Humidor Hygrometers off?

[McPhenius]

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.

[basil]

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.

[McPhenius]

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

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.

[SuperChuck]

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.

[McPhenius]

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!

[Bobalouie]

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

[McPhenius]

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!