Topic: Humidity stuck at 98%, dew point off as well

[jfp51]

Hello,

Since yesterday the humidity has been stuck at 98%. I have had the unit about a week and it has tracked neighbouring stations almost perfectly, but since 12 hours the humidity has been slowly decreasing (it is now at 89% in all neighbouring stations and decreasing) while my station is still stuck on 98%. All other sensors seem to be OK.

This is the first time it has gone to around freezing since I got the unit (it was 10 celsius yesterday at this time, around 2 degrees now) would that have something to do with it? The dew point is also off since the same time period and is now exactly the same as the temperature.

Unit is still in learning mode if that matters

Thanks!

EDIT: just found the support forums (a bit hard to find topics in there by the way..) and it seems the 98% (or 1% for some people) issue has happened to other people (http://support.acurite.com/acurite/topics/humidity_stuck_at_98). Should I just send off a mail to info@chaney-inst.com and take it from there?

[jfp51]

Of course now that I post this the humidity has jumped down to 89% lol, the IT gremlins are funny sometimes...

[Weather Display]

it can take a while for a humidity sensor to "dry out"
might depend on how much air flow it is getting

[Rhino]

Yeah, humidity can be tricky- especially when it gets cold. Mostly seeing longer times for the humidity sensor to "dry-out" and report the changes, but some rare cases we are seeing contamination from dust and/or bug debris in the intake where the sensor components are located. It's an issue the 5n1 may have in certain situations due to the fan aspiration drawing air through.

[jfp51]

Indeed, the temperature has got back down to around 0 degrees celsius and the humidity shot right back up to 98% and is staying there. When it gets colder, will this problem go away? eg. is it only around freezing that this can become an issue? Not a huge deal but saw in the support thread about the possibility of a faulty sensor. I guess if it does it again in the spring then we can look at other solutions.

Thanks for the replies, it is appreciated!

[Rhino]

There were some issues where a few small batches of 5-in-1 sensors had defective humidity components- keep an eye on the humidity for a few more days, or more importantly a few temperature swings- especially the "freezing" of the humidity reading around 98-99%. Make sure and post an update here.

If we find that you have a defective 5n1- no worries, we will replace the entire sensor for you as soon as we get the next shipment of 5-in-1 sensors in this month. THe demand for the 5-in-1 sensor products has been much higher than anticipated over the holiday shopping season, so we are out of stock on some right now.

One thing you could try in the mean time (if it is convenient and safe to do so) is to shoot a few concentrated puffs of compressed air into the intake vent on the bottom of the sensor- not too much psi now- take it easy You may have some dust or what we call environmental contamination surrounding the sensor components, causing a humidity reading fault.

[Old Tele man]

...analogy: when the view "out-the-window" is crummy, try "cleaning" the windows before condemning the "view" (ha,ha)