Dr.Meter MD912 Tools Digital Moisture Meter For Wood, Sheetrock, Carpets, 2-Pin Sensor

I'm a home inspector. I started my own business in the beginning of the year and this was one of the "must have" tools in my repertoire. Luckily, being on a tight budget was not a problem as this very effective and accurate device was well priced.It was ready to go right out of the box. I started testing everything in my own home. The shower walls, under my water heater, kitchen and bathroom sinks; my own arm. Everything met the tongs of the moisture meter that day.For work, it's great. Leave it at the common setting (3) to test things around homes; unless you're some kind of wood or surface expert and you'll get great readings every time.

I bought this to replace an older more expensive unit that has served me well for years. I made several repairs before I figured it wouldn't last long or be very accurate. I do word work and I also heat with wood so I know a little about it all. This meter performed the same on accuracy and is easy to use. For the money this meter is a steal and performs as well as more expensive units. One tip, make sure the meter and the product are at the same temperature! This really applies to any meter but it makes a huge difference. In short, you can't go wrong with this. Beginners to old timers alike will be pleased. Only drawback, I'm afraid to push to hard into hard wood. Maybe it's me but I'm not confident in any plastics. This applies to anything but I'll just have to "push through it". Upside, they'll replace it if I break it.

We just bought our first home with a fireplace inside of the home. In fact our home has two fireplaces. Knowing that we are not in a season to buy well dried and seasoned wood, I was very worried about getting taken advantage of with wet unburnable wood.I bought this moisture gage on the suggestion of my chimney sweep. He told me what to look for when I bought one, and was actually here to use it when I got my first load of firewood. It turns out the firewood was a little more moist than ideal but it still burnt. This gauge was really good at measuring the levels of moisture in the wood. Pieces that were obviously more wet had a significantly higher content than those that were dry and splitting.I'm very excited to have this tool on hand, because it is very easy for someone to sell you wet wood at an inflated price in the middle of the winter...I really like that there's a cover for the prongs and a case to keep it in.

Overall the meter is well built and easy to use. In repeat testing on a single sample in a somewhat controlled environment it yielded fairly consistent results. That being said, it seems that when identical materials like a group of 2 x 4 lumber were tested after residing in the same environment for several months, the results varied by quite a bit. More than you would expect given similar materials while acknowledging that some differences would appear as wood is a natural material. Overall I'm not sure what to make of this except that perhaps for the price point this is about as accurate of a meter as you are going to get.

Mediocre construction quality. It seems to be accurate enough, however a quick tap on the power button will turn it on and you must hold the button down to turn it off. This is reversed from what it should be, as I painfully discovered when less than 48 hours after purchase the battery was dead since it's so easy to accidentally turn it on. Also, even though the cap is visually symmetrical, it will only go on one direction which means you have to intentionally look to make sure "UP" is on the top. I returned this straight away.

The meter is inaccurate below approximately 6% moisture content. I know this because I've checked it against two other moisture meters of different brands. This is the exact same issue I found in the first meter I purchased, so I know it wasn't a fluke. It seems more accurate (pretty close to the other two meters) when you get above about 8%. My issue is that I tend to be measuring moisture content of drier woods, so this meter isn't very useful for me.If you're using it for measuring moisture on wetter woods, like firewood, decks or siding before staining/painting then I'm guessing it's more useful.

I cut live wood to use for custom woodworking projects that has to be dried. Previously, I've always just used the standard rule of thumb of 1 year of drying time for every inch of thickness. After having some pieces continue to warp and split, I decided to get this to check the moisture content so that I can know exactly what it is instead of just hoping it's dry enough. Some of the wood that I had drying for over a year had a moisture content of 15%. Checking kiln dried wood reads around 5-7%. The meter responds quickly and seems to have repeatable results within a a percentage point or two. When using it, be sure that you select the correct wood group (1-4 as listed in the manual) as that will affect the reading. Also, be sure to insert the pins far enough into the wood to get a correct reading.

Seems to work fine BUT One thing that is poorly designed is the unit can easily be turned ON inside or outside the case unbeknownst to the user and will run down the 9V battery if left unchecked. The ON button is easily depressed and the unit does NOT turn off automatically. I confirmed this with an old battery i had to be sure of what was happening. However, the battery is easily removed and fits nicely in the case so not a deal breaker for me. If i had to have it in my pocket all the time, well that maybe another story. Could easily modify the battery lead with a micro switch or maybe protect the on button with something preventing unwanted activation.