Can firewood be too dry?

[luckydozenfarm]

I was turning my pile of wood the other day with the tractor and with the 100 degree days and bright sun, I got to thinking of a few of my customers complaining last year of my wood being too dry and burning too fast. Has any of you commercial sellers had that complaint?

I mean my wood isn't dead or rotten when I cut it down, but I do split it in the summer and I leave it in a pile out in the sun to dry. I turn the pile at least once a week to expose new wood to the sun, but I burn it all the time and I've never thought that it was too dry. I start stacking and covering in September and I begin selling in October and November. I don't have a gas starter jet so I need the wood to be drier than the average person. Plus, I don't like my house smelling like an ash tray with wet wood.

Maybe it's just people like to complain, I don't know.

I told the last person that complained to just run a garden hose over the stack then.

 

[macattack_ga]

There's just no pleasing some folks.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

Can't say I've ever heard anyone complain about wood being TOO dry. Give them freshly cut green in the middle of January and see if they're happier with that instead.

 

[luckydozenfarm]

Yeah I sell to a bunch of yuppie, hipster type people who answer the door in a sweater vest and sandals. That's my problem.

 

[zogger]

Those people are just used to half seasoned wood.

If you have a moisture meter, what sort of readings have you gotten with your delivered wood?

 

[Fred Wright]

^ Yep, that would be my guess. A previous seller may have unloaded partly-cured wood in the neighborhood and the customers figure slow burns are typical.

They just need an education, is all. Dryer wood may burn faster but it emits more heat, too.

 

[luckydozenfarm]

Honestly, I have never checked it with a meter. I usually go by the sound it makes when you knock two pieces of wood together. Like the sound two dry 2x4's make when you clap them.

 

[sam-tip]

Sometime I do have to mix my wood for my large OWB. Anything below 10% H2O and it will burn to hot and back drafts. Found the rain cap on the ground one day. Blew it off. Scary when you see it happen.

Sent from my SCH-R950 using Tapatalk 2

 

[zogger]

Honestly, I have never checked it with a meter. I usually go by the sound it makes when you knock two pieces of wood together. Like the sound two dry 2x4's make when you clap them.

Ya, I don't have a meter either, just pick it up, look, feel, clank.

I use such a big variety of species and sizes I don't worry about "too dry" ever. When it comes off the stacks into the wheelbarrow headed to the house, I have a go/no go policy, any chunks that seem iffy I chuck into the bonus pile to get restacked next year, or used next fall when it is just cool out.

if I need longer burning, I just put a bigger chunk in. Those nasty hard to split chunks work great for that.

Around where I am, I bet 95% of the people who burn are burning wet wood. I see piles that are only split and stacked like one week before cold weather.

I am in the 5% with big stacks, well seasoned, in fact, near as I have seen driving around, only some commercial yards have more wood hanging around than me. I have yet to see a regular house with some wood have more than a few cords around here. Even the guy up the street with the obvious big outside furnace doesn't have as much as I have.

but..that is recent for me, I used to just stay one winter ahead, now I have a goal of many many years ahead. If it gets to a ridiculous point, like 50 cords or better, I will consider moving some, until then, cut/split/stack. I will most likely cross half way there this winter if I am not lazy, and can scrounge the pallets for stacking. I have the railroad ties but I like that extra height I get with pallets on top of ties, plus I get three rows per two ties that way..

 

[old_soul]

I was turning my pile of wood the other day with the tractor and with the 100 degree days and bright sun, I got to thinking of a few of my customers complaining last year of my wood being too dry and burning too fast. Has any of you commercial sellers had that complaint?

I mean my wood isn't dead or rotten when I cut it down, but I do split it in the summer and I leave it in a pile out in the sun to dry. I turn the pile at least once a week to expose new wood to the sun, but I burn it all the time and I've never thought that it was too dry. I start stacking and covering in September and I begin selling in October and November. I don't have a gas starter jet so I need the wood to be drier than the average person. Plus, I don't like my house smelling like an ash tray with wet wood.

Maybe it's just people like to complain, I don't know.

I told the last person that complained to just run a garden hose over the stack then.

I had a guy tell me that years ago. I hated delivering to him anyways, he was a p.i.t.a.

he calls up ranting one night about wood too dry and burning too fast. i told him we take pride in selling only dry wood. all wood which is to be sold gets stacked in cord rows, up on pallets, covered with tin for at least a year.

Well, he still wasn't happy. he wanted 2 more cord of "not so dry"

So i went out to the shop and dumped out one of the trucks full of oak logs which were just cut down that week. I cut, split, loaded up and delivered the next day.

Told him "maybe this will be more to your liking" He said looks like oak, paid me cash....and i headed on down the road.

funny thing was i never heard from him again:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange: he didn't have the balls to call back and complain twice in the same week

 

[EXCALIBER]

If wood gets too dry, like drier than a popcorn fart dry, the wood will sometimes spontaneously combust before it even gets close to the stove. Not a huge problem unless you happened to be like me carrying in an armful of splits when one catches fire, then you feel that rumbling inside from the 3rd day straight of eating chili, all the sudden I had a flame thrower! Kids were pissed that I melted frosty the snowman, and I wasn't to thrilled about losing a good pair of work jeans and my favorite flannel in the perusing blaze. A quick call to the fire dept had things under control, and on the bright side I no longer need that Brazilian wax job my significant other was pushing for, burnt everything off but the hair on top of my head! Fire department warned me to be more careful with backdraft in the future!

 

[Whitespider]

Why not just tell 'em to buy a couple months earlier in the year, when the wood has had less drying time... then, when the wood has dried to the exact point they want, they can water it every day with the garden hose
I'm bettin' they go for it.

 

[Wood Doctor]

There is more to this thread than first meets the eye. When selling campfire wood, I have found that a few logs mixed into the bundle that are not quite dry actually improves the fire. Customers start the campfire with the really dry logs and then add the logs with some moisture to lengthen the burn time.

No, these logs are not green and perhaps only seasoned a few months, but they work. You can always tell which ones have the moisture because they are half-again heavier than the dead dry logs and the bark tends to hold on tighter when splitting.

 

[Hinerman]

If wood gets too dry, like drier than a popcorn fart dry, the wood will sometimes spontaneously combust before it even gets close to the stove. Not a huge problem unless you happened to be like me carrying in an armful of splits when one catches fire, then you feel that rumbling inside from the 3rd day straight of eating chili, all the sudden I had a flame thrower! Kids were pissed that I melted frosty the snowman, and I wasn't to thrilled about losing a good pair of work jeans and my favorite flannel in the perusing blaze. A quick call to the fire dept had things under control, and on the bright side I no longer need that Brazilian wax job my significant other was pushing for, burnt everything off but the hair on top of my head! Fire department warned me to be more careful with backdraft in the future!

BEWARE, dry wood in the hoooooouuuuuuuse. Sir, that is one funny post.

 

[luckydozenfarm]

Well I was always told that dry wood has less ash, creosote, popping embers, and more heat value. Isn't that what people want? I sure do. I don't want to spend 20 minutes getting my fire going using a full box of starter sticks. Seriously, I keep my wood on my covered porch, stacked off the ground, and under a cover starting about September. It has already spent the summer in a giant pile getting sun-baked for 6 months. I can usually get a stringy piece of elm or hackberry and light it with a lighter by itself and it goes right up.

 

[avason]

Somebody on here said they were making another delivery to a customer and he said the customer was hosing down one of his deliveries. The guy said his wood was to dry. Wtf! Some people just don't get it.

 

[BrokenToys]

Maybe it's just people like to complain, I don't know.

^^ This.

 

[Hinerman]

Yeah I sell to a bunch of yuppie, hipster type people who answer the door in a sweater vest and sandals. That's my problem.

This type usually have the pocket book to pay the premium prices though :msp_thumbup:

Dryer wood may burn faster but it emits more heat, too.

I'd be willing to bet this yuppie hipster is not heating his house with wood. His old lady likes a fire for the aesthetic pleasure and the ambience. He just wants a wetter wood so he doesn't have to get out off the couch as often and take the chance of stubbing his toe going outside in his sandals.

 

[Hinerman]

Somebody on here said they were making another delivery to a customer and he said the customer was hosing down one of his deliveries. The guy said his wood was to dry. Wtf! Some people just don't get it.

Huh? Seriously I don't even have a response for that. Each to his own I guess.

 

[Doug Fir]

Yes, firewood can be too dry. I thought this was common knowledge, but I guess not based on some of the comments above. Most stoves sold these days are optimized to burn wood with a moisture content of 15-20 percent. Wood that is extremely dry--say 10 percent--is less desirable than wood in the optimal range. You will get more creosote and the stove will be harder to control. Here's a brief explanation:

Can Firewood be too Dry?

All of the comments bashing customers helps to remind me why I cut and season my own firewood. :msp_tongue:

Doug