The Biggest Firewood Drying Myth… Busted!

Summary

Adam from Hometown Acres delivers firewood in reusable IBC baskets. A returning customer says the wood burns hot and clean compared with firewood he has bought elsewhere. The baskets make delivery easier on his back, avoid the mess of a dump-truck load, and provide a fixed, predictable amount. Customers can call to have empty baskets collected or exchanged for full ones.

Adam tests a common belief about drying firewood: whether wood exposed to rain dries as well as covered wood. He compares yellow birch split around the same time, measuring moisture on the outside and inside after about five months. The four storage methods are uncovered, covered with IBC lids, covered with corrugated metal roofing, and stored under a roof open to the wind.

Main Findings and Tips

• Cover the top of firewood. Uncovered wood had substantially higher moisture readings than wood protected by a roof.
• Average internal moisture readings were:
  • Uncovered: 35%
  • Under IBC lids: 25.3%
  • Under corrugated metal: 21.5%
  • Under an open-sided roof: 20%
• Corrugated metal roofing outdoors performed nearly as well as the open-sided roof, suggesting that expensive indoor storage may not be necessary for all firewood.
• The experiment challenges the idea that rain helps dry firewood. Surface moisture can dry in a day or two, but moisture inside the wood takes much longer to escape. Repeated rain can delay drying by re-wetting the surface.
• When checking firewood moisture, measure both the outside and the freshly split interior. The outside can be much drier than the center.
• If using IBC lids secured with ratchet straps, check and retighten them after a month or two. As the wood shrinks while drying, the straps can loosen and the lids may blow off.
• Adam notes that in northwestern Pennsylvania, firewood often levels out around 15–18% moisture as it dries.

Notable Locations, Products, and Speakers

• Speaker: Adam of Hometown Acres; a returning firewood customer also appears.
• Location: Northwestern Pennsylvania.
• Products and equipment: Reusable IBC containers and lids, ratchet straps, corrugated metal roofing, a 14-foot canopy, a wood-burning stove, and a moisture meter.