I doubt any wood that has been drying outdoors for 3 years or more is less than 12 percent moisture. Especially in Massachusetts. It seems that we get these threads about wood being too dry around every 6 months or so. I do not believe there is such a thing as wood that is too dry. Like Backwoods Savage has already said. Why do stoves have draft controls on them? What difference does it make if you slow the burn by draft control or by moisture content in the wood. Except for the amount of creosote, you get.
Yeah, I'm not convinced much drying goes on here in July/Aug when we have those soupy/high humidity spells. When you put wet beach towels out on the clothes line and they'[re still wet the next day .... Might get down to 12% in January when it's so dry some people get nose bleeds. Especially if they are also outdoor active. There's one advantage for those people that store a big block of firewood in their garage or basement as those can both be relatively dry locations. Older ones might not be as dry as newer ones. It might be lawyers for the stove companies who have had to increase the minimums drafts to pass environmental tests. There could be concerns if someone were to start burning super dry piano legs or the proverbial kitchen table and not be able to control the burn. Or stoves sold in southern Arizona. Burning "dry" wood warnings might be akin to some of the warning stickers on lawn mowers - because some people have done some really stupid things.
that was my point to the post the stove company says it in their instructions. I would have to give away 3 years of wood if over two years was (to seasoned ). Have had the stove in now for a week burning 4 year wood just fine even getting some nice 5-7 hour burns . Love the stove far better than the Harman TL300 we had. Though the Harman served us well for 12+ years.
I'd love to know how they keep that optimal wood from getting "too dry" once it is placed on a hot bed of coals. It may take 5 minutes to completely bake the water out of it but soon enough it is as dry as the stuff that burns "too fast".
