2017.....What temp gun are you using?

I'm SURE this has been covered before , but I don't know how recent the responses would be and technology is always changing so I figure it's a logical question to ask:

I was browsing Amazon today and discovered there are literally thousands of temp guns on the market and most of them seem to be around the $20 range.

As snake keepers we really only care about accurate readings from 60-100F I would say.... what temp gun are you using and how accurate is it in this temp range?

Is there a general consensus on a popular model?

I am not very experienced but I have a $100 Temp gun by Maximum. It was on sale at Canadian Tire for $50. I thought that temp guns were used to check accuracy of the thermometer/stat. I feel as though it would be hard to measure the accuracy of the temp-gun itself unless you tested many models against each other. Even then, how would you actually know which is the most accurate without an appeal to popular opinion or average? I went with a more expensive model because I figured that a better brand would be more reputable. I could be wrong, but I figured that a good temp-gun is pretty important.

I'm still using the one I bought in 2010, pro exotics model, for around $20. I think I've only changed the battery once but I'm not a constant temp zapper. Besides using it to check accuracy of new acurites, it doesn't really get used much these days.

I have no idea how to link but I have a non contact infrared temp gun. It's yellow lol. My iPad does not give me the web address in the bar to even get the address to link. It's driving me crazy!

"It's yellow lol"

Well according to Amazon that narrows it down to about 300 products :D

This rocks

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMI632G

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Originally Posted by Tinyballs

"It's yellow lol"

Well according to Amazon that narrows it down to about 300 products :D

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Well if you type in non contact infrared heat gun it will narrow it even more...lol then look for the yellow one:P

I have what SDA has....lol

here's mine. had it for well over 2 years and it works great. in fact, my (engineer) dad stole it from me when we were having A/C issues. [emoji3]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...63c5f8570d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8a3f79381e.jpg

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Originally Posted by Tinyballs

I'm SURE this has been covered before , but I don't know how recent the responses would be and technology is always changing so I figure it's a logical question to ask:

I was browsing Amazon today and discovered there are literally thousands of temp guns on the market and most of them seem to be around the $20 range.

As snake keepers we really only care about accurate readings from 60-100F I would say.... what temp gun are you using and how accurate is it in this temp range?

Is there a general consensus on a popular model?

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As mentioned already the YELLOW ones are just great - any make :)

I paid about 12 dollars but I've seen them for about 8 dollars on eBay

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0e0982fe5a.jpg


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I have the same sort of one that others have mentioned here, just the generic yellow one off of Amazon. It does the trick, I use normal probe thermometers in all my set ups, but I use these to double check what I'm seeing is right. Really useful tool.

I was wondering about buying one of these as well. I have the zilla 1000 watt temperature regulator plugged into my heat mat. Well, I also have a thermometer probe and when the zilla is at 92.. the probe was showing 109! When I turned it down to the 80's, it's showing about 95.

I assume theres some margin of error for all of these products but thats a pretty big margin of error. Unfortunately the zilla model is a dial to an approximate number instead of a digital input so that you can be specific. I'm hoping that buying one of these guns will help us get a more accurate temperature.

I ordered "the generic yellow one" lol off of Amazon last night after seeing the responses here. It was just under $13 with free shipping. Everyone I've talked to says they are worth every penny.

I've got an ExoTerra infrared thermometer, seems to do the job well :) Matches up to pretty much all my probe thermometers. I think it cost about £18 (About $24). It's a bit more expensive than the generic yellow one (lol) but if you wanted a 'reptile brand' one, I'd recommend it :)

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Originally Posted by SDA

This rocks

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DMI632G

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I also, use this one.

I got mine from Home Depot. I am also an engineer, so 1000 uses for this thing! It's called "General" and is the IRT207 model, and was around $20. I can turn the laser off to check temps close to snek without blinding him.

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I've had cheap ones from Amazon and Walmart and they always went erratic on me. Differences of 4-10 degrees reading the same object sometimes. I upgraded to a fluke 62 max and I'll never go back to the cheap o brands.


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Oddly enough I bought two cheap ones at about 10 dollars each off eBay - 4 years apart and docent makes and the temps are identical !!

Maybe I just got lucky ....

Some expert guy online said that the expensive ones have the same 'innards' as the cheap ones but are just packaged better - for what it's worth


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https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...a/IMG_0461.jpg

I just bought this KLEIN for $60 dollars at Home Depot. More than I wanted to spend, but Klein is a top brand name, and since I plan on breeding combo-morphs and piebald designer babies, I need to make sure the temps are perfect!

I am using a rack with plastic tubs, With this infrared thermometer gun, I should aim it at the bare plastic under the substrate where the heat-tape is and get around 92 Fahrenheit. Then aim it at the cool side of the tub and get around 82 Fahrenheit. Is this the right method?

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Originally Posted by audioclass

I've had cheap ones from Amazon and Walmart and they always went erratic on me. Differences of 4-10 degrees reading the same object sometimes. I upgraded to a fluke 62 max and I'll never go back to the cheap o brands.


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I agree. I have been a service technician for 20 years, and you almost ALWAYS get what you pay for when it comes to tools. I have bought tools for $xxx and they broke within a year. Then I have replaced that tool and bought a similar industry leading quality tool for DOUBLE the price and it lasted for a decade or more of heavy use. So in the long run, expensive tools are not only better quality, but a better value in the time. With electronics it is no different. Generally the higher end electronic tools like an infrared thermostat will be as high quality as the price tag.

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Some expert guy online

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"Some expert guy" doesn't give us much, haha. I understand what you are saying but that's sort of like "Kia and BMW both have piston engines that run on gasoline, they just look different."

I'll tell you when I was working on Blackhawk and Chinook Avionics we weren't using the $14 multi-meter from Amazon's popular list, we were using $300 Flukes.

Obviously you can't compare $30mil aircraft to a snake collection, but I'd much rather have a properly calibrated device for a little more money.

I use one I picked up at autozone like a decade or so ago, it works great.

http://www.autozone.com/test-scan-an...170911040043:s

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

here's mine. had it for well over 2 years and it works great. in fact, my (engineer) dad stole it from me when we were having A/C issues. [emoji3]https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...63c5f8570d.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...8a3f79381e.jpg

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I have the same kind I believe works very well