Can anyone recommend a decent damp meter please ? Looking on Amazon there are quite a lot of different makes ranging in price from £6.49 to £150.60 although most are between about £15 and £25. I only need it for the occasional check in the caravan but obviously need one which will give a reasonably accurate reading.
Damp Meters
- Thread starter JohnM20
- Start date
Hello John,
I'm presumming you don't have experience with using moisture meters otherwise you would know what to get.
When taking moisture readings, you cannot rely on the readout alone, you have to know what you are looking at and how to interpret the results, especially with caravan construction. The wall boards can gave extraneous readings, becasue of the vinyl coating, and understanding what is a good/bad reading for different types of material is not always straight forward..
If you are looking for accuracy, then you must find one that comes with a calibration certificate produced by an acredited laboritory. that is expensive, and why its usually dedicated professionals that have them.
For anything without a calibration cert, you simply do not know its accuracy, and just becasue one person has one that seem fine does not guarantee the next one on the shelf has the same performance.
You pay your money and for most you take your chance.
I'm presumming you don't have experience with using moisture meters otherwise you would know what to get.
When taking moisture readings, you cannot rely on the readout alone, you have to know what you are looking at and how to interpret the results, especially with caravan construction. The wall boards can gave extraneous readings, becasue of the vinyl coating, and understanding what is a good/bad reading for different types of material is not always straight forward..
If you are looking for accuracy, then you must find one that comes with a calibration certificate produced by an acredited laboritory. that is expensive, and why its usually dedicated professionals that have them.
For anything without a calibration cert, you simply do not know its accuracy, and just becasue one person has one that seem fine does not guarantee the next one on the shelf has the same performance.
You pay your money and for most you take your chance.
The Protimeters are supposed to be the best for accuracy, but they are not cheap. Have a look on eBay.
Having struggled with moisture measurement for many years while in gainful employment I totally agree with the Prof. The simple two prong meters were initially tried on grain, but later a sample was taken and ground up before testing, or in the extreme a weighed sample was dried and then reweighed - clearly not practical for caravans !
The conditions of measurement are also critical. If you test a caravan which has been standing outside in the current sort of weather there may well be some slight condensation on the surface of the wood or particularly wall board which will indicate dampness even though the underlying board/wood is perfectly sound.
In some caravans the 'wood' is in fact a paper based film applied to the underlying chipboard, and it is perfectly possible for this to be damp and the board absolutely fine. It is not unknown for sellers to run some heat in a caravan for a few days before sale
My experience with the simple damp meters is that they will indicate serious damp and rot pretty well, but then so will a small thin probe and most likely your nose as well.
The conditions of measurement are also critical. If you test a caravan which has been standing outside in the current sort of weather there may well be some slight condensation on the surface of the wood or particularly wall board which will indicate dampness even though the underlying board/wood is perfectly sound.
In some caravans the 'wood' is in fact a paper based film applied to the underlying chipboard, and it is perfectly possible for this to be damp and the board absolutely fine. It is not unknown for sellers to run some heat in a caravan for a few days before sale
My experience with the simple damp meters is that they will indicate serious damp and rot pretty well, but then so will a small thin probe and most likely your nose as well.
I've used a simple 3 led damp meter for a very long time and was never disappointed with its performance, if theres damp it will show it.
I have also bought an expensive pontimeter mini, same as my dealer uses, but its not really a requirement, i only bought it so i could hit the dealer with percentage readings. Cost around £150.
I have damp on my Valencia front lockers, initially i detected it with the cheap meter.
Buy a cheap one, some one on the CT forum recommened one from amazon cost around £15.
I have also bought an expensive pontimeter mini, same as my dealer uses, but its not really a requirement, i only bought it so i could hit the dealer with percentage readings. Cost around £150.
I have damp on my Valencia front lockers, initially i detected it with the cheap meter.
Buy a cheap one, some one on the CT forum recommened one from amazon cost around £15.
The CEM pinless Moisture meter DT-128 seems to be the answer at £50 including delivery. We will probably buy one of these as a Xmas present for ourselves.
I got one from Aldi a few weeks ago , lights go up and show the % of moisture, good bit of kit think about £12
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