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Thought I'd share a quick review of two digital humidity gauges I recently acquired. Both were recommended in lutherie articles I found online, purchased on Amazon...(I really try to avoid Amazon, and swear they are going to own us all one day, but sometimes it is just too convenient and cheap)

Testo 608H1 (~$70 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y ... UTF8&psc=1)

and

Acurite (model 01083, ~$15 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HD ... UTF8&psc=1)

Here is a photo of the two side by side (sorry for the glare)


Testo:
-claims to be calibrated to a certification standard, but no certificate or documentation provided
-claims 3% accuracy for RH
-no calibration procedure or adjustments documented, nor do any appear to be possible
-3 digit display
-tracks min and max readings, but must press a button to see them
-uses 9V battery

Acurite:
-packaged in generic brown box, no branding
-no accuracy specified in manual, amazon page listing claims 2% RH
-has "calibration" function which allows you to apply a simple +- offset to the reading
-displays min and max right on the screen, no need to press buttons
-tracks min/max for both last 24 hours and all time min/max (since reset) - must press button to change which is displayed
-shows trend up/down for both RH and temp
-2 digit display
-smaller display than Testo, but easy to read
-uses 2 AAA batteries

Given the significant cost difference and the fact both are reading essentially the same RH, the Acurite is the clear winner in my book. Unless you really need the larger display, or like seeing the extra digit (to catch trends), I can't justify the higher cost of the Testo. I'm considering ordering a few more of the Acurite meters and sending the Testo back. Hope this helps someone.

Mark

Mark- Thanks. I ordered one of the cheap ones. Will be interesting to have one to cheack against the oneI have. Cheap enough!-Bob

I have bought a number of the "cheap ones" I won't buy anything that cannot be calibrated. The best ones I found so far the most reliable digital I found was this one
https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-01080M-A ... 302&sr=8-8
it stays within 5% of my abbeon
these I use for reference easy to calibrate and also is withing 5% of the Abbeon
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cigar-Oasis-An ... %3A2334524

Well, I use the good old fashioned cigar hygrometer. I have several scattered around the shop. I calibrate them with the salt slurry mixture, yearly. I have a thread on the forum on how to use salt/water slurry to calibrate hygrometers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JXOKPT0/re ... VFbZGHF9Z2

This is a very nice way of controlling both the dehumidifier and humidifier. I bought this about 6 months ago, and my humidity stays spot-on.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J1E5LWM/re ... UTF8&psc=1

You plug in your humidifier in one outlet, dehumidifier in the other, and program their actions separately. An alarm will sound if the humidity falls or raises too much. The unit will bring on each one, as needed..

The instructions stink, but the programming info is on YouTube. The unit keeps the programming, after a power outage.

3 years old, always within about 6% of my Testo handheld, visible from across the room, made from scrap

THank you for the review.

I've got multiples as well. I have found, if I line them all up, they will likely read RH different (Even after sitting for 24 hours). Moving them in a 2 foot figure eight three or four times, they will all read the same within +/- 1 unit of Rh. That is true with every one of them I have.

I also have several ThermPro with Touch Backlight. I like it because it has an orange backlight (backlight by touching the icon, auto-off). It does not have a tilt out stand, but it does have a magnet.


I also have a really cool 1950's bakelite Temp Rh meter, it is not adjustable either, unless you want to bend the coil spring, and I dont.

Love Ed's. I mean I really love it.

I use Diane's setup and it works great. My old crap unit ran all the time and did nothing.

I have boxes and boxes of Arduino environment sensors and was going to hook them all up and graph my outputs. I wrote a software package to collect the data from all my sensors over wifi and graph it on a mobile app. Its all great but I started building guitars and there it all sits.unsued and I just taped the 8 dollar ones to the wall. The project id on github if there any arduino coders out there.