My Mold Detective MMD103 Mold Test Kit, 3-Room Kit

First of all you need to know that you are going to pay extra for having the cassettes tested. This kit comes with 4 cassettes (1 for outdoor sample and 3 for rooms in your house). In order to have all of those tests it will cost $140 ($35 per cassette, including the outdoor). So you will spend about $200 including this kit to test 3 rooms in your house.We looked to have professional come in and they were quoting $250 to $300 to come in and test 1 room. So, though it was pricey, it was still cheaper than it would have been.The test results are very easy to read and quite detailed. The report is broken down into the levels for 4 different mold groups (Penicillium/Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Basidiospores, Ascospores). For each group it calculates a score for each room and then indicates if those values are within "normal", "slightly elevated", or "elevated" ranges.In our situation we had one group which was elevated (in the red) in all 3 rooms. However, when we compared those values to other websites talking about that group of mold, our values were much lower than the levels which they would consider a concern. So it seems that there is no standard acceptable level, and each company decides what levels require correction.Overall I am glad that we tested because now we know. It was not cheap, but I feel comfortable trusting the values in the report.

Used this mold test kit to check for mold in my house after water damage from Hurricane Michael. I sustained substantial roof damage and water damage from rain entering house. I didn't have any visible signs of mold or any musty odors, but had lots of water stains on ceilings and a section of the ceiling fell in. I wanted to be sure there wasn't any mold hiding somewhere.The tester arrived quickly using Prime and had 4 air sample cartridges, a test strip to test one surface, a vacuum device for drawing air through the cartidges, prepaid FedEx shipping envelope, and instructions. Testing was simple and took 5 minutes per air sample. Vacuum shuts off automatically after 5 minutes.After all tests are done, register cartridges and strip on web site, pay for tests, and mail them off.The testing is a little pricy but a lot less than $550 and $875 I was quoted by mold test companies. They do the same tests the same way and mail them to a lab, same as this kit. Plus they will try to scare you and say you have category 3 water damage since it was a category 5 hurricane and try to talk you into expensive unnecessary repairs. But water quality category and hurricane wind category are not the same thing. If you just have rain water damage, it's category 1 water.Waiting on results from the lab. I'll post an update when they are done.

A starting place if you suspect mold. You need to do both air and direct samples to get a true reading of each room. I still recommend the IICRC protocol by professionals if mold is discovered. I am not sure how these little machines compare to an official air sampling machine that is more powerful and timely. The discs are really small compared to the sample that a professional company takes. I did get a read however. The lab report gave a thorough breakdown of both the direct and air samples. This kit is a great quick check. Please call professionals if mold is present.

For as much as this product costs it's an incredibly confusing process. The product itself seems easy to use, just put cassette in and turn it on.But the package doesn't make it clear that you are supposed to register your samples online before you send it in.So hopefully, they can help me find my samples so I don't have to buy more samples and lose more time. I don't want to buy more samples.So if I said something helpful it'd be please streamline the process part or be able to talk about fixing it or finding it on the phone. Here's to hoping my samples aren't lost or thrown out.

Unit is easy enough to use but after collecting two samples it would no longer turn on or function. After several days of back and forth with the company they shipped a new one and collected the broken one. The “new” one was clearly refurbished. It was obvious the packaging had all been opened before. A foot from the bottom of the unit fell off when removing from the box, then a chunk of glue that was clearly used to repair the lid area. It still functions and samples were collected but it’s definitely frustrating to pay so much money for a broken unit and then have it replaced with a used and not well repaired one.Testing is expensive, so fingers crossed that it’s accurate. I now have very little faith in this company.