what value should I set Digi-cabi humidity?

[Shadow]

Just bought 30L digi-cabi but I'm not sure what value should I set the humidity to? The manual said about point C and point A but there is no such letter in my digi-cabi dial. Instead there are 3 colors green, blue and red. Which one should I set my dial to?

Is it true that to dry will spoil my equipment?

[trident]

Robert,
I got mine on New Year's Day, have to trial and error, have set mine in blue band, nearer the green band. RH now is 55%. Still trying to tweak it to 50%.

[benny]

50 to 55 % is fine.

Cheers,

[fisherw]

Mine has a control knob inside with Chinese words as markings which I do not understand. I have it set in the middle and the humidity gauge reads 50% which I understand is the top end of ideal.

Certain things don't do well in low humidity. My camera case rotted away, don't know if it is because of old age or low humidity. I assume moving parts have either grease or silicon which I suspect will dry up. But lenses stay fungus free as does storage media like tapes, disks and CDs.

[Shadow]

thanks bro, will set around 50% which is at blue band

[luenny]

The humidity level will vary a bit so there's no way to pinpoint it to a certain level. It doesn't have a close loop control. Anyway, I set it to be between 40% and 50% range. Some people prefer 45% - 55%.

You may be tempted to set it lower - it can go well to the 30% range - but doing that will cause the casing and the grease for your lenses to dry up. That's what I was told when I bought the digi cabi.

Where did you buy it and how much was it? Did you get your macro lens already? Which lens?

[Shadow]

I'm curently the indication is at 51%, quite stable but once it open it shoot up to 65% . Maybe because I put it in room with fish tank, you been to my place, you know the room I'm talking about

I have not bough macro lense yet, need to buy tele lens first for my Japan trip. I bought the "Sigma AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 APO DG macro" budget lense. Photozone review said decent result at 70-200mm. It also have dedicated macro mode via switch at 200-300mm but don't expect much

Anyway will play around with it, build up the skill before decided to upgrade to better lens

[StanChung]

My cabinet maker recommends
Humidity
60-55%-paper, paintings, antiques, paper money, old books, fax paper, copy paper...
55-45%-Cameras, video cameras, lenses, binoculars, microscopes, endoscopes magnetic tape, disks, records, films, negative film, positive film, stamps, furs, medicinal materials, coffee, cigarette, tea, ...
45-35%-Precision dies, measuring instruments, all electronic parts, pc boards, metallic powders, semiconductors, medical supplies...
35%-sample, standard measuring tool, seeds, pollen, seedlings etc.

[Shadow]

Thanks bro.

[StanChung]

You're welcome, sounds like your setting is chun chun. Mine dropped to 24% lol. I just opened the door and it only went up to 38%. Then i just turn the power off. lol. It's now 41%. sigh...

The dumb knob say high and low. High what? power? humidity?

[Shadow]

my dumb know does not tell me anything, just a color green blue or red I'm more loss than you are. I don't even know if I set to red mean high or low. The worst thing is the manual tell me to turn either to A or C but no such point.

I set it in the middle which is around 12 o'clock and it happen to give me 50%. I though if you set it too low will spoil lense grease?

[StanChung]

Lol, same boat. Both also L licence when it comes to cabinets. It will spoil if the humidity is too low as per warnings everywhere. lol.

The humidity counter is so slow it's like watching kettle boil, i just tried the one way full power and see what happens.

[StanChung]

Ok, i get it now. Finally. more power means more dehumidifying power. Leaving cabinet open now to let humidity go up. It's 44% now. Almost ideal. Otherwise I'll just @#$ inside. lol.

[trident]

Robert, Stan,
I, like you guys, is also having a lot of fun trying to figure out the setting. Last night the reading was 54%. This morning it's 46%.
Cabinet was untouched, set it yesterday morning before going to work, come back, reading is at 54% now 46%.
Set the knob in blue band near the green.

[Simon]

you guys need to fine tune the cabinet, unless your cabinet is the pro series, you got to fine tune it.

Stan

I'm surprised the humidity in KL is so low, your meter normal?

[StanChung]

Lol Richard, mine's 36% now.

Simon, you're asking if my meter's normal. lol. What is normal?

Mine's the AD-100
http://www.labsupply.com.hk/Dry%20Cabinets%20001.htm

I think it's because my room's tiny and it's air-conditioned.

[Simon]

ah... ok

[luenny]

Robert, Stan,
I, like you guys, is also having a lot of fun trying to figure out the setting. Last night the reading was 54%. This morning it's 46%.
Cabinet was untouched, set it yesterday morning before going to work, come back, reading is at 54% now 46%.
Set the knob in blue band near the green.

Richard,
Yours is ok. 46% - 54% is within the range for the camera. Just leave it alone. Mine is around 40% - 47% sometimes 50%. I was told to put between 40-50% so I just leave mine alone. Of course you'll expect it to fluctuate because there's no close loop control on that thing. And it's not air tight so humidity of your room also affects it.

What I was told to do is to let the digi cabi run for a day without anything inside to make sure the setting is correct. After it settles between the desired range, you can put your equipments inside.

[luenny]

I'm curently the indication is at 51%, quite stable but once it open it shoot up to 65% . Maybe because I put it in room with fish tank, you been to my place, you know the room I'm talking about

Robert,
The fluctuation when you open the door is ok as long as it doesn't stay at 65% for long. You can also adjust it - turning it clockwise a bit - so that it is at a slightly lower humidity like 45%.

[fisherw]

It should be airtight. Check the door seal and if there is something caught in it.

Trident/Richard, The reading should get lower as the air in the cabinet gets dryer. It means your cabinet is working.

What is needed now is the fine-tuning. Where the knob points to to get the humidity you want. Difficult to get it right if you open the door everyday. Leave it to stabilise. My gauge (hygrometer) has the marking indicating dry between 0% (of course!) to 50% and wet from 50% to 100% (of course!).

The info provided by StanChung on what humidity for what items is very useful. 50% seems like a good medium.