Thermometer Accuracy?

I recently purchased a cheap probe thermometer from Walmart and set up the probe under my warm hide. I kept my old Zilla thermo/hyrdometer on the warm side just to compare. The two consistently differ in temp readings by 5-10 degrees and in humidity readings by 10-20%. How can I be sure which one is accurate? (PS: The readings on the thermometer below are incorrect, pay them no mind.)

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2FyDEbYal.jpg


I set up my 20 gallon tank based heavily on the guidance offered here on the forum. I still need a thermostat for my UTH, which is currently off, and want to get either a ceramic heat emitter or RHP. Any other suggestions?

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2FtfuJUUr.jpg

The acurite is the accurate one, it's actually what's used by everyone in the hobby to be most accurate. Those round analog ones can be super inaccurate.

Digital all the way. ... I don't even keep thermometers in my snake tubs, analog OR digital. I just use my handy temp gun and rely on the thermostats to do their jobs.

And while I do trust my thermostats, I don't trust them THAT much so I do check every one of my snakes houses daily w the gun, regardless of what the thermostat reads.

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Originally Posted by Mangiapane85

Digital all the way. ... I don't even keep thermometers in my snake tubs, analog OR digital. I just use my handy temp gun and rely on the thermostats to do their jobs.

And while I do trust my thermostats, I don't trust them THAT much so I do check every one of my snakes houses daily w the gun, regardless of what the thermostat reads.

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Same , although maybe not daily ....

Crazy how good these £10 digital temp guns off eBay are isn't it ?


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I found acurites right next to each other to be pretty inconsistent, well outside of their listed accuracy range. I think their junk but the hobby seems to like them. Personally I would get a IR temp gun and forget about the Acurites.

Here's the cheap IR gun I use. I sell them at shows also. They seem to be pretty consistent across the board, I've had the opportunity to open 10 of them and they didn't read more than a half degree from each other and what my herpstat probes read, so that sold me on them. My more expensive pro exotics PE2 always seemed to be off compared to any other temp device I had. So even in my own husbandry I use the cheap one lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rch_detailpage

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

I found acurites right next to each other to be pretty inconsistent, well outside of their listed accuracy range. I think their junk but the hobby seems to like them. Personally I would get a IR temp gun and forget about the Acurites.

Here's the cheap IR gun I use. I sell them at shows also. They seem to be pretty consistent across the board, I've had the opportunity to open 10 of them and they didn't read more than a half degree from each other and what my herpstat probes read, so that sold me on them. My more expensive pro exotics PE2 always seemed to be off compared to any other temp device I had. So even in my own husbandry I use the cheap one lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rch_detailpage

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Yep . Those are the ones I'm talking about :)


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Acurites ( if i recall correctly) are listed at +/- 5 degrees, so they are useful but not the most accurate instruments. I will say that most of mine have been pretty consistent, but I use a temp gun (+/- 1 degree) to double check if I think something is awry.

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Originally Posted by Regius_049

Acurites ( if i recall correctly) are listed at +/- 5 degrees, so they are useful but not the most accurate instruments. I will say that most of mine have been pretty consistent, but I use a temp gun (+/- 1 degree) to double check if I think something is awry.

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Listed accuracy for the ones I bought were +/- 2 degrees but found that to not be the case, +/- 5 is more believable lol

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

I found acurites right next to each other to be pretty inconsistent, well outside of their listed accuracy range. I think their junk but the hobby seems to like them. Personally I would get a IR temp gun and forget about the Acurites.

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How do you measure ambient temp and humidity? The IR guns only measure surface temps.


I use the IR gun for surface temp, and a generic brand digital thermometer/hydrometer (with similar stated accuracy to acu rites), with the probe dangling from the top of the tub for ambient and humidity.

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Originally Posted by Sallos

How do you measure ambient temp and humidity? The IR guns only measure surface temps.

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I've been wondering this about probes and thermostats in general... The probes and/or thermostats measure the temperature on the UTH (or where ever it is you place it), but how do you get a thermostat to regulate the UTH temp AND ambient air temp???

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Originally Posted by Sallos

How do you measure ambient temp and humidity? The IR guns only measure surface temps.

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I don't, I know my ambient temp can't be lower than the room the enclosure is in, so I'm not concerned. There are only 3 humiditys I'm concerned with, low good and high. Low looks dry, high looks soaked and eventually moldy, good lays in the middle of those 2. Doesn't matter what the gauge says to me, going to adjust based on the conditions of the enclosure anyway.

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

I don't, I know my ambient temp can't be lower than the room the enclosure is in, so I'm not concerned. There are only 3 humiditys I'm concerned with, low good and high. Low looks dry, high looks soaked and eventually moldy, good lays in the middle of those 2. Doesn't matter what the gauge says to me, going to adjust based on the conditions of the enclosure anyway.

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What you have been doing is exactly what I've been doing for temperature and humidity. I've been concerned if it was ok practice. I was about to make a similar post asking if I should bother with digital thermometers. I picked one up from Petsmart that was defective when I first started out. It would read crazy temperatures, 54 degrees one minute and 86 degrees the next and humidity would be consistently 0%. So, I began relying on my temp gun and just checking multiple spots in each tub. It's reassuring to know others do the same.

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Originally Posted by Fazer72110

What you have been doing is exactly what I've been doing for temperature and humidity. I've been concerned if it was ok practice. I was about to make a similar post asking if I should bother with digital thermometers. I picked one up from Petsmart that was defective when I first started out. It would read crazy temperatures, 54 degrees one minute and 86 degrees the next and humidity would be consistently 0%. So, I began relying on my temp gun and just checking multiple spots in each tub. It's reassuring to know others do the same.

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That's what I do as well. I keep the snake room at 78 degrees. So I'm sure the ambient in their tubs is just a little higher.


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Originally Posted by Mangiapane85

Digital all the way. ... I don't even keep thermometers in my snake tubs, analog OR digital. I just use my handy temp gun and rely on the thermostats to do their jobs.

And while I do trust my thermostats, I don't trust them THAT much so I do check every one of my snakes houses daily w the gun, regardless of what the thermostat reads.

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TotallyTotally off toptic....but I justreadyoursignature...do you know what you can get if you breed your butter to your mojave?!

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Originally Posted by Yzmasmom

TotallyTotally off toptic....but I justreadyoursignature...do you know what you can get if you breed your butter to your mojave?!

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Yeah. Normals, Butter and Mojaves...

And Blue Eyed Lucy's. :)

EDIT: Just realized my signature was needing updated. So now it's current. My four current BP's have quite a bit of potential together. It's a good start to my project.

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Originally Posted by Fazer72110

I've been concerned if it was ok practice.

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Probably not lol. Then again some people would flip out if they saw most of my snakes don't have hides and none of them have 2 hides.

There are some things like running a uth unregulated that actually can hurt your animal. Other things have a lot more leeway than cares heats lead on. Ambient temps and humidity I believe fall into that.

I compared a cheap IR temp gun off amazon, same one listed with a $40 from lowes and found the temps to be quite diff. I'm really curious as to which one was more accurate.

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Originally Posted by Neal

I compared a cheap IR temp gun off amazon, same one listed with a $40 from lowes and found the temps to be quite diff. I'm really curious as to which one was more accurate.

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Interesting .... I compared my two 15 dollar ones ( an old one and a more recently bought one ) to 20 of those digital thermometers that have a wired sensor and they were all within a degree or 2F or so.

The 20 snakes are all in fantastic condition , eating everytime , perfect sheds . So that's good enough for me tbh .


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Interesting .... I compared my two 15 dollar ones ( an old one and a more recently bought one ) to 20 of those digital thermometers that have a wired sensor and they were all within a degree or 2F or so.

The 20 snakes are all in fantastic condition , eating everytime , perfect sheds . So that's good enough for me tbh .


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Oh no, I agree with you. I'm just curious which one was actually more accurate.

For instance say I pointed at the same spot, the amazon one would say 89 for instance, the Lowes one would say like 94.

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Originally Posted by Neal

Oh no, I agree with you. I'm just curious which one was actually more accurate.

For instance say I pointed at the same spot, the amazon one would say 89 for instance, the Lowes one would say like 94.

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It's an interesting point .... my bruv in law borrowed one a while back and tested it by checking the temp of boiling water ( steam ) and said it was spot on ....


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

It's an interesting point .... my bruv in law borrowed one a while back and tested it by checking the temp of boiling water ( steam ) and said it was spot on ....


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Which one??


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Originally Posted by bumblebella

Which one??


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They're both of eBay .. 15 dollar ones . Cheap and nasty :)


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