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Relative humidity (Hygrometer)


eeh1

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Hello all. What would you recommend for an "ACCURATE" hygrometer.

 

I currently use a Honeywell small digital hygrometer.

 

I know some can be + and - a great deal.

 

I have my guitars stored in a room on racks in their cases and I plan on using a programmable dehumidifier and hunidifier and keeping the door closed. Ideally I would like to stay in the 45 to 55 range for relative humidity and around 70 to 75 temperature.

 

 

Any recommendations for a good really good hygometer.

 

Eric

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I bought a couple of little analog ones (about $10) from a local cigar shop. I keep one on a bookshelf in the room in which I keep my guitars and another in the case with one of my guits. I "calibrated" them by using the salt test, found they were accurate, and now basically use them to monitor RH, which in my house is generally between 50-60%. Temperature varies, though it's probably generally around 70°. Never had a problem with either of my acoustics.

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I've got three of those oval shaped hygrometers (I think they are Planet Waves). Designed to fit in the guitar case, but also will work as a room hygrometer. They are well reviewed, and from my experience are within 1% of each other, so they seem pretty accurate. They seem to do a good job.

Dwight

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What's the "salt test?"

 

It's a way to determine how accurate your hygrometer is. (It really doesn't calibrate anything' date=' which is why I put that word in quotation marks.) Having read that hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate and thus useless unless you know whether yours is accurate or, if not, how inaccurate it is, I googled around and found that you can do the following test to figure that out:

 

Get a small bowl put some salt in it (a couple tablespoons ought to do), dampen the salt so that it has the consistency of wet sand. Put it in a baggie with your hygrometer and seal the bag. After 8-12 hours the hygrometer should read 75%. If it does, the hygrometer is accurate. If it doesn't, it's off by the number of percentage points it reads either + or - 75%. That's the test.

 

If your hygrometers off by just a bit and you know by how much, you can just mentally adjust the reading it gives you and know what the RH is in the place you keep your guitars. If it's off by a lot, I would consider returning it and getting another one.

 

You can get as anal as you like.......

Or not.

 

That's definitely true, and if humidity in your place is average and stable, you shouldn't have any problems. If it's high (<70%) or low (>30%) for any length of time or fluctuates between the two extremes your guitar could develop structural problems or cracks. Which is why it doesn't hurt to know.

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