Moisture testers

1. DRAMIŃSKI Grain Moisture Meter
   Portable moisture meter for seeds, grains and cereals.
   Your best adviser when making quick decisions !
   An absolute must wherever cereals and other seeds are stored or processed.
2. DRAMIŃSKI Grain Master - moisture meter with grinding function
   The Grain Master is a perfect tool for field applications.
3. DRAMIŃSKI Grain Moisture and Density Meter
   An absolute must wherever cereals and other seeds are stored or processed.
   This moisture and density meter is state of the art instrumentation programmed for: wheat, rye, triticale, barley, oats, rape and maize.
4. DRAMIŃSKI Moisture Meter for hay and straw
   This hand-held instrument is invaluable in estimating moisture content in hay and straw as a means of ensuring safer storage and prevention of damage to harvested crops.

Neglecting moisture and water problems in and out around dwellings can produce conditions that support mildew within the house and wood-destroying fungus attack the structural members. Management of both surface water and moisture vapor can prevent the conditions required to support mold and fungi growth. Some of the most common external moisture problem areas and their suggested solutions follow.

Lot Drainage

The grading and landscaping plan for every dwelling should provide control of surface water on the lot. One minimum standard requires a 2 percent grade sloped away from the house in all directions for a minimum distance of 10 feet, or about 2�-inch drop in 10 feet. This is intended to prevent surface water from collecting alongside and under the house.

It is not unusual for the lots of the houses about 25 years old and older to need a complete renovation of the landscaping and grading. Additions to the landscape plan, maturity of shrubbery and some soil erosion tend to change drainage patterns and direction and too often surface water meanders against a foundation wall.

Figure 11 illustrates the most common drainage problem of a sloping lot. The uphill side of the house must have a drainage waterway (valley) to conduct the water around the house. This drainage valley should be at least 10 feet away from the house and sloped to conduct the accumulated water away from the dwelling efficiently.

Attics and crawl spaces are the predominant areas requiring ventilation. In both places it is necessary to have good distribution of air movement over the entire area.

Attic ventilation is essential. Without it, moisture that moves through the ceiling will be trapped in the attic because most roofing materials prevent moisture from escaping. Basically, the idea of cold-side venting is to relieve the vapor pressure in the attic by providing a vent to the outside air, which usually has a lower vapor-pressure.

Ventilate the attic with inlet vents distributed along the eave and with the outlet vents near the ridge. You’ll get the best results when the ventilation is uniformly distributed along the roof and is equally divided between the high and low. Warm air in the attic rises and escapes through the ridge vents: cooler outside air enters at the eaves

Many materials used as interior coverings for exposed walls, such as plastic dry wall, wood paneling and plywood, permit water vapor to slowly pass through them. When the relative humidity within the house at the surface of an unprotected wall is greater than that within the wall, water vapor will migrate through the plaster or other finish into the stud space, where it will condense if it comes into contact with surfaces colder than its dew point temperature. Vapor barriers are used to resist this movement of water vapor or moisture in various areas of the house.

All construction materials have some resistance to moisture flow, but only those materials highly resistant to vapor flow should be used as vapor barriers. The permeability of the surface to such vapor movements is usually expressed in perms, which are grains of water vapor passing through a square foot of material per hour, per inch of mercury difference in vapor pressure. A material with a low perm value (1.0 or less) is a barrier, while one with a high perm value (greater than 1.0) is a breather. Membranes which best serve this purpose include polyethylene film (four to six mil.), asphalt-coated or laminated papers and kraft-backed aluminum foil. Oil base or aluminum paints and /or vinyl wallpaper are often used in existing homes which did not have vapor barriers installed during their construction.

Occupants of households are usually very comfortable when the temperature and relative humidity are maintained within the ranges of 68 to 72 degrees and 25 to 50 percent relative humidity. Maintaining a proper humidity level isn’t always easy.

Normal household activities such as cooking, cleaning, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, drying clothes, breathing and perspiring can raise the humidity level too high. It has been estimated that the typical family of four converts three gallons of water into water vapor per day. It takes only four to six pints of water to raise the relative humidity of a 1,000 sq. ft. house from 15 to 60 percent. To avoid the problems of excess moisture it is necessary to limit or control the amount of water vapor in the house. This can be accomplished by modifying lifestyle habits and by using mechanical means such as exhaust fans, dehumidifiers, and air-to-air heat exchangers.

Four factors dictate whether a home’s moisture balance will become uneven enough to cause problems. The four balancing factors are source strength, temperature, moisture transfer rate and circulation-ventilation rate. In a home without moisture problems these forces are typically in balance. These factors are critical to understanding and solving home moisture problems.

SOURCE STRENGTH is often the most important factor because moisture problems can not exist without sources of moisture. Controlling the source of a moisture problem is usually the most productive and cost-effective approach to solving the problem. Examples of indoor source reduction solutions include: fixing plumbing leaks, reducing moisture from domestic activities and reducing the use of a humidifier. Outdoor source reduction solutions include improving drainage, fixing leaks and being aware of soaking and puddling from lawn sprinklers. If sources can’t be reasonably or affordably controlled, then it is time to try another route.

TEMPERATURE differences which promote unwanted condensation should be remedied. Temperature solutions include: bringing warm air to cold surfaces through improved heating patterns, insulating surfaces against cold temperatures, installing vapor barriers and simply being aware of temperature differences and not allowing warm moist air to contact cooler surfaces such as walls, basements or crawl spaces.

The MOISTURE TRANSFER rate in a home can be altered in several ways. These moisture transfer solutions include: sealing air leaks from inside the home, weatherizing before insulating, using vapor barriers in crawl space areas, stopping all exterior leaks and puddling of water and increasing the moisture resistance of exterior wood.

The CIRCULATION-VENTILATION rate of a home can be adjusted to help solve moisture problems. Venting the moisture out of enclosed areas is the usual solution. Increased circulation and ventilation are also back-up options when internal moisture sources can not be reduced sufficiently. Circulation and ventilation solutions include: installing properly-sized vents located to promote circulation, using materials that can breathe on the cool side of moisture resistant surfaces, using spot ventilation in high moisture areas such as baths and kitchens, using small efficient fans to move internal air through a house or using air-to-air heat exchangers to reduce moisture but keep heat or coolness.

In order to solve excess moisture problems, you must first understand the properties of air-water vapor mixtures.

Air is a mixture of invisible gases–dry air and water vapor. Each exerts a separate pressure. The water vapor pressure controls moisture movement through walls, windows or ceilings of homes. The dry air pressure and water vapor pressure together will determine air movement through leaks and openings in the home. A higher pressure will always seek a lower pressure–somewhat like air escaping from a balloon.

The vapor pressure increases as the air’s moisture content increases. The amount of moisture that a given volume of air can hold depends on the temperature of that air; the warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold.

Air’s moisture content is normally given in terms of relative humidity. Relative humidity is the amount of moisture it could hold at that temperature. Therefore, 50 percent relative humidity means the air is holding half the amount of water it could hold at that temperature. This method of indicating moisture content in the air is misleading, because it doesn’t give a true picture of the actual amount of water vapor in the air. As an example, air at 35 degrees and 75 percent relative humidity contains about half as much moisture as air at 85 degrees and 25 percent relative humidity.

As a given quantity of air is cooled, the relative humidity of this air increases. If the air is cooled sufficiently, it will reach 100 percent relative humidity. The air is then said to be saturated. The temperature at which saturation is reached is known as the dew point temperature.

Condensation will begin to appear at this temperature. This is why air coming in contact with a colder surface, such as a glass of ice water or cold window, will deposit water droplets on this surface.

Two basic types of moisture problems may exist in the home, insufficient or excess moisture. Insufficient moisture in the air can cause dry nasal passages, increased respiratory problems and excessive static electricity in clothing and carpets. Humidifiers or vaporizers will add moisture to the air when it’s too dry.

Excessive moisture in the air is a far more complex problem, but one that can be solved. Excessive humidity can cause a number of undesirable conditions–some obvious, but others not always evident or visible. Some indications of excessive moisture in the home are:

* Condensation, frost or ice on the inside surface of windows.
* Damp spots on ceilings or inner surfaces of exterior walls.
* Mold or mildew growth on walls and ceilings.
* Peeling or blistering of exterior paint.
* Ice or frost on the underside of roof sheathing in the attic space.
* Moisture on basement walls and floors.
* Sweating water pipes.

* Glass Industry
* Cement and Ceramics Industry
* Iron and Steel Industry
* Coal Industry
* Chemical Industry

* Continuous measurement of moisture content
* Detection of all water molecules, irrespective of their physical or chemical bond
* Simple installation in or on existing tanks, vessels or conveyors
* Large measuring volume, ensuring representative moisture determination
* Lowest source activity due to the use of most sensitive He-3 counter
* On line measurement
* No moving parts
* Realiable technology
* Low maintenance
* Easy to calibrate