wood humidity meter/tester

[Nandy]

I keep reading mostly from the wood seller how they use a meter or tester to check their wood for humidity. Is that gadget price within the reach of the occasional wood user? Are they easily available?
Thanks!

 

[spencerhenry]

i think mine was about $200. i bought it for lumber and such, but works on firewood too. to truly get an accurate reading on a large piece you need to cut it in half and check the "middle" of the piece. the surface can be dry and the center can be substantially more wet.

 

[JayB]

Search for a thread here regarding using your multimeter for checking moisture content. I tried it, it works well. It's a little inconvenient but for occassional use it's fine. It's probably more accurate than a cheap meter and I spent about half a penny on the 2 nails needed to go with the meter I already had. Jay

 

[jerryw66]

I bought one on ebay, all it says on it is C E model MD814, it was about 20 or 25$, it works ok, I'm sure a 200$ one would be more accurate, but it's just firewood right? If I really want an accurate measurement, I cut the piece of wood and measure, the thing seems consistent if nothing else.

 

[Bass]

15.00 at harbor frt.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67143

i process my own wood and burn what i have ie first in / first out so i don't need one however if i was buying c/s/d it might be a good tool

also you want to split the split to check the moisture level

 

[Nandy]

Thanks guys!!!

 

[bsearcey]

$8 at harbour freight. Got a store close by and I guess they were on sale. Seems to be fairly accurate. I read a post recently that someone had done some testing with it against some known samples and he gave it a thumbs up.

 

[Wood Doctor]

If you buy one of these inexpensive meters, find a seasoned, dead dry piece of wood such as construction cedar or kiln-dried hardwood lumber from a sawmill that has been around for awhile in dry storage. Then use that as a reference standard to whatever you are measuring to see what additional moisture is present in the firewood.

If the cheap moisture meter can't zero in on absolute accuracy, it might still be able to do rather well in relative accuracy (i.e., the difference it measures would likely be very close to the expensive meter).

 

[Nandy]

If you buy one of these inexpensive meters, find a seasoned, dead dry piece of wood such as construction cedar or kiln-dried hardwood lumber from a sawmill that has been around for awhile in dry storage. Then use that as a reference standard to whatever you are measuring to see what additional moisture is present in the firewood.

If the cheap moisture meter can't zero in on absolute accuracy, it might still be able to do rather well in relative accuracy (i.e., the difference it measures would likely be very close to the expensive meter).

The harbor freight meter goes from 6 to 46 percent so you can't read 0 with it. I got one but have not been able to try it yet. Possibly tomorrow.