Honeywell TM005X Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer by Honeywell
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Digital camera reviews of Honeywell TM005X Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Thermo-Hygrometer
Digital camera Review: A basic Thermo-Hygrometer.
Summary: 4 Stars
My Radio Shack wireless unit started to produce wacky humidity readings, so it was time for a new Thermo-Hygrometer. Relative Humidity is notoriously difficult to measure accurately, so I will not comment on the accuracy of my unit except to say that it agrees well with other sources. This is a good basic unit at a very low price.Digital camera Review: A Bit Large, But Works Well
Summary: 4 Stars
It isn't very elegant, but gets the job done. The main unit is a bit large. You can easily see it from anywhere in the room with the basic display with large digits. However to see the reading from the remote sensor or to change it back you have to walk over to it and press the channel button to cycle through the 4 channels. The button is stiff, so unless mounted, you have to pick it up and press the button with your thumb. You have to cycle through blank channels not in use but not a big deal. It might have been nice for it to cycle automatically over time through channels in use. The remote unit had a very small display of its own which is really nice so you don't have to walk back to the main unit and change the channel to see what it thinks the humidity is where the remote transmitter is located. So I just use them mostly as independent units that I just read if interested when in the room. Infrequently I will cycle through just to see when I am near the main unit.
The measurements seem accurate. It tooks a little while to equalize at first, but seems accurate ever since. At least both the unit and remote probe read very similar measurements when you sit them right next to each other if you let them equalize to the room conditions after being moved. Honestly, I still didn't know if the whole measurement system was accurate or not, so I bought the Chaney Indoor Thermometer and Humidity Gauge (Acurite) to get a 2nd opinion. Between the 3 pieces, the main unit and remote probe of this one, and the Chaney/Acurite all seem to agree, varying by small amounts. So I am pretty confident in them to have a decent idea. I don't know that I would count on them being perfect if you need to know by the exact single digit without any degree of error for precise expert baking needs. But accurate enough for me as far as I can tell unless all 3 are way off.
Digital camera Review: A Great Product for the value
Summary: 4 Stars
I have had this Honeywell thermometer for over a month and found it to be easy to set up, convenient to read, accurate, and at a good price. I did find that at low temperatures (30 deg. or lower) you can loose signal to the remote (even with using lithium batteries), but pressing the "search button" brings it back shortly on line.Digital camera Review: A great bargain!
Summary: 5 Stars
I posted this at my web site:
I am very pleased with the early monitoring results; this compact system has confirmed initial suspicions about the air in the shop being too dry...I used the Memory key (on the bottom-right corner of the base unit), and it showed 36% RH as the highest reading since I started monitoring.
...The absolute readings become less critical in actual monitoring, as environmental conditions around each of the monitoring units may be in a more or less humid area. What is important is to know how close to each other the readings are before starting to monitor a large volume...
Digital camera Review: Accuracy Tested
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, I did not really measure the accuracy because I don't have a calibrated standard to
which I can check the readings. However I did get some telling data from the two sets of meters that I bought,i.e. 2 Display units and 2 Remote units or 4 sensors in total. I compared their readings to each other to see how they track and how quickly they track a change in ambient conditions. These Honeywell units, by the way, are 1-3 months old.
1st Test: After letting all units sit together at identical ambient temperature and humidity (northern winter room temperature) for about 90 minutes or more I read each unit once at three 15 minute intervals. So I had 3 temperature and humidity readings for each of the 4 sensors. I then plotted how each reading differed from the 4 unit average value at each of the three intervals. This tells me the average difference between each units readings and how those values might drift over time. Drift over short periods of time is non existent: you can stare at them for a minute or two and rarely see a change in the reading. This test however looks at a 30 minute interval. Link to graph: (Copy and paste into your browser) [...]
The range in the temperature readings at each of the three time intervals was 0.7 F or less and the drift was less than 0.2 F. For the relative humidity, three units were closely grouped but the 4th was 5% units higher than the mean value; the range between the units varied between 7 and 8% at the three reading intervals.
2nd Test: To see how the readings compare in cold temperature I put the 4 units out on my porch in an open box which was set on styrofoam inside a closed box with ventilation holes - also perched on styrofoam. It was 31 F and snowing very lightly. I left them out there for 90 minutes and then read the two remote units. I did not record the Display unit values because they are not designed for outside use and in fact one of the humidity readings was blanked. I will note however that the temperatures were very close to the remote unit readings.
All the humidity values were compromised somehow as they read way too low. Perhaps the relatively quick transition from room temperature down through the freezing point screwed up the readings somehow. I probably should have left them out there for at least 2 hours before doing the readings given my results in the 3rd Test. One of the remote units is normally left outside and has never displayed such an aberrant RH reading, so I blame this on my test conditions.
In any case both the remote units read 31.2 degF.
3rd Test. To see how quickly the units respond to a sudden change in ambient conditions I brought the units inside from the cold immediately after the 2nd Test, took them out of the box and placed them near each other at room temperature conditions. I took readings of temperature and humidity at 10 minute intervals for an hour and again after 2.5 hours. The units responded very slowly to this 33F change in temperature, especially the display units. The temperature reading stopped rising and humidity stopped dropping after somewhere between one and two hours, I would guess at around 100 minutes. I plotted the average readings of the two display units and the average of the two remote units against time. Link to graph: [...] The response time (time to measure 90% of a change in temperature or humidity) is 50 minutes for the remote units and a little longer for the display units. The range in the final stable temperature readings was 0.9 degF and the humidity range was only 3%.
4th test: After all units sat together at room temperature for several hours I took another reading. Note Remote 1 was the one that read high RH in previous tests.
Both Display units had identical readings of 66.0F and 30% RH,
Remote 1: 66.3F, 29% Remote 2: 65.8 25%
Conclusions: My four units read temperature very closely to each other but they are very slow to track a change in conditions. I expect this would not be a big problem for most uses if the units are left at a fixed location because ambient conditions typically do not change quickly to a large degree.
Three of the four units tracked RH closely, but the fourth was as much as 6.5% units higher than the average of the other three, but not consistently so. However, this unit that read higher RH happened to be the one I use outside and had only aclimated about 90 minutes before Test 1 began; in light of the slow response time results I wonder if the higher reading can be explained - in part only - by insufficient settling time before I began the readings in the 1st Test. I suspect the complaints in other reviews about "accuracy" or tracking is a result of the slow response time and consumers not taking this into account.
My test results aside, the units have worked flawlessly and I would have given them a 5 star rating if the response time were at least half of what this design is capable of providing: but for a $20 price I am quite satisfied.