damp meters

tony31245 · Jan 7, 2017

went to change our caravan when the dealers tested for damp it was all over the van. I have a damp meter myself and used to test for damp every 3 months . what a waste of money they are tested with my meter and it was 7 when it was tested with a proper one it was 51 the dealer pointed to spots on caravan and said test there with yours I tested and it was ok when I then checked the wall it felt like a sponge beware when testing with a cheap meter as they are no good I paid £35 for mine what a waste of money

Anseo · Jan 7, 2017

Sorry to hear that Tony, and after you taking what you thought were all reasonable precautions, is it possible your meter was faulty or needed recalibrating.

I have no experience of damp meter qualityreliability etc.

Does anyone have recommendations for a reliable damp meter ?

Thanks.
Anseo

RayS · Jan 7, 2017

I'm afraid 'reliable' damp meter is almost a contradiction in terms as so much depends on how it was calibrated and how it is used..
Prof John will doubtless give you chapter and verse, but at the end of the day the only relable way is to take a sample of the suspect material, weigh it very accurately, dry it carefully under controlled conditions and then weigh it again. Moisture content is then the percentage loss in weight.
This is clearly not possible with caravans.?
.Some moisture meters rely on a reading between two pointed probes pushed into the material. If before testing you wipe the material with a damp rag wet with either just water or a salt solution to moisten it, the surface moisture may 'short' the mayerial reading and produce a higher value than actually exists. Some basic meters 'polarise' after a few seconds although this is less obvious with more modern meters which apply ac rather than just dc voltage.
I am deeply suspicious of all dealer and consumer level 'moisture' meters and would at least demand to see a recent calibration certificate from a recognised calibration authority before paying any regard to the meter a dealer may use.

Dustydog · Jan 7, 2017

http://www.toolstop.co.uk/index.php?option=shop&page=shop.product_details&product_id=73208&l=uk&utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&gclid=Cj0KEQiAwMLDBRDCh_r9sMvQ_88BEiQA6zuAQ7IWHQ-J5yRaUNewCQjmjuK63huOF2wsGmLWfzdUc6saAqrQ8P8HAQ
I bought one of these a while back. Very easy to use and I can say with good accuracy.
Why?
Well my mobile engineer has taken readings with his and mine and the difference is nothing.
Whatever you buy check the calibration against a professionals on a regular basis.

chrisn7 · Jan 9, 2017

I have to disagree with Ray. I have one of these 4 prong devices. Yes its as cheap as chips, but it works. When buying my van I compared its readings to those by my inspection engineer and they were within 1 % of his pro kit. Its well made of sturdy plastics too.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CE-APPROVED-4-PIN-DIGITAL-MOISTURE-METER-DAMP-DETECTOR-TESTER-12-MONTHS-WARRANTY-/291181849456?hash=item43cbca6b70:g:CzAAAOSw7I5TtBNE

Anseo · Jan 9, 2017

chrisn7 said:
I have to disagree with Ray. I have one of these 4 prong devices. Yes its as cheap as chips, but it works. When buying my van I compared its readings to those by my inspection engineer and they were within 1 % of his pro kit. Its well made of sturdy plastics too.

]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CE-APPROVED-4-PIN-DIGITAL-MOISTURE-METER-DAMP-DETECTOR-TESTER-12-MONTHS-WARRANTY-/291181849456?hash=item43cbca6b70:g:CzAAAOSw7I5TtBNE

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CE-APPROV...hash=item43cbca6b70:g:CzAAAOSw7I5TtBNE[/quote
No eBay APP ID défined in Kunena configuration

This what your post displays, no link to ebay, but when I opened the reply with quote window, your ebay link appears there.

I've had this before when posting an ebay link, no idea as to why it appears, one for the mods maybe.

Here is the link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CE-APPROVED-4-PIN-DIGITAL-MOISTURE-METER-DAMP-DETECTOR-TESTER-12-MONTHS-WARRANTY-/291181849456?hash=item43cbca6b70:g:CzAAAOSw7I5TtBNE
Tried to add the ebay link but it won't show here

eurolitecaravanscanada · Jan 9, 2017

Anyone using infrared inspection? It seems to me to be a reliable method to evaluate damp in a caravan, I would surely ask and expert like this one to inspect my caravan:

http://www.immo-check.ca/rv-inspection
The camera can be bought on Amazon for example, prices are in CDN Dollars, divide roughly by 2 to get it in UKP.

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=thermal imager&tag=googcana-20&index=aps&hvadid=145158159790&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3815467624399158845&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9000230&hvtargid=kwd-16227291&ref=pd_sl_8yek81a72s_b

ProfJohnL · Jan 9, 2017

A company from Canada recently managed to get a post up on the forum, but becasue it was advertising it was quickly taken down, but not before I had the opportunity to look at it.

The company were suggesting that water ingress problems could be detected by using an infrared thermal; imaging camera. It was designed for buildings, but they were suggesting it was also appropriate for RV's. and it was depicted as looking at the outside of an RV.

Its my opinion that based on the fact that TIC (Thermal imaging Camera's) which display a colour picture where the hue is analogous to the temperature of the object or surface, if the damp patch were the same temperature are the rest of the surrounding material, then it would not show up as being different.

However if a wall was damp and the caravans was being heated up, the dampness in the wall would not heat up so quickly and thus it would appear to be cooler, BUT there are so many other reasons why certain parts of a perfectly dry caravan would heat up less quickly, for example most heating systems cannot raise the ensure inside of a caravan perfectly evenly. There could be a frame or another piece of furniture or soft furnishing that keeps part of an exterior wall less accessible to the effect of internal heating.

Also the trend towards wall constructions where there are no wood frames or the insulations is non absorbent would prevent any moisture present from significantly causing localised temperature difference.

As with the more conventional moisture meters being discussed in this thread, it would require careful usage, and a competent user who knows how to read the systems output and allow for both environmental and constructional differences to interpret the presence or other wise of worrying levels of damp.

So I think at best the IR camera would be very poor identifier of damp areas, and it certainly wouldn't show where the source of a leak was. And at worst it would be quite expensive toy with limited applications.

Raywood · Jan 10, 2017

I have a cheap meter and it does work but at the end of the day you get what you pay for and some of the cheap ones do seem to be a problem. I do sometimes wonder about the damp readings dealers find when doing them but in this case if the wall was spongy it seems clear there was a problem. I do wonder if some dealers find it to adjust the deal agreed which is why I would never take a caravan in for part exchange without having it checked first.
I have have been able to get damp results in the bathroom which was in fact condensation and window frames which was the same so do check out anyone finding them there.

charlevoix418 · Jan 12, 2017

And how about those moisture meters used by marine surveyors?

https://www.tramexmeters.com/skipper-plus-moisture-meter-for-boats

Parksy · Jan 12, 2017

ProfJohnL said:
A company from Canada recently managed to get a post up on the forum, but becasue it was advertising it was quickly taken down, but not before I had the opportunity to look at it.

The company were suggesting that water ingress problems could be detected by using an infrared thermal; imaging camera. It was designed for buildings, but they were suggesting it was also appropriate for RV's. and it was depicted as looking at the outside of an RV.

Its my opinion that based on the fact that TIC (Thermal imaging Camera's) which display a colour picture where the hue is analogous to the temperature of the object or surface, if the damp patch were the same temperature are the rest of the surrounding material, then it would not show up as being different.

However if a wall was damp and the caravans was being heated up, the dampness in the wall would not heat up so quickly and thus it would appear to be cooler, BUT there are so many other reasons why certain parts of a perfectly dry caravan would heat up less quickly, for example most heating systems cannot raise the ensure inside of a caravan perfectly evenly. There could be a frame or another piece of furniture or soft furnishing that keeps part of an exterior wall less accessible to the effect of internal heating.

Also the trend towards wall constructions where there are no wood frames or the insulations is non absorbent would prevent any moisture present from significantly causing localised temperature difference.

As with the more conventional moisture meters being discussed in this thread, it would require careful usage, and a competent user who knows how to read the systems output and allow for both environmental and constructional differences to interpret the presence or other wise of worrying levels of damp.

So I think at best the IR camera would be very poor identifier of damp areas, and it certainly wouldn't show where the source of a leak was. And at worst it would be quite expensive toy with limited applications.

charlevoix418 said:
And how about those moisture meters used by marine surveyors?

https://www.tramexmeters.com/skipper-plus-mowhatisture-meter-for-boats

After some email correspondence involving the person concerned, Lizzie Pope and myself the person assured us that he is not a company but a private individual who is building a caravan to British spec, and he agreed to alter his profile and forum username to 'charlevoix418' after his first two posts were reported as spam.

Charlevoix,the link to the expensive marine damp meter is not really relevant to a touring caravan forum, and when a new forum member adds these commercial links to their first forum comments it's little wonder that reports are sent by loyal forum members for moderators to take a look. Please consider carefully before submitting any url's for commercial products, they are unnecessary and could lead to posts being removed.

Hutch · Jan 12, 2017

I have the same one as Dusty Dog, and it reads the same as the mobile fitters proffesional one, very good product.

20170602yuanyuan · Jun 2, 2017

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