I am sure lots of people especially newbies lurk this sight so I want to stress the importance of Good dry season wood especially in the new stoves that are EPA approved. These stoves wont burn properly and will be very frustrating if you dont have good dry seasoned fire wood thats 20% moisture content or less measured with a moisture meter from the surface of a piece of your wood that your just split one more time for this measurement. Alot of firewood sellers will tell you their wood is seasoned but wood that will burn in an old smoke dragon stove will not burn in a modern high efficiency EPA approved stove thats 80% efficient. So if your planning on putting in a stove this fall go buy your wood now and be picky. Go to any Lowes store and for $30 you can get a moisture meter. It will be well worth it if your not sure what your firewood supplier is selling you. Nothing worse than putting in a nice new stove and your 3 cords of wood you bought is worthless to you the first year. Good dry seasoned wood also lets you get maximum burn time out of your stove. If you have wood thats just a little to much moisture it takes extra time to build the heat up in the stove. What you will find is you end up burning up alot of your wood load getting the heat built up in the non-cat stoves so you can then get the primary input air shut back down to the low setting for an all night burn.
That also hold true for cats; Gotta get heat built up in the top area of the stove so that the cat takes off within a minute or so of closing the bypass, and doesn't crash when cutting the air. BTW, Harbor Fright has moisture meters for under $20 on their website and I assume at the brick-and-mortars.
If any subject is over emphasized, it should be this one. In todays world people are living in an instant gratification kind of world Buy it and use it (right away). Too bad firewood is an entire different animal than just buying and installing a stove. When I was in my stove shop last week I overheard a saleman and a potential customer. The customer based his choice of stove on looks and wanted to know how quickly the shops schedule could get him an install. After hearing and seeing this I can just imagine what this guys wood supply looks like.
Been There Done that , when i first got my stove CL guy stuck me with a so called cord of seasoned wood , it wasn't a cord and it wasn't seasoned but what did i know i don't trust any of these guys selling seasoned wood , if you get your own you will know how old it is
Sort of went through this myself. I JUST got an insert installed Wed... conversion from propane insert. I kept looking at the craigslist ads but couldn't quite trust them this close to winter. I found a reputable place that will be dropping off seasoned oak Monday. I paid a bit more per cord but it is peace of mind for me.
Make sure you can be there for delivery. Oak is one of those species that takes so much longer to dry and is more desired when it is dry. If it were me I think I'd use a MM on it if your paying a premium for seasoned oak. IMO
not saying you can't find good guys selling wood i did and yes the price was higher not knowing very much i went with the lower price as time went on i bought a MM , bought a splitter chain saw on my second winter supply now starting the third
I concur with MIHMY, it might be seasoned to the seller, he may have split it a few months ago or even a year but oak takes 2-3 years to season enough to burn well in a new stove.
Never had to buy wood in 25 years, last fall we bought 5 dry cords the first time buying after moving to a new state. T"his spring we ended up paying more for 3 cords that were NOT dry. Logging is hard. Buying is easy. We should have looked more carefully before we paid for someone else's "seasoned" wood.
In a case where you don't need the wood for that particular burn season and can dry it for the following year, I might buy it from a dealer but I would haggle on the price knowing it's not fully seasoned. This could be the case when I get into my older years.
IME, you can only get wood so dry outdoors, even top-covered facing south. Mid-teens %MC at best. Not really good enough, IMO. Let that wood spend some quality time indoors (week or two) near the stove, and expect good things. Indoor moisture is good for funky sinuses too.
I burn wood that's 16-18% all the time and it never gives me any problems. Starts right up, doesn't gunk the glass and puts out plenty of heat. What's not to like? I'd have to look for the posts/articles, but they say wood can be too dry, to the point where it doesn't burn as cleanly...
"That also hold true for cats; Gotta get heat built up in the top area of the stove so that the cat takes off within a minute or so of closing the bypass, and doesn't crash when cutting the air." Of course, finding a good quality air cutting cat that can take off fast is not easy...
I sell firewood. What I do is I make some fresh splits and I spot check each batch with a moisture meter. I tell the customer about the level of moisture in the wood prior to them committing to buy it. The smart ones are buying for next year anyway. If I don't have dry enough wood for an EPA stove I tell them upfront. If they still want it, it's up to them.
If most people would just RTFM, they would know that even the Manufacturer suggests one year of seasoning. One year is plenty good enough for several species and is much better than the 1 week of seasoning that "Bought wood" normally gets. Silver Maple, Cherry, Ash, etc are all good species after one year. Granted they get better around the 2 year mark, and reach prime about 3 years in But one year will give new burners satisfaction with their purchase. Those that buy a stove now, and buy the wood next week? They will be so disappointed and start posting negative reviews and telling everyone how the stove does not put out any heat Only takes a few minutes to "Read The Freaking Manual"!! Most people neglect this step, then the rest is history. Good post Huntingdog 1!
