Moisture Meter

[Mat]

Coming to think of it, I do actually have a Stihl one. It hangs on a hook by the Larder door and is chiefly used as a thermometer to guess how hot the woodburner has got the kitchen (a popular family guessing game).

 

(this time of year, it's generally 29 degrees - 32 if there is baking going on)

[sandspider]

Coming to think of it, I do actually have a Stihl one. It hangs on a hook by the Larder door and is chiefly used as a thermometer to guess how hot the woodburner has got the kitchen (a popular family guessing game).

 

 

We do the same thing! Maybe that's why mine gets through batteries so quickly!

[sandspider]

Borrowed a moisture meter from my dad and a little confused as to the results.

 

take a bit of sycamore 4"x4" out the store, end grains 26-28%, side 21-22%.

take an axe and split down the middle 32%

 

what's the general reading most people go for?

 

done it for a few bits and it's all about the same.

 

it's only for firewood, so not loosing sleep over it

 

Danny

 

The ends will be drier as they've been exposed to the air, and you won't get an accurate reading from them. You need to split the log / saw it in half then measure the fresh cut surface. <20% moisture is generally supposed to be good to burn.

 

Having said that, I split / cut my logs to the size I want to burn them at, so I don't usually bother to split them again to test moisture! I generally have a figure of about 12% moisture at the ends after drying, and none of my logs are too big, so I'm happy that they are also <20% in the centre. They burn well, and don't emit too much water / steam anyway.

[SteveA]

I'm going to try the french system, which involves less manual labour of moving lots of small logs, and goes something like:

 

- fell tree and cut at 1m lengths

- for heavy, large diameter trees/ split lengthways & carry away to stack outdoors

- for lighter, small diameter trees/ carry away.... split lengthways at position of stack, then stack outdoors

- cover the top of the stack with a tarp/ galvanised sheet/ whatever you have to hand

- (leave oak fully uncovered, rain helps to wash the tannins out)

- leave stacked outdoors for 1,2,3 years (this is dependant on the type of wood).

- then cut the 1m lengths into 3 sections, or 4 if you need smaller logs

- stack the logs completely under cover/ in vented shed, or similar for 1 or 2 further years

- check moisture on sides, ready to burn at 20% or less

 

Think of the bark as a rain jacket holding in the sweat.... that's why it's a good idea to split down the length and let the middle dry out.

[Logsnstuff]

I use a delmhorst mm think cost around £400

[woodyguy]

I had a cheap one off ebay (similar to stihl). I tested it against fully drying wood by weight and it was totally useless. Generally read at least 10% out from true.

 

Got one of these from link below and it is a lot more accurate. You get what you pay for.

Wood log moisture meter, measures water content of wood.

[Jay]

Protimeter Timbermater. Species specific reading and seems accurate. About £200 though.

[gensetsteve]

Freshly felled western ihave in recently for kindling feels very dry and gets down to 16% very quickly. Some of the ash logs i have can still be wet in the middle after years. So it may not be telling as many porkies as you think. All meters go way out when batteries get low so try new ones you may be surprised in the difference. My mate has a Stihl meter and we find it a bit optermistic against my ebay cheapo ie you think your logs are drier than they actually are. I keep hearing people say their logs are down to 10% but the skirting boards in my house are 14% and my house is not damp

[rovers90]

As per Gensetsteve, keep your batteries fresh. My meter had the battery warning light on for a few weeks. I measured some 15 inch logs I split and stacked in May and it read 42% which I knew was rubbish as a month ago they were averaging 16 to 20%. Next day I put some new batteries in and it's back to reading 16%.

[R5log]

Delivered some 1 year old ash to a customer which read 70% !!!

That was a stihl one