Official Luthiers Forum!

If anyone is interested in getting a good hygrometer, Ambient weather has the Abbeon HTAB176 currently on sale for about 40% off.
Pretty unusual for a hygrometer of this type.
I just picked up a HTAB169 which appears to be off sale now and it shipped straight from Abbeon.
http://www.ambientweather.com/hygrometers.html

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

They both look on sale to me. What's the difference between the two?

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Looking at Abbeons website I they have the same specs, so I' m guessing the display. I picked up the model HTAB169 for $119, so not as good a sale right now, but the HTAB176 seems to a good deal.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hmm. It says "free UPS" on the sale, but them adds $10 shipping at checkout. I wonder why that is?

Reading further it seems that the 176 comes with a guarantee and warranty that the others don't.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

You have to enter their coupon code fg33.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Thanx!

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Thanks Jim,

Just ordered one. If the free ground shipping comes through, its a good deal for me. It's nice that UPS allows ground shipping to Hawaii since it still has to come by air over the Pacific.
I have the 169 (cost me $170 from a luthier supplier) in my work room in my house but I want one for my garage where I do my dirty work and spraying. I have a Lufft Durotherm in there but its old and finicky. Bought it back in the early 80s from Euphonon for over $130 if I recall correctly. So yeah, $125 is a good deal.

Caine

I'm glad a couple of you found it useful. I'd wanted a good analog hygrometer for a long time to replace my digital units. The price was definitely right for me with free shipping and all.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I just ordered one of the 176's. Looks like a good deal!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I ordered the 176 too. It looks like the most expensive one.

I wonder what they're going to replace them with once they're gone?

Thanx for posting the link BTW, I was getting ready to order something like this, very timely.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I bought a certified HTAB 169 about 6 years ago when I moved into my current shop. I've been very pleased with it. I found a sling psychrometer at a swap meet some years ago so I can check the calibration.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

After a little over a week with my Abbeon in my shop, I'm dismayed that it is constantly reading some 7 to 8 points higher than the readings I get from my Wet/dry bulb thermometer system. I called Abbeon, and their response was to adjust it, and it may take several adjustments for it to settle down.

My point is, if you bought one, check it with a reliable data source. You can get it certified, but it isn't free. First time is pretty cheap, but it keeps going up each time after that, until it costs as much as a new one by the 4th time or so, plus shipping each time. Another point would be that if that's the case, another adjustable unit is probably just as reliable once adjusted to be correct with reliable data.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I thought it was supposed to be calibrated and certified already. Mine came with a guarantee of accuracy.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

Mine says it's certified right on the label.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

The more precise the hygrometer is, the more delicate it is, also. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the mechanism was easily knocked out of calibration during shipping. For that, and many other reasons, I don't care if it arrived with a signed blessing from the pope, it needs to be checked against a wet/dry bulb reading or a dewpoint reading. Preferably both.

All hygrometers are also very sensitive to any and all dust, and our shops make very fine dust, so they need to be checked often enough, which is why I can't imagine anyone having just one. May as well have nothing.... If you have one high quality hygro, like the Abbeon, then a couple more $10 units from the hardware store will do fine. Adjust them all to the same reading, and they should all read the same, through the small range that our shops are kept-in. At a glance, you can tell if everything is okay or not; if they're all reading within a point or two, all's good. When the day comes that one of 'em doesn't agree with the others, take a few minutes, and check them against a web/dry bulb or a dewpoint system. Adjust as necessary. At this time, I would also run a shop vac in them, although if I had a Abbeon or similar, I'd check with the manufacturer on the proper technique, if there is one.

I tried to order the Abbeon unit that is on sale, a week or so ago, but they are out of stock on it, so I then tried to order the Fischer "synthetic hair" unit, as it appears to be another very precise hygrometer, but these folks don't ship to Canada. Phooey! I can't find them for sale anywhere in Canada, either...

I bought a new Abbeon with a certificate. When it arrived, it's reading was no where near reality. After I calibrated it, it has done very well. Unless I have a reason to check sooner (see Mario's post), I check it once a year. It has stayed in calibration for three years now. I bought another used (the first one I bought) and calibrated it. It has stayed in calibration for 7 years.

I purchased a pair of ‘certified’ Abbeon instruments 19 years ago. They originally functioned in the non-critical role of monitoring temperature and relative humidity in my basement wine cellar. When I started making guitars I moved the instruments into my assembly room and for the first time checked the calibration of the hygrometer against a borrowed high end laboratory grade Cole Parmer. The Abbeon was reading about 7% high at 45% RH, if I recall correctly. Since then I check the calibration twice a year but it’s never been more than 1 or 2% out at my target assembly RH of 40 to 45%.

I also have several consumer grade digital and analog hygrometers in my shop and scattered around my house (I’m a bit of a science and weather geek, having studied meteorology and psychrometrics in college, and being a pilot and a sailor). Anyway, the cheap analog hygrometers can be calibrated and show fairly good accuracy within the range of interest of 35 to 55% RH. The cheap digital hygrometers I have however cannot be calibrated and usually read 20% low (or worse).

Another reliable (and cheap) analog hygrometer: a few months ago I made a wood hygrometer from a cross grain strip of spruce soundboard material laminated to a strip of basswood using quick-set epoxy. The laminated strip is the same length as the width of the lower bout of the guitar and was glued up at the same time the corresponding guitar soundboard was braced; shop RH of 44% which is indicated by the vertical centerline.



The markers were placed at roughly 5% intervals after carefully charting the movement over a wide range of readings taken multiple times. I’m confident in its accuracy now, however even without calibrating, it would show at a glance what the guitar soundboard is experiencing.

Joe


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