I've had multiple humidity gauges over the years and over time a few have stopped working so for Christmas I asked Santa for a couple of new adjustable gauges. I still have a pair of non-adjustable gauges I bought about 15 years ago, which have served me well and have been remarkably consistent between each other. When I first got them I did the salt test, and they were within 1%-2% below the esteemed 75% reference mark, so I always aimed for 1%-2% below my target for my humidors.
With the new arrivals, as I've done in the past, I did the salt test. No surprise, the three new gauges came in 1%-2% below reference. This time, I tested again using my two old gauges along with the new ones to determine the range of drift between gauges. To my surprise I found the two old gauges to be 4%+ below reference. The temperature across all 5 gauges was within 1DF of each other, very nearly identical (< 1DF) to my reference La Crosse weather station, but the RH was all over the place. If this new reading is correct, my RH in my humidors has been around 65%-66%, well above my 61%-62% I was aiming for.
This begs the question; Do humidity gauges drift lower and lower over time?
Do you all check your gauges regularly, and if so, what are your observations? Based on this experience I will test my gauges annually from here onward. Should you also?