Pinless Wood Moisture Meter, Non Destructive Moisture Tester Firewood Moisture Detector for Drywall & Concrete Plaster Floor Concrete Building with 3-Color LCD Display Sound Alarm

Calibration method is odd, but I suspect the readings are accurate. Let me explain why.
Recently I got three different moisture meters so I figured I can gauge the accuracy by comparing them to each other, with the thought that if at least two output similar readings, surely they must be accurate.This moisture meter had readings inconsistent with the other two while testing on several different types of softwood, hardwood, and plywood, each type with dry and wet samples, but I’m fairly confident to claim that it’s accurate. The reason for this is because the readings were consistently inconsistent, meaning that while the readings were different, they were off by similar percents. For example, when the other two measured about 10% and 15%, this one measured 13% and 18%, respectively, meaning it was measuring 3 percentage ‘points’ greater in each scenario. Take all that with a grain of salt, though. I’m not an expert on these kinds of things, nor do I possess the kinds of equipment needed to produce a sample with ‘known moisture content’, according to my research. Plus, there’s a decent chance I failed to calibrate it correctly. More on this below in the Cons section.Aside from the ‘suspected’ accuracy, here are some other observations:Pros• Rechargeable via USB-C. The battery compartment is accessible using the supplied screwdriver. Not sure why this is needed, though. I understand rechargeable batteries will eventually need to be replaced but it seems like the brand is expecting this to be required sooner rather than later judging by the fact that they provided a screwdriver.• Large and easy to read display. It’s only green, though, so not as pleasant to look at as the other two.Cons• Unless I’m just unable to follow directions correctly, the calibration method is flawed. Other meters I’ve seen all essentially function by zeroing out the reading while you are preferably in a dry area, which will serve as the baseline for subsequent readings. On this one, the calibration mode involves first doing a factory reset, then adjusting the percents up or down as appropriate. This means you would need the aforementioned sample with ‘known moisture content’ beforehand. I don’t know if I’m overcomplicating this but to obtain that sample seems fairly difficult.• The USB-C charging port is on the backside, right between the sensor and the battery compartment. This means if you don’t want the charging cable to become crushed or bent, you should need to keep it face down or sideways while charging.• The battery compartment requires a screwdriver (supplied) to access. I don’t understand why this is necessary on this device. I often see this on children’s toys, which makes sense since you don’t want kids, especially younger ones, to pop it open and try to eat the batteries, but how often would young kids play with a moisture meter?• The very loud beep when moisture is detected at a level greater than the threshold can’t be disabled. You might think this is not a negative nor something worth mentioning, but I had recently taken a different meter whose beep also couldn’t be disabled to a lumber yard to test the moisture content before buying some dimensional lumber and in a few instances it kept beeping, resulting in some annoyed looks from other customers.• Not a big deal and some might prefer it, but it has a very retro look to it, like it was made in the 90’s or something.4 stars. I can overlook the other somewhat nitpicky issues, but the calibration method and the inability to disable the beep are annoying enough to knock it down 1 star.