Argh! Humidity in LG--what is the problem???

[FenDruadin]

I can't get the darn humidity above 49%. I do not have eggs in there right now. The plan is to use it as my hatcher. I'm not having trouble with temps--they're staying pretty steady, despite fluctuations in room temp. But the humidity!

I have all trays filled with water, plus three LARGE terrycloth rags spread across the floor and saturated with hot water. Plus the cardboard egg cartons I put where the eggs will go have gotten wet too. And the humidity is a rotten 49%

I don't have any trouble with humidity in my hovabator, and it has circulating air. What is the deal? Help??

 

[msheets]

Is it possible your hydrometer is stuck/broke on that or does it sometimes go down then back up to 49%? The only thing I would know to suggest is buying a new hydrometer to put in there with the other one & see if it only goes to 49%, I just bought a thermometer/hyrdrometer combo for $6.50 at Walmart...worth a try.

 

[FenDruadin]

Thanks! Could be the hygrometer. Sometimes when the batteries run low it goes wonky. I'll put fresh ones in and see what happens. It does say that it was up to 60+% at some time recently (it displays recent highs and lows), but I sure didn't see it there. I'll mess around with it some... I also really want to see condensation on the windows--I always get it in my hovabator at the end, but I haven't had any in the LG--don't know if that's a bad thing or not, though.

 

[georgialee]

My LG is at 65% right now with the wells filled, one damp washcloth and one damp papertowel (both rolled up). I would check the hydrometer before you do anyting else.

 

[genuck]

Personally I would ditch it and get another hovabotor or a suro. Actually I already did, wasted a LOT of eggs on a LG.

 

[justmeandtheflock]

I have an LG with fan and I just got a new r-com 20. I put my hydro in the r-com and it read 25% at 40% in the r-com and only 4?% at 70% in the r-com. I am hatching righ now with just the wells in the LG filled at 46% on the hydro and my 1st pip looks good so far. Is there fog on the windows? Are you using the same hydro to check the hovabator? I had shami's in mine but the windows fogged up and the hydro read 70% but I'm sure it was way over that. I'm trying to figure this out too

 

[FenDruadin]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it's the same thermo/hygro I use in the hovabator. Now that the LG is the hatcher, I won't need it in the hova. I use a probe thermometer (guaranteed to 0.1% accuracy) for temperature, and I dry hatch (i.e., I don't add water or worry about humidity during the incubation period until hatching time).

I'm going to replace the batteries and try again. If it's acting strange still, I'll calibrate with salt paste & a baggie and see what I come up with.

The windows *are* starting to fog a bit now and the reading is 55%... so maybe it's just taking time to get up there. Thanks for the input--