Warning: Bought a $50 moisture meter for curb furniture. Total waste.

Found a solid oak dresser left out in the rain. Spent the cash on a meter to check for rot before hauling it. Thing gave a false dry reading, wood was mush inside. Anyone got a better way to check stuff that's been outside?

3 comments

3 Comments

iris_green842mo ago

Honestly, that seems like a lot of fuss over free furniture. If a piece looks solid and passes a simple poke test, it's probably fine. Those meters are meant for building lumber, not for checking every rain soaked dresser on the curb. Sometimes you just have to take a small chance or let it go.

julia2869d ago

It's funny how this same thing plays out in so many areas of life. People buy expensive air purifiers but never change the filter, or spend on fancy tire gauges but ignore the fact their tread is bald. We grab tools to give us a false sense of certainty instead of just using our own eyes and hands. I've seen folks pay for moisture meters and still end up with firewood that won't burn because they didn't check the grain. In my experience, the cheap, dumb method like poking with a knife or tapping with a knuckle catches stuff those gadgets miss. Sometimes the old tricks are still the best because they force you to actually look at the whole picture.

ben4362mo ago

Yeah my buddy got burned the same way... he found a nice looking table and his meter said it was fine. Brought it home and a week later the leg just crumbled. We ended up just using a small pocket knife to poke at the wood in a hidden spot. If the blade goes in easy or you get brown mush on it, you know it's rotten. Those meters are useless for stuff that's been soaked.