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Author Topic:   Moisture Meter works!! :-)

alkar posted 02-02-2003 02:21 PM ET (US)
I just bought a moisture meter at Home Depot for about $8 - and it works very well!!
The one I bought is made by "Hold All". It looks like a small, plastic, cigarette pack with two prongs sticking out of it. Each prong is about a quarter inch in diameter and about eight inches long. The prongs are separated by about three eighths of an inch. The sensor is near the end of the probe, so it can actually pass through a wet spot and tell you when you've found "dry" again.
I originally assumed that the meter worked by measuring condictivity of the medium between the probes (and would therefore need both probes to work properly) - so I checked it by inserting each prong, one at a time, into a glass of water. One prong reacted to the water and the other didn't, so I snipped off the prong that didn't seem to matter using my tin snips. (The extra prong is for measuring soil PH. (With both prongs attached it was much more difficult to push the sensors all the way into the foam, and it limited the angle of insertion in tight spots).
The meter works very well - and it gave me some very good news. Most of my foam appears to be dry. The wet spot I found appears to be quite localized - but that's the topic for another thread...
Dick posted 02-02-2003 06:48 PM ET (US)
We had a boat at the marina surveyed last year. It was an older Sea Ray that had spent quite some time partialy submerged. Since we only do mechanicals we hired a surveyor for the rest.
He used a moisture meter on the transom and stringers and explained that a moisture meter is only a guide. It tells you that moisture may be present but the only true test is to follow up drilling small holes through the glass into the wood.
His didn't have probes but read density through the glass, much like one you would use on a piece of lumber to determine moisture content.
Dick
alkar posted 02-02-2003 08:35 PM ET (US)
Dick, I saw one of the more expensive moisture meters in the West catalog - but I actually have more faith in the one I used today because it doesn't respond until it "feels" the water. Of course, you can't use it at all unless you already have holes in the boat...

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Author	Topic: Moisture Meter works!! :-)
alkar	posted 02-02-2003 02:21 PM ET (US) I just bought a moisture meter at Home Depot for about $8 - and it works very well!! The one I bought is made by "Hold All". It looks like a small, plastic, cigarette pack with two prongs sticking out of it. Each prong is about a quarter inch in diameter and about eight inches long. The prongs are separated by about three eighths of an inch. The sensor is near the end of the probe, so it can actually pass through a wet spot and tell you when you've found "dry" again. I originally assumed that the meter worked by measuring condictivity of the medium between the probes (and would therefore need both probes to work properly) - so I checked it by inserting each prong, one at a time, into a glass of water. One prong reacted to the water and the other didn't, so I snipped off the prong that didn't seem to matter using my tin snips. (The extra prong is for measuring soil PH. (With both prongs attached it was much more difficult to push the sensors all the way into the foam, and it limited the angle of insertion in tight spots). The meter works very well - and it gave me some very good news. Most of my foam appears to be dry. The wet spot I found appears to be quite localized - but that's the topic for another thread...
Dick	posted 02-02-2003 06:48 PM ET (US) We had a boat at the marina surveyed last year. It was an older Sea Ray that had spent quite some time partialy submerged. Since we only do mechanicals we hired a surveyor for the rest. He used a moisture meter on the transom and stringers and explained that a moisture meter is only a guide. It tells you that moisture may be present but the only true test is to follow up drilling small holes through the glass into the wood. His didn't have probes but read density through the glass, much like one you would use on a piece of lumber to determine moisture content. Dick
alkar	posted 02-02-2003 08:35 PM ET (US) Dick, I saw one of the more expensive moisture meters in the West catalog - but I actually have more faith in the one I used today because it doesn't respond until it "feels" the water. Of course, you can't use it at all unless you already have holes in the boat...