Ok i don't know what i would do without my temp guns first and formost. Second a gift of a temp gun has been one of my best gift ideas. We have several temp guns in the house and several more in my fiances work van. as was stated before it is extremely important to check surface temps. you wouldn't grab a pot on the stove and pick it up because the ambient around it is 70 degrees would you burns hurt. so checking the temp at the bottom surface of your tank is a great way to save a very expensive vet visit to save your snake. I don't think its critical to own one but definately a good recommendation. We just had a heat pad fail in a tank and it was at 134 degrees. Sure it felt hot but the ambient was only at 85 degrees. We almost lost a snake due to a faulty heat pad. I have since decided to put my tstat probes directly over the flexwatt or heatpad. It was a mistake by me but without my temp gun to check surface temp i never would have noticed so someone saying it not a cheap tool i ask what is my wild caught extreme reduced pattern worth to me. Priceless. Kind of like a mastercard commercial. OK i have rambled on long enough about this. by the way my fiance says work bought him a new temp gun that hooks up to a computer to data log temps. its a wonderful world when work pays for the hobby.