How Long Does It Really Take Red Oak Firewood to Dry?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2021
- In this video, I show moisture percentages for red oak split between 2 weeks and 26 months ago. This wood was split from live and dead trees cut between 2 and 40 months ago. I also compare the red oak dry time to poplar. The target percentage is 20%, but I find that wood burns better in my high efficiency wood stove when it is closer to 15%.
This wood was RESPLIT a few minutes before I made the video, so all measurements are taken on the re-split sides.
If you are interested in learning more about oak and many other species, check out this site. It's absolutely the best I've seen by far. The videos are all outstanding.
forestry.ca.uky.edu/common_ky...
General Moisture Meter:
amazon.com/General-Tools-MMD4...
South Mississippi here. Been burning a red oak for two seasons now in my wood heater. Good stuff. I split my wood quite small and at 16” lengths. Seasoned it for a little over a year. Averages less than 12%. It works me half to death but I keep the top of racks covered during wet weather, then pull off the tarps for those hot dry Mississippi days. Works every time.
That's similar to experiences I've heard from others down south. Interesting thing I've seen this winter. I have a single row of 13" pieces but it's a 3rd row north facing, so not getting sun since there are 2 other rows in front of it. Covered, been out for 2.5 years and it's dry enough to burn but not great. Climate really makes a difference.
Anything under 20% I’m burning
Great video. We use a lot of red oak here in WV and wait at least 2 summers. Check everything on moisture meter. Great info.
Always wondered this. Keep it up.
I've compared those prob moisture meters with sensing meters builders use on walls and find they work just fine to detect below the surface of the split wood.
Your samples tells me it would be best to split soon as you cut the tree down.
I get a lot of under 20% dry wood from the branches of dead trees I can burn right away.
Cutting in winter the trees are almost half the moisture of summer cuts.
The winter cutting is a good thought and it should make a big difference, but I have only had live oaks cut down in October and early November so far. Others were standing dead and a lot of those seem to die from the wilt or fungus in the summer, so probably lots of moisture in them. The oak is also best to split when fresh because it's easier then too. Once the ends of the oak dry, they dry hard. I posted a short 1 minute video showing that difference. th-cam.com/video/X5FdEGxgVCU/w-d-xo.html Thanks for watching!
I stack my wood in a woodshed with a dark metal roof, slatted sides and back, open front, facing West. Everything is perfectly seasoned within 12 months.
I'm in Eastern Australia where the sun is incredibly intense but our woods are much denser.
Those factors would definitely help. When you say seasoned, what moisture content do you achieve after 12 months? I've talked to others about this and even with my red oak, I could technically burn it after 12 or maybe 18 months, but I'd need to burn with the air control nearly wide open. Also wondering if you are saying that your red oak in Eastern Australia is more more dense than American red oak or if you are talking about some other species of wood?
Covering your pile is important!
Absolutely, especially important in the weeks/months right before you plan to burn it.
Nice
This year we tried something different. Bought a 20ft. Shelter logic, stacked 3 cords of Black oak in there. Left a 6 inch space between each row of wood. Put a cheap box fan in there. This was in April. Checking on the moisture with the same meter you have every few weeks. It was like a sauna in there during the summer. By the first of September the readings were below 20%. We have been burning it since November and it's below 15% now.
Interesting idea. Were you checking moisture by re-splitting a piece to get the inside reading or were you checking on the exterior of a piece that was split in April? What part of the country are you? I know some southern areas dry much quicker, but what you are describing, if an internal re-split moisture measurement, is the most dramatic quick drying I've ever seen by a long shot.
Just checking the original splits. We're in Michigan, lower peninsula. We burn mostly Ash and Oak. I've tried another type of force drying. Stacked outside, I wrap the individual Rick's with black tarp or plastic film. Works very well. I always burn the wood that I cut in the winter or spring that next fall and winter. We get our firewood free, just have to haul it about 50 miles.
@@waltmoore3095 For comparison, I split and stacked red oak in April 2022. Stacked on pallets 2 rows deep, >6" between rows, moderate sun, no top cover, location central Maryland. I just checked the outsides with the moisture meter today (Dec 29, 2022) and measured 11.1%. I then split a piece open and checked the fresh inside face, 23.4%. This wood will burn, but not to my satisfaction. I'd have to run with the air control open much wider, so I'd be chewing through wood a lot quicker. Based on this, I'm not sure the fan method is helping. It offers constant air circulation, but the shelter logic is trapping ground moisture and you're losing the direct sun exposure on the face of the wood. All that really matters though is whether your method works for you. If it does, that's great. Not trying to say otherwise, just providing you with some comparable data points.
Points well taken. As a after thought I would stack the wood on pallets or something to get the wood off the ground. In the middle of the summer I would open both ends and let the wind work. Otherwise it was very humid from the wood moisture. The fall season was great for drying not as humid weather as the summer. We get humid summers in Michigan from the lakes.
I just did a respite on 2 pieces, 1 oak 1 ash. Oak was 15.1 before 19.4 after. Ash was 16 before 17.9 after. We store the firewood on the porch, and I think it gets a little moisture from that environment. We stack quite a lot in the living room by the stove. Seems to help with the warming of the wood.
Great video!!! Do you ever watch the Back 40 Firewood live stream on Friday’s at 8:00 CST? It’s awesome!
Thank for watching. This was a fun video to make, and it has generated a lot of comments from people all over with similar and different experiences. I watched Back 40 regularly with my son until about a year ago (including live streams). Then the channel changed with the content having click bait thumbnails and strategically placed camera angles that had nothing to do with firewood. For that reason, we stopped watching. I remember the first Friday he did the coin in the cup thing. It was so wild and was really a lot of fun. It's a great group of guys on that live stream for sure.
A big variable is when the tree was felled, not just in time duration but the month. Tree will be super high in moisture content in July when green. January, much less.
I still need to experiment with this more to see how significant it is for red oak with respect to total dry time once cut/split/stacked. The outer sapwood portion of the tree might fluctuate a measurable amount summer vs winter, but I haven't been able to see a big difference in the core of the red oak trees. Every round I've cut, whether the tree was felled in the summer or winter, will ooze out moisture in the center like a wet sponge if you hit it with an axe right after you buck rounds. Around here, this is true even for trees cut in the winter that lay on the ground for a year or two.
This was a great demo on moisture content. I decided early to be diligent about covering the wood when it rains and uncovering when it’s not. My red oak gets from the mid 20% range to below 15% in about 6 months. I also live in Atlanta, Georgia so it’s a hotter climate. All that said i strongly believe covering the wood makes a huge difference.
I have since heard the same from another commenter located in the south. You're right too, covering really does make a difference. Just the top and maybe a little down the sides though.
@@Redneck_Ed yep, I use those Champion rack covers that cover the top and about a foot down from the top all the way around.
@@Redneck_Ed I was wondering what your summers are like,, where I live,, if you split it by Easter,, you can burn it this winter (cork oak)
@@BrendonHoppy Our summers are warm but humid, so the oak just doesn't dry out enough. I mean technically it will burn in 6 to 8 months, but you'd have to keep the damper wide open to maintain a hot enough fire so as to not cause massive creosote.
Also the size does matter. Those pieces were not huge, however the smaller the split the better they dry. I love oak at around 15% burns hot no smoke.
Very nice video but people here and all over seem to love burning red oak ? I just received some and it just sizzles in the stove but does burn so slow and low too much moisture must cut and leave out in the sun makes a huge difference in a short period of time. Please keep up these videos they are useful
People love it because it burns so hot, but only if it is dry. If you're getting water sizzling out of the ends, that wood is way too wet. People around here sell "seasoned" wood all the time, but you can tell just by looking at it that it isn't seasoned at all. I think the best approach might be to buy wood a season ahead of time or at least in the spring so you can stack and dry some more on your own all summer and fall. That is unless you can find a trusted supplier.
@@Redneck_Ed thanks your so correct. I stacked it in the sun under a over hang should be good next winter by Gods grace. Thanks for the reply
There is a large chart on line comparing the BTU's per cord of dozens of tree species
Wondering if there’s any correlation between thickness of the cut and time to fully season.
I've heard 1 year per inch thick for oak. There is definitely a correlation but I was really surprised that the oak kindling came in so high for as thin as it was. This was a good test but the rubber hits the road when it's in the stove burning. I'll do some more videos this winter showing what these higher moisture pieces do when you try to burn them.
My wood always seems to wet. I cut a year ahead. It's down dead tree and dead standing. Some of it will sizzle. I've found over the year that if I burn dead ash with it, all is good enough. I clean the chimney every year and it's generally a mess.
A year just isn't enough for oak unless maybe you're in the south. I would get that same sizzle when trying to burn the wet stuff. If you can get ahead another season, it'll make a big difference.
First of all, thank you for the video, well done. I have that same moisture meter, how did u calibrate it? And does anyone know how to silence the meter? My dog is neurotic and when he hears my meter beep when the % is high it tears his nerves up, he’s hiding under the bed right now just from him hearing this video 🤦♂️.
There are calibration resistors in the cap. You place the meter in the holes and it should read 18.3% +/- 1%. I don't think the meter can be silenced. Your best bet would be to use it outside. I only bring dry wood inside to burn, so I've never used it inside the house.
You will never get perfectly dry wood if it’s stored outside. It may be 11% in the summer, but it will gain and absorb water in the damp winter stacked in the dry.
Man even my doors in my house absorb water in the winter hence it swelling.
18% to 20% is ideal to burn and you will not get better wood. You don’t want it too dry or it will burn too quickly. As long as it’s been seasoned 20% is normal.
Where do you live that has high air moisture in the winter? Here in the mid-Atlantic area, it's just the opposite of what you have. Humid in the summer and dry in the winter. Our doors inside swell some in the summer and stick, but they go back to dry in the fall and winter. We even run humidifiers here in the winter to add moisture back into the air. I've never heard of an area where it's the opposite.
You must split the sample or you just get the surface moisture level. The internal moisture is the important measurement.
Yes, they were all fleshly split just before the video. Look close, you can see the halves match up and are numbered on the ends right at the very beginning and even in the video thumbnail.
What other variables is it stacked outside susceptible to weather ? Do you live in a humid climate ? Everything makes a difference
Definitely, there are lots of potential variables other than time. I listed most of mine in the video, highlighting the big ones toward the end of the video. Sun exposure and tarp top cover made the most difference.
Standing dead doesn't dry at all. For quickest dry outside of a kiln, split and stack in sunny spot, with the stack running east/west. Cover with black plastic sheet that covers the top and the south side with the bottom staked a few inches away from the stack.
Absolutely, you're dead on with that comment. I noted standing live or standing dead in the video just for reference because I have heard others claim that it makes a difference. I have a stack that's 3 rows deep running E/W and the row on the north side has been stacked and split for 30 months, covered most of the time and it's not burning very well this winter. It burns, but I need to feed it more air than I would like in order to get it to burn. My double rows running E/W seem to be ok. Single rows would be much better but I only have so much space to work with.
Where are you from? I ask because I split oak that was green and stacked it about 9 months ago and it's all under 15%, much of it is 12-13% here in the Ozarks of Arkansas... Keep in mind thickness matters. Oak generally dries 1 inch a year, maybe 1 1/2 in a hot dry year but that is it.
That said, I usually split mine 1 1/2-2 inches thick one way and stack it right away in a sunny location where the wind can get to it.
Type of oak matters too. Are you talking about northern red oak? I'm in the mid Atlantic area.
There's stacked and there's stacked!
Was the wood uncovered? Was it top-covered?
Was it enclosed in a wood shed?
Any of those can make a dryness difference.
Definitely factors to consider, but I take it you didn't watch the entire video to the end where I talk about the stack that had sun and no sun and top cover vs no top cover?
@@Redneck_Ed
I'll wait to hear about your wood stacking technique: traditional parallel "dense" stack, or like I do, cris-cross stacking so there is best ventilation and discouragement of insect/critter bedding, though that technique takes up more space.
And your woodpile structure ... are your wood pieces off contact with wet ground? Even my 4x4s are based on concrete block so NO wood supports contact water!
@@raycaster4398 Lol, not sure what you're waiting for. Not a contest here. Too funny.
@@Redneck_Ed Godot. 🤭
Am I confused about the end or did you say having it covers makes a big difference? I thought everyone knows wood kept out of the rain will season significantly faster...
No, you had that right. It did make a difference as expected. The pile that got very little sun was also more wet than the others. I don't cover my piles all year round though because it's really hard to keep all the tarps from having at least some water on top in the warm months which is a mosquitoe issue.
20% or less is on par with kiln dried. Anything under 30% is just fine to burn in an open fire and 25% and under is great for stove.
Those numbers might work for some, but they are high in my experience unless you are ok fighting a bit to get the fire started and keeping the air control open a bit more to feed it. I'm talking in terms of the higher efficiency stoves. Even in an open fire pit, 30% or higher will work to feed a fire that is already going hard, but getting it started with some dry kindling and a few 30% chunks is more difficult.
@@Redneck_Ed maybe climate has something to do with it idk. I'm in Northern Arkansas. Just south of Missouri border. Ozarks. Mostly what we have white oak, red oak. Hickory and walnut. I had lived an hour and half west of here prior and I had more cedar and cherry there. Cherry seasoned fastest. Hickory burned hottest. The oaks always burn great but red oak just takes forever to season outdoor and also has lots rot issues. However, I had a huge fireplace/stove that had industrial fans to blow out the vents. It would heat my whole house. Which was 6k square feet. Not joking. But if I had any wood under 25% it would burn great in the stove. Just enough moisture to keep it from burning too fast. Too be fair I always used a Firestarter. Now on my new place I have a ton of white oak. They recently logged before I bought it. So I have about 6 years of firewood splitting to do. Not joking. But it's primarily white oak logs and red oak. With scattered pine, Hickory and walnut. I'm excited to see the differences. Walnut burns great smells good and low smoke. Hickory is Hickory of course. I like white oak. The trees were cut last winter. I have split about 4 cords of it so far. Last night when I commented I was burning first outside fire of fall. White oak I split in June. I started fire with twigs and kindling and got a hot pile of coal going and put some chopped white oak in. Burnt excellent. Don't know what moisture content was but for a tree that was cut in December last year and split 4 months ago... had to be above 25% had to.
@@Redneck_Ed that was a hell of a dissertation I just wrote. I apologize. I love firewood. I like discussions. Haha. Thanks for video and your time
@@arrowheadtelecom6561 Haha, long comments are welcome! I think you might be correct about climate having something to do with it. Another person from the south commented that their red oak is dry in about 6 months. In the mid Atlantic our humidity in the summer isn't helping things. You also make a good point about wood being too dry. I will sometimes mix loads a bit and get a piece or two that I know is a little more wet in the mix if I have some super dry stuff and a hot bed of coals. The other thing about moisture is that you can take a piece that has dried for 5 years and if you test it a few days after a rain, it will measure high but that high reading seems to be more of a pure rain water moisture that will dry out in a day if you bring it in to warm by the stove. The natural moisture inside the wood is what seems to take the most time to dissipate. I'll add this to my list of video ideas to make a few time lapse videos of wood stove loads with different moisture content. Thanks for watching and commenting! I love firewood too. My neighbor just cut down 3 big red oaks yesterday, so I've been gazing out the window like Chevy Chase looking out the window thinking of his pool, lol.
@@Redneck_Ed I know that look! Haha. Thanks and look forward to watching
Burn it under 25%. Obviously the lower the better but under 25 isn't terrible. Split it smaller it'll dry faster too.
Some people do burn wood that is more in the 25% (or greater) range, but the Osburn manual mentions 20% or less as the target range. Burning >20% wood in a high efficiency stove, in my opinion, is really just a matter of poor planning.
@Redneck_Ed I don't disagree but you do you. I don't have n efficient anything
@@ChrisLascari Absolutely, that's with all of my videos. I'm showing what I do and why I do it. I get comments all the time that differ. I'm sure others will benefit from the videos and comments. Thanks for watching and for the discussion!
You would be interesting to see what the moisture was if you freshly split a piece and test it
Fresh red oak normally measures in the upper 30s or sometimes low 40s. I just cut some rounds tonight, so I'll check them tomorrow to verify.
@@Redneck_Ed no sir I was talking about taking a piece of already split wood like the pieces you were doing the demo on. And splitting one of those to see what it's internal measure of moisture was. Thank you for responding.
@@charlesfredrick4789 Ah, ok I understand now. That is exactly what is shown in this video. 1:08, you can see how those first 2 pieces fit together perfectly. That's because it was 1 split piece that I re-split 5 minutes before making this video to get a fresh edge. Also, 2:51 and 3:19 for example, watch how I discard 2 pieces at a time. All moisture measurements in this video are taken on fresh split sides. I did measure the new stuff this morning too and it was 32% on a fresh cut end of a tree cut down 5 months ago.
@@Redneck_Ed it's amazing how long oak rounds will hold moisture. I keep mine covered with a tarp, till I can get them split. And I pull the tarp back. During dry weather. For the first time I burned some standing dead Apple, rock hard I was amazed burned beautiful and left a nice coal bed.
Wood absorbs moisture. If you want it bone dry and keep it outside, forget about it.
Bone dry is not the goal. Getting it dry enough to burn well and burn safely without building up tar creosote is the goal. Outside storage is not an issue at all. It just takes a little more time for red oak to dry in comparison to other types of wood.
@@Redneck_Ed I know. My point is that if the wood is stored outside in the elements, it's not going to dry to it fullest capability. The wood must be covered and allowed to be ventilated in order to dry to acceptable moisture content. Oak will dry to below 15% in one year after it's spilt if kept out of rain and snow and is ventilated. It's not just about elapsed time.
@@lou704 I ran the under-roof and ventilated experiment 5 years ago and 15% in a year is not possible in this area for northern red oak split to wood stove sized pieces. If you live somewhere that makes 1 year 15% seasoning possible, great. Thanks for sharing that experience.
here in the uk they used to sell wet logs and coal in garages .then last yr they told everyone they cant sell wet wood is this the same in the usa
There are no regulations on moisture content of firewood in the USA. The EPA wants stoves to be high efficiency, but they are not looking at all at moisture content which is of course a huge deal if you're trying to burn cleanly.
@@Redneck_Ed thank you for that info much apreciated
no surprise here....most wood i have bought is not really seasoned...it's still kind of wet..truly seasoned firewood is hard to find and
the burn is completely different...just massive btus from little wood...here in cali i burn eucalyptus that when ready is dark brown or
almost black...this seasoning takes a couple years minimum.
We see that a lot here too. Firewood advertised as "seasoned" that is nowhere near ready to burn well.
Cutting down a tree in the winter while the tree is in dormancy will season in less than 12 months.
If season means dry enough to burn, then yes. The problem I have found is that it's not dry enough in 12 months to burn well without running the damper open and chewing through wood like crazy.
You need to expand your research.
How much sun are you actually getting?
How high is your average humidity?
How loose(or tight) are your stacks?
How much actual wind - 5mph+ does your wood get over time?
How big are your splits?
Lol, this was not a research video. It was a demonstration of results video. Seems like you may not have watched the entire video because some of the factors you mentioned were discussed. To include all of the factors you are suggesting in scientific format is not a useful exercise anyway. The big ones are sun, wind, humidity, and top cover. As others have stated in the comments, the oak dries much better down south because of the weather.
@@Redneck_Ed No need to get scientific, but making mention does matter. When one is sounding emphatic on Time without being clear on Conditions.... Well.... it entails a little more than place the Cake in the oven until done. Just saying.
@@crxess guess I'm not following what you're saying then. Thanks for watching though.
If you put your wood out stacked in the hot summer sun. Your wood will be completely dry in 3 weeks to a month
Have you tried that with red oak? If you have, I'd love to see the burn test in a high efficiency wood stove after 4 weeks of dry time. 6 months to 1 year is the best case in the south. 1 year up north.
What is the average humidity where the tests were done? I live in northern Calif and typically cure oak cut green and spit in 9-12 months, outside in the sun through the summer (June-Oct), then stacked in the woodshed. So about 4 months in very low humidity, 25% or less, often in teens July-Sep. Standing dead trees cure even faster, 6 moths. Curing area also gets good afternoon breezes nearly every day, which is a big factor too, I think.
This is mid-Atlantic east coast levels of humidity. It's the heart of northern red oak territory. These trees are not native to Northern California, so you most likely have some other species of oak in the red or white family of oaks. Northern red is notoriously difficult to dry because of its high moisture content, but humidity does play a big factor. Folks in the southeast dry this wood much more quickly for example. For your 25% measurements, you're talking about measuring on a freshly split edge of the wood? That's what you are seeing in this video. Whole pieces that I split once more for the video so I could get a center moisture reading. 25% can typically be reached for northern red in 12 months even here in the mid-Atlantic, but if you place it in the stove it will still sizzle with moisture and it's hard to burn cleanly without smoking unless you feed it lots of air which causes you to chew through wood quickly.
@@Redneck_Ed I'm talking about average air humidity, not the wood moisture content. Folks around here call the different varieties of oaks: red, white, tan, live or black, depending on which one they are talking about.
you must live in a cold climate region. here in south texas split wood cures faster than your figures
Maryland. Others have said that red oak dries more quickly in the south. Do you burn red own down there? Other species will dry in 8 to 12 months in this area, but red oak is much different.