old split, on basswood for my fire pit, but it shows how the ryobi phoneworx mm works. Best $30 spent ever. You can store any info you want about any wood, birthday cake, or turkey that wasn't brined, that you want to. Being 3-4 years ahead will more than likely mean you don't need a MM, and will have wood dry enough to burn. However educated though, it's still a guess until you attempt to burn it. A MM will definitively tell you what you are working with.
The lack of perfect results does not negate the value of the tool. If I ever am again in a situation where I have to buy "seasoned" wood, for immediate burning, there is no doubt I will be sticking that MM into the wood before I buy.
I'm a wood worker and also happen to cut, split, stack and burn a lot of firewood every year. I have good moisture meters because i pay my bills with my work and I'm not going to take someone's word on whether a board is dry enough for me to work. So, I naturally use a MM for my firewood as well. I think it is a valuable tool and I will keep using it. In the last three years, I've cut, split, stacked and burned about 40-45 full cords of firewood. I don't have the luxury of just stacking wood and letting it age for years due to the volume of what I have to cut and limited time to do it. If I have 10 trees of standing dead white oak, I want to know what wood I can throw into the wood shed and burn right away and what I can't. My MM tells me that. I know without guessing, what wood is ready and what isn't. Simetimes it's obvious, sometimes it isn't and that's when the MM comes in handy. Also, the meter gives you a tool to use to gather data. That data can be translated into further years and better knowledge. By checking different species, you get a handle on what dries fast and what doesn't. Where it's drying faster and where it isn't. You will soon develop a feel for dry wood that you can verify against the MM. It's learning. I would NEVER talk someone out of buying one. There isn't a down side...and it's not like you have to spend thousands or even hundreds of dollars on one to get the info you need. My $40 Amazon one works about as well as my $400 unit. It's a no-brainier if you don't have the luxury of having enough wood to last the next century.
I was there once. I had no MM at the time and I got horrible unseasoned wood. The guy had it dumped before I could even get a look at it.
If I have wood that I know is fresh cut green, that will determine where and how I stack it and split it, no real need to check it with a moisture meter but sometimes I do anyway just because I want to know. Other wood that I pick up from Craigslist ads, or dead standing, laying on the ground etc, I will check several pieces from the tree or the load and that will determine how I split it, where and how I stack it. Myself I would not be without a moisture meter, I had one before I even started burning wood for heat.
I have been cutting beetle kill Lodgepole pine almost exclusively for the last 7 years, and I always cut in the fall to burn that winter. To do it successfully though, I have to make sure I only cut the lodgepole trees that have been dead for a long enough time. They will season while still standing, but not all of them will be standing long enough. There two telltale indicators I look for before I start cutting are gray needles and vertical cracks. Gray needles: If the needles are green then obviously the tree is not even dead, and even if the tree is dead and the needles are orange then the wood will still contain plenty of moisture and will need some seasoning time after being cut and split. However if the needles are gray and shriveled looking and a good percentage of them have fallen off, then likely the tree is ready to harvest. Vertical splits in the trunk; This is a great indicator that the tree has dried significantly, and actually one reason that pine beetle kill dries so well while standing dead, If you look carefully the old dead trees (that have gray needle) you will likely see vertical cracks running the length of the trunk, this is caused by shrinkage of the wood as it begins to dry, just like splits in stacked wood. These cracks can be quite wide, and once the cracks develop it opens the rest of the trunk to the air and the rest of the tree can dry that much better. It is also why beetle kill lodgepole pine trees make poor quality lumber, the way the wood dries it has too many large cracks in it. So if you are cutting beetle kill lodgepole pine and the needles are still orange, then it will definitely benefit from some extra seasoning time. But if the stuff you are cutting has large vertical cracks running the length of the trees and the needles are gray and sparse, the wood will likely be just great for burning right away. Of course much of that will also depend on the climate where you live. I live in a fairly dry area, but if the area where you live has a wetter climate your results may vary. The moral of the story is it's good to have moisture meter.
BTW when it comes to purchasing tools for your wood burning hobby I can't think of many tools that are much cheaper the a moisture meter, other then matches or a lighter.
I cut only dead standing Red and White Oak and have found that the moisture content can vary greatly from one tree to the next. Most of the tops are ready to burn but the trunks can be from 20% up to 40%. Being 3 plus years ahead it does not matter much but I still like to stack by moisture. I can check a bucked tree of rounds in just a minute or two and then load on the trailer according to that. I have found that this summer by using the mm I can heat the pool with fresh cut trees. Rather than taking wood from my stacks I have been using the 20-25% oak in the pool wood stove heater and then stacking the higher reading splits for future years. Is it a must have tool? Yes and no like many have said it will help you in your first year or two but if you can stack 3 or more years then it's not so important to know the %.
