Humidor Hygrometers off?

I am new to the forums and look forward to visiting often. I found the setting up a humidor guide an awesome tool!

My question involves hygrometers. I just got my first humidor a couple weeks ago. A Thompson 200 count humidor with a Thompson digital guage. I followed all the steps provided by Thompsons, as I didn't know about this site. My humidor registers about 74% at 73-75 degrees (I'm in South Florida too).

I decided to get a smaller travel humidor and just got another Thompson travel that came with a analog hygrometer. I followed their instructions on placing the guage in a damp towel, which I did. The guage was near 95%, so I adjusted the screw sligthly to compensate and I placed the guage in my big humidor to see if it was close to my Thompson digital.

What I have found with that, is that it doesn't really change... It stayed at 95%, so a local shop said it probably wasn't working and I picked one up from them for $8. That one seems to work, but it never leaves the area of 70-75%, which I guess is ok, but I even took it out for a day and it never changed. Not sure what my humidity is inside the home with A/C on....

So I decided to buy a small digital one for the travel humidor. Guy at the shop said not to worry about calibrating it, so I just put it in the big humidor with my Thompson digital. The brand on the small digital guage is "Reindeer."

I found that the temperature reading is almost exact. Even to the decimal point, however the humidity was about 5-6% difference. The Reindeer reading higher. This even occurs wherever I put the two digital guages, outside on table, both in travel humidor or both in big humidor.

I guess I'm kind of a perfectionist, trying to find out which guage is accurate. Especially since they are off about 5-6%. So I found cigarsmokers forums and I am currently doing the salt test as recommended by the website post. I've had my cap of salt in a sealed baggie, inside a second one. I used distilled water and added about 4 drops of water to the salt. I put both digital guages inside and in a dark room.

After about 30 minutes, the Thompson reads 90% and the Reindeer reads 99%. I know from reading that it needs time to stabilize in the baggie. So I will leave it in there for the prescribed amount of time.

My question is.... Should I be overly concerned with two digital guages being that much off? I assume there is not a way to adjust them and I figure whichever one is closet to 75% after the salt in bag test, will be the most accurate.

Thanks.

The one closest to 75% rh after the salt test is probably the most accurate. IMHO, wrapping a wet rag around the hygro to see if it gets close to 100%rh is a dumbass way to check accuracy even if the place you bought it from says otherwise. You can get a good hygrometer here. Good luck and welcome to CSmokers.

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Originally Posted by basil

The one closest to 75% rh after the salt test is probably the most accurate.

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That is what I figure and I will await the timeframe and see what they say. I guess I'm a bit anal, wanting both to be exact. Reality is, I won't be using the travel humidor that much and I can always pop the best digital guage out of the home humidor and put it in the travel one when needed.

I did look at the one on the link you provided at Little Havanna Cigars. The small one I bought last night looks EXACTLY like the "Perfecto" but the box mine came in said "Reindeer."

The larger one I got is the $25 one that Thompson Cigars sells, but came with my larger humidor.

Yeah, salt test 'em and keep the most accurate. 5% seems a lot for a digital to be off...

If you're REALLY questioning their accuracy, try this:
Salt test them separately
Record your results
Switch bags
Compare results

This will test your equipment and your lab setup, er, test environment.

It will be interesting tomorrow, when 24 hours is up. I've been checking, through the plastic bag and earlier they were only 4% off, then they were 1% off and now they are exact. But it's only been a couple hours and I know the bag is not stabilized as the humidity is 88% and temp 77 degrees.

I'm not worried about them both being the same, but I would like to have the most accurate in my humidor and appreciate the advice.

I did ask in another post about the humidity level. I thought 70% was ideal, but saw that lower to mid 60's was recommended here. I live near Miami and it is always hot and humid here. How can I maintain below 70%?

Thanks again!

The Little Havana is the one I have, ( i have 2) and doing the test with it mine goes up to 96-98 % then is winds up stablizing at about 74-78. Both my Little Havana's seem to read exact maybe off by a 0.2- 0.4 between them. I have figured that my digital's are about 2-3 % lower rh the the actual rh. All in all....I do like them and feel they do a good job.
Bobalouie

My Thompson digital was 78% (+3) and the small Reindeer was 83% (+8), which I was shocked. If I use the small one, I have subtract 8 percent each time. I did order one from Little Havanna, since I need a small one. I don't mind compensating 3% or so, but not 8!