General moisture meter on sale

[zogger]

The humidity here averages much lower than Georgia but the lowest air dried and stored in a shed red oak I have found was 18%, using the oven dry method. The general meter showed it to be 13%.

It could very well be the actual true driest moisture here in wood, naturally occurring, might be closer to twenty than not. Just..you use what ya got, and comparing it to fresh cut green, you can see a steady drop until it hits some equilibrium. Seeing as how there are numbers show up, that's what I read. It's close enough for this sort of work, it is after all just firewood. It has to be dry enough to burn clean and hot as possible, given outside drying conditions.

It may not be the most accurate, but it beats outright guessing. I know this wood has mere seconds once it hits hot coals to be flaming readily, that level of dryness is indicated on this meter here as at least mid teens. Split to split in the same batch I will see a high/low spread of several percent. That mid teens reading on the cheap tool is about as good as I can get it outside. Back behind the stove for a few days getting baked, run out split a big one, it will be lower than that.

The bottom line is for 20 bucks, for most guys checking their own stacks, it works good enough. Guys doing mass quantities or real picky on details can do the charts and ohm meters or 600 buck devices, I can't justify the time or big expense for the top of the line tool to quibble over a few percent here or there. If the top of the line reads 18%, and that is as low as I can get the wood, it doesn't matter if the cheap tool shows like 14%, it is *when it stops moving down*, that point, you know you have done as good as you can do.

 

[Whitespider]

It may not be the most accurate, but it beats outright guessing.

But... seriously... if it ain't accurate, it is outright guessing.

Back behind the stove for a few days... it will be lower...

But... you haven't corrected for temperature.

...for most guys checking their own stacks, it works good enough.

Good enough?? Good enough for what?? That's like asking, "How much firewood is enough??"
Good enough to post on this board that your firewood is at x% moisture content??

Here's a guy that has actually done real testing... oven dry testing... and found the moisture meter to be a full 5 points off from accurate.
And that's (only) one single species of wood.

...the lowest air dried and stored in a shed red oak I have found was 18%, using the oven dry method. The general meter showed it to be 13%.

Hey... if you've found a way to make the readings from a $20.oo moisture meter work for you... fine... tell us (me) how it works for you (and, yeah, that is what you're doing... my post ain't necessarily directed at you).
But don't try and tell me the reading is accurate (which some here are claiming)... I ain't buyin' it.
I ain't spending $20.oo for guess work, when I can do the same damn thing by holding the split against my cheek and "feel" the moisture... I can bounce the thing in my hand and "feel" the weight... I can bang two splits together and "hear" the sound.
Guess work is... well... guess work... I sure in he!! don't need a gadget for guess work.
I don't believe in the magic... and I don't want it or need it either.
*

 

[cantoo]

Spidey, what's your take on Professional Wrestling? Just kidding, I know it's real.

 

[svk]

Way to go Spidey, now you done gone and called her out. She'll be along any minute to ruin another informative thread.

LMFAO!!!

opcorn:

 

[unclemoustache]

I hear ya. I hate geniuses like Spidey who have to prove their intellect at every unopportune moment.

Nah, give the guy a break. Just because he's smarter than we are doesn't mean he should shut up. While I didn't like hearing what he said, I'm glad for the info, for I'm now smarter about it all. It's good to know that kind of thing.

And as for being a know-it-all, I'd say he's well-informed and wants to correct misinformation. Yeah, he uses a lot of strong language and exclamation points and all that, but he's not showing off - he's got good reasons, references, and support for all the stuff he says. I'm glad he's here.



I just hate spiders.

.

 

[Coldfront]

Bottom line I use it to find my driest wood of the same species at that time and temperature. I know my red oak reads different than my pine and birch. It works perfectly for me to show which of my wood is driest at the time, as far as if the readings are laboratory accurate I couldn't care less. It works perfectly for what I use it for. If you want to get out resistance charts and record readings on graph paper that is up to you. If this mm breaks I will not hesitate to buy another one. No one is twisting anyones arm to buy one.

 

[loadthestove]

I know spidey is right ,,but I bought one anyway...I cant help it I just like toys and gadgets.
We all do,, if not you would only need one saw,, most here have at least three or four or more,,a couple of splitting
mauls wedges Etc.

 

[zogger]

I know spidey is right ,,but I bought one anyway...I cant help it I just like toys and gadgets.
We all do,, if not you would only need one saw,, most here have at least three or four or more,,a couple of splitting
mauls wedges Etc.

As the wood gets drier, the digital readout goes lower. Look at it that way, it works. It really doesn't matter a whole lot if it is scientifically accurate, it is a gauge that is good enough to look at your own stacks and combine it with your own experience in what is good and dry, nice to burn, and what isn't. To me, it is interesting to note the progress, also to see how fresh cut and split looks, like today doing my leveraxe testing, I was also MM the wood. The green cut ash read the digits as lower, around 22, the other stuff was mid 20s or so. I didn't test the oak though, I know that stuff fresh split needs two years in the stacks if the splits or chunks are any kind of thick, like 4 inches or so.

 

[KiwiBro]

It should be illegal to sell wood by any sort of volume measure, be that rick cord, chord, face cord, stacked, thrown, hurled, chucked, etc.

It should be sold by weight only, in prescribed moisture ranges, e.g. per 100 lbs for m1 (sub 15%), m2 (sub 25%), m3(>=25%).
opcorn:

 

[CR888]

Thanks Spidey! Sometimes people refuse to accept they have waisted money on something that is virtually useless. The only purpose l can see for one of those meters is to feed your customers a percentage figure that is more rellevant to making them feel warm and fuzzy because the wood they just purchased was x% moisture content than the fireplace actually being warmer due to an accurate moisture reading.

 

[Freakingstang]

I would bet that the people bashing them don't have a newer EPA or catalytic stoves. This isn't 1950 and you can't burn wood that was cut in the spring, or even last winter for this year. My cheap meter works, but my 600 dollar fluke doesn't read any kind of resistance in oak, but will in maple. FWIW, the cheap meters work enough for me and my epa stove. A LOT better than the wood smacking trick I've used for 25 years.

 

[Whitespider]

...I cant help it I just like toys and gadgets.
We all do,, if not you would only need one saw...

LOL - Not all of us... I only have one saw. Like I said... I'm not entertained (or impressed) by magic.
I do have more than one gun though... but that ain't about toys or gadgets.

I would bet that the people bashing them don't have a newer EPA or catalytic stoves.

I have one out in the shop, it was in the house... I just use dry firewood in it, ain't seen any need for a gadget to know when the stuff is dry.

Bottom line I use it to find my driest wood of the same species at that time and temperature.

OK... used like that may be a purpose. But then the meter doesn't really need to give readings in percentages does it?? If all you're doing is comparing one stack to another of the same species, and ignoring the actual quantitative reading, it may as well read in arbitrary numbers, letters, or better yet a sliding bar. Of course, I do the same thing as you, except I don't use a gadget. I grab a couple splits from one stack and feel their weight, bang them together and do the same thing at the other stack. It's always pretty darn obvious which is the dryer of the two... and I'd bet I'm all done checkin' before you get the first piece re-split for the moisture meter test... heck, maybe even done before you find whatever tool you're gonna' use to do the splittin'.


Here's the real (or at least my) bottom line. If you want an inexpensive moisture meter (for checking firewood)... then you should have one, it ain't none of my business. But don't try and tell me that your firewood is at x% moisture, especially teens or single digits... I'll call ya' out on that every time. And, like has happened in so many threads, do not friggin' tell me the only way I can tell when my firewood is dry enough is by using a moisture meter. I can't count how many times, when I've pointed out the deficiencies of EPA fireboxes, that some of y'all have tried to tell me the problem is wet wood and I need a moisture meter. The damn thing may be able to tell me my wood is dryer than it was last time I checked it (do I need a gadget to know that?)... but there ain't any way-in-he!! it can tell me when it's dry enough‼ If it can't give me an accurate reading... it flat can't tell me any more than I already know. It ain't a serious (firewood) tool, it's nothing but a toy, a play thing, a gadget... I'd rather buy a ball so my kid and I can play catch.
*

 

[blacklocst]

It should be sold by weight only, in prescribed moisture ranges, e.g. per 100 lbs for m1 (sub 15%), m2 (sub 25%), m3(>=25%).
opcorn:

Theres a better chance that we switch over to metric before that happens.

 

[Whitespider]

Theres a better chance that we switch over to metric before that happens.

Yeah... L-O-L... and you'd need an accurate moisture meter that displays its results in Celsius... and you'd have to take a reading of every piece.
Which means, when you sold a load, you'd need to re-split every piece for the reading.

That's exactly why wood (any wood) is sold by some sort of volume measurement... because it's hygroscopic, there ain't any practical way of selling it by weight. No different than grain... the relationship of weight and moisture content is used to calculate the "dry" volume... but a "dry" bushel is a volume measurement, not a weight measurement.
*

 

[zogger]

Yeah... L-O-L... and you'd need an accurate moisture meter that displays its results in Celsius... and you'd have to take a reading of every piece.
Which means, when you sold a load, you'd need to re-split every piece for the reading.

That's exactly why wood (any wood) is sold by some sort of volume measurement... because it's hygroscopic, there ain't any practical way of selling it by weight. No different than grain... the relationship of weight and moisture content is used to calculate the "dry" volume... but a "dry" bushel is a volume measurement, not a weight measurement.
*

I think a lot gets sold by weight, so it must be practical enough, pulp and chipped biomass, pine lumber, etc.

http://www.timbermart-south.com/prices.html

They have been teeny thin tall pine logging across the street here for two weeks now, dozen or so tractor trailers a day. the harvester is not quite in easy view yet, but man, that thing is rocking, you can hear it. I would guess that is being sold by weight.

I think....you can get figures for green wood, different species, so if it was sold to the customer as green wood, you could get by with weight and a conversion table if you wanted to know cords or cubic meters whatever. Once you start selling dry/allegedly seasoned wood, nope, throw all that out the window.

 

[svk]

Mills up here purchase by weight, assuming freshly cut timber. But I agree for firewood this wouldnt be a fair way to do it.

 

[cantoo]

Kiwi, then everyone who wanted to sell wood would have to have a scale to measure the weight? And who is going to calibrate these scales? Government? More money than the wood is worth.

 

[tla100]

I guess I let my wood dry a year and burn it.......