Just realized I've been using my moisture meter wrong for 2 years

I was at a job site in Phoenix last Tuesday and the homeowner asked why my meter showed his concrete slab was dry when the moisture barrier was clearly sweating. I said it was probably fine, but he insisted I read the manual again. Turns out I had it set to wood mode the whole time, not concrete mode. Every single reading I took for the last 2 years was off by like 4 points. I felt like a complete idiot standing there in his kitchen. I redid the test with the right setting and it was way higher than I expected. Anybody else ever run a meter on the wrong setting and mess up a whole job?

3 comments

3 Comments

rileyl9826d ago

Honestly, I gotta push back on this a bit. I've been using the same meter for years and I never read the manual, but I've always just assumed my readings were accurate enough because I calibrated it with a known sample. I think the real issue here isn't the setting switch, it's that you didn't double-check your readings against the actual conditions on site. Like, if the barrier was sweating, that's a huge red flag that should've made you question the meter regardless of what it said. I'm not saying you're wrong to feel dumb, but I think blaming the meter setting is kind of letting yourself off the hook for not using common sense.

drew_patel5726d ago

I totally get where @rileyl98 is coming from, because a buddy of mine once spent hours chasing a moisture reading that was off by a mile (turns out his meter was set to a material that wasn't even close to what he was testing, haha). He kept blaming the equipment, but when we walked the site, the concrete was literally dripping (like, puddles forming) and he just ignored it because the meter said "dry." So yeah, I think there's a lot of truth in what you're saying about common sense being the real fail here.

derek_ramirez20d ago

That thing with the moisture meter setting is like how I see people set their car's tire pressure to max PSI without reading the sidewall, just because the sticker on the door says one number (and then they wonder why the ride is harsh and the tires wear out in the middle). I was talking to @drew_patel57 about this the other week, how we all have these tools or gadgets we use on autopilot, never stopping to think if the little switch or setting is actually correct. It happens with microwaves too, people use the popcorn button and end up with burnt bags because they never adjusted the power level for their specific brand. Seems like the real pattern is we trust the device more than our own eyes, even when the evidence is literally sweating right in front of us.