Moisture readers
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I ordered one from harbor freight for $20 back in mid october. I got it 2 weeks ago. 2+ year old ash read 24% ?! early spring split beech 28% and some oak that was split with the beech at 34% . I would save your cash and go by the feel.
I got the cheap one at Habor Freight, I think it was only $8 and I think it works great. Reads from 0 to 40, any thing over 40 you get a symbol like L or something. Seems accurate enough for me and if verified by the weight and smell of the wood.
The Wood Dog said:
Could be wrong, but I think CenTech is one of the many HF "house brands" - I have the cheapo HF meter with the LED bar graph on it, Cen Tech brand, seems to work OK, at least it reads about what I expect...
As a response to the OP, many of us have the HF meter, others have gotten cheap meters off E-Bay or equivalent, and most work reasonably well. The two-prong meters are better for firewood as they don't need the flat surface to get a reading like you do with a 4-prong meter. The accuracy on the cheap meters may not be the best, but it is adequate for measuring firewood, even if it isn't quite up to what would be needed for fine furniture making...
Gooserider
Gooserider said:
I have the exact same one from HF. One thing about it that I wonder about is I get a lot of wood that pegs the low-moisture bar graph and NON of the lights come on the High moisture side. This would mean the moisture reads exactly 15% on tons of my wood, which is hard to believe. Otherwise, for the money this meter is pretty good.
fire_man said:
I have noticed that as well, and it does make me wonder if there is a calibration gap of sorts between the two scales... However for firewood use it really doesn't matter - 15% is great for burning... :coolsmile:
Gooserider
I have this one and it works great, and is reproducible. I had one that had two gauges one that read to about 20% and the second one went to about 45%. That one was yellow in color and twice as long. This one is tourquise and has a read out which is digital, I love it. The one thing was it took 2.5 weeks for delivery so maybe call the nearest store to see if they have this model and to hold it for you. Go to Harborfreight.com and then put in moisture meter or
Digital Mini Moisture Meter ITEM 67143-0VGA
Measures wood and hardened materials to determine its quality and usefulness, or to identify water leaks and rot.
Also reads environmental temperature
Easy-to-read LCD digital read-out with backlight
Compact lightweight design for portability
Accuracy for wood to +/- 2%, Material: +/- 0.1%
Batteries included
Meter range: Wood: 6-42%, Material: 0.2-2%, Temperature: 32-99º F
ITEM 67143-0VGA
$12.99
Digital Mini Moisture Meter ITEM 67143-0VGA
Measures wood and hardened materials to determine its quality and usefulness, or to identify water leaks and rot.
Also reads environmental temperature
Easy-to-read LCD digital read-out with backlight
Compact lightweight design for portability
Accuracy for wood to +/- 2%, Material: +/- 0.1%
Batteries included
Meter range: Wood: 6-42%, Material: 0.2-2%, Temperature: 32-99º F
ITEM 67143-0VGA
$12.99
I think that the accuracy of the Harbor Freight meters have always been questioned. Regardless, I use mine mostly for comparison, if it is off, it should be off the same amount consistently. I don't have enough room to store more than a years worth of wood, so I sample each tree and sort it accordingly, burning the lowest content first. Seems to work well for me.
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