Klein Tools ET140 Moisture meter

[Justin Rapp]

I dry wood pretty often and have always used a General Tools MMD4E meter. It was about $30, however it has pins and I really just dislike using it. I want to get a pinless meter and was looking at a Klen Tools ET140. While i'd love to get Wagne oor Lignomat, I can't see dropping 250-400 on a meter I use once a month or so.

Any thoughts on the Klein ET140 or other sub $100 pinless meter?


Thanks,

Justin

[Mitch schiffer]

I have several moisture meters i have a cheap general and a little bit nicer general pinless meter. I also have a wagner 950 pinless and a delmhorst pin style with a slide hammer. Both the general meters work but I find the pinless one to be a little finicky. If you want to go pinless and you are concerned about accuracy then I would suggest you get a nicer one. The cheap ones work ok if you have a reference price of wood of the same species that you know is dry to compare that reading to the piece you are testing.

[Ronald Blue]

I have the Klein ET-140 and it seems to work decently. Klein generally has a good reputation for quality tools.

[Rod Sheridan]

With an accuracy of +/- 4% it wouldn’t work for me when drying lumber.

Honesty, I use an insulation resistance meter when air drying lumber, once the resistance stops rising the lumber is ready to bring indoors, also there are charts for resistance versus moisture content by species…..Rod.

[John Goodin]

I used a combo pin and pinless for work. The pinless, in my experience, is really designed to move over a large area and is best suited for getting relative moistures in drywall or plywood. For air drying the pinned meters would be my choice.

[William Fretwell]

Have a Dr. meter pinless ($48). Gives a rough idea but the edge of a board is very different from the middle, after years of heated room drying I don’t believe that. The density setting changes things a lot. The claimed accuracy is absurd.

Don’t bother with it anymore so it’s a waste of money.