Heads up about those cheap moisture meters at Lowe's

I was at the Home Depot off Route 22 last weekend picking up paint for my bathroom reno. Decided to grab one of those $12 pin moisture meters to check the drywall after a leak. Thing gave me readings all over the place like 8% then 45% on the same spot. Has anyone here actually tested those cheaper ones against a professional model?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimmurphy5d ago

Those $12 meters are pin type and they measure electrical resistance between the two pins. Problem is drywall compound and paint can mess with the reading big time. If you hit a patch of joint compound it'll read way different than bare paper. Also those cheap ones only measure surface moisture, not what's deep in the wall. A quality pinless meter like the General Tools MMD7E uses RF to scan deeper but it costs like 60 bucks. You basically get what you pay for with moisture meters, the cheap ones are good for a rough ballpark at best.

uma_williams5d ago

I bought that exact same cheap meter from Lowe's for $12 and it drove me crazy. Like you said, it jumped from 8% to 45% on the same spot on my drywall after a pipe drip. I ended up borrowing my buddy's General Tools MMD7E that @kimmurphy mentioned, and it scanned deeper without touching the paint or joint compound issues. That cheap meter basically just tells you if the surface is wet or dry, nothing reliable for actual numbers. For most homeowners doing one time checks, honestly just tapping the wall or using a plastic moisture sensor strip might work better. But if you really need to know if moisture is soaked into the studs behind the drywall, save up for the pinless model or rent one from a tool library.

fiona_west214d ago

The General Tools MMD7E is definitely the sweet spot for most people. I mean I messed around with a cheap pin meter for months and it just made things confusing. That particular model scans about 3/4 inch deep and ignores surface stuff like paint or wallpaper, which is why it works so much better for finding hidden moisture. If you are just trying to figure out if your drywall is actually dry after a leak, the plastic sensor strip idea is probably good enough and costs like five bucks.