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Bought a cheap moisture meter, now I doubt every reading
Picked up a $25 moisture meter at a big box store last month to check a basement wall before painting. It kept showing 8% everywhere, even on spots I knew were damp from a recent rain. Borrowed a $120 pinless meter from a buddy and it read 16% on the exact same spots. Turns out the cheap one only measures surface, not depth, so it missed the wet behind the drywall. Now I always cross-check with a screwdriver probe or just use a chunk of drywall taped to the wall as a test patch. Anyone else get burned by budget test gear on a project that seemed simple?
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noraroberts2mo ago
Yeah, you ever trust a cheap tool so much you ignore the obvious signs right in front of you? I spent a whole weekend chasing a "dry" reading on a fence post that was clearly rotting from the inside out, just because the meter said it was fine. Now I just stab things with a flathead screwdriver first, it's way more honest than any gadget under fifty bucks.
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