Customer Reviews

Pro-Lab MO109 Mold Do It Yourself Test Kit

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I used this product in an office in our factory. It was fairly simple to do. I had results with in 72-96 hours. I sent the sample to the lab to be analyzed. The explanation of the results were very detailed. I would use this mold test kit again.

The only complaint I have is that you must use 2 mold kits for sampling. One to test the area in question and one to test the air quality outside the area.

Why not just have two kits in one package?

A couple of notes from the box:

- "The optional lab analysis requires sending the petri dish to Pro-Lab for a detailed report. ($30 lab fee required.)"

- "A minimum of two test kits are recommended for air sampling to compare indoor to outdoor air quality. ... If the results of the samples indicate that the amount of mold growth indoors is significantly greater than the mold growth outdoors, you may have a mold problem. One mold test kit is needed for each indoor area of concern."

Doing research on the web after the fact there seems to be a great deal of what's the proper way to test for mold, find out the type of mold and on and on. This one though you can test for mold a couple of ways, getting a swab of the suspected area and putting it in the pietre dish that comes with it or taping it to your AC unit vent for at least 5 minutes on high to get a sample of the air. If there's no mold growing after 24 hrs then you're done. If there is then you send it in in the envelope they provide with $30 to find out what type of mold it actually is. as in severity and so forth. I saw these 6 total different kit types at my hardware store the other day. It also states that you will need electrical tape to seal the dish shut if you need to mail it in.

Product will always show considerable mold growth. COnsumer reports reviewed this mold test and recommended against buying it. It will always come up positive, there are always some spores and the test will usually come up positive. It plays on a lack of nknowledge by users and encourages predatory and alarmist reactions from mold remediation people and tenants. A total waste of money.

not sure about the products, but if you need anything from Pro-Lab -- forget it. I had one test from them, when something happened I consulted them on the phone, followed their instruction, spent the money, and ended having 3 follow-up calls with them, each with different and contradictory information. Nobody know anything including the history of the issue. They ended up 'offering' me my money back but that never happened either.

I will never do business with a company like that, especially if the health of my family is at stake.

This product works well. But just be aware that you have to send the sample to be analyzed. Additional cost of $30. Our report took a bit longer than expected, but was informative and allowed us to decide whether to take further action.

This test is useless unless you pay the $30 to have it tested in a lab. Even then, it's nearly useless unless you also have another test to do outside your home for comparison, which means another lab test...

It's my opinion that they should sell this in a kit with 2 tests and free lab testing. They should charge $80 for it, that way people will know what they're getting themselves into. Don't buy this product unless you're going to buy 2 and pay for both lab tests. Otherwise, you're just wasting your money and will end up paying a professional $350 anyway.

I can't recommend this product to anyone, but at the very least don't buy it unless you plan to get 2+ kits and pay for the lab testing on each kit.

The kit comes with a plastic petri dish that contains a substance designed to add in the growth of mold. There are three ways you can take a sample:

1. Tape the dish directly under an AC vent and turn on the AC's fan for 10 minutes.

2. Leave the dish in the open air

3. Taking a cotton swab (included) of the area you think may be affected, and putting it in the dish to incubate.

After taking your sample, you then close the dish and let it sit for 24 hours. If there is no mold there is no more action needed. If there is mold, you put your sample in an envelope and send to their lab, along with $30 for additional testing and a report.

I wish I had paid a little more attention to the details of this mold testing kit when I purchase it from Lowe's. The reason I gave this product 1 star is because their packaging is deceptive. The kit sells for under $10, however the kit is absolutely useless unless you send your mold sample to their testing lab for $30, so they can perform additional testing. And if you choose this option, then you need to send 2 kits to their lab to use as a control, and that means you have to pay a total of $30 + $30 + the cost of the kit for any kind of meaningful results. I might not have a problem with this IF it was marked more clearly on the package, if they gave you two sample kits inside (the petri dish can't cost more than 30 cents to produce), and if the product wasn't produced in a way that required additional testing every single time. I tried the mold testing 4 times in different environments. The kit will produce mold EVERY single time! The only variable is the type of mold it produces, and whether that mold is dangerous (which of course you can't determine without additional testing).

Unfortunately I elected not to pay the extra money for the report, so I can't comment on that. But if you are considering this testing kit, please be aware that you will be required to spend much more than the cost of the kit to obtain any type of result whatsoever.

We found mold on the walls of our garage, so I bought multiple kits for testing. I'm allergic to mold, so I wanted to know what we were dealing with. I used three kits so far, and all showed mold. I sent the first kit in a couple weeks ago. I got an email from the company that said they'd received my sample and would send a report in 7 working days. Sure enough, I got a report today with details on the mold.

The only thing that would have made the service better would be a link to info about what the results mean.

After buying 2 of these kits and sending them off to Prolab for analysis I was still having coughing and runny nose fits even though Prolab's report stated I did not have an elevated mold problem.

So I decided after a few days of unbearable allergic outbreaks to hire a mold testing professional.

I was informed that these tests are not accurate at all in detecting elevated or unusual mold conditions in the interior of my house.

Here' what my mold guy said:

1- Petri dish type testing is obsolete by 20 years and are generally useless in determining elevated interior mold levels especially when there is no base sample to compare it to.

2- After hearing my mold tester's input, I visited Prolab's website [...] to see if they suggested taking a base sample to compare the interior mold levels to. There was no mention made on the package or website instructions of this. Therefore any natural interior mold levels will be construed as a mold problem by myself and the general public. Therefore I completely wasted my money!!!

My mold tester later elaborated in an email:

3 - Even if you take a base sample using the Petri dishes, the various levels of wind currents that exist on the outside will negate the interior test results.

4- The sun kills molds so if you lay your base Petri dish in the sun the results will not be accurate.

After hearing all of this, I am more than glad that I have accurate professional results and was able to hire a mold remediation expert to fix the problems. It's funny how I didn't really mind paying $350 for a pro to do it after I was ripped of $70 by Prolab.

No more runny noses and coughing for me.