Does this rate of moisture loss look normal?

[blackhawk]

This is the first load in my Nyle L53 kiln.  I just wanted a sanity check to see if my moisture loss is normal for the L53.  Seems a little slow but I have no previous kiln drying experience.  I have about 600 board feet total of cherry and walnut in the kiln.  It was all air dried to below 14% before going in the kiln.  I have remote probes in 4 locations inside the kiln.  Since 3/4/2023 until 3/9/2023 (today), roughly 5 days, the cherry has lost between 2-4% moisture content.  The walnut has lost 1.4%.  Below is a graph that I made in Excel showing the moisture content checks that I have made over the past few days.  MC3 is the probe in 8/4 walnut.  The other 3 probes on the graph are all in 5/4 cherry.  The text boxes in the graph show where I made changes to my dry and wet bulb settings and the corresponding EMC.  I made those changes when I noticed less water accumulating in my drain bucket.  The changes did help to increase the condensation output of the L53.


Does this look about right?  Or do I need to make some changes?

[K-Guy]

Yes that sounds normal, when the wood is that dry it's harder to get the moisture out and will slow more as it dries.

Think of it like when you pull a sponge out of a bucket of water. At first it's easy to get water out but as it gets dryer, the harder you have to squeeze, the same goes for wood.

[scsmith42]

In addition to what Stan said, that's a nice, steady, slow progression, which is what you want.

Drying too quickly is much more damaging than drying too slowly, so better to err on the side of caution.

On the other hand, once you get below 25% MC it's hard to damage the wood.  Your biggest concern with a finish off run is having the core and shell MC% as close to equal as possible.

[blackhawk]

I really appreciate the input.  I'll keep on the path.