Since I got my IR temp gun I have quit placing thermometers in all my cages. I monitor the snake room temp and then use the temp gun for all other needs.
Search temp gun on the Lowes site. Somebody post a Ryobi for $25-30 a few days back. Or check out Amazon. They have a ton that are very affordable.
I have spent a lot of money of digital thermometers over the years and if I would have just saved the money up I could have bought the daddy of all temp guns.
The temp gun took my keeping to a whole new level and has made it much more precise.
I have had many Accurite units and my snakes have killed them all. The last one I had my BRB took swimming. They are pretty good but I even stopped buying them because they seemed to fail to early.