Calibrating digital hygrometer

Arkias

I know there are a million threads about humidity and calibrating hygrometers but I have to ask anyways.  I have a Xikar digital hygro that I calibrated using the salt in a cap method.  Anywhere I put the hygro with a humidity device...a water pillow, cigar.com humi-can, or Xikar 100ct humidification puck, it reads 90%.  I'm using Xikar's glycol solution and I'm not cutting it with distilled water.  So if I have the Xikar puck in a zip lock back with the hygrometer, would I have to leave it there for hours like with the salt cap?  Or can I assume in a small ziplock back the puck is creating a 70% RH enviroment quickly? What do you guys think?  I'll probably just take it to the shop tomorrow and calibrate it in their walk in humidor. 

MBISON

It is my understanding that you do not need to calibrate a digital hygrometer. The salt method is used only on the analog ones. Please somenone correct me if I'm wrong cause if so, I have a lot of work to do!!!!!!!

leonard

Digital hygrometers can be wrong. Thats why a lot of them are adjustable.

JY001

I'm a newb by my understanding is that digitals should be calibrated. When you do the salt test you should use distilled water, not a solution. I was told to test for 24 hours. After the test it should read 75%. If it does not, adjust it to 75 and try the water pillow. If it goes up to 90 it's probably defective.

jlmarta

Personally, I wouldn't buy a digital hygro unless it WAS adjustable. I have two of them, calibrated, and they work wonderfully well.

Marty

Krieg

I use the Excaliber III (from amazon) and it doesn't require any callibration. In fact, it tells u on the box if someone tells u to use the "salt test" run like hell away from them, thought that was funny as hell. I have 2 of these and they both are highly accurate. Basically just turn them on and throw them into your humi. Shows Temp and RH.

RaschNuts

when i bought my digi from heartland it offered a calibration kit for 2-3$ so i grabbed that. you just open this bag put the digi in there for 24 hrs and presto its calibrated.

ironhorse

I think I have the same Xikar one that you have and I don't believe its the type that can be calibrated. I was under the impression that it would but I was wrong. Anywho, get yourself a calibration kit from Boveda and then determine if its off or its its accurate. If its off by a little, you'll just have to keep that in mind every time.

Lasabar

Wait.... Are you putting the puck and the pillows and stuff in a bag? To calibrate you just put the salt and hygro only in the air tight container... The other stuff would cause a misread...

kos22us

analogs are mostly junk, they do look nice ,but almost are never accurate and hard to calibrate if they can be, digitals are perfect ,but you always salt test them too cause i've had nice digitals that were off by almost 9 percent, always buy one with a calibration button and the boveda calibration test is way easier and probably more accurate than the sal test so pick one of those up as well, there dirt cheap like 5 bucks and can be re used, as far as a digital i have personally found the xikar digis are an excellent choice, hope that helps

Arkias

I said I have the xikar digital which does have a calibrate button.  A guy at the B&M said the xikar auto calibrates its self.  I dont know if I believe him because the xikar comes with instructions for doing the salt test.  But overall my experience with it says that if I put it in a bag with salt it displays 75% RH after 5 hours or more.  Its in my humi right now and says 68% RH.  I was just curious originally if I can test its accuracy in a ziplock bag using beads instead of salt.

Nick2021

Arkias:

I said I have the xikar digital which does have a calibrate button.  A guy at the B&M said the xikar auto calibrates its self.  I dont know if I believe him because the xikar comes with instructions for doing the salt test.  But overall my experience with it says that if I put it in a bag with salt it displays 75% RH after 5 hours or more.  Its in my humi right now and says 68% RH.  I was just curious originally if I can test its accuracy in a ziplock bag using beads instead of salt.

My wife got me a Xikar digital for my humidor at home (while on deployment). If I remember correctly, she said that you press a button which self-calibrates it after a certain amount of time in the zip lock bag during the salt test.

xmacro

Arkias:

I said I have the xikar digital which does have a calibrate button.  A guy at the B&M said the xikar auto calibrates its self.  I dont know if I believe him because the xikar comes with instructions for doing the salt test.  But overall my experience with it says that if I put it in a bag with salt it displays 75% RH after 5 hours or more.  Its in my humi right now and says 68% RH.  I was just curious originally if I can test its accuracy in a ziplock bag using beads instead of salt.

The Xikar digital doesn't calibrate itself; the button on it serves two fucntions: 1) Press and release quickly to change from temp display in Fahr to Cels, 2) After using the salt test/boveda packs (one or the other, not both) for about 24-36 hrs, press and hold the button while the hygro is still in the ziplock back to reset it to 75%

From what I've read, analogs generally need to be salt-tested once a month or so to remain accurate; digital's should be salt-tested once or twice a year to make sure they stay accurate.

Like Lasabar already said, you either use salt to calibrate, or a boveda pack - not both, and certainly never use the humidifying puck to calibrate - it should be the hygro and the salt/boveda pack in a clear ziplock back - nothing else.

Theedge

I just got in two new Xikar Digitals. You just put enough water on the salt in a small container to make it damp. Put that and the device into a zip log bag. Wait for 4 hours. Push the calibrate button, after you push the button, it resets to read 75%, as that is what the reading in the bag should be at that point. Mine did not seem accurate at first, so I did it a few times. They now both read the same, as I swap them between humidors as a way of checking.

xmacro

Theedge:

I just got in two new Xikar Digitals. You just put enough water on the salt in a small container to make it damp. Put that and the device into a zip log bag. Wait for 4 hours. Push the calibrate button, after you push the button, it resets to read 75%, as that is what the reading in the bag should be at that point. Mine did not seem accurate at first, so I did it a few times. They now both read the same, as I swap them between humidors as a way of checking.

You gotta wait 24-36 hrs; 4 hrs is way too short - the RH can't level out that quickly

Theedge

I was wondering about that, I swear the directions read 4 hours. But out of curiosity I left everything in the bag after pushing the button, and they didn't stay at 75%, which I figured they should. I ended up pushing the button several times, I bet it was at least 24 hours later until they held at 75%.

Arkias

xmacro:

Theedge:

I just got in two new Xikar Digitals. You just put enough water on the salt in a small container to make it damp. Put that and the device into a zip log bag. Wait for 4 hours. Push the calibrate button, after you push the button, it resets to read 75%, as that is what the reading in the bag should be at that point. Mine did not seem accurate at first, so I did it a few times. They now both read the same, as I swap them between humidors as a way of checking.

You gotta wait 24-36 hrs; 4 hrs is way too short - the RH can't level out that quickly

4 hours is what the instructions that come with it say to do.  I let mine sit a second time for 12-16 hours and it was 75% exactly for a long time.  I think it's working fine now since its reading 73/77 in my humidor right now and pretty much stays at that.  The newer Xikar digitals have 2 buttons now instead of the green diamond button.  One changes between C to F and the other calibrates the RH.