I have quite a bit of mainly red oak that was CSS early this year. Moisture readings in October ranged 25-30%. Does this wood stand a chance to be ready to burn next fall?
It all depends on your location, temperatures, wind patterns, stacking method, etc. My house is in an open hay field for the most part. We have southern exposure and a breeze out of the north-west most of the time. If I stack my wood to take advantage of that, and keep the stacks covered, I can dry oak pretty fast relatively speaking of course. Your mileage may vary....
Currently the stacks are located in a semi open area on a ridge that gets decent wind. I didn't leave big gaps in my stacks for airflow though.
Top cover? How big of splits? Its possible... But could be close call on the high side of what is considered dry. But as Deer said, it'll all depend on your layout.
Not all red oak is created equal. For example, in my area black oak, which is actually one of the reds, needs about 4 years due to its natural moisture content and density. The best thing is get ahead at least 3 years so you don't have to worry about it. Air flow is more important than sunlight, however, if you're lucky enough to have both you'll be that much better off. At this point I'm gonna recite my best line, which I've not recited in a while: "The best device for measuring the moisture content of firewood is a multi-year callendar!" There, I feel better now!
My goal is to get on the 3 year plan. This oak is hopefully some breathing room to start processing 18/19 firewood. If it doesn't look like it will dry out by next summer I'll just use it later and scrounge for next year's wood
I struggled with oak for a while and started waiting much longer to burn it. Amazing how much better it burns with 3-4 years to dry.
How are you taking the readings? Are you resplitting, then checking the fresh face? When we first got here, I was burning essentially freshly cut wet Oak, almost exclusively. I have no idea what the MC was, but after getting the wet boiled out, it burned great. Took me over 3 years to get with the program, but once I did.....BAM! It'll be ok to use, but not the best. Only way to know is to check it again in the spring, to see if it's dropped a little. Yes, it'll dry in the winter.....not a lot though. In the meantime, go get a whole chit ton of Ash, Maple, and whatever else you can get your hands on. Almost anything else dries quicker than Oak.
By the way, if your stove is a catalyst stove burning green or wet wood will destroy the catalyst. And top cover if you can. Hear that sound in the background? That's the sound of the can of top cover worms being opened!
I took the moisture reading after resplitting. I've got quite a few dead standing locusts eyeballed for emergencies and have been processing red maple the past three wood cutting trips for next years burning.
I have a wood insert. I'm not sure if it has a catalyst though. 99% of the wood I burn is under 20% MC. My father in law pokes fun at me for even using moisture meter but he will burn anything though.
Look at the inside top; if there is perforated tubes you don't have a cat stove. Or look at the manufacturer's spec's on the net.
It will be close, I wouldn't bank on it though. I find oak sheds a good chunk of moisture the first summer. Say 40% down to 30%, but it takes 2 more summers to get under that 20% mark. I have 3 summer dried red oak that is 16-17% in the dead center of splits that I can pick up on the end that fill my palm (4" at the wide point)
I'm not fully on board with wind being the most important by the way. I'm not saying it's not important. I just don't think it's the most important. I find that heat is the most important. Sunlight and the outside temperature both give you heat. The wind does not. Heat accelerates the drying process. Wind carries away the moisture that's expelled from the wood. Ideally you would have both heat and wind. That would dry wood the fastest. By top covering you prevent the outside of the wood from getting wet. By doing so it doesn't waste the heat from the sun and the moisture carrying effect of the wind and let's all that sun and wind energy be utilized for drying out the actual moisture content of the wood. If you have the means I suggest an experiment. If you can stack 2 stacks next to each other and wrap one with shrink wrap and not wrap the other. Leave a little venting so the moisture can get out during the day. Just some very small slits because you want to keep the temperature up. Then leave the bottom open so that the condensate can drip out and away. I'd bet dollars to donuts that the oak will be ready or damm close to being ready in one year. I did that to a pallet of red oak that was standing dead but very wet and it was ready in a summer and a few months.
So you need the wood to drop another 10% or more over the next year. My guess is that it definitely should drop that much over a year's time. Just be sure to keep it top covered. If you don't, then I would say you will have to wait 2 years because although wood is not necessarily a sponge, setting uncovered through the winter with snow covering it and then thawing and more snow and thawing etc, it will get some moisture increase in the wood. Besides, although many do not top cover, by experimenting we can say without hesitation that the wood quality decreases being uncovered. Yes, it will burn, but it won't be as good of wood.
