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

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.

Quick turnaround but a bit pricey

Maybe not the least expensive, but an excellent way to test your home. Though no mold was visible, we suspected a problem (one family member was ill) and I researched numerous approaches to testing. This option (My Mold Detective) seemed like a good compromise between the extremely expensive professionals and the cheaper do-it-yourself test kits on the market. Very easy to use. Just read the rather simple instructions. And "YES" you do have to pay for the lab tests for each sample/test. The sampling collection required about 7 minutes per sample. They supply a prepaid FedEx shipping envelope and label. The test results turnaround was fast, via email, about 5 days from drop off at the FedEX site). The report was thorough and detailed, yet very easy to understand. It detailed about a dozen specific types of molds, etc. for which they tested. They even have an 800 number if you want to discuss the results. I have very high confidence in the results. You get 4 air "collectors", and one surface "collector". They mandate that you use one of the air collectors for an outside test to establish a baseline with which you can compare the indoor results. BTW, despite no visible mold or even dampness, we do have a significant problem which seems to be caused by one of our HVAC systems. Testing multiple rooms, across the two HVAC system zones in our house, made the culprit rather obvious. HVAC guys are coming this week, but to me it appears as though one of our HVAC air handlers was not draining completely during the AC season which allowed mold to grow in the unit.

I can't believe the total cost of this test. Yes, I knew when I purchased it that the test was an additional fee of $35 per sample. But now that I've collected my samples and go online to register them, I find out they also charge for the required control sample, then add on another $10 for the shipping label that was already included in the kit (technically already paid for). Out the door this is $150 plus the $75 for the kit plus tax. Over $230 for me. Cutting my losses at $75 and throwing it away.Another thing that royally irked me is that the instructions require you to place the test pump in the center of the room and at least 10ft from any structures/walls. But the included AC adapter cord is only about 5ft long so you need to dig out an extension cord too.The packaging it came in is nice and easy to open though.

The machine was great. The whole process was pretty straightforward till you got to the end. When you create your account and get everything uploaded and ready, you get the catch lab testing not included in the whole kit, which costs 2x what the initial kit costs. So keep all that in mind when making the purchase.

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.