AcuRite01080M Pro Accuracy Temperature and Humidity Gauge with Alarms, Black

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I ordered a few of these AcuRite 01080M Pro hygrometers to monitor humidity in a room with acoustic guitars. After salt calibration, I discovered these were perfectly calibrated out of the box. Impressive. I'm very happy with the purchase.

Product seems to operate as intended. Seems to provide pretty accurate humidity levels to the tenth level. I bought quite a few of these and only one seemed to have been off by .5% compared to the others. The magnets in the back are nice to have. I consider it to be medium sized and the font size for humidity is good but the font size for temperature is a little too small for my liking. Overall, though, I still give it 5 stars despite my minor observations.

Accuracy is less than desireable

When I was fighting a humidity issue in my workshop, I realized I couldn't solve it without monitoring results - and picked up a SensorPush Wireless Hygrometer with Alerts for that purpose.It quickly became apparent that, although the SensorPush is awesome, I wanted to be able to see the humidity at a glance when I'm out there - so I also picked up a ThermoPro TP55 Digital Hygrometer that I could just stick to my gun safe using magnets.If I hadn't been using the SensorPush, I probably would have been happy with the ThermoPro - but I did have a couple of issues with it:1) The humidity level didn't match the levels from the SensorPush - which was driving me nuts.2) Even when the SensorPush reported wide swings in relative humidity, the ThermoPro seemed to stay stuck. It was always reporting 48-52%, even though the SensorPush reported a far larger range.After a couple of weeks, I came back to Amazon and picked up the AcuRite 01080 Hygrometer - which turned out to be an excellent decision.1) The readings on the AcuRite are FAR faster, so it reports the same swings as the SensorPush.2) The AcuRite supports calibration (which I did using a Boveda One-Step Calibration Kit). It's a little hard to calibrate the Acurite inside the Boveda bag; but, only took a few minutes using the button map from the instruction pages. (The problem is you can't see the buttons - you have to feel for them.)It's interesting that the AcuRite was off by almost 5% out of the box - but now it matches the SensorPush (which is also calibrated) perfectly.After reading reviews, I almost didn't buy the AcuRite because of complaints about the display contrast and size. Personally, I don't see the issues at all - it seems plenty big for my purposes; and, although the contrast definitely isn't as good as the sticker that comes on it - it isn't bad either. The contrast is pretty much comparable to any other digital display.If you're comparing the AcuRite vs the ThermoPro, the ThermoPro has an easy-to use touchscreen and backlighting, while the AcuRite seems to focus more on being a good hygrometer.If you're going to be constantly switching back and forth between Celsius and Fahrenheit, or want a backlight, then consider the ThermoPro - otherwise just grab the AcuRite, it really is an excellent unit.[*** Update 12/12/2017 ***]This has worked so well that I ended up getting another one to track the humidity by my main gun safe. After letting it settle for about 8 hours and calibrating it - it works just as well as the first and tracks the other sensors perfectly.

*Important calibration note in this review!*5 stars for everything because, it's a hygrometer: it's supposed to measure humidity and that's what it does.It also reads temperature, shows maximums and minimums for temperature and humidity, and has a digital bar at the top with an arrow that points to humidity from zero to 100% (technically, the instructions say it has a humidity range of 1-99%). Runs on 2 AAA batteries. Can stick to fridge by magnets on the back. Can stand upright on a table using the magnetized stand. This hygrometer can be calibrated and I calibrated mine with the “one-step calibration kit” also bought from Amazon. Now, either I was lucky that I received a perfectly calibrated unit out the box, or AcuRite simply delivers on accurate hygrometers. You can get a hygrometer from Walmart for like $10, but I was willing to spend a little more for accuracy, and I think the price for this unit is worth it. Either way, please read my note on calibration below.CALIBRATION AND ACCURACYCalibration may take some time! I think any negative reviews come from people who may not know how slowly moisture content changes, especially with calibration. The calibration kit says to keep it in the calibration bag for a minimum of 24 hours. I highly recommend keeping it inside for longer.Straight out the box, I hung the meter for a day and it read somewhere between 60 and 65% humidity in the house. I put it inside the separately bought calibration bag that calibrates to 75% humidity. It took 3 days to get to 71%. I almost took it out and calibrated it up 4 percentage points (to 75%), but I kept it inside. Next day it read 72.8%. Since it was increasing, I thought to wait and see how high it would get. I ended up forgetting about it and four days later it was at 74.9%. That’s when I took the pictures with it still in the bag. Upon moving the bag for the pictures, the reading fluctuated to 75, 75.1, then back to 75. But I mean, you can’t get much more accurate than that.THE POINT IS THAT IT TOOK LIKE A WEEK TO CALIBRATE EXACLTY TO 75%, so that’s why I recommend leaving your hygrometer to calibrate for longer than a day, and wait before writing a bad review for a “bad” hygrometer. Moisture is a fickle thing, unlike temperature. (Although, you probably won't even need to calibrate yours. AcuRite makes pretty good products).So 5 stars. Accurate for temperature and humidity. I compared with an old $10 hygrometer that I had and they read the same for temperature and humidity after calibrating the AcuRite.

Bought this to monitor my guitar room. Chose it specifically because of the audible alarm. After unboxing it as soon as it arrived (in the middle of winter), it only took about 10 minutes until both the humidity and temperature readings were accurate. I set the High and Low points for the alarm to let me know right away if there is a problem with my humidifier or dehumidifier. Would love to get the readings and notifications on my phone, but certainly couldn't expect that at this price point. Extremely satisfied with this gauge after the first 3 days using it. Haven't figured out how to reset the min and max values that are stored. Guess I will have to read the instructions for that. (Didn't read them at all yet!). Readability is excellent, not sure what others are complaining about there. (See pic.). Love the magnetic feature too. The magnets are very strong, and it sticks very well to my steel shelving, keeping it out of the way and making it easy to reposition. Would buy again for sure.