I recently encountered a leakage problem in my home after the heavy rains. While some areas are obviously damaged, I thought I would check other areas for abnormal amounts of moisture in ceilings and walls.
I thought that maybe I would purchase a moisture meter to do some checking. My initial research seems to indicate that there are very cheap models ($30) and then there is a price jump into the hundreds of dollars. It thought that maybe I could get something decent for under $100 but now I am leary of purchasing a cheapie.
What is the difference that causes the huge price disparity? Will a cheapie serve my purposes or will it just give me unreliable information? Is there something out there for $50 - $100 that is useful and reliable?
Let me bump this for the weekday crowd.
Yes!
I suspect that all you need is a $30-50 digital read out of temperature and humidity.
If you are really in NEED of high accuracy results spend whatever it takes. :rolleyes:
The cheapies are O.K. for relative RH measurements. Which is probably all you need. If you want good *absolute * accuracy, you will need to spend more money, and/or have the unit calibrated.
It just ocurred to me that what you are asking about is a CONTACT moisture meter, NOT an RH meter. These are NOT cheat. ~$400 more or less.
A cheapie would give some indication of the presense of moisture and may be sufficient for determining if things have been dried out or not.
Hmm. So is he looking for a RH meter, or a device that measures the moisture content of a solid substance?
Yes. I want to check drywall, floors, joists, ceilings. I want to determine areas that may have been water damaged relative to the dry areas.