Salt Test Fail

[SuChick]

So, I picked up this Acurite Hygrometer yesterday at WalMart and set it up for the salt test.
Today the reading is only 71.
Is that close enough? Or should I return it and just try again???

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Every time you check the humidity jut add 4 to the number it is reading and that will be accurate good luck with your hatching!

 

[SuChick]

Okay. I can do that. Thanks.
I just wanted to be sure that wasn't going to mean it was otherwise unstable/untrustworthy.

 

[SuChick]

It's me again.
So a day later the hygrometer (still in the same bag with the salt) is registering the correct 75.
But....it took it two full days to get to that number.
So will it take two days to correctly register the humidity in the 'bator?
I'm a tad confused.

I do have two more hygrometers on order, so I'm not all that worried about how the hatching will go, but still I'm wondering what you think about this situation.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[The Golden Egg5]

I would let the incubator run for a couple days in it with the hydrometer inside of it and then it should be reading correctly

 

[SuChick]

Well that makes sense. Thank you. The incubator should arrive on Monday. Eggs will follow in a couple of days.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Well that makes sense. Thank you. The incubator should arrive on Monday. Eggs will follow in a couple of days.

That’s so exciting! I’m setting my first ever eggs on the 13th so we can be hatching newbies together! I’m sending good hatching vibes your way! ~~~ (those are good hatching vibes )

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Hey!! I just realized I got the same temp/hydrometer as you! I just got home with it and I’m testing the temp in my incubator. What brand of incubator are you using?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

What's going on is the salt environment you created takes so much time to stabilize. It's why you wait 6 hours or until the humidity reading is steady.

A salt test is used to calibrate your hygrometer. Not many are reading true and I've seen them off as much as 15% RH. It doesn't mean the hygrometer is unusable it only means you add or subtract however much it was off in the salt test to get true readings. For example if your reading after 6 hours was 82 then 75-82= -7. -7 is the calibration, you'd always subtract 7 from your reading to know what the true RH is. There is no need to use another hygrometer. One is all you need with it's calibration # written on masking tape and fixed to incubator as a reminder.