Customer Reviews

Acu Rite Indoor Humidity Monitor

5 star:		(147)
4 star:		(62)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(45)

 

 

Bought 2 of these the other day. Opened them up, put in the battery, and they were ready to go. I bought two of them so I could install them in each of my childrens bedrooms so I could tell the range of the temp and humidity each of thier rooms. First I put these next to my house thermostat which has a current temp and humidity displayed. After 1 hour of being in the same room right next to the thermostat both of the Cheney units read exactly what the temp was, and the humidity on both units were the reading the exact same (7 units higher) then my house thermostat. I don't know if my house unit is accurate or not but at least the two Cheney units read the same for temp & humidity. If they read differently than each other than I would say they weren't accurate but since both read the exact same things I give them two thumbs up and agree this is a great buy, especially since it displays the current temp and humidity and displays the daily low/high for each. Great Product!!!! Small, lightweight, has magnet on back to stick to fridge or can use clip to attach it to belt, or anything it can clip to. It also can be placed on a desk, shelf, etc but standing it on end with the attached stilt.

We use a number of these in our cabinet shop and at job sites. Despite other's complaints about accuracy, we have found them to be quite reasonable, especially considering their low price. If you put ours side by side they will all stabilize to within a few percent of each other. They are small, yet the display is very easy to read. They use only a single AA battery. The only down side is that the 24 hour high and low display is not resettable without taking out the battery, but that's only a down side if you are looking for min/max in a time frame other than 24 hours.

I bought this same hygrometer packaged as Acu-Rite brand from a Mill's Fleet Farm more than a year ago. I've always had it turned on since then, and I've never had to change the batteries. I tested the unit not long after I bought it and again just yesterday (using the NaCl and distilled water test and the Boveda humidipak kit) and after 8 hours the display stabilized at 75% just as it should. This is great to see from a $10 unit. I've traveled with this product and it has held up through that as well. I've never tested the accuracy of the thermometer, as I mainly bought this instrument to read RH in an instrument (guitar) room, and guitar cases. I've also owned "The Weather Channel" brand weather stations with built in hygrometers that were more than twice the cost of this product, and found them to read more than 10% off when testing.
Maybe I got lucky and happened to buy a accurate unit, but from my experience with this I highly recommend buying yourself one.

PS I have since had relatives buy these units and they were not as accurate as the one I bought, so I guess I really might have just been lucky. The other units seemed to report higher humidity then existed (when RH was 40%, they showed +3-5%, which is considerable). The plus side is that they don't seem to get worse over time, so if you know the unit to be off by a certain amount, you should be able to predict the actual RH.

Placed both together with fresh batteries from the same package. Both had different readings on humidity, both temperature readings were the same and accurate. Reversed batteries from one unit to the other and same result, readings were 6% different (ie 31% vs 37%). Left next to each other over night and same result the next day. Would not bother to purchase unless you bought 10 units and selected the best ones, even that should be verified by another accurate source. A hugh waste of time and energy, Only UPS made out on this purchase.

Original review: I've been using this thing for a week, half the time without a humidifier and the other half with. It always reads 16% humidity. Sometimes it'll jump to 20%, but fear not, it'll be back down to 16% in a couple minutes. Piece of junk, don't waste your time or money. And if you do want to risk it, don't discard the packaging! Because you'll be returning it shortly. Wish I could.

UPDATE: So, I am a man who will admit when he is wrong. This thing seems to be working now. Perhaps I didn't give the humidifier enough time to actually humidify the room, or maybe it just started miraculously working. Whatever the case is, it is now reporting humidity percentages between 16% and 55%. I've used it in my bedroom and in instrument cases and it reported drastically different relative humidity, so that tells me that it's probably working. I've also purchased two other humidity gauges of different brands for instrument cases, and compared them all in the same room. They're each reporting within 1-5% of each other for humidity, and within 2 degrees of each other for temperature. Would I recommend this? Sure, why not. For $12 might as well give it a shot, mine seems to be working just fine. I don't think any of these gauges are incredibly accurate, but they are great for instrument cases, and are decent for giving you an idea of room humidity.

This is a small unit with a big display.
The application for this unit is to monitor humidity as well as temperature.

While the temperature readings are spot on, the humidity is way off. To make things worse, you can not calibrate this unit.

A total waste of time and money if you need it to monitor temperature AND humidity.

I have given these away to clients when I do an energy audit on their home. Before I give them out, I usually set several up at a time and let them stabilize on a table in my home. I have found that most of them read the same, so they are usually accurate, in spite of the fact that the accuracy for RH is listed as +/-5%. Then I discovered that they do not read RH below 20%. I also have discovered that none of the RH meters on the market, costing less than about $80, will read RH below 20%, which is not good if you have a drafty house that has very low RH in winter.

I bought one of these for a specific purpose of monitoring temperature and humidity right next to my guitars. According to others, the humidity is on average 20% high, but this is NOT the case for me. I have found the humidity to be accurate to 4%, which is plenty when dealing with instruments. The low and high reading is what I was actually after in a unit, and the Chaney Indoor Thermometer with Humidity has done this quite well. Upon the first day of use, I found my humidity was dropping significantly, probably at night when it gets fairly cold due to cold weather, compared to what I was recording with my analog meter. If you move the unit to a different location, expect results to change, even if it is in the same room. This is acceptable and expected. My analog meter has the same response, but I use that in a different area and wanted something that was much more compact and could record ranges. Overall, I am satisfied with my purchase and will be correcting the humidity issue I was unaware existed due to this handy tool. I would recommend it if you are concerned with humidity/temperature of a specific small area, not a large area, as values of a large area will be different and this monitor would not have the capabilities to give accurate results. I have mine mounted on a RockStand Folding Multiple Guitar Stand (for 7 Guitars) and it was well worth the 12.99 after shipping. Well worth the $13 to possibly save the life of $5,000+ worth of instruments.
The reason I did not give it 5 stars is because it does not have all the features I am looking for, but it has and is continuing to serve its main function. The 4 stars is simply because I wish I could set acceptable values for high/low/normal humidity readings for a quick glance, however I was never under the impression that this unit could fulfill my wish. Due to having an electronics background, adding this feature would not be hard at all and should have been done before product release.

We own three of these gauges and the vast majority of the time they all read 16 just as in the display. This is despite running two humidifiers in the house. In fact, the only way to get them to go up is to take them into a steamy bathroom during a hot shower.

My unit reads 5 points below accurate gauges I own and there is no way to adjust it. It has a wonderful digital display but I can find no way to reset the Min Max without actually removing the battery. I just sent an email to the supplier asking for return refund instrustions but this has already cost $5 to receive and I think I will be paying 50% of the unit's cost just to find out the hard way. I doubt that the positive reviews are based on actual reference to other accurate instruments owned.