Wagner Meters MMC205 (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

As a woodworker, I've been running blind, trusting my lumber providers to give me accurate moisture content numbers. This ended last month when I installed $2500 worth of IPE flooring. The IPE had been stored in the room that it was to be eventually installed in for two months, rotated frequently to insure even dryness and installed with a vapor barrier over a basement. It shrunk! In some places over 1/8"!I bought the moisture meter from Amazon and tested the installed wood, 9 to 12%. I returned to my lumber dealer and tested his pile, 12 to 14%! He won't give me money back, but at least now I'm armed with accurate information.I've tested red oak also, 6 to 7%.This meter won't go above .70 in specific gravity, so with IPE, for instance, set it to .50 and divide the result by 2 since IPE is incredibly dense at 1.0. It responds quickly and I feel that it will eventually make me a better judge of wood.I've still haven't gotten used to switching it to it's various modes and the single button is a bit touchy.

I like the meter. It's easy to use and Wagner is a respected company in the lumber industry.The only reason I'm deducting a star is that, like J Pickett, I feel the missing range specific gravity is a cheesy way to create a lower price version of their moisture meter. It probably cost them money to tweak the firmware to limit the SG range. When you have a certain # of professionals who will buy a $500 moisture meter, you can't sell the same tool to people for $300. If you limit the SG range, it is now harder to use, ergo a justification for the lower price tag. This is not unique to Wagner but still a pet peeve of mine. If the "down-grade" had been that this meter only reads 1/2" deep rather than 3/4", that sounds reasonable for a lower cost model. The limitation they saddled on this model seems arbitrary and unnecessary for any other reason than to hit a lower price point.However- I did get a Wagner moisture meter for $280 instead of $400.

I should have read Saylor's review before ordering this device. What he/she says is true, but an absurd limitation...I was ok with the 5% - 20% range for moisture content; that was disclosed up front. What wasn't disclosed is the fact this thing only has adjustment for wood with specific gravity values of .30 to .70. Of course the wood I primarily wanted to test it outside this range. I might even be ok with that if it would give you a "raw" number that you could then just plug into the formula they provide in the instruction manual as to how the specific gravity affects the reading. Unfortunately, no matter what value you choose, you will have to basically reverse engineer what the moisture content should be with no specific gravity adjustment, and then run that through the formula again with your wood's actual SG (density). You've got to be kidding me.It does seem like a decent device, however becomes essentially unusable if you have wood that falls outside their density range (which would've required basically zero effort or additional cost to accept input for). They need to put a little '*' by the "No manual corrections needed" claim. If their most expensive devices allow for a wider SG range but they exclude it from their lower end models, this is a company I will have no future dealings with.EDIT: I recently (2014-12-26) was going through my past review and ran across this one. It appears the product page has been updated to specify this limitation so I'm changing my rating from 1-star to 3-star. It is likely a 4-5 star product but I can't give it that personally due to my experience 5 years ago.

Tested the product, it does not leave Mark's in wood

Reliable Meter ,good for kiln dried lumber, easy to set up.

Only wish that I would have bought the higher moisture reader! This has been so helpful in helping detect water damage in my wooden floors.

Really like the product. Few years old, seems accurate and still going strong. I would recommend this product to any serious woodworker.

Works great and 10 x better than using a pin meter when checking lumber in the kiln