Inkbird Humidity Controller Humidistat Pre Wired Plug Digital Sensor Humidifier Dehumidifier Dual Stage Outlet Mushroom Greenhouse Curing Meat

(I intentionally waited some months before reviewing this device to make sure it proved reliable; so far, so good... (EDIT: 10/2024 update: nearly 6 YEARS now without any problems :-) Here in sub-tropical Southern Louisiana, fighting mildew is a constant problem. Humidity levels above 60% inside your house will allow it to grow. To help our central a/c keep the house drier, we have a standalone dehumidifier in our hallway that kicks on when it gets too moist. The dehumidifier's internal Humidistat became unreliable, getting stuck "ON" and running for hours, overshooting the target RH, trying to make us into raisins. Since this is an older 'analog' unit (not programmable, no LEDs), I searched for just this type of add-on apparatus to digitally control the switching ON & OFF of the machine. To allow that, I set the dehumidifier knob to 'max dry' which effectively prevents the old internal 'stat from cutting OFF. I then plugged the dehumidifier into the Inkbird then plugged the Inkbird into the wall. I then programmed the 'bird to come ON at 58% RH and cut OFF at 53% RH. It works beautifully! BUT, the Instructions on Programming are very difficult to follow, seemingly due to poor translation. I was able to program it... but I've been doing that type of work for 40 years... not sure how a beginner would fair. (CAUTION: RANT AHEAD!) Y'know... it is shocking that some manufacturers develop amazing, affordable devices such as this one and yet often do not make sure that their target consumer can even read and understand the documentation! In my mind this automatically causes me to question their credibility...) So, yes, I would recommend this to others who need to control a device based on Humidity level. Keep in mind that, if your controlled device is 'digital' (i.e. programmable), it must be capable of having it's power turned completely OFF and, when power is restored, returning to the desired settings. (This is often called the 'default setting' that it returns to after a power failure.)

All the worries about the longevity and reliability of this product (invoked by other reviews) have not materialized in my experience. The humidity controller has been on for more than two months now, and has controlled the humidifier for my rooting (plant propagation) unit quite well: initially set at 80% +/- 5%, currently at 70%. Do not forget, that in addition to relative humidity (RH) the probe also gauges the air temperature inside the controlled space (by simultaneously pressing the up and down buttons you display the temperature reading in Celcius). One thing that could be improved is to explain in the User Manual the optimal position of the probe inside the container. I noticed that the RH behaves (and measures) differently depending on which side of the probe is up. Two more observations for the prospective users: (1) After you disturb the controlled environment, e.g., remove the lid from the propagation container to check out plants, it would take 10-15 min for the RH to get back in the controlled range. Until then, the RH would be low and the humidifier would work non-stop. (2) The RH swings wider than the preset range and % tolerance. Put differently, once the lower threshold is reached and the humidifier kicks in, the RH will continue to go down for a short while (1-2%), then reverses to increase. When the upper threshold is reached and the humidifier turns off, the RH will go higher still (by 1-2%) before it gets on the downward track. This is unimportant for my type of projects. To be clear, I did not use a dehumidifier but I am sure the RH controller will be equally effective in that function.

Great device. It is a little cumbersome with the amount of cables coming out of it, but there is really no way around that. Setting the humidity levels was simple and almost intuitive, but as the screen only displays two letters at a time, the manual was needed to understand a few of the options.

I've had the device for about 14 months and the relay that controls turning on the humidifier has finally given up as far as I can tell. Given my experience with other controllers much more expensive (until you are getting into lab grade multi-100 $ sensors) and the others widely used in the pet habitat trade this is pretty good and excellent for the price. I'm actually going to order another one. The habitat in which I used it turned on at least 4 times per hour so probably ~40K times over the span. That's pretty good for an inexpensive mechanical relay that I'm sure is inside.So this is not a complaint because these are really good for the money. I've had devices like this that were twice the price (and more) that lasted half as long. YMMV

I had been looking for this product for years and was about ready to make my own using embedded hardware. It's everything I ever wanted for keeping my house at the right humidity. I'm in Las Vegas, so the dehumidifier plug and settings are pointless for me. I plugged in a Y splitter to the humidifier plug and attached a small desktop fan and $15 vaporizer from Walmart. It works wonders! You can set levels, hysteresis, and alarms.Caution: if you use my method, you need to measure power used to make sure it doesn't overload the controller since vaporizers can draw a ton of power. Use something like a Kill-A-Watt to help figure out how much salt to put in the vaporizer (more salt = more conductivity = more power = faster vaporization of water).Oh, I also used a professional, calibrated humidity sensor and used the controller's calibration setting to calibrate it. It was off a few percent from factory.

Saves a ton of electricity and keeps my plants in the happy zone. Powdery mildew hasn't been a problem for me, but the summers recently have been super humid and I'm paranoid about my plant babies inside. Peace of mind plus no PM equals happy customer. And it really is easy to setup.