Thermometer Accuracy?

[Snake_Newb]

I recently purchased a cheap probe thermometer from Walmart and set up the probe under my warm hide. I kept my old Zilla thermo/hyrdometer on the warm side just to compare. The two consistently differ in temp readings by 5-10 degrees and in humidity readings by 10-20%. How can I be sure which one is accurate? (PS: The readings on the thermometer below are incorrect, pay them no mind.)




I set up my 20 gallon tank based heavily on the guidance offered here on the forum. I still need a thermostat for my UTH, which is currently off, and want to get either a ceramic heat emitter or RHP. Any other suggestions?

[redshepherd]

The acurite is the accurate one, it's actually what's used by everyone in the hobby to be most accurate. Those round analog ones can be super inaccurate.

[Mangiapane85]

Digital all the way. ... I don't even keep thermometers in my snake tubs, analog OR digital. I just use my handy temp gun and rely on the thermostats to do their jobs.

And while I do trust my thermostats, I don't trust them THAT much so I do check every one of my snakes houses daily w the gun, regardless of what the thermostat reads.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zincubus]

Digital all the way. ... I don't even keep thermometers in my snake tubs, analog OR digital. I just use my handy temp gun and rely on the thermostats to do their jobs.

And while I do trust my thermostats, I don't trust them THAT much so I do check every one of my snakes houses daily w the gun, regardless of what the thermostat reads.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Same , although maybe not daily ....

Crazy how good these £10 digital temp guns off eBay are isn't it ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[OhhWatALoser]

I found acurites right next to each other to be pretty inconsistent, well outside of their listed accuracy range. I think their junk but the hobby seems to like them. Personally I would get a IR temp gun and forget about the Acurites.

Here's the cheap IR gun I use. I sell them at shows also. They seem to be pretty consistent across the board, I've had the opportunity to open 10 of them and they didn't read more than a half degree from each other and what my herpstat probes read, so that sold me on them. My more expensive pro exotics PE2 always seemed to be off compared to any other temp device I had. So even in my own husbandry I use the cheap one lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rch_detailpage

[Zincubus]

I found acurites right next to each other to be pretty inconsistent, well outside of their listed accuracy range. I think their junk but the hobby seems to like them. Personally I would get a IR temp gun and forget about the Acurites.

Here's the cheap IR gun I use. I sell them at shows also. They seem to be pretty consistent across the board, I've had the opportunity to open 10 of them and they didn't read more than a half degree from each other and what my herpstat probes read, so that sold me on them. My more expensive pro exotics PE2 always seemed to be off compared to any other temp device I had. So even in my own husbandry I use the cheap one lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...rch_detailpage

Yep . Those are the ones I'm talking about


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[Regius_049]

Acurites ( if i recall correctly) are listed at +/- 5 degrees, so they are useful but not the most accurate instruments. I will say that most of mine have been pretty consistent, but I use a temp gun (+/- 1 degree) to double check if I think something is awry.

[OhhWatALoser]

Acurites ( if i recall correctly) are listed at +/- 5 degrees, so they are useful but not the most accurate instruments. I will say that most of mine have been pretty consistent, but I use a temp gun (+/- 1 degree) to double check if I think something is awry.

Listed accuracy for the ones I bought were +/- 2 degrees but found that to not be the case, +/- 5 is more believable lol

[Sallos]

I found acurites right next to each other to be pretty inconsistent, well outside of their listed accuracy range. I think their junk but the hobby seems to like them. Personally I would get a IR temp gun and forget about the Acurites.

How do you measure ambient temp and humidity? The IR guns only measure surface temps.


I use the IR gun for surface temp, and a generic brand digital thermometer/hydrometer (with similar stated accuracy to acu rites), with the probe dangling from the top of the tub for ambient and humidity.

[Snake_Newb]

How do you measure ambient temp and humidity? The IR guns only measure surface temps.

I've been wondering this about probes and thermostats in general... The probes and/or thermostats measure the temperature on the UTH (or where ever it is you place it), but how do you get a thermostat to regulate the UTH temp AND ambient air temp???