Speeding up Firewood Drying: Technique for Quickly Seasoning Firewood

[@EverythingElliott]

Interested to see out what else I’ve been up to lately? Check out my other videos here: tinyurl.com/yc7d76ku

[@njonebale7889]

You did all that for me! I’m hitting the thumbs up button, great video. I take my firewood from the rack and put it in my basement before it rains and then I….burn it!

[@EverythingElliott]

Everything I do, I do for you!

[@ZaganStoanes]

My neighbors used to use a dehumidifier to dry thier wood. They would receive it freshly cut in the summer and stack in thier basement and put the dehumidifier on and leave it on. When winter came around they said it was like burning wood that had been seasoned for 3 years. Your numbers showed me they weren't pulling my leg.

[@EverythingElliott]

I’ve been doing it this way for a couple years and have always had good results

[@dealsfromvirginia1773]

This may save my bacon for this coming season. I'll be moving my firewood today and get the dehumidifiers going. It's funny though as I encountered a guy years ago using dehumidifiers to dry board wood in a shed telling me it was a kiln. I thought he didn't know what he was talking about at the time.

[@EverythingElliott]

I don't think I'd call it kiln dried...maybe just speedy seasoned.

[@Cfmetsaars]

Love all the videos just keep them coming appreciate you.

[@EverythingElliott]

Thanks for the support!

[@rocketj7449]

Pro tip from a water restorer, introducing air movement to your wood stack will break up the boundary layer on thr surface of your stack allowing quicker evaporation. Also, tenting your wood stack during drying will create a smaller area to dehumidify thus reducing the drying time by as much as 50%. Running that dehumidifier is costing you money, consider a Dri Eaz LGR dehumidifier with auto pump out will get you dried out in record times.

[@EverythingElliott]

What’s the difference between the dehumidifier that I’m running and the one you mentioned?

[@RuggedMade]

Really interesting video Elliott, keep them coming!

[@Northeastdeerhunter]

I have a 8’ wood rack 8’ from my wood stove in my basement. It’s about 3 days wood on extremely cold days during the winter. I’ve done the same test on that wood as it has been in hot conditions due to the proximity of the wood stove for a day or so and the moisture in the wood goes down dramatically. 19% to about 14% give or take. Great video.

[@EverythingElliott]

There’s no doubt that makes a difference, also helps keep the moisture in your house from the stove drying it out so much. I don’t have a place I can put that much wood near my stove, but I bring a days worth of wood in at a time. Works similarly but on a smaller scale with less drying.

[@dgsguitars5960]

Fan and a dehumidifier. Been doing it for years and yes it works.

[@EverythingElliott]

it's a great solution to finish the drying prior to bringing it into the house!

[@aldonco]

Elliott, you really know your wood.

[@EverythingElliott]

If a man doesn’t know his own wood, is he really a man at all?

[@brianmendel8680]

how much water was in the bucket each day, thanks for doing the videos.

[@EverythingElliott]

It was full, my best guess is that has about a 3 gallon capacity

[@brianmendel8680]

WOW! that's a lot of water! I live in Lancaster maybe we could go out for a beer someday. I am selling a bunch of tools if you are interested. Let me know, good luck with the storm this weekend, last time we had six feet

[@EverythingElliott]

@@brianmendel8680 I like tools…my email is in the about section of my channel. Shoot me an email with the listing, I’ll take a look at it!

[@hp1468]

I was taught that you have to split wood and take a measurement of the inside. Outside surface can be drier than the center. I usually air dry my wood for 2 years...... oak, chestnut for 3 years. Stopped measuring moisture after using wood boiler for 2 years. My wood is usuaully dried at 14 - 17% .

[@EverythingElliott]

I know that's the proper way to take a measurement, however I wouldn't be able to repeat it day after day because once split, I wouldn't be able to measure it again the next day considering the wood is already split open.

[@freddystingray1877]

I think this item is crucial the inside moist is unkown. I propose, better then measuring the moisture on the outside is measure daily the weight reduction of the logs, it would tell much more to my opinion.

[@jeffreyanderson5304]

I doesn't matter to me what kind of video you do next I like them

[@EverythingElliott]

Thanks for the support!

[@FBHSswimmer2006]

What were the fan speed and humidity percentage settings set to on your dehumidifier? How often were you emptying the bucket?

[@EverythingElliott]

Fan speed set to high, humidity set to minimum which I believe on my model is 30% and it just ran constantly. I had to empty the bucket daily

[@BS.-.-]

I think what this proves is if you let your drying wood get wet all the time it needs a dehumidifier to dry out. You can tell that because the higher numbers even looked dryer going on the stack. I also live in NY and 2 weeks ago cut down standing dead Ash, moisture content 20-33% Ash, maple and oak that's been in a shed for 2yrs 13-22% keeping wood dry really helps.

[@BS.-.-]

You could also argue is the electricity worth a few percent loss in the wood? Would just a box fan blowing across the wood work just as well?

[@EverythingElliott]

If you watch some of my other firewood videos you’ll see I stack most of my wood in a wood shed, it just goes in the totes when it’s getting ready to come into the house. Each tote is out in the elements for a couple Weeks with it tarped

[@joewilson4436]

What you've made here is a kiln. One of the cheapest and easist ways to build a kiln is to build an insulated box of some kind and put in a dehumidifier. Probably you could make this more efficient by using a smaller space or stacking even more wood in this area, but other than that it's an effective way to dry wood. The only thing you won't get with this vs something like a commercial kiln is the ability to crank up the temp to over 120 and kill all the bugs in the wood. But you could probably dry the wood down to 6-8% or so with this method, depending on how well insulated your mud room is and how humid it is where you live.

[@EverythingElliott]

Works great to finish off the firewood. Thanks for watching!

[@silentvoiceinthedark5665]

Is the mud room heated? Also maybe having a box fan move the air around for a few hours could make a diff. Did you measure how much water you pulled from the dehumidifier? I know the air temp makes a lot of diff having had dried rugs in a storage shed in the winter with a dehumidifier set up much like your. I could not get good results till I put in a heater and a fan, then it was dry in a few hours and had to drain the water out of the dehumidifier every few hours.

[@EverythingElliott]

The room isn’t heater, but it’s all spray foamed so it stays pretty warm with radiant heat from the house. I emptied about 3 gallons of water a day out of it

[@josevelasco3245]

Seems to work but I’m curious if you re-split any of the 22 down the middle, what the reading would be there.

[@EverythingElliott]

I thought of that but I don’t think it’d be a fair comparison

[@josevelasco3245]

@@EverythingElliott I was thinking about it and if you had them double the size and run your experiment. Then split down the middle to the size you have them now and then dry them out through your process again. That might work too!

[@josevelasco3245]

@@EverythingElliott oh yes definitely not a good comparo. I was thinking more to try and dry the wood quickly so you can get it to burn in your stove or fireplace. I’m usually a couple years if not just 1 ahead but if I had a month to get it done, it’s worth a shot. Thx for the video!

[@ravenfeather7087]

I also suspect it works. I may give it a try in my basement (where I store wood). A couple problems are for one thing you don't have a control set of "logs". Say a room without a dehumidifier but other conditions are identical. And you may have impacted only the outer portion of the "log" while the inner portion, including the portion against the wall, was less affected by the dehumidifier. And I wonder at what point the savings occurred by burning wood wood (kidding, the second wood) be negated by the increased cost of electricity.

[@EverythingElliott]

What I believe this most does for me is gets rid of the “surface moisture” that is absorbed just from the environment

[@danielmoulton4117]

Its worth noting that over time wood moisture content will equal the long term relative humidity of the environment it is in. I have to laugh when people pay premium prices for kiln dried wood, then store it in a humid climate for months. The timber framers from hundreds of years ago knew this, and let the timbers rest for a year in the location they would be used before they made a cut. As wood absorbs moisture it expands in different amounts in cross, radial, and tangential dimensions.

[@EverythingElliott]

Same thing goes for hard wood flooring. That’s why flooring installers leave the wood in the room it will be installed in for a month prior to install

[@dand33911]

I took some classes on shaker furniture building. They had a sleeve on the wall stacked with a dozen or so species of wood, in 1"x1"x1" blocks. They would mark on the wall over the course of the year how much the wood moved. Shrinkage and expansion. It was over 1/4" swing. And that's wood that's been inside for years. If you stack an ibc tote full to the top of split wood, a year later, it will be down a good 4-6" from the top. I always try and leave the totes by the woodstove a good week before picking off them for the stove.

[@kitmoore252]

I live in Alabama where the humidity is above 90% most of the time. In the Summer it maybe 95, today in November it is 75% and we are in a drought. Wood will season in high humidity. Seasoning has more to do with the sap drying in the wood. What this video is testing is not if the wood is seasoned. It is testing if it has dried out because it was rained on. To truly test if it is seasoned, you would split the wood and check the center, which would not change if it just rained on the firewood.

[@davidbaron6647]

I see the Cat was supervising you. nice?

[@EverythingElliott]

Theodore always loves giving his opinion on what I’m doing

[@jeffmcbride469]

How many totes in an average winter do you use?

[@EverythingElliott]

Last year I burnt 16 totes (each tote is a face cord)

[@jeffmcbride469]

@@EverythingElliott , growing up in northern Colorado, my parents used a wood stove most of my youth. I have some pretty great memories of cutting pine up in the mountains, hauling it down, cutting it, splitting it stacking it. My mom once counted how many times we touch a given log from mountain to wood stove, it was a lot! Love your channel and the outdoor stuff you show. Keep it up!

[@BCole-bj4lv]

I'm sure that a dehumidifier will work and a fan works too. You need to use weight instead of a meter. I've tested wood pretty extensively with a more rigorous method. I have found that it (oak) dries like crazy in the first 3 months (3 in summer, 4 months in winter) and then very slowly from then on. Keeping it covered right off the bat is a very good thing. Rain will stall the drying if it is frequent. It will dry 27-30% (by weight) in the first 3 months and then 5% more over the next year. Rain will be reabsorbed at any point in the process and slow the drying. I hope to do more experiments in the future.

[@EverythingElliott]

Never thought about weighing the wood, that’s a really good idea

[@number40Fan]

Curious if anyone else if having a problem watching your videos and getting consistent buffering when trying to view at 720 or better? I don't have any issue with anyone else's video. ETA: I didn't have any issues when first starting to watch your videos (snowstorm) but have since.

[@EverythingElliott]

I'm not too sure, maybe its because I record in 60FPS? did you try on your phone connected to cell service rather than wifi? I've never had an issue when I watch them to review them.

[@michaelmeyers1827]

Definately going down

[@EverythingElliott]

Worked out pretty well!

[@springhollerfarm8668]

I think some heat and more air movement would be helpful but you are only drying the outside of the dry wood. Split a piece and test the middle...

[@EverythingElliott]

all mu wood is seasoned, were just finishing off the outside that is moist from being out in the elements

[@HuckThis1971]

Should put a small stove in there and crack one of those windows open. Humidity would go out real quick

[@EverythingElliott]

Man that room would get screamin hot with a stove in there!

[@HuckThis1971]

@@EverythingElliott why I mentioned a small stove. It doesn't have to be big for that reason. Just enough to get heat so you can crack a window open to let humidity out!

[@dps67]

Great video! Perhaps this spring, widen the doorway to accommodate bringing the bin into your mud room with the tractor. 😉

[@EverythingElliott]

I just remodeled that room, I attempted to put a double door in for that exact reason. My wife put the kabash to that idea :(

[@dps67]

@@EverythingElliott I get the wife thing; perhaps invite her to unload and stack a few cords...🙄🙄

[@Sonjaorleans]

@@EverythingElliott haha 😂 tell her you the boss

[@stephenbranham8425]

Why don’t you go and do that door widening for him and also buy the materials……..

[@tomchilson893]

Electric bill will go up using the dehumidifier, losing the benefit of saving money with drier firewood.

[@EverythingElliott]

You have to take into consideration my other heat source for my house is fuel oil. At $6.00 a gallon, running a this to dry the wood for a week is still cheaper than burning fuel oil

[@NickOvcen]

Stack the Wood outside and rose north and south

[@EverythingElliott]

The dehumidifier is simply providing the final Touch on the seasoning process

[@NickOvcen]

Running a dehumidifier isn’t free

[@EverythingElliott]

Certainly isnt

[@SirDadbod]

how much did your electric bill go up hahahaha

[@EverythingElliott]

Honestly, it wasn't noticeable. Our electric bill always sky rockets in the winter, so might as well just add to it with a dehumidifier

[@danthedewman1]

people make seasoning so complicated or you need some trick..Its simple, just get 2 to 3 years ahead with firewood and its all good after that

[@EverythingElliott]

I’ve been trying to do that, just tough to do it by myself. I burn about 27-30 face cord a year. It’s a lot of work for a one man show, balancing work, family, firewood, and everything else around the house.

[@indrekkpringi]

I have a much simpler and easier method to dry my firewood. First: Take everything out of the room your wood stove is in. . Then: stack the room on both sides of your wood stove to the ceiling with firewood. (Make sure the top half of one side is dry enough to burn). Then start burning the top half of the side that is dry enough to burn. By the time you get to the rest of the wood on that side it will be dried out enough to burn. By the time you get to the 2nd half of the firewood on the other side of your wood stove it will be dry as a bone. In essence you are using your wood stove as a kiln to dry out your firewood. One advantage this has is that this method will humidify your house all winter from the moisture evaporating from your stacked firewood. The room my wood stove is in is large enough to contain a full year's supply of firewood. What is nice about my system is that I usually have leftover firewood which I can use to burn next year, and so go on repeating the cycle every year without having to dry the wood for a year before burning. Of course this all depends on the layout of your house and how it is designed... The room my wood stove is in used to be the living room and it is separate from the rest of the house, so filling it with firewood does not interfere in how i live. Another nice thing about my system us that all the loading and stacking of firewood is done only once; right next to your wood stove; so you don't need to spend any more time carrying or stacking or loading your firewood all winter.

[@EverythingElliott]

I would be divorced if I filled our living room with firewood. My wife would not allow that. And to be honest, not sure if I would want to fill my living room with firewood either.

[@indrekkpringi]

@@EverythingElliott It doesn't have to be the living room. It could be any room large enough to store firewood and give enough air flow to heat the house. You could even build an extension and add an extra room. One thing is for sure: My system works without having to measure the moisture content of every log I burn.

[@indrekkpringi]

@@EverythingElliott Another benefit of my system is the firewood acts as a heat sink that stores heat, so even after the wood in the stove is burned, the heat in the firewood keeps my 2-story house warm for hours regardless of how cold it is outside.

[@EverythingElliott]

@@indrekkpringi I don't disagree with anything youre saying, I just dont have a space for it, and putting an addition on the house just to store wood isnt financially feasible right now. The mud room serves its purpose as a wood staging area.

[@indrekkpringi]

@@EverythingElliott As the French saying goes: " Chacun a son gout." Meaning: Each to his own taste.

[@york806]

I stack my wood in the basement and it is at 11% ..

[@EverythingElliott]

Nice and dry basement!

[@johnnewington3798]

From my experience, taking the measurements on the outside of the log, has little correlation with the moisture content in the middle of the log. Easy to dry log so that it reads 40. A much more accurate way is to weigh each log, as this will determine how much moisture has been removed from the log, against the energy used running a dehumidifier. Using, free, wind, sun and time appears a better way, if the logs are are at higher water content inside, then any significant amount of wood would take many buckets of water to be removed using a dehumidifier. But whatever method people use, cutting, splitting, stacking, drying and then burning wood becomes a passion, exercise and enjoyment.❤️

[@EverythingElliott]

I never thought about weighing it until someone else mentioned that. That’s a great idea! Thanks for watchinf

[@natsterlive]

Stupid using electricity to dry wood. I stack the wood a cord at a time in the stove room. Heat from the stove does the same thing without the cost of power.

[@EverythingElliott]

Well. I don’t think my wife would want a cord of wood stacked in our living room.

[@outdoorswithlarryrobin]

Hello Elliott, my building does the same, Green Red oak, in one year is 14% 🚜🪵👍🏼🇺🇸

[@outdoorswithlarryrobin]

Hello Elliott, my building does the same, Green Red oak, in one year is 14% 🚜🪵👍🏼🇺🇸

[@EverythingElliott]

quick and easy way to do it!