Secondhand Drybox Reliablity concerns

[Donuts]

Recently bought a secondhand Aipo AS-26L analog dry cabinet off of Carousell, the hydrometer provided wasn't working so I had to buy a new one.
To be safe, I purchased two from different brands, they just arrived two days ago and I noticed that the dry cabinet is stuck between 60%-70% on both. I read online that Aipo wasn't reliable in terms of quality / after sale support from forum posts around 10 years ago. Just wondering if anyone has had issues with this specific model or brand and if they were able to solve them.

These are the issues I'm having with the cabinet:
1) The highest setting is unusable as the cabinet starts blinking and doesn't work if I set it to that setting.
2) Lowest humidity I've seen so far is 61%.
3) I'm not sure if this is an issue or if it's supposed to be like this but the entire cabinet and the air inside is quite warm, it makes my camera and lenses warm to the touch, probably from the heatsink at the back since its very hot.

 

[one eye jack]

Sorry you have this bad experience. Go back to seller and get a refund. Even if you have electronic repair knowledge like myself unless you take it as a learning experience it is not worth the time ,research and money to do it. I did learn something of course for the sake of learning..

Moral of the story is buy a new dry cabinet and not have the hassle. If the seller does not want to take it back and you got your refund and you are on a budget, you can put two moisture absorbers like hungry hippo or ntuc generic ones. But from my experience of 2 containers of absorbers the humidity will go quite low like below recommended like below 30 or 40% since there is no way to adjust it unless you want to reduce the amount of desiccant in the container which is a hassle. I just use as is although wisdom is at very low humidity rubber will crack but I have not observed this so far. Do check after some time id the absorbers have water in them if if is full and the humidity goes up then it's time to replace them. As all my equipment are 2nd. hand I do not "care" but I value them just the same.

Do take note that with hygrometers that's what they are called it takes time for the humidity reading to settle.Give them a few hours or the next day but in general you can see the reading go down after some time. Don't be stressed about the reading if it appears to be slow as they have the effect of hysterisis a physical phenomenon of the meter whether digital or analog ( needle type indicator ).

I am still using humidity absorber although I can afford a new dry cabinet as my cameras and lenses are all 2nd. hand. I even use IKEA airtight food containers but the space is limited because the absorbers take up space and you cannot use generic ntuc ones which are bigger than hungry hippo as the cover cannot close because of height issues. There are 2 sizes of the ikea boxes which I use and they are stackable. Hope my sharing helps.

 

[nightwolf75]

sadly i agree... dry cabinets are one of those photo items that you are better off buying new than used. there are ways to fix it yourself (i think a couple of CSers have posted instructions on how to do it a few years back). but save yourself the hassle, just get a new cabinet. if you want to buy on carousell, look for those whose cabinets are still in the box with the yellow binding strap.

oh yes, like One Eye Jack, i also put a thirsty hippo in each of my cabinet to bring it down to about 30% even tho my cabinet setting is already cranked to the lowest possible. somehow, if i depend on the dry cabinet dehumidifier alone, it always hovers around 40%. i guess SG weather nowadays is just too humid even for our cabinets.