I have the zoo med temp gun too. My heat tape varies by about 10 degrees on a single strip, but yours is a pretty large range. I regularly calibrate mine with a friend's PE 2, and mines accurate within .5 degrees, but the zoo med ones only read in .5 increments anyway. Can you do this sort of semi-calibration with another tempgun? I definitely plan on getting a better one in the future, but I like supporting local businesses so I bought the zoo med one.