Acu-Rites

Can I get some opinions on these things (~$11 at walmart)? A lot of people seem to like them on these forums. However, I bought one to replace my analogs and the damn thing stopped reading accurate temps a day after I bought it! I have since replaced it, just put the new one in today, and am wary of trusting its readings...
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e9...mageloader.gif

What were you comparing the temps with?

I knew I'd get that question. It didn't matter. Temps were reading around 40F or 5C, and it DEFINITELY wasn't almost freezing in my tank, let alone in my room. I'd think I'd know if it were that cold.

Currently, tank temps are reading around 80 with the lights off on the Acurite, which is quite reasonable (I know this is a little chilly, this weekend I am getting another small UTH and a different light to fix this problem).

I was just wondering...that's a very good reason to think it's inaccurate. :rockon:

i just got some for my babies and they've been great!

It's a man-made thing....one is bound to fail every once in a while. Nothing's perfect. Is it possible it got peed on, or water spilled/splashed on it? Just this morning, I came downstairs to discover my lovely girl had completely trashed her tub with poop and a gallon or so of pee. :rolleyes: On cleaning it out, I noticed the acu-rite had gotten seriously wet and quit working. I'm hoping it'll dry out and start working again...but if not...it's not a big deal for me to replace it.

I had one accurite that I accidentally got a little wet while misting my tank and it stopped working (it was only good then as a clock :) ). Kept thinking that mybe if it dried out it would work and actually held onto it for about a week, even though this one did not get seriously wet. But no such luck :( . It was no big deal, I actually went and replaced it the same day, but learned that when I am misting the tanks to take the accurites out!! I really like mine, I have one for each enclosure.

I use those in all of my tanks and I love them, although if they get wet they will stop working.

I usually try to keep an extra to spot check around. I just move it from spot to spot to check the other acu-rites and other stuff. I think that spot checking is about the best you can do.
I've run into about two out of thirty or so that have malfunctioned, without being drenched. Sometimes the heat and humidity of the environment can ruin one too(if it's inside the bin, which most of mine are).
Since they are cheap, they'll have malfunctions, but lucky, they're cheap, and easy to replace.

I was explaining to someone else how I got my redneck-engineered setup, but it works! I had a Fluker's thermometer/hygrometer combo at first, then the wal-mart near me was out of the combo Acu-Rite, so I ended up getting two of the temp-only Acu-Rites... but after reading some more threads, it may end up being a good thing! It only cost me $14 for both, and since I still have the Fluker's for humidity, I just use one on each side (ignore temps!):


https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...L-newsetup.JPG


He has pooped on the probes a couple of times (and peed on them who knows how many times!), but since the actual units aren't in there it doesn't hurt them, and so far just wiping the probes with a baby wipe has worked great... I also clean them when I do my weekly tank cleaning.