Wagner L609 Shopline 4% to 22% Pinless LED Wood Moisture Meter

I've owned the wagner moisture meter for about 6 months now and i can say that its a very important tool to have if working with your own sawn lumber. The pinless design is great. The first step to getting a acurate reading is to plane the board smooth. This way the meter comes in contact with the wood completely. The conversion chart is very handy. I rate this item a 4 because how well does it accually work?

I bought this L609 meter yesterday along with a Wagner MMC220. I used the L609 numerous times last night, but by the next night the pressure sensitive membrane switch was no longer making good electrical contact. Result was I had to press the switch REALLY HARD to make a reading. When it did work, it generally gave the same result (i.e. within 1-2% water content) as the more expensive MMC220 after taking into account the species density corrections.The biggest drawback with the L609 is the very poor ergonomics. There is no switch to leave it in the constantly on position. To take a reading always means having to press and hold the membrane switch. Eventually, the switch will wear, as did in my case in after just one night of use making maybe a couple hundred readings. Also, because of the position of the switch, holding it to make a reading means the row of LED's will be blocked by your own hand roughly 50% of the times. You just end up holding it with the wrong hand 50% of the time unconsciously. To unblock the view, you'll have to make the same reading again by holding the meter with the other hand. It gets to be annoying after a while of changing hands to unblock the view. The switch should really be designed so that it's located on either the side or the top of the meter housing. As it is, with the switch right on the face, it's just poor ergonomics, user-unfriendly, and poorly thought out. There is also no hand strap. For anything that costs close to $150, it should have come with a strap to keep it from being inadvertently dropped and damaged. Likewise with the $270 MMC220 - no strap! I just hate to point out it's a typical case of American engineering: good concept and good technology, but poor execution and poor ergonomics.One other shortcoming of this meter is the limited range. Because it measures moisture based on density, a very dense and heavy wood that is bone dry will give similar reading as a normally light wood that is heavy because it is very wet. As a result, it's incapable of measuring high moisture contents with dense woods such as bocote. It will just go off scale and will top out at 22% with such dense woods, even if the true moisture content is maybe less than 15%. With the MMC220, you can cope with that by inputing the density correction into the meter before taking the reading so that you don't top out the scale. Of course that's one reason the L609 costs $139 and the MMC220 costs $269.One thing I don't think is mentioned in the owner's manual is that the reading with the meter parallel to the grain is less than that across the grain. What I mean is that the longer side of the 0.825"x2.5" sensor should be parallel with the grain in order for the readings from the L609 agree with that made by the MMC220. When I aligned the shorter side with the grain when taking a reading, the results between the L609 and the MMC220 did not match. At least that was my experience.One obvious strong point with this L609 meter is the small sensor area (0.825" x 2.5"). The small area comes in handy sometimes with small pieces and irregularly shaped pieces. Because The reading has to be made on a flat surface, with a small sensor area, it's easier to find a flat area to take a good reading. On the other hand, because of the small sensor area, the reading is inversely much more sensitive to surface irregularities and bumpiness. With the MMC220's much larger sensor area, finding a flat area to take a reading is more challenging. Or you can sand and plane the wood flat.Overall I am happier with the MMC220. I am returning the L609 and keeping the MMC220.