How Much Does Firewood Weigh? Pre Kiln Dried

[@paulweakley3440]

I'm happy to see your subscribers creeping up every time I tune in for some firewood / kiln action.

[@Treestofirewood]

Thanks. Yeah I am too. Makes it more worth while to continue to produce videos.

[@kyleysanj]

Awsome test! Water weighs around 8 lbs 6 ozs per gallon, and you are expecting to pull around 24 gallons of water out from each tote of wood! That is amazing!

[@Treestofirewood]

Yeah it’s pretty crazy when you think about it.

[@jameswatkins5986]

1200#s of wood at 25% is 300#s of water in the wood if you get that down to 10% is 280#s of water removed or 33.85 gallons of water perr tote

[@Treestofirewood]

Good calculation. Will be cool to see the results

[@traviscover7002]

You did a really good job I like your new video are home say night and warm my outdoor wood stove did a really good job when we have this cold I love your video keep burning 🔥

[@Treestofirewood]

HeatMaster did their job that’s for sure.

[@fricknjeep]

hi there .it will amaze you .i have scaled a lot of woods in past videos ,i never did Ash .i have 3 platform scales in my green house and just air dried them . took there weights each day . i kind of think i would have added or sub. each tote so they all started out the same , the question to me is is it worth it in the long run , it adds a lot of time loading and unloading . on you loading i believe if you were to strap the 2 totes togather all the way across the top you can pick them up from the center and avoid using a pallet jack / might be something worth trying , look forward to more on this , well done john

[@Treestofirewood]

Yeah definitely could strap the totes together and load them two at a time. I just don’t like putting them in that way as the way I have the kiln set up the airflow would have to change to get the best airflow. I may down the road build a new kiln and change some things. That’s just a thought though. I’m really anxious to see how much less each tote weighs at the end of the cycle.

[@mattfarr-vc1vd]

I enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing. I kiln dry in the same ibc totes your using. Nyle dehumidification kiln. Max temp 120 ish. Last week I did 5 face cord load. Got 162 gallons of water in 6 days. Still working to improve.

[@Treestofirewood]

That’s a good amount of water out in 6 days. Have you calculated the cost to run your kiln for those 6 days?

[@mattfarr-vc1vd]

It’s been averaging about between $20-30/day. That’s too much IMO. Nyle has been working with me to make changes and adjustments to get that cost down. I’ve made mistakes and still learning how to run the system more efficiently.

[@Treestofirewood]

@mattfarr-vc1vd wow that is a little much per day. Running a dehu and electric heat is expensive. But once it’s up to temp it shouldn’t be too bad right?

[@mattfarr-vc1vd]

Yes that’s correct

[@leonardryan8723]

Mark it on pc off wood with a sharp marker . Have a great day great video 😊. 1085.5 lbs

[@Treestofirewood]

Yeah thought about that. But I have it charted.

[@ElijahPerrin80]

I am wondering why you slowly increase the temperature in the kiln instead of just leaving it at 140. Have you tried to place frozen solid wood in the kiln hoping to benefit from subduction or water changing from a solid to a gas skipping the liquid phase perhaps fracturing the wood as the gas expands allowing more water to escape. Just thinking out loud.

[@Treestofirewood]

If you heat up the wood to fast the outside of the wood will harden stopping the water from the inside from escaping. That’s called case hardening. So bringing up the temp slowly allows the core to get up to temp then you can increase the temperature higher.

[@ElijahPerrin80]

@@Treestofirewood Oh right I think I recall you talking about that at one point, thank you, I seem to learn everyday from you.

[@robertseter4329]

I've been curious to know how much totes weigh with green wood in them. My little 2025r want pick them up green. Haven't tried to pick them up seasoned since i just started using them for next years wood. Species of wood makes a big difference on weight, especially green. I think you will get somewhere around 1400 lbs of moisture out of those 7 crates. That's a lot of extra work just to let us know how much weight the wood will lose, but thankful you are for an idea for all of us. 👍

[@Treestofirewood]

Yes it definitely is a lot of extra work but I figured lots of people would like to know and see real world drying. It’s crazy when you think about how much water wood holds. Plus it is a good test to let me know how evenly the kiln dried wood.

[@shioctonautomotive647]

1260LBS For all the totes. Great video idea.

[@Treestofirewood]

Good guess. And I thought It was a good idea to see how the weight changes after the drying cycle.

[@Kayla-pg9ld]

Definitely a cool test. Can’t wait to so see the results 200lb loss per tote

[@Treestofirewood]

That’s a pretty good guess.

[@WoodchuckCanuck]

We ran a similar experiment back in May 2023, the difference in weight for 5 weeks of air drying. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gn2XfKOYqMuZjKM Air drying alone was about 180-200 lbs per 32 cu ft of stacked wood. So with the kiln I'll say it going to come in about 220-250 lb off each crate you got there. We actually have a video coming up in a few weeks that is similar to what you are doing here, for 8 crates (2 cords) of 14" mixed hardwood (maple and birch, with some beech and ash). I was looking at how you load your crates close to the left side. Have you considered more spacing there and between the crates to allow for more air flow around the totes?

[@Treestofirewood]

Yeah I have considered more spacing between them. This test will tell me how well each tote dries in there current position. And that will tell me if I have to do something different on the next load. I think it will be fine but time will tell. It still amazes me how much water wood holds and how much we get extracted from the wood. I will check out that video of yours.

[@WoodchuckCanuck]

@@Treestofirewood Early on in our kiln running days I would actually measure the water coming out of the unit. Average for 2 cords of mixed hardwood would be 175-200L. Which I think is about a 5ft bathtub full to the top.

[@WoodchuckCanuck]

@@Treestofirewood Air flow is key. So the more steps you can take to improve that, the better results you will get. We dry wood a little different than most. We force the air through the stacked crates, rather than free air around the crates.

[@Treestofirewood]

@WoodchuckCanuck how did you measure the water coming out? From your dehu?

[@WoodchuckCanuck]

@@Treestofirewood Yes from the dehumidifier's drain hose.

[@leonardryan8723]

My estimated weight total 1540 lbs for water .

[@Treestofirewood]

I’m thinking it should be around there.

[@richarddabkowski2896]

I'm guessing 1700 pounds. Going a little under 30 gallons per tote.

[@Treestofirewood]

That’s a good guess. I’m really clueless as to how much will come out.

[@leonardryan8723]

1 gallon is 10 lbs off water .

[@johnkiser2658]

A gallon of water weighs 8.34

[@allritecoach6357]

1260#

[@Treestofirewood]

Good guess.

[@johnkiser2658]

200 pounds per tote is my guess

[@Treestofirewood]

Good guess. Few more days for the results

[@ironmayhew]

1632 pounds of weight lost with all the totes. That's my guess.

[@Treestofirewood]

I sure hope so. Means I got out a lot of water. Few more days and we will find out.

[@davesauerzopf6980]

I am going with 1300 pounds of loss..

[@Treestofirewood]

Few more days and time will tell. Going to do an update video today on the progress.