digital hygrometer

[par]

I've had the radioshack digital wireless hygrometers for a while now.

I've thought for the past few weeks that it's been tricky to get the humidity to the level where i want it. I use the beads from heartfeld in the aluminum casing so i can't quite tell if the beads are dry or not.

my humidity has been fluctuating between 59% to 63% and being perfectionist self i have filled up with water quite a lot.

So i decided on a whim to buy the boveda humi calibration kit from heartfeld.

put the digital meters into each bag and waited overnight.

guess what, at 12+ hours the meters are 3.5% low. I though the digital meters where supposed to be much better than that!

In any case, it's good to know the exact humidity -perhaps i won't have to water the beads as much from now on...

in any case, this is a plug for that boveda calibration kit. It's very inexpensive and it works really, really well.

[SUOrangeGuy]

my hygrometer is 2-3% low (using the salt test) for the first full day. After 24 hours is goes up to perfect. Maybe you are opening your humidoe too often for it to read accurately.

[Hammerhead]

Originally Posted by par

I've had the radioshack digital wireless hygrometers for a while now... guess what, at 12+ hours the meters are 3.5% low. I though the digital meters where supposed to be much better than that!

in any case, this is a plug for that boveda calibration kit. It's very inexpensive and it works really, really well.

Par, I also have the Oregon Scientific equivalent of the RS system, with two of the RS sensors. My understanding is that the range of acceptible variation is +/-3%RH. After testing all 3 of my sensors, two were -3%, one was -1%.

The (alleged) advantage of a digital hygro is that it will ALWAYS be -3% (or whatever) off from the tested metric. Another thing that came to light which SeanGAR pointed out was that the materials that Boveda uses are not stable and accurate across the entire range of temperature, so if you had a HIGHLY accurate hygro, it might test (for argument's sake) -3% at 65degrees, and -2% at 70%. I'm not saying these are accurate numbers, I'm just throwing them here as illustrations that were passed along by Sean.

One thing that might be impacting the readings is the reaction time of the sensors. See my personal site on the Sensor Fix for an easy workaround for the problem. I find them to be much faster reacting to any swings.

I'd stick with the system. IMO, the benefits it offers in being able to monitor your humidors without opening the box far outweigh the little inconvenience of having to do a little addition in my head.

[par]

update

This is the result after three days in the calibration bags from boveda:

Analog hygrometer: Stuck at 60%, probably completely broken. Light hits with a hammer seems to make difference to the metering mechanism. Will meet its fate in the garbage bin.

Digital sensor #1: Minus 2%. Slow reaction times, may have to open up the circulation a little bit (aka. the sensor fix). But close enough that i feel good to use it.

Digital sensor #2: Spot on. Took its merry time, but is definately spot on or maybe .5% high. Close enough that i don't care.

Digital sensor #3: +5%. Ridicoulusly high imho. Shows that i have 76% humidity with my 70% freshly charged beads. But factoring this in my head gives me some comfort. Relegated this to my coleador where the "not quite top shelf smokes" are resting.

The spot on went in to the "special" humi, #2 went into my "really great stogies" humi and the analog one is on it's way to the dump!

I highly recommend the boveda calibration packs. Works wonders but make sure you wait at least 36 hours for the sensors to stabilize.