Customer Reviews

Wagner MMC220 Extended Range Moisture Meter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been using this instrument for four months How did I ever do without this meter... I recently attended IWF-2002 in Atlanta. Wagner, etal were showing their various moisture meters at this show. I took some sawmill lumber to the show with me. I tried all of Wagner hand held moisture meters. I quickly discarded all of them except the MMC-210 and the MMC-220. I decided on the MMC-220 because of the capability to calibrate this meter for any species of wood using specific gravity. It is easy to calibrate and use and does not leave holes in the wood. I would recommend that anyone using saw mill lumber and air drying the same USE this meter. It is definitely the best of the hand held meters.

I bought this meter two weeks ago. After playing with it my impressions are this is a very good meter in general with a very good range. Unlike model L609, which requires you to keep pressure on the switch to stay on, the MMC220 stays on after you press the switch once and let go of the switch. The MMC220 also has an automatic shut off that activates after a couple of minutes of inactivity.

There are only a few minor negatives in ergonomics, which are not a big deal, but could make the unit easier to use. For something costing $270, it should have a strap to prevent inadvertent damage from being dropped. Also at this price, it should have real button switches instead of cheap membrane switches.

The density correction is also a tad of a nuisance to use. After the unit has been turned on, if you want change the density setting, you have to press the species button once to reveal the current setting. Then if you want to change it, you'll have to press that button again to enter the density change mode. Then you press the button again or hold it to scroll or fast forward to the new density setting. It's not a problem at all if you only have to change the setting once in a while, but if you're in a store with lots of exotic woods and you have to change the setting with each species, it gets to be a little annoying. Maybe some kind of electronic rotary input dial or even a numeric keypad might work better.

I don't know how I ever lived without it! Specific Gravity chart does not cover very many of the exotic, imported, and burl woods that I use. However, it's great for all other woods and you can make educated guesses on my difficult lumber. Every woodworker should have this unit. It's the best I've ever seen!!

The features are simple (which is actually a good thing in this case) and there is very little to know to get it working correctly. My 6 year old daughter can use it properly with no issues! In terms of accuracy, the unit is factory calibrated. While I couldn't directly measure the accuracy, i was pretty sure it would be quite accurate given the type of tests I had done and knowing how well each piece of lumber I tried it on had been dried previously. I am confident in the units repeatable accuracy. It seems much more accurate than any pin moisture meter I have owned before.

Of course, this accuracy does come at a price. At around US$[...] retail, the MMC220 moisture meter is an investment that requires a little budget consideration. But when it comes to measuring wood moisture, and avoiding costly problems associated with using wood that wasn't as dry as it should have been before use, I feel a little extra dollar investment in a good moisture meter is a worthy avenue to take for future piece of mind, and more solid and stable woodworking projects!

Wagner do have several other (less expensive models) in their range with similar features if you are looking for a cheaper alternative, but be sure to check features carefully to ensure the unit you buy will match your requirements.

Overall, however, I was very happy with the performance of the MMC220. If you have the money, it's a definite buy item.

(with regards to specific gravity charts mentioned by another reviewer, if you take a look at the included documentation and CD, you can easily find SG measurements for almost any wood, exotic or native on the CD and via the couple of websites mentioned on the CD). I had little trouble finding the measurements of specific gravity for most woods I use).

Excellent product. I have been installing hardwood flooring and found this meter to have been an excellent purchase. Coupled with an accurate atmospeheric moisture meter makes for trouble free installations when you know the wood will not expand or contract due to a mis-match in RH during the installation.

Not having "pins" is a real plus for pre-finished flooring and I can check product before I recieve it from my suppliers.

My wife and I are building our dream home - we are the total workforce. Construction is complete and we are working on interior trim, cabinets, built-ins, etc. Before we started, we had 5 large red oak trees on our property cut and processed thru a portable sawmill to 5/4 rough sawn lumber. The lumber has been drying in a shed for 8 years. We have a nice woodworking shop and needed a means to test the moisture content of our wood.

In addition, we purchased 800bf of kiln dryed tongue and grove 5" oak planking to use for a catherdral ceiling. This wood came from a small flooring manufacture in the Ozarks near our homesite. Out of the kiln, the wood measured 7% but by the time it was processed thru the milling and is ready to ship, it was at 9-11%.

We took our Wagner 220 with us to the mill to establish a base line on the wood purchase. The mill personnel were very impressed with the speed and accuracy of the meter. They had us check a lot of different woods and at different points in the milling process and were really surprised at how easy it worked and even more at how well it worked.

We have since used it to check the wood in our drying barn and were pleased that it worked very well and picked up the difference from wood on the edge of a stack to wood back in the middle of the stack.

We are very pleased and look forward to using the meter as we build our cabinets, furniture, and house trim.

Garay and Pat Holland
Bee Branch Arkansas

I purchased this from Amazon a couple of months ago as I was getting ready to purchase and install about 2,000 sq ft of custom wood flooring. Although Amazon had the best price and I've had great experience buying from them, it was still a little pricy I think for what you get, but these things are all expensive. But, I have a wood shop and figured I could use it in the years to come as well.

It works great. Simple to set up for the right species, and accurate compared to the meter used by the flooring supplier. The only trick is to make sure you leave an air gap under any boards 3/4" thick or less, or the reading will be somewhat affected.

Here in CO things tend to dry out, and we've had bad experiences with some furniture items. From now on I'll be taking this thing with me to check moisture levels so we'll be able to identify those 10%+ moisture levels in items shipped in from the East coast that end up shrinking and maybe cracking after a year in our lower humidity. It'll also be great for picking out lumber for projects.

Great item and highly recommended if you think it's worth the price!

An excellent product which performs consistently as you would expect from a fine instrument. Real engineers and support people right here in the USA. Wonderful experience !!!!!!!!!!

What the Wagner MMC220 does is provide the user with very fast moisture content readings without putting holes in the wood. Of course, you have to know the species of wood your testing and it better be one of the species listed in the accompanying booklet or it can get a little time consuming calculating what setting to enter into the tester. So, if you are a woodworker who works with many different species of wood, especially exotics, you may get a little perturbed if your species is not listed in the booklet as you then have to go online to look up the speficic density of that species and use a provided equation to calculate the proper setting to enter into the tool. I wouldn't recommend using this tool if you're out at your favorite provider and looking at a variety of species of wood unless you go in knowing you're going to be doing a lot of setting changes.

That said, I have found it to be an excellent tool even with its' limitations. I had some old growth big leaf maple felled on my property before having my house built. I couldn't stand to see all that wood go into somebody's fireplace so I had several thousand board feet milled on site and stored it in a shed at a friends house until my place was ready for it. To make a long story short, this tool has kept me from using the wood too soon as I would have torn into it some time ago. If you have ever created a piece of furniture that ripped itself apart because the wood was too wet when you glued it up you know it is something you don't want to do again.

I have planed some of the boards and they are absolutely beautiful. In that I am overly anxious to make a dining room table with some of it, I know if I act too soon I'll have a table top that tears itself apart in no time flat. For people like me, this tool acts like a ball and chain that shackles me until I can be released to make proper sawdust.

In that the accompanying booklet has many common species listed, it only takes a few seconds to enter the proper code into the tool and you're off and running. As for me, I'm keeping mine and will continue to use it. So unless you're a house framer nailing up green Douglas Fir, I suggest you get one and use it.

Sat in it's box with no battery for 3 years. Put a fresh battery in and absolutely nothing. Just dead.
A few other reviews note the same thing, and judging from the repair policy, I'll be dropping this
in the circular file, filed under "Wagner.... I'm so sure I'll never buy anything from them again."

What junk.