Thermostat not equal to the thermometer

[NewBP]

Alright so I have the same issue as the OP. Thermostat says 98 hydro farm says 96. Set to go off at 93. Surface temps though (measured by good quality IR gun) are from 88 to 93 (93 under his hide). Given this info what would you recommend I set the hydrofarm at?

Thanks

Edit: I have the zoo med UTH

Edit2: I have about and 1/2 to 3/4 inch of apsen.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Alright so I have the same issue as the OP. Thermostat says 98 hydro farm says 96. Set to go off at 93. Surface temps though (measured by good quality IR gun) are from 88 to 93 (93 under his hide). Given this info what would you recommend I set the hydrofarm at?

Thanks

Edit: I have the zoo med UTH

Edit2: I have about and 1/2 to 3/4 inch of apsen.

Why would you change your settins if your surface temps are good??

[kitedemon]

Just ignore what the Hydrofarm says buy a good thermometer and use this to set it.


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[kitedemon]

https://www.fishersci.ca/coupon.do?cid=200619

Just got a few of these for my work they look quite good so far.


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[Vesper]

https://www.fishersci.ca/coupon.do?cid=200619

Just got a few of these for my work they look quite good so far.


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Yeaaah, for six-hundred dollars they better get that temperature down to the smallest point.

I know no two thermometers are going to read the same, and there's going to be some inaccuracy between the two. But I didn't expect an inaccuracy of 20 something degrees. Now, they're hanging around in the same place almost. Sometimes with 5 degrees differences between each other. Am I going to keep the set up the way it is? Probably not. But a six-hundred dollar thermometer is a bit out of my reach right now, so I'll just have to scour through other forums to see what others suggest or use I guess.

[kitedemon]

With the error rate of hydrofarm and the error rate of a typical digital 10º difference is not out of possibility. The problem with hydrofarms is the if it is working correctly you could set it at 90 and it could actually be from 86-94º. Add swing, regular thermometer error and you can easily double this. As I stated earlier that it is likely both hydrofarm and thermometer that are off one one direction one the other.

The truth is that helix herpstat ecozone herpkeeper and VE all have accuracy of less than 1ºF these are actually cheap accurate thermometers the fact is is also a great thermostat is just a bonus.

When you have no way of knowing what is right you have no way of knowing what is wrong.

[Vesper]

The truth is that helix herpstat ecozone herpkeeper and VE all have accuracy of less than 1ºF these are actually cheap accurate thermometers the fact is is also a great thermostat is just a bonus.

I know. I'm looking into some of these. I just didn't think about these right now, because I only have one little guy, with another on the way. And plenty of people have recommended the one I have on the forums, so I just figured until we got a bigger set up it'd work.

[kitedemon]

I see you point I don't truely agree but I get the descision.

The best way to cheaply find a reasonably accurate thermometer is to buy a bunch of cheap ones (3 min and 5+ is better) lay them all out away from drafts and check them against each other. Typically some will read the same these are •likely• close to accurate then you have a base to figure out where what is off. The other option is also cheap but a bit more complicated see if you can find a liquid crystal thermometer that is in one degree or better steps and place this on a surface in the reading zone and then your hydrofarm probe and your other T-stat check them against the LC one. They often (usually) are accurate to one half degree. This will (hopefully) show you correct so you can se if your thermometer is off or the probe or both and how much.