I bought a populer Damp meter off ebay to test the van, it reads 28% across my clean, dry, grease free fingers, not sure i believe the readings on diy type meters.
Unless you are prepared to pay £70+ and get a half decent builder's type meter, you are wasting your money.
Cheaper meters will give you wildly inaccurate readings as I found to my cost.
You need a meter that will calculate the surrounding temperature to get anything like a proper reading. Then, at best, all you will get is a figure that can be compared to a previously read figure. IE, Is the suspect area getting worse or improving.
I have damp throughout my van, but 95% of it is below any level that I need to be concerned about.
The 5% I am concerned with is controllable with vents, a dehumidifier and constant monitoring.
An 80 quid meter and a bit of TLC and my 1997 van will see us good for a few years yet.
Quote: Originally posted by LobeyDosser on 20/1/2015
Unless you are prepared to pay £70+ and get a half decent builder's type meter, you are wasting your money.
Cheaper meters will give you wildly inaccurate readings as I found to my cost.
You need a meter that will calculate the surrounding temperature to get anything like a proper reading. Then, at best, all you will get is a figure that can be compared to a previously read figure. IE, Is the suspect area getting worse or improving.
I have damp throughout my van, but 95% of it is below any level that I need to be concerned about.
The 5% I am concerned with is controllable with vents, a dehumidifier and constant monitoring.
An 80 quid meter and a bit of TLC and my 1997 van will see us good for a few years yet.
would concur with the above , cheapo damp meters are not accurate .
If you want a decent meter buy a Protimeter like the dealers use
What has happened to common sense. If you are giving someone damp reports then you need an expensive protimeter. For checking between services for your own peace of mind it is the difference in damp readings that is important. I bought a silverline wood moisture meter ( can be had for less than £20 ) and when the van gets serviced I check the readings against the engineers protimeter and they are very close.
If I did get suspicious readings I would get someone in with a protimeter.
A mobile caravan engineer does not normally check for damp as part of an annual service.
He will only do so on your request.
And possibly at an extra cost.
My van is now 18 years old and "common sense" tells me that now is the time to buy an accurate Damp Meter so that if the Wet Worm does try to find a home anywhere in my van, then I will be aware of it and will deal with it before it takes up permanent residence.
My first damp meter, a cheapo ebay unit, made me aware that the van did have damp areas, however after using that meter for one season I quickly realised that if its readings were true, I did not have a caravan, but a submarine.
So I either bought a decent Damp Meter or I bought a newer van and said goodbye to what turned out to be the very nice and serviceable van that I still have and love today.
When investing in any new kit, be it to aid your servicing of the van or to further your enjoyment of that van, you must weigh up the cost against what you would lose if you had to get rid of it due to wear and tear.
My 100 quid meter has saved me many thousands of pounds.
For my warranty purposes I have to use an engineer who is certified by the NCC approved workshop scheme and the service is done to their standard which includes a damp check. I don't know what all other engineers do but I would certainly make sure the damp check was done as part of the annual service.
By checking my meter against the protimeter I know it isn't too far out. It is certainly accurate enough for my piece of mind between services. I can't say all cheaper damp meters are but the silverline one seems reasonably ok.
Of course if I didn't have an annual damp test done then maybe I would need a protimeter.
I have just checked the list of checks my Approved Workshop Mobile Caravan Engineer did on my last annual service and he did indeed do a Damp Check.
But a whole year will go by between Annual Services and damp is something you need to be able to deal with as soon as it appears.
Waiting until somebody else tells you that you have a problem may well turn a simple job into a major one.
So, I say again, my 100 quid meter has saved me many thousands of pounds.
There were two streaks on the back wall of the bathroom and they worried me so I only bought my own damp meter to keep an eye on them. One day my wife, instead of looking at them and worrying got some of her cleaning kit and wiped them off.
I had realised that they seemed to originate at the slots in the shelf above and had wiped them but I bow to her superior cleaning skills.
Right then,should I buy a protimeter or get a habitation service done,its on a seasonal site,I can't believe my meter showed 70% but theres no softness in the walls etc
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Topic: Damp Meter
