Who's got a moisture meter, what's a good one to buy?

[Lignumb]

Sorry, newbie here, so I hope this response appears in the right place!

I finally bought a moisture meter off of Amazon a few months ago, a General two-pronger. I'm quite impressed, since it seems to be accurate beyond my expectations. Wood consistently reads right where it should, according to my experience and the common wisdom. Oak that I've stored for 18 months is at 15-16%, while oak obtained just last February is still well above 25%. Doug fir that I obtained at about the same time last Feb. has dried quickly from 45%-plus to a very burnable sub-20 already.

Those are kind of benchmark woods, since fir is known for seasoning quickly and oak the opposite. It's been interesting to track the progress of several other species during this time, and the meter has been a useful tool in ENHANCING MY NERDY WOOD FIXATION.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Dear Andrew:
How'd you know ? That stereo was sold. Worthless. The AC never was installed. Worthless indeed for here at least.
And yes, "....a truck IS simply a mode of transportation...." . What else ? A pocketbook ? You are the man.
P.S. Glad you decided to not get that Male T_t.

So: those 1/8" pins read 1/8" of the moisture in wood. You really want to get an accurate moisture level, get another tool ( hint-used to determine inner deck/hull
rot and water penetration). Wood it work ? See above tips on firewood seasoning from seasoned woodburners.

A computer, much less an internet connection, is not required to turn firewood into heat, yet you embrace that technology. All toys have their roots in a useful purpose. Just because you don't embrace em, doesn't mean you can't appreciate em.

BTW, if I've told ya once, I've told ya 1000 times. The best way to get a good measurement with a cheapo MM is to resplit a piece and measure moisture near the center where it's highest. This is NOT required for each piece of wood that goes in the stove, just whenever you have an urge to put a number to how dry or wet a piece of wood is.

I will keep my "Male Tit" of a moisture meter, it serves a useful purpose to me. If ya don't like it, fudge off. It's my toy and I'll use it as much as I want to! :tongue:

 

[Joe Homeowner]

A computer, much less an internet connection, is not required to turn firewood into heat, yet you embrace that technology. All toys have their roots in a useful purpose. Just because you don't embrace em, doesn't mean you can't appreciate em.

BTW, if I've told ya once, I've told ya 1000 times. The best way to get a good measurement with a cheapo MM is to resplit a piece and measure moisture near the center where it's highest. This is NOT required for each piece of wood that goes in the stove, just whenever you have an urge to put a number to how dry or wet a piece of wood is.

I will keep my "Male Tit" of a moisture meter, it serves a useful purpose to me. If ya don't like it, fudge off. It's my toy and I'll use it as much as I want to! :tongue:

All together:
"....it's my party and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to......"

Whew----"embrace" "hate" "urge" ....and all about those atavistic Male Tit things. :surrender:

Hey, we're all adults in the room. You need that urge to embrace some tool, go for it. The emotion over some fun tool is over the top. Fudge.:tire:

 

[greendohn]

I wonder if'n them fellas that burn tires use a moister meter???:monkey:

 

[BSD]

I wonder if'n them fellas that burn tires use a moister meter???:monkey:

no, they make tire pressure gauges for that. has to below 15 PSI or it'll blow up on you!

 

[openloop]

The "hate" some people on this site have for moisture meters astounds me. There is zero logic behind hating a tool used to diagnose the moisture content of firewood. If you take the standpoint of "they dont work" you are flat out wrong. If you take the standpoint of "they arent needed" and "I can tell just fine the old school way" please tell me how your personal preferences effect the usefulness of the tool in someone elses hands. If you assume you are a more skilled or adept woodburner because you can smack to pieces of firewood together and get a general assessment of the moisture content, then congratulations I guess...:msp_rolleyes:

The TRUTH is you cant ACCURATELY judge the moisture content the way a meter does. Some of us are fans of accurate information and prefer to use tools that provide us that.

 

[Joe Homeowner]

The "hate" some people on this site have for moisture meters astounds me. There is zero logic behind hating a tool used to diagnose the moisture content of firewood. If you take the standpoint of "they dont work" you are flat out wrong. If you take the standpoint of "they arent needed" and "I can tell just fine the old school way" please tell me how your personal preferences effect the usefulness of the tool in someone elses hands. If you assume you are a more skilled or adept woodburner because you can smack to pieces of firewood together and get a general assessment of the moisture content, then congratulations I guess...:msp_rolleyes:

The TRUTH is you cant ACCURATELY judge the moisture content the way a meter does. Some of us are fans of accurate information and prefer to use tools that provide us that.

There you go again projecting these extreme emotives onto the unwilling. Where the F do you get this from ?

No "hate" Loopie. I use firewood for 24/7, near 100% heating all year. We harvest our own year after year. If after all this time experienced firewood harvesters and users can't know when the wood is ready, it is time to not come down for breakfast. You need to have another device, or tool to play with, fine. Do it. The opinion of all the firewood users we know is, they know when their fuel is ready to burn. Experience.

Damn, we just don't have that kind of time to stick the hundreds of splits just to confirm what we already know or should know. You need to do that, do it. Enjoy the ride. But "hate" ? Ain't. :tire:

 

[openloop]

Im not projecting anything.... you saw a thread about which moisture meters are good and decided to come tell everyone how awesome you are because you dont use one. If you truly feel indifferent to their use why did you interject your useless opinion into a discussion about their use?

 

[stihlrookie]

Wagner MMC210 or MMC220. Quite expensive but very accurate, durable, many species and can be used on finished wood products, ie. wood flooring. It also reads to a depth of .75", much deeper than a standard pin meter that only reads to the depth of the pins.

In my experience a moisture meter for general firewood use is not needed by me, typically, but for a firewood customer it can be a valuable tool if they don't know much about firewood.

 

[Joe Homeowner]

Im not projecting anything.... you saw a thread about which moisture meters are good and decided to come tell everyone how awesome you are because you dont use one. If you truly feel indifferent to their use why did you interject your useless opinion into a discussion about their use?

Hey Loopie--where'd you get this BS awesome thing ? Projecting again. The useless opinion is based on fact ( such as: how far do those tiny probes read the moisture in a split--end or middle? And: how can you tell when the firewood is ready by observation). Based on actually using wood for heating a whole house, harvesting ALL the firewood for too many years (with one fat exception), running programs for using wood for heat, and, and, giving reasons if you want to read, how to determine when firewood is ready to burn.

You actually seriously use wood to heat, or just lurking ? :msp_confused:

Hate is not in the pic Loops. Awesome ain't in it either. Just the facts Loop. All of the firewood people, here at least, know enough, ARE EXPERIENCED, and have the smarts to know when their wood is ready. I've used MM's borrowed from millers ( you hear: "used them" )who really use and need them for dimensional lumber. That's how you know which tools work for you, and which are USELESS FOR THE PARTICULAR USER. And, gave the hows that we use to tell when our wood is ready.

Now Loops--you want and need the tool. Buy it, use it with success. It is an opinion of mine based on use, that it is as useless as a M.T. That's all. But get off the thin skinned personal attacks. :tire:

Geez, what emotion over a tiny tool. Who woulda known. Now a word about the election.............................................................

 

[sb47]

I thought about getting one but I’ve been burning wood so long I can tell if it will burn just by picking it up.
Knock two pieces together and it should sound hollow and have a ring to it if it’s dry.
If its green it will have a thud sound and no ring.

 

[flyboy553]

Hey Loopie--where'd you get this BS awesome thing ? Projecting again. The useless opinion is based on fact ( such as: how far do those tiny probes read the moisture in a split--end or middle? And: how can you tell when the firewood is ready by observation). Based on actually using wood for heating a whole house, harvesting ALL the firewood for too many years (with one fat exception), running programs for using wood for heat, and, and, giving reasons if you want to read, how to determine when firewood is ready to burn.

You actually seriously use wood to heat, or just lurking ? :msp_confused:

Hate is not in the pic Loops. Awesome ain't in it either. Just the facts Loop. All of the firewood people, here at least, know enough, ARE EXPERIENCED, and have the smarts to know when their wood is ready. I've used MM's borrowed from millers ( you hear: "used them" )who really use and need them for dimensional lumber. That's how you know which tools work for you, and which are USELESS FOR THE PARTICULAR USER. And, gave the hows that we use to tell when our wood is ready.

Now Loops--you want and need the tool. Buy it, use it with success. It is an opinion of mine based on use, that it is as useless as a M.T. That's all. But get off the thin skinned personal attacks. :tire:

Geez, what emotion over a tiny tool. Who woulda known. Now a word about the election.............................................................

Well, I see good ol' LogButcher is back ! Or should I say reincarnated.

Ted

 

[openloop]

Well, I see good ol' LogButcher is back ! Or should I say reincarnated.

Ted

There is no doubt in my mind that "joe homeowner" is "logButcher" same "I know better" attitude... same typing format... same state... and the same obsession with male breasts

logbutcher
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Got thems banjos in Iowa ???????????????????

P.S. New one for the unwashed masses---BAG BALM!!!!!! Please folks, save it for the utters ( also used on runners' male tits ).

P.P.S. Newer newest banjo: your ole underwear . Will you kindly stop me from wetting my pants this early ??? Please ?

 

[smokee]

Being new to this whole thing and a gadget kind of guy, I was in the area of Harbor Freight so I stopped in to see what these were about. While I'm looking at the moisture meter a guy walked up to me and handed me a 25% off and free tape measure coupon. 8 bucks, so I said what the heck - it'll keep me occupied and distracted from chasing the wife around.

Neat little item none the less. I'm going to go by the one year rule of thumb for wood that's green but will play around with the new toy. I gave it a try on a unsplit, 6" diameter piece of cherry from a tree I cut in April. I measured the moisture on the ends and it showed 21%. I split it down the middle and tested the meaty inners and it was higher, around 30%. One thing I did notice is gravity had it's grip on the log. The bottom was a good bit higher than the top.... about 15%. Not sure if this was an anomaly so I'll play around with it more.

One use that I did think of for it would be a nice science project for the boys. We could try different ways of storing fresh-cut wood to see which way might work better than others. Kids love little gadget such as this and incorporating it into something they can learn from is a win-win.

I'd like to install pop-out probes onto my iphone and write an app for that. :msp_biggrin: Get me some of that R&D money these guys are raking in.

 

[stihly dan]

You don't need the probes. I just got a ryobi one, no probes, to pads with some sort of sonar. I went and tested a piece from 12 different stacks. Everything was as expected, except for the 4 cord of red oak I cut this spring. I cut these as they where about to leave. Split and stacked in my shelter logic, 4 rows 20 long X 6 1/2 H. Both ends open facing east to west. 20% moisture. Not much checking, but the bark is peeling off. I thought the shelter would take longer than normal. Faster instead... It is like an oven in there all summer.

 

[Coldfront]

I bought the General Tools MMD4E meter last year as a toy for about $30 on amazon because I had a bunch of fresh green white pine from a big tree that fell and I wanted to see how fast pine will dry. I use it as a toy just because I am that way, I only check pieces that I fresh split in the center anyway it only took about 4 months for the pine to get down to about 12-14% and the green fresh cut red oak I cut and split about exactly one year ago is at about 18 - 20 % now I know for myself not what someone else told me. I only check a couple of pieces out of the stack that I know I did all at the same time it's not like you check every piece. I like it, and when someone wants to talk about moisture content in wood I feel like I do know something about it.

 

[smokee]

I bought the General Tools MMD4E meter last year as a toy for about $30 on amazon because I had a bunch of fresh green white pine from a big tree that fell and I wanted to see how fast pine will dry. I use it as a toy just because I am that way, I only check pieces that I fresh split in the center anyway it only took about 4 months for the pine to get down to about 12-14% and the green fresh cut red oak I cut and split about exactly one year ago is at about 18 - 20 % now I know for myself not what someone else told me. I only check a couple of pieces out of the stack that I know I did all at the same time it's not like you check every piece. I like it, and when someone wants to talk about moisture content in wood I feel like I do know something about it.

Wow, 12-14%! I doubt I could get that low in the northeast. Maybe in my house in the middle of winter but we have a good bit of humidity here all year. Bet that pine burns like hell so to speak.

 

[cnice_37]

The useless opinion is based on fact ( such as: how far do those tiny probes read the moisture in a split--end or middle?.....

DUDE... You split a split, and check the fresh split center. :deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse:

 

[stihly dan]

Wow, 12-14%! I doubt I could get that low in the northeast. Maybe in my house in the middle of winter but we have a good bit of humidity here all year. Bet that pine burns like hell so to speak.

Have you checked with a meter? The maple and cherry cut down last nov, split in jan, stacked in april, 5ft wide 6ft tall, 20ft long. All seems to be 14-15%. I am 30 min from the ocean.

 

[Coldfront]

I was surprised that cut and split that pine got down to about 14-16% in only a few months and yes I fresh split a piece and measure in the center where it would be the most wet.