subject: New Vs. Used Moisture Meters [print this page] Whether you are a professional woodworker, a flooring specialist, or a home improvement DIY expert, you'll want to keep a high quality moisture meter handy. With a moisture meter, you can check the moisture content levels of wood you purchase at the lumber yard, before it's ever delivered to your jobsite or workshop. If you are receiving a large shipment of lumber for a construction job, you can check the moisture level before the lumber is ever offloaded, saving time and money.
What Type of Meter?
We, of course, recommend Wagner Moisture Meters because of their Intellisense Technology and the fact that they are pinless. However, the discussion of whether to purchase a new or used moisture meter often comes up. With the abundance of used tools and equipment on the internet, today, you'll often find used moisture meters online, at sites such as EBay and Amazon. There are also many used tool sites that offer used moisture meters, along with other tools.
You may also choose to rent a moisture meter from a local home improvement store. This may be especially the case if you are doing a one-time project, such as installing your own flooring or building new kitchen cabinets. It is just as vital for the DIY project to be properly monitored through the preparation and construction process as it is to monitor the professional job. It may even be more important, because if you are doing the construction or installation yourself, there will be no warranty.
So, should you rent or purchase a used moisture meter?
Pros and Cons
Purchasing a used moisture meter would certainly save you a lot of money, possibly as much as the cost of a new moisture meter. And renting one from the home improvement store will certainly be cheaper than buying one. However, there are a number of things to watch out for when using a previously owned moisture meter.
All moisture meters can be damaged if they are dropped or repeatedly hammered into the wood. With a used moisture meter, you have no guarantee that the item has never been abused or damaged. This is also true of the moisture meters you rent. The Home improvement story may recalibrate their meters every time they are returned, but you have no way of knowing if they are accurate for all specific gravities and all of the thicknesses of wood you'll be using.
With a Wagner moisture meter, you can purchase a calibration verification pad. A Wagner moisture meter is calibrated at the factory, and won't need to be recalibrated, but you'll want to check a used one to make sure it's not broken. A detailed instruction booklet for calculating specific gravity is available online. A used Wagner moisture meter should have the calibration verification pad included. If not, don't waste your money. Even if the seller promises that the machine is undamaged, if he doesn't have the calibration pad and instruction book, it he can't be sure. If you can't check the calibration of your meter, yourself, it makes the meter useless.
If you are tempted to purchase a used moisture meter online, ask yourself why someone would sell it in the first place. You may find that the reason so few Wagner moisture meters make it to the resale market is that people prefer to keep their Wagners.
