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+-- Thread: Choice of Moisture Meter (/showthread.php?tid=7090051)
Choice of Moisture Meter - HomerLee - 09-04-2015
I'm thinking of buying a new moisture meter. The one I have is an old transistor type with a large slide hammer that drives finish nail sized pins into the wood; seems to work OK but its a bit cumbersome. Any opinions appreciated regarding what you might have and how you like it.
A few years back Fine Woodworking recommended the pinless type and rated a Ligno-Scanner D best overall but they are expensive. I see General Tools model MMD5NP at under $100. Anyone have any experience with it?
On the other hand perhaps my old meter is just as good and the new tool lust is affecting my thinking.
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - Steve N - 09-04-2015
A friend still has a Lignomat that he swears by. I've spent the $$$ for 2, to have them 1 fall apart, 2 get lost. I've tried many. Currently I have a bunch of these from when HD, or Lowes had them for some ridiculous price, seems like 5.99 or something. Seeing that in the past I had lost or broken a few I bought a dozen. So far the one I have used is going on 3, maybe 4 years, and it is the best one I have ever had because it was so cheap, and it works. Very close to the accuracy of my buddies Lingomat ($499.00) and I have yet to break it. Seems if you are looking for talking points that would cover them. I will say it eats batteries compared to others I have used.
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - jteneyck - 09-05-2015
I have a mini Ligno that I bought used on ebay for about $60 around 5 years ago. It has small pins, not a painless type, but it works very well for my needs. I take it with me when I buy wood and for checking the wood I dry myself.
John
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - J Lilley - 09-05-2015
I have a mini lingo and a general from lowes, they both work good and the general was only about $40 or a little less.
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - TGW - 09-05-2015
Why buy a new one if you already have one?
Buying a now tool when the old one does it's job perfectly is wasting money. Essentially you spend money without gaining any new or impoved capacity or capability.
I did some fairly sceintific research on the accuracy of moisturemeters for concrete when I did my batchelers thesis some years ago. Some methods proved to have an accuracy of +- 20% which means that they are totally useless for all practical purposes.
The best accuracy I could get was within +- 4 or 5% relative humidity. That is when using a 2500 dollar moisturemeter with new factory calibrated probes.
After that I am very sceptical to all moisturemeters. Particularly to models that work on the surface without any kind of probes. I don't know how much this applies to moisturemeters for wood..... but I would not wast a penni of my hard earned cash on any kind of surface moisturemeter.
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - Admiral - 09-05-2015
Steve N said:
A friend still has a Lignomat that he swears by. I've spent the $$$ for 2, to have them 1 fall apart, 2 get lost. I've tried many. Currently I have a bunch of these from when HD, or Lowes had them for some ridiculous price, seems like 5.99 or something. Seeing that in the past I had lost or broken a few I bought a dozen. So far the one I have used is going on 3, maybe 4 years, and it is the best one I have ever had because it was so cheap, and it works. Very close to the accuracy of my buddies Lingomat ($499.00) and I have yet to break it. Seems if you are looking for talking points that would cover them. I will say it eats batteries compared to others I have used.
I got the same General unit when it was on sale a while back, still working well.
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - fredhargis - 09-05-2015
For the record, I bought one of those Generals when Lowes was clearing them out for $10. The only chance I had to compare it against a better (?) quality one was when we had a plumbing leak, and we had Servicemaster come in to dry the play out. My General gave the same reading as his when he checked drywall, the carpet, and whatnot. It was quite useful, but it did die an unexpected early death...it quit working about a year ago. Not complaining (it was $10) and will probably get another one. Another thing that some folks mention is the pinless units don't leave the vampire marks when you use it. I've never understood that reasoning, those marks are easy to locate where they won't be a problem.
Re: Choice of Moisture Meter - jteneyck - 09-05-2015
You should try the newer meters. I checked my mini Lingo against specimens of known MC and the results were within 1% in almost every case, which is plenty good enough for my needs.
John