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what would you trust more
#1
Just got my new humidor here today (will post pics later). Problem is, that the digital hygro that came with it (western caliber III) shows about 20% less humidity than any of my three calibrated analog hygormeters. This is being verified by salt testing (boveda calibration kit) and it does show that all of the analogs are good at 75% in the salt test. My new digital shows approx 62% and will not move higher from there. According to the instructions, the digital is "factory calibrated" and is not adjustable. My question to the board is, WHAT ONE WOULD YOU TRUST, and if analog, does anyone know how to futz with a digital hygro to calibrate it??
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#2
calibrate the digital.

The thing with analog is, can anyone with an analog tell me if his gauge is reading 65.4% humidity? I think not. Yet that is exactly what my digital gauge is reading now. The design prevents any reading better than +/- 3% at best. Then the mechanics of the device is begging for problems.

 

In your scenario it sure sounds like you have a bad digital gauge (it does happen). So why don't you calibrate it with the salt test or something like it.
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#3
I did run the salt test, adn it comes up with an error of about 4% at 70 degrees (reads 71% vice 75%) this isnt all that bad, but I would prefer if there was a way to calibrate it to read accurately. Problem is, it is a Western Caliber III and they are non-calibratable from the factory, in fact after checking the warranty card, they dont even want you to do the salt test on it [wow]. Oh well, guess I mark it with the error, and go from there, hoping that it is the same 4% off at lower humidies and over a slightly broader range of temperatures (this is AZ after all)
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#4
That should work. I would suggest that you keep you humidor in a place where the tepm is as stable as possible and preferably 70 deg. or less. I know that may be a tall order where you live but you will find that your humidity will be a lot easer to control at a steady temp.
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#5
I have the humis squirrelled away in one of the bedrooms that we are using for storage. the room is climate controlled along with the rest of the house, however, we keep the t-stat at about 78 in the summer, as to do otherwise is non-feasable (it gets to 110-115 outside). in the winter we keep the stat at about 73 degrees, and the room stays at about 72 or so. This seems to work OK at least, but I wish that in the summer the temp wouldnt go so high. Seems I may need to invest in a vinotemp or something similar for the summer months (keep the wine chilled as well [thumbsup][smokin2] 
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#6
there was a post on here where one of our members tested like 7 of those western caliber things they don't want you to test. and every dang one of them was wrong. never trust em. always test em. holds true for all hygros. if they tell you they won't warranty them if you salt test them, find a new one. it's the only way to be sure. i'd rather spend a few bucks on a new hygro than a few g's on a new cigar collection.
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#7
[Image: media.nl;jsessionid=0a01074d1f43e83c2917...417527e3c3] do a salt test and setWink
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#8
Agreed, I do test all of my hygros on a bi-annual basis. I use the boveda kit for testing, and it seems to work just fine. The Caliber III in question turned out to be about 4% off at 70 degrees, I have noted the difference, and will compensate for it. I wish there was a readily known way to tweak it for optimum accuracy (im an electronics tech, so soldering and tweaking is second nature) but I also dont want to make a bad thing worse by really screwing with it. not to mention that they arent really forthcoming with the schematics and block diagrams for me to really dig into it [wow][doh]. Oh well, live, learn and salt test all hygros, and have a happy stash for it
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