everybody should have a DIT Digital Infrared thermometer both newbs and veterans

[ejseoane]

Everybody should get a Digital Infrared thermometer , this is why . I have recently gotten back into keeping snakes , up until last Wednesday i only had a cal king that i got at a reptile show about two months ago , now i also have a pinstripe, albino , and piebald , i thought that i had my tank set up proper, and when i got my snakes i would be able to put them in a good place right away. after getting them and putting them in there cage i proceed to drive my self insane trying to make the temps correct over the next daynhalf, after many different light and thermometer and under tank pad configurations i just couldn't get it perfect , i had a digital thermometer on the warm side, probe on the floor of cage directly on top of heat pad , and a acurite with the probe on the cold side on the floor, and the base on the floor in the middle, i got things to the best i could I THOUGHT, then i saw a post on here about Digital Infrared thermometer some people call it a heat gun, so i found one and bought it , thank god i did, now everything is dialed in almost perfect, and its much easier to get a quick accurate reading anywhere in the cage, of the snake itself, thawed food , or anything . I think digital thermometers are somewhat accurate depending on what your trying to get the temp of ,my opinion is that they are terrible at accurately giving the temp of the surface of something , an example from my personal experience is this , right now i still have that same digi therm with the probe on the warm side floor directly on the pad and it reads 81! oh damn , my hot spot should be about 90-95 i need to turn that heat pad up right? wrong if i use the DIT and measure the temp in the same exact spot it gives me 91, so if i didnt know any better i might try to turn up the heat to make the digi read warmer witch would probly slowly fry my snakes and kill them. I would recommend one of the DIT's to everybody, they don't cost much, not nearly as much as it cost to replace a snake .

[33rpm]

AGREED!!!

[KMG]

I agree.

I had my setup perfect, I thought. All gauges said I was good but after getting my temp gun I found they were pretty far off. The gun has made my keeping much more accurate.

[snakesRkewl]

I love my temp gun, but it's not anymore accurate than a good probed thermometer.
It doesn't read ambient temperatures so it doesn't completely replace probed thermometers especially for incubating eggs, but it is a must have especially for those with multiple snakes to monitor.

[33rpm]

Wires, clunky readout boxes, probes being disturbed,....who needs it?! RBI-201 is my best friend!!! Picked up a Caliber IV to monitor ambient air temps and humidity, tho. It has a nifty little magnet to keep it on the glass, too!

http://www.amazon.com/CALIBER-DISCON...+iv+hygrometer

[ejseoane]

I love my temp gun, but it's not anymore accurate than a good probed thermometer.
It doesn't read ambient temperatures so it doesn't completely replace probed thermometers especially for incubating eggs, but it is a must have especially for those with multiple snakes to monitor.

i do agree with that , i use both too, but a really good one might be as accurate for ambient temps but do u think its as accurate for a surface temp? The temp gun i have displays the ambient temp when ever it gos to stand by mode, not shur how accurate it is compared to a nice probe thermometer , would be nice to know, the probe thermometer i have for my hot spot i think is like 9 $ at petco its the yellow one made by zoo med that u see everywhere so not very good i guess, the acurite is more accurate according to the temp gun

[MrLang]

Off topic slightly, but any recommendations on a decent probed thermometer? I need one for my incubator.

[ejseoane]

Why are probed thermometers better for incubators ?

[BHReptiles]

Why are probed thermometers better for incubators ?

Because they will measure the ambient temperature. You want the ambient temp 88-89 degrees. Temp guns only measure the temp of the surface of your eggs, the substrate, the egg crate, etc...not the ambient temp.

I have 4 thermometers in my incubator. One in the egg box, one outside the egg box, one near the top of my incubator, and one near the floor. Ideally, you want all four spaces to be the same.

[Pythonfriend]

Why are probed thermometers better for incubators ?

the infrared temperature guns look at the amount of infrared radiation emitted from the surface. They only indirectly tell you the temperature of the air. so in a freezing cold terrarium with a burning candle inside it, it will make some average but mostly detect the flame, the ones used by firefighters will even focus themselves on the flame and show its peak temperature (and also show the location of heat sources on a display). So if you have an incubator, heat guns will only see the surface temperature, and might even see the heating below through gaps in the substrate, and will ignore air temperature. Sometimes you need a direct measurement of air temperature.