Here is my new moisture meter(on the left), it is a lot more accurate than the old one on the right, it reads the "PH, light and moisture! as does the old one!

Hi Cecil i go by the weight feel of the pots .
If the meter works for you by all means keep at it.

If not you can try getting a feel for the pots weight by tilting pot by hand or lifting up if not too big a pot,   after a watering  and again when it needs it to get a feel for each size pot.
With my big containers i just grab the main trunk and pull towards or push away from me and i can tell that way.

Martin,

I believe old dogs can learn new tricks. :)

And you can use your new meter to help teach you. That way if/when the gadget starts to fail, your plants won't suffer. Before you water, before you put the meter into the pot, rock/lift the pot, touch the soil with your fingers, look at the plant... whatever makes sense to you...  make a judgement yourself, then you can stick in the meter to verify your initial conclusion. If you are wrong, you will have learned something. Keep testing yourself and experimenting. When you get to the point of being accurate most of the time, you won't have to depend on anyone but yourself, and usually you'll be able to just eye-ball it. And you'll feel really good about it too.

Woof. :)

Thanks Gina,