How Long Should You Dry Firewood Before Burning It?
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- Today we talk about how long you should dry firewood before burning it. This video, #96, is looking at the wood I felled, cut, and split in the last video. I discuss what moisture content is, how to measure it, what moisture content your wood should be burning it, and how long should dry to get there. Lots of factors go into this, so join us today for a great discussion!
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I like to put green firewood on my porch to dry as well. Up against the railing, not the house. It's protected from the rain, gets a breeze all year long, and a fair amount of sun. It's ridiculous how quickly wood dries in that spot!
To add one point: WET wood, and GREEN wood aren't the same, and the time it takes to dry them is quite different. A long dead standing tree or deadfall might indeed have a fair amount of moisture in it- but because the wood is already mostly seasoned, that water will evaporate quickly, once the tree is cut into rounds and split. Same is true of wood that got rained on. That's WET wood.
Green wood is wood from a living or very newly dead tree. The moisture inside is locked in the cells, and takes a lot longer to get out. That water is usually a much higher percentage of the total weight as well.
Also, the denser the wood, the longer it usually takes to fully season. species like Oak, Locust, and Hickory are infamous for taking a long time to season, while less dense species, like soft maple, pine, white birch, etc will dry quickly. Ash is an interesting exception- and that's undoubtedly where that conventional wisdom about it burning green comes from. It's a heavy wood- that's naturally low moisture, and it dries very quickly, compared to other woods with similar BTU contents. Not exactly sure WHY, just that it does. It's a firewood seller's best friend- because it allows you to get your $$ out of it a lot sooner, instead of having it tied up sitting in stacks out in the yard.
Whatever kind you have, and no matter how much moisture is in it, the most important thing is to get it up off the ground (wood soaks up groundwater like a sponge- especially oak), and stack it where it gets wind and sun. If it gets rained on, it's no major problem- the water is on the outside. So long as it can dry back out relatively quickly, it'll be fine.
And when you go to use a moisture tester, SPLIT the piece open, and test the fresh face! The outside wood dries out much sooner than the inside does, so just testing the outside will not give an accurate reading.
Being honest helps the average person understand what is best for them and safer 😊. Thank You
I stack my wood "Lincoln log" or criss cross style now.
Much better air circulation, less critters, etc. Takes more space though.
Yes, you are correct. I try to keep around 15 cord on hand for 2 years of burning, so that would double the amount of space I need. I'll just have to keep doing what I'm doing now. Thanks for watching.
South Mississippi here. Use mostly red oak, other oaks, pecan. Harvested limbs last year off of a huge dead pecan tree that I had my eye on for several years. It was a year before the wood was dry and seasoned enough for my wood heater I cut my wood at 16” lengths and split the crap outta it. Burns fast but hot. Thanks for the video!! Always good to see what works for others.
Thanks for the comments. I agree it's nice to see how other people do things. Thanks for watching.
Some great information my friend
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!
Before they unloaded it check the moisture your self, don’t trust them and check it as it’s being stacked also 😊😊😊
Good explanation.. I let my firewood sit at least a year before it gets used for heating.. Even the dead standing stuff in February I am sketchy with and will stack it away so I know it is ready.. Less guessing that way at least for me..
I typically like to do this as well. But last winter cleaned me out and I don't have any choice right now. Soon I should have enough stocked up for 3 years and this won't be the case. Thanks for watching Dan!
I have experience with both gasification and standard wood boilers and agree with you about the moisture content for burning wood in the gasification unit but a standard wood boiler is way different in that respect.
I can drop a live tree and burn it the same day in the standard boiler with great results. It is true that the water will be boiled away but the heat is there to do it. Also, the moisture content helps to regulate the burn time so I only need to feed the stove once a day in the coldest weather. Also I don't need to split the logs, saving that time , effort and fuel. The full round logs also slow down the rate of burn.
This doesn't create a smokey mess either because the bed of coals keeps the burn chamber so hot that the smoke is similar to a well built campfire.
That's good that you get great results from it. For me, I don't like waste. So burning green wood using the BTUs in the wood to boil away the water is wasteful. You may not mind it, but I do. I don't like cutting more wood than I need. So I choose a more efficient wood burning system and use less wood because of it. I'm not knocking your choice. Just stating why I made mine. Thanks for watching!
6 months is a good answer
6 months is a good answer for some people. But not everyone and all wood. Some green oak takes 2 years. Thanks for watching.
Great info. I am doing test burns with ash in a campfire pit just to see how smoky it is at different moisture contents. It seems 20% truly is that cut off point to have a good campfire experience. I’ll probably test some other species also.
Ash is good campfire wood. The drier it is, the less smoke you should have once it starts burning fully. It would be interesting to see your results. Thanks for watching!
You have a good handle on it. We differ just a little bit. If we were neighbors I am sure we would be friends.
Absolutely! Thanks for watching!
Depends on weather conditions which are different everywhere.
This is true; weather conditions and geographic location can change how well wood will dry. I can't get wood as dry as someone who live s in a dry climate. And wood in tropical rain forests won't dry as well as what I can. Excellent point.
Doug fir and maple are common here on B C coastal Canada. We stack crosswind spaced rows and hope for 50% RH or less from summer wind for two full years. We test the wood's moisture content by splitting a piece and doing the prong testing on the flattish surface we just exposed. 20% is too high to avoid making creosote. I wonder about the RH in your summers.
Some areas are definitely better for drying firewood. We are in the middle of the woods tucked up to a hill side. So we get very little cross wind. And yes, we have high humidity in the summer. Usually in the 60-80% range. Thanks for watching!
I'm on 0regon coast i burn mostly doug fir i like it to be about 16-18%✌️
@@scooterscat3309 Thats a good range to dry it to.
Should the catalytic help reduce the creosote ? Isn't that the purpose to super heat the gasses that condensate on the chimney liner?
The catalytic stoves will decrease some of the creosote by providing for a more complete burn. But the catalytic stoves don't remove the root of creosote, which is moisture. If you burn wet wood, that creates creosote no matter what stove you burn in it. The amount of moisture in the smoke doesn't change if you use a catalytic stove, just the amount of small unburnt wood particles is decreased.
But also, catalytic stoves do re-burn the gasses at higher temps, which usually happens in the stove itself. I've never personally ran a catalytic stove, but I've read that the flue temperatures are lower than regular wood stoves. This would allow for MORE creosote to form if you burn wet wood.
The design of the wood stove isn't the key to less creosote, but rather having dry, seasoned wood. When there is very little moisture in the wood, there is very little creosote. Thanks for watching and asking your question.
@@NorthForkHollow my spark arrester on the top of the chimney gets clogged (solid) in the spring-every year since the insert has been installed.
I am not sure how accurate a moisture meter is just by sticking the prongs in the wood. I believe one would get a much more accurate reading if the piece that one was checking was split so the one can actually test the inside of it.
I agree it may not have been the most accurate method. But I mention that the wood was split for less than 24 hours. And I was only using the number as an example to talk further about the title of the video "How long should you dry firewood before burning it?". So really, a highly accurate number wasn't that important for the topic of the video. Also, my conclusion was the wood needed more time to dry and I would check it again later. If anything, the moisture content was probably higher than I was reading, which just reinforces my conclusion. I did a followup video here: ua-cam.com/video/o6WLFkEogyk/v-deo.html after letting the wood dry for a couple months, split it, and check the moisture content. Thanks for watching and your comments.
what setting should i use on my moisture meter if the type of wood is unknown to me (a,b,c,d.)?
What meter do you have? The General Tools meter I use in the video (amzn.to/3GhzDAs) only have two ranges. One for wood and one for building materials.
Will the humidity in the south in the summer effect the drying of the wood? Also, do you need the sun to hit the firewood?
Yes, humidity in the air will definitely affect drying time. The more humidity, the longer it will take. You don't need direct sun to dry firewood. It helps, but isn't necessary. Good air flow is the best way. Thanks for watching!
Video about the importance of using dry firewood in solid fuel heating device. Front piece for video shows using moisture meter incorrectly.
I will be the first to confess, I am not an expert. I read and followed the manual. If there is a better or more correct way, by all means, please make a video to help me out. Thanks for your comment and watching my videos.
@@NorthForkHollow select a split. Resplit it so you have a fresh face to work with. Insert the prongs of the meter in the middle of the fresh face parallel with the direction of the grain structure.
Should give you a reading accurate to about 3%.🙂
@@drewpackman2929 In my follow-up video, I do split the wood before I test it. This wood was just split, so I didn't go through that process. I understanding wanting to test the interior of a split piece of wood if you want to find the highest percentage. The manual for my meter doesn't specify grain direction. Doing some research, it appears that grain direction will make a very small difference, around half a percent (0.5%) for the wood I was testing. So not something I am going to worry much about.
Overall, my goal is to figure out what the moisture percentage of the entire log is, or even the average over multiple logs. I don't burn just the wettest part of the wood, I burn everything. So I look more for an average to decide if the wood is dry enough to burn.
Thanks for the discussion and thanks for watching!
tell that to joes preium firewood he said dead wood you can burn right a way
Well, I don't always agree with everything he says. Just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should". Also, he's a salesman trying to sell people firewood. I'm doing what's best for me, not my pocket. Thanks for watching!