Ir thermometers are not overly accurate. Most digitals thermometers with resistive sensors are not overly accurate either unless they are platinum... if you think your acu-rite has a solid platinum core at 1850.00 an oz think again. Check the specs 90% of all cheap digital thermometers are +/- 2 degrees. look it up do not take my word for it you will see my point. At 95º you could really be at 97º that is high enough to cause a burn in time. I'd set it to no higher than 92º in case you have a poor thermometer. Or buy a platinum tipped traceable science grade thermometer to check your cheap ones against. Or buy either a helix thermometer it is good to 1ºF accuracy or a herpstat with is 0.9ºF.

I have no idea what the Ranco accuracy is but I see no reason why they would build a thermostat with expensive parts for the intended use it simply is not needed to be that good. A quick look at the Ranco unit specs it appears to use a simple resistive probe so it is accurate likely to +/-2º which for a human use device is quite reasonable. If it was set to a one degree offset it could read 94, actually be 96 and then would cut out at 97ºF.

What my point is that account for the error and set the unit lower. 92º MAX (94 maybe cut out at 95... ) there is no need to be higher on the interior of the enclosure anyway.

Did you say you work in a chemistry lab? If you did borrow a lab grade thermometer and test the ones you have against an accurate one.

This is my work one I use everyday, this is what I have checked my cheap digitals against.

https://www1.fishersci.com/wps/porta...ogCode%3DRE_SC