Take care when purchasing seasoned wood in bulk, especially if it's being sold by weight - your fuel could be saturated with water making it useless for immediate use and giving you less value for money. A simple test to gauge the moisture content is to simply hit two logs together - a 'hollow' sound indicates the wood is reasonably dry, whereas a 'blunt' sound usually means the wood is not ready for burning.
Moisture testers are now a lot more readily available and are often encouraged by manufacturers as a burning wet wood is a common reason for performance problems. A moisture meter is a quick and accurate method of testing the suitability of wood for burning.
When purchasing wood, a hardwood such as oak or maple best. Hardwood is ideal as its high density allows for longer and more consistent burning than softwoods such as pine or spruce - which are still OK for use in your stove however it tend to burn faster and hotter that hardwood.
