Customer Reviews

Caliber III Thermometer Hygrometer

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I bought this hygrometer after a lot of research. I use it to monitor the humidity level in my acoustic guitar cases. The hygrometer is compact (fits nicely in guitar cases), is easy to read, and has the nice feature of a record of highs and lows. It is very responsive, in fact I bought two (two guitars!) and tested them side by side, and they basically changed simultaneously. If you pick it up, within seconds the recorded humidity level changes just from the moisture of your hand! It has the industry reputation for being the most accurate hygrometer, and my experience bears that reputation out. I highly recommend this hygrometer for acoustic guitar owners, though for whatever reason it is typically just listed for cigar humidors - guitar makers, dealers, and players should all take notice.

I used the Boveda One-Step Calibration to see how accurate this hygrometer is and the Caliber III was dead on. What you see is the actual humidity rating. I have used other hygrometers before, but this is the most accurate one I have come across.

I must be the unlucky one. I was convinced that this hygrometer would be accurate as all the reviews say. Unfortunately I must have got the few that passed QA. I purchased the One Step EZ Hygrometer Calibrating Kit from a local cigar store and after following the directions to the T, my hygrometer was reading +4%. I thought it had to do w/ how the room temperature was affecting the reading. So I conducting two other tests where the room temp was at 80 degrees and one at 65 degrees. Still it read 79% humidity for both tests when the Calibration kit says it should be reading 75%.

Long story short which every hygrometer you purchase I would recommend purchasing a calibration kit and just put a sticky note on your hygrometer w/ the +/- of how much it's off to remind you of the true reading.

hth,
ant

(by Angela's husband)
Simple but does the job. I got one of the calibration kits where you put the hygrometer in a bag which creates a certain humidity that you can compare to the reading on the hygrometer. The hygrometer seemed to be right on. I like that it saves high and low temperature and humidity.

Not sure why so many 5-star reviews on this item. Mine works just like those 1-star'ers. My other 2 hygrometers showed 27% and this one showed 17% initially and went down to --% eventually. I will tolerate it if it's +/- 4% but this is totaly unusable. My guess is there is a batch of bad units for the unlucky 1-star'ers. I did noticed that almost all the high-star reviews were in or before the first half of 2009, and all the low-star started in 2nd half of 2009. So, Cigar Man, please return all your current inventory to the manufacturer.

Bought this hygrometer for my new 100 cigar glass-top humidor (which is wonderful). The specs were great: accuracy to 1% humidity, no calibration required, max and min reading memory. However it did not work as advertised. first day it recorded 55 - 120 degrees in my humidor! Clearing the memory did not help. Placing a second (desktop) hygrometer in the humidor and the Caliber 3 was way off. Had to throw the Caliber 3 away. My stash of cigars is too expensive to trust to this. Ended up buying the round digital unit which can be calibrated with the salt test.

after the first two days, they were consistently off by 4% (72% to 76%). Bear in mind I had them next to each other within the humidor for testing purposes. I guess the obvious question is...how accurate a product is this if they are off this much?

Tested it with salt test - passed. The control buttons are not very responsive - gotta press them several times sometimes. Not sure about the high and low recordings though, the high once read 103F and I am damn sure it was not the hot in my room ever during the winter. Good for humidors, not designed to be used for rooms.

I tested this hygrometer in a Humidipak Calibration Kit that is exactly 75.5% Relative Humidity. This unit displayed between 75 & 76% which is pretty much dead-on accurate! It only shows in 1 point increments not tenths which is just fine. I was surpised since it only costs $20 and its as accurate as the professional testing equipment. I am currently using this inside my cigar humidor but will purchase a second one for our bedroom.

I bought the Caliber III in October and have had it only a few months now. It has just been mounted to my wall in my room the entire time so nothing should have damaged it. The past month or so it has been acting up. Half of the time the humidity % does not even appear and when it does it appears to be way off (about 30% off right now). The instructions of the Caliber III claim that it is accurate, warn that testing it with the proven methods breaks it and imply that questioning it's accuracy means your insane!

I ended up buying a basic analog Hygrometer that can be tested/calibrated along with the "Boveda One-Step Calibration" kit. Together they both cost less than $10 including shipping. I bought them from CheapHumidors at Amazon. I tested the basic analog hygrometer and it was accurate within 1%! Right now the analog hygrometer is reading 38% (which seems about right) while the Caliber III is reading 8% (which makes no sense).

Perhaps my Caliber III is defective and others work fine. But if you can't even test it and must buy another hygrometer just to test it, what is the point? Just stick with a basic Analog unit (save on batteries too) or at least one that can be tested and calibrated regularly. Humidity is very important for your health so don't take any chances.