Walmart Springfield hygrometers

blurr

I recently purchased a cheapo walmart Springfield hygrometer for once of my spare 100ct overflow humi's, after reading some info on coolidor cheaper setups. The one I read recommended it, and for 6.99 I was like heck yeah. Well I use the $15 hygros sold here and ci, and have salt tested them to within 1% rh so they are accurate pretty much to my needs. So I got my springfield and salt tested it before placing in my humi, it read 50% in a 75% enviro! So I don't expect much from a cheapo $7 hygro, but I just wanted to let all other brothers know if they are using this hygrometer they would be wise to salt test it just to be sure you aren't over or under-humidifying your precious stash. Its simple to know my hygro reads 25% low and I need to add that much to know the true reading, but just a word of caution because I read several setups on coolidors that recommended these. I'm going to try to add some drill holes to the back plate to see if that improves the readings any this week and I'll post my results, but just don't rely on these with your expensive puros in my opinion. I've read pages saying these things work great, and pages saying they read low so check yours out if you use them. By the way, I use beads that are brand new so I pretty much know they are working good based on my expensive hygros reading dead on 69 with them.

kingjk729

I have a total of three of these hygrometers and 1 is dead on 1 is -1 and 1 is -5 ....... i know a lot of us have these and use them and we all know to salt test and i think we have seen quite a few off in the double digits ... off -25 is pretty far off ..... i think that crappy analogs aren't that bad .... i'd take it back and swap it out and see if you can get one a touch more accurate .....

The3Stogies

Can you calibrate it? I bought a couple of analogs once and one I could calibrate the other wasn't even close. Shipping trauma maybe, or just crap, chucked it and kept the other. Keep a digital and analog in both humi's now just for redundancy.

leonard

I have one in my bin and its dead on. I have heard about a lot of inconsistence with these. Exchange it.

skweekz

The one I tried was absolute garbage. I stuck it on the side of my fridge instead

YankeeMan

I've got two of them and one tested at 75 and the other at 74. I keep my aging humidor at a little different RH than my smoking one. I switch the hygos back and forth from time to time just to check them and they read what they should in each.

Just lucky I guess. I would return one that was 25 off.

stephen_hannibal

I have 3 of these units and one of them was 10 off.
I just noted it and made sure that it never went up. Until yesterday when I thought this thing is cheap.
I popped the back of the unit off and noticed the sensor wasn't lined up with the vents. I simply cut a larger hole in back plate so the sensor was exposed and now it's only off by 1.

2 Second fix.

Big Ern

hey dude i got two of these things i never salt tested em now im gettin nervous.my sticks smoke great so its gotta be close right? anyway i gotta search the forum for instructions on the salt test.thanks for the heads up

clearlysuspect

stephen_hannibal:

I have 3 of these units and one of them was 10 off.
I just noted it and made sure that it never went up. Until yesterday when I thought this thing is cheap.
I popped the back of the unit off and noticed the sensor wasn't lined up with the vents. I simply cut a larger hole in back plate so the sensor was exposed and now it's only off by 1.

2 Second fix.

Word. I'm gonna have to try that. I agree with whoever just said it though. Sticks smoke great so I'm not real worried one way or the other. I did salt test my once and it said it was off by about 5. As long as stoagies keep resting, aging, and developing well in the humi, I'll be content.

Garhead

blurr:

I recently purchased a cheapo walmart Springfield hygrometer for once of my spare 100ct overflow humi's, after reading some info on coolidor cheaper setups. The one I read recommended it, and for 6.99 I was like heck yeah. Well I use the $15 hygros sold here and ci, and have salt tested them to within 1% rh so they are accurate pretty much to my needs. So I got my springfield and salt tested it before placing in my humi, it read 50% in a 75% enviro! So I don't expect much from a cheapo $7 hygro, but I just wanted to let all other brothers know if they are using this hygrometer they would be wise to salt test it just to be sure you aren't over or under-humidifying your precious stash. Its simple to know my hygro reads 25% low and I need to add that much to know the true reading, but just a word of caution because I read several setups on coolidors that recommended these. I'm going to try to add some drill holes to the back plate to see if that improves the readings any this week and I'll post my results, but just don't rely on these with your expensive puros in my opinion. I've read pages saying these things work great, and pages saying they read low so check yours out if you use them. By the way, I use beads that are brand new so I pretty much know they are working good based on my expensive hygros reading dead on 69 with them.

Thanks blurr, that's good to know. Been looking at those and other people haven't said much about them.

blurr

I would say if your cigars are burning and smoking good, then don't worry too much about it you probably have one thats fairly accurate. I'm going to try to find time tonight to drill some vent holes in the back plate, or at least take the plate off and see if its reading better. I'm thinking that will help but I'll post results. I think stephen is onto something, seeing as most people say they're right on, maybe its just misalignment of the sensor in the back. Will post what I find.

blurr

Ok, so I took my cover to work with me & had some of our machinists drill like 8X Ø3/16 thru holes on the back cover, randomly spaced but a bit more heavily concentrated around the thermocouple & humidity sensors on the back. Didn't work for me, still around 25 percent humidity off, temp is still spot on but I didnt purchase this for temp, considering thermocouples are so cheap. Anyway, its going to be a loss for me since I can't return now but for 7 bucks oh well. I guess most people get good units, however I stand my position, use with care & if you are a newby to the hobby. If you are a regular you obviously know how a cigar will feel properly humidified, so give it a try but just be informed they do read inconsistent on a few, seems like 10 to 20 percent. And remember the ACCURACY as listed on the spec sheet is plus/minus 5%. For those of you not sure, that means they are only within plus or minus 5 percent of what they show versus what a "scientifically accurate" device would read. But I'd still give it another try with a new unit if I could return this.

blurr

edited previous, delete post requires adminstrator??

Hays

Yeah you can't delete posts bro. Pretty much all you can do to remove a posting is to go back to edit the post and replace all the text with "Deleted" or similar.