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My cheap humidity meter was off by 20%, here's the fix | Botany Lovers - Free To Speak

My cheap humidity meter was off by 20%, here's the fix

I kept losing props to rot no matter what I did, even with my grow lights dialed in. After 6 months of frustration, I borrowed a friend's $200 hygrometer and checked it against my $15 one, which claimed 75% while hers showed 55%. Turns out cheap meters drift badly, especially under 60%, and I'd been misting like crazy for nothing. I bought a $30 calibration kit with salt packets and fixed three meters in an afternoon, all were reading high. Now I test mine every season change, cost me less than one dead plant. Anyone else trust a budget meter and get burned, or do you just eyeball the leaves?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_leo1mo ago

Have you ever tried the salt test on your own, or did you just trust the readings? I had a similar thing happen with a cheap soil moisture meter, it kept telling me my monstera was bone dry so I was watering it constantly, turns out it was stuck on the same reading no matter what I did. The plant got root rot so bad I had to cut half the roots off and it took months to recover. I finally tossed the thing and now I just stick my finger in the dirt, way cheaper and honestly more reliable.

phoenix5731mo ago

Oh man, I've been through that exact thing with a cheap moisture meter. It told me my pothos was drenched when the soil was actually hard as a brick, so I held off watering and the poor thing started dropping leaves left and right. I finally calibrated it with the salt test just to see what was going on, and yeah, it was reading way off, like 20% off in some spots. I chucked it in the trash right after and went back to the finger test, honestly feels like a lot of folks just skip the calibration step and then blame the plant. The finger test is free, takes two seconds, and if you're really unsure, you can lift the pot to feel the weight, that's been my go-to ever since.