I Have a habit of tapping on my analog hygrometer when I'm checking the Humidity in the Humi, always budges + 2%. I Know it's working fine. I test it once and a while, always 75% with the salt test. Anybody else tap and what would everyone say is the proper reading, before or after tap. I'm thinking the after.

why do you tap? nervous habit or do you think the gurge is stuck.

i don't think i want to get involved in a scientific study of tapping vs needle jump. puffs per minute was enough for me.

I think I tap because of a subliminal thought that airplane gages are always taped in the movies. Or I'm thinking it's stuck. It doesn't move much just 2%, but once it's there it stays. Anyone else do this. Rick I wouldn't want to take my ANALOG Hygrometer apart as to not electrocute myself, hehe

I always do this too, and i think it is correct after the tap. It tends to "stick", and the amount that it jumps depends on the change in humidity since i last checked it. I had a reading once, in a new, dry humidor, of 50%. I put distilled water in the box and left it for a few days. When i opened it, the hygro still read 50%. When I tapped it, it jumped to 72% ! So I know for a fact that mine sticks, and requires a tap to be accurate. I suspect yours is doing the same.

This is an example of the “precision percussion adjustment” action which is a naturally occurring human trait in modern mankind .It has been argued that this action is a learned trait but many are of the mind that this is a genetic characteristic that can be traced back to the Cro-Magnon period. “Ugh, ugh (sorry honey not tonight)” TAP! TAP! “Grunt, grunt (well it was good for me).”

You can keep tapping away and never be sure or switch to a digital hygrometer, thus crossing from the Stone-Age into the 21st Century.

Rick ... I've never experienced a stuck gurge ... not painful is it??

Lucky. My analog hygrometer is dead. I can tap it all day and it won't move off 60, even tho my digital reads 70.