Vent: I dropped $80 on a moisture meter that barely works

I bought this fancy moisture meter online for about $80 to check my soil before watering my houseplants. It came last week and the readings are all over the place... like one day it says wet, next day dry for the same pot. I tested it in a glass of water and it said 40% moisture. Has anyone else had trouble with these digital meters? I'm thinking of just going back to the finger test.

3 comments

3 Comments

grace_wright17d ago

lmaooo $80 for a glorified stick that can't even tell water from air?? thats rough buddy. i had the exact same issue with a digital one i got for like half that price and it was also trash. @victorhill mentioned salts throwing off readings and thats the real problem - those cheap sensors measure electrical conductivity and your tap water or fertilizer salts mess with it big time. honestly the finger test is underrated, like yeah its not high tech but it works and costs zero dollars. sorry you had to learn that the hard way though.

joseph_ellis8516d ago

The real kicker is how these expensive gadgets basically become useless once your plant is rootbound, too. @grace_wright touched on the sensor tech being basic, but nobody's talking about how if the roots fill the pot completely, the probe can't get a good read because there's no soil contact anymore - just air pockets between roots. I had a moisture meter give me totally dry readings for weeks on a snake plant that was clearly doing fine, turned out it was just smashed against the side of the pot with no dirt touching the sensor. The finger test at least lets you feel if the pot feels light and if there's actual moisture deeper down past the roots, which is way more useful than a blinking light pretending to be science.

victorhill17d ago

80 bucks is a lot for something that can't even tell water from dirt. Cheap meters use different conductivity than real lab stuff, so they get thrown off by salts or minerals in the soil. The finger test isn't fancy but it's free and actually works fine for most houseplants.