The question of whether or not a moisture meter is accurate in frozen firewood has been debated since God was a little boy. Today while out cutting and splitting, I checked a piece of redoak I had just split. It showed 17.4% on the MM. It seemed mighty heavy to me, to have that low of a moisture content. Since that piece needed to be split one more time, I decided to take it home with me and bring it in the house over night to thaw out. I will check it tomorrow some time after I am sure it is thawed completely out. I will split it open once again and then check it. I will let you guys know what I find! The suspense is killin' me! Or maybe I am the only one to worry about such things! lol Ted
I just got a MM, too and keep checking things. I haven't seen a difference with cold/ warmed up, or at least not enough to write home about. Some oak I wouldn't have guessed would be dry enough to burn this Winter is.
I have had my MM for about 3 years. The main reason I have it is because I sell firewood. When my customers ask if it is dry I can give them numbers instead of just say of course it is! It kinda catches them off guard because they have no idea of what moisture content is considered dry or not, but it makes me sound real technical- like and smart so thats a good thing! lol For my self, I know when wood is dry enough to burn, but it's kinda fun to just guess what % it is and then check it to see how far off I was. I know, I know, no need to tell me. I need to get a life! Ted
Ice is a poor conductor of electricity. My guess would be a fresh thawed re-split will read higher moisture. A burn test ,since you have there, it will give you some good info too.
I really havent used my mm much at all this year, the only time I use it was bringing some cherry up to burn that I hadn't planned on burning this year so I didn't cover it. Split and checked it and it was 16%. But a few pieces still sizzled around the outside, I think it was just the splits on top that got rained on.
I just checked the Moisture Content of that piece of red oak. 35.1% Guess I won't be using the MM til spring! lol Now, off to the wood lot. My saws are hungry and need to eat! Ted
Now I'm going to bring a piece of hickory in that I split last week that showed 21% and see what we get. I know it was heavy as well.
