Moon model: MD912 -- Wood Moisture Meter.

[wehill]

Got the above Moon wood moisture meter from Amazon.  Also, just received two specie of wood from Smokwnlicious today as well.  I tested all of the hickory, pecan, oak and Cherry I have in my wood shop.  They all tested 0.0 to 0.5, which is what one might expect from wood stored in a dry climate.  The Hickory and Sugar Maple I received from Smokinlicious tested in the 31% to 36% moisture range.  Smokinlicious had a card in the box that the Hickory and Sugar Maple came in that said the Hickory was in the 35% range and the Sugan Maple in the 32%.

In addition, Smokin-It had a dozen 2 ounce blocks of Hickory enclosed in my new #3 that I received last Friday.  So, I checked the moisture in that wood and it was in the 11 - 15% moisture range as well.

I'm not convinced that the high moisture content of smokin' wood is all that critical.  So, I'm going to smoke a couple of sets of ribs sometime in the next week to 10 days.  I will smoke with the 30% plus hickory first, then a few days later smoke another pair of ribs with the 11% or so hickory.  I will make sure I put the same ounces of wood in the #3 on both smokes.  Will keep track of when the woods first start smoking and then when they quit producing smoke.  Will run both smokes for 5 and 1/2 hours.

Will post the results here.

 

[wehill]

An update on the Smokelicious 32% hickory wood that was delivered to me on February 18th.  Upon the delivery of the wood I used my wood moisture meter and got the same readings of 32% moisture on most of the chunks I tested, none below 30% moisture.  I followed the directions on how to store the wood.  Poked some holes in the box and stored the box in a dark area of my garage.  I have used maybe a couple of pounds of the wood over the last 12 days.  Yesterday I pulled four chunks of the hickory wood out of the box and used my moisture tester on them.  They all were in the 16 to 18% moisture range.  A drop from the 32% to say 18% in no more than 12 days.  During that period the temperature in my garage was never over 65 degrees and the average dew point was 35% with the average humidity was 60%.

Now, I'm not judging the quality of the Smokelicious wood, just relaying what has happened to what I bought and stored in my garage.  And, I'm not suggesting it isn't good smoking wood.  It is just a personal observation on my experience with the moisture content.

 

[old sarge]

I get my hickory from a different source and within a few weeks moisture is down to 10 to 20% on most of it.  And it seems to stabilize there for a long period of time. I store mine in a steel bucket with a lid in the shade on my patio.  Not uncommon for me to have to give some chunks a thorough rinsing a day or so before I use them if moisture is below 10%.