Cheap 2-pin wood moisture meter

Dan_Musicant · 2006-01-27T21:54:33+00:00

I'm looking at the following at Harbor Freight:'s $20, and I wonder if it's worth the money. My initial purpose forit is to find leaks in my attic. I just had total roof job done to myvery old house and there's a lot of discolored wood up there and have toguess if wood is wet or not. I figure the meter might make finding leaksa lot easier than digging my finger nail into a piece of wood or rubbingit with my hand.Also, it might come in handy when trying to determine if wood is moistor not. For instance, is it ready to prime/paint yet? Might it warp orcheck unless allowed to dry further? Maybe picking out lumber at HomeDepot, etc.Thanks for any information.Dan

Jan 27, 2006 21 Replies

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hylourgos 20 years ago

No, it's I who must apologize for net nannying. I think everyone who's been watching a NG for over 5 years or so begins to be annoyed by the greater percentage of posts. Growing old and getting cranky I guess...

But to answer your question more specifically: when I first bought the HF unit it seemed poorly constructed. Seemed more like a cheap plastic toy. Performance was equivalent. It had several "levels" of measurement, but they didn't measure accurately or even consistently. I suppose it would be OK as long as you don't mind a error margin of +/-

40% moisture content.

Returned it and got some clamps.

Now happy, H

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Brooks Moses 20 years ago

I'd say, for Dan's application, the lack of accurate measurement wouldn't be that big a problem if it was consistent -- he doesn't really know what the moisture numbers in the attic should be, and is mostly looking for a spot that's different from all the rest. But the lack of consistency sounds like it's definitely a problem.

I suspect that there's also the problem, even if you did buy it for something like Dan's attic, that in the future there's this temptation to use it for something else and actually believe the numbers it puts out.

Meanwhile, what I'd suggest to Dan as a practical solution is finding some sort of paper that changes color if it gets damp (I'm not sure exactly what to suggest, but some marks with a water-based pen on blotter paper ought to do fine for a start), and thumbtack bits of it up all over the attic in likely spots, and then after a few rainy weeks go up and look at them again and see if any got wet.

- Brooks

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