Teach me about moisture meters. I see cheap Chinese ones on ebay for $6 and expensive ones for thousands of dollars. What is a good meter for our needs? Are there any tricks to using one?
$15-$30 will get you one good enough for firewood. A lot of people like the one Lowes sells...General brand I think it is. I have a cheapy chinees unit...it works...more or less...it will give you an idea of dry or wet anyways...none of the cheaper ones are to be trusted as far as an exact # though. For firewood, the wood needs to be room temperature (70* ish) resplit the wood, stick the probes into the freshly split face...the reading on the end, or on an outside surface will probably read a lot dryer than it is inside
General from Lowe’s or the one from harbor freight. I’d say the general because it takes a 9 volt. The other takes round watch type batteries. I have both and they do the job
I have the cheap Chinese tester off Ebay. It works fine. The above mentioned testing sequence is spot on. Search Ebay with this. LCD Display Digital Wood Moisture Temperature Meter Humidity Tester Detector $9.29 shipped.
I'm curious what the difference would be if I split 1 now with it being 89 degrees outside with a real feel of 100 versus at 70ish. Since my meter is broken I guess I'll have to wait to find out.
My guess is that it would read lower moisture. These meters read resistance (dryer wood has higher resistance) and resistance generally goes up with higher temps, so I'm guessing it would say the wood is a little dryer than it really is..not much though...maybe a point or so?
Looking on ebay there are pinless General moisture meters and pin types. How do pinless ones work? Which is more trust worthy?
Horkn likes his MM that works with an app for his phone.... he’ll be along soon enough... I presume that the pinless type uses radio frequency.... pins are fine.... and sharp
How accurate? I pulled a few splits out of a couple of stacks today around 4:30 with the outside temp being 42 degrees. I split these pieces and got a moisture reading of 15 and 18%.
Depends on the meter...some are close some are "ball park-ish", the cool temps might throw it off a bit too. Does yours have a "calibration" test?
I checked my MM for batteries life. Its been hanging in the same spot since I bought it (3-4 years ago?) Yeah, the batteries are the round thicker watch type and they are dead. DEAD! Shows how much the MM is used, no?
If these meters are testing resistance, has anyone put together a chart using a standard multimeter? Just curious. I would think it would be the next step in the evolution. And those meters have many more uses. HDRock , in reference to that nice chart, if it is 140 degrees out, firewood moisture reading is near the bottom of my interest list. lol. But, I would also think that the temperature would be good for seasoning splits!
I use an inexpensive one from Harbor Freight. It takes 4 button batteries. I did find that taking apart an Enrgizer A544 provided 4 buton cells. Odd that it's cheaper for me to buy an A544 than it is 4 of the LR44 button cells.
QUOTE="brenndatomu, post: 888, member: 2607"]Depends on the meter...some are close some are "ball park-ish", the cool temps might throw it off a bit too. Does yours have a "calibration" test?[/QUOTE] Yes it does have the calibration test.
The thing is wood inside a wood drying kiln Would be 140 Degrees or more , hence , The reason for that being on the chart
