Should I trust my thermostat, air thermometer, or infrared thermometer?

[dakski]

I trust my temp gun the most. I spent good money on a top of the line one, but you do not need to.

Hit your home thermostat, or a trusted thermomoter in your room (not in the reptile tank).

See what the temp gun reads. See what the thermometer says. Adjust. And aim for the same distance (i.e. substrate to heat gun and thermometer to heat gun).

For example, if the thermometer or thermostat says 70F, and the temp gun says 71F, adjust whatever reading you get in tank down by 1F.

Temp guns can fluctuate with different environment temps and distance from reading area. I "calibrate" like this regularly, especially if I have to adjust a thermostat. Remember, the thermostat gets its reading from the probe(s). Ground temp is most important for snakes. I do hit the wall of the tank in the back, middle section, where there are no heating elements, to get ambient air temp. However, I hit all over the tank (about 5 spots regularly) to test ground temps. I have a whole system. The farther away you are from the spot you are reading, the less accurate. I aim for about 3-5 inches distance tops (and also a clear shot/angle like straight up and down). Most reliable up close. If I shoot across the tank, even a few feet, it can easily be a degree to two off, if not more.

Thermostats can read X, but ground temps can be different. For example, I have all my snakes in 6X2X1' Boaphile enclosures. All have a RHP and flex watt heat tape on the hot side and only smaller flex watt heat tape on the cool side. Keep in mind these are large tanks, so I need multiple readings (about every 12-15 inches or so and ALWAYS on/under heat sources). On the hot side, my thermostat for my BCI and BP (stacked one on top of the other and identical heating elements) reads 84F (in my BP tank where the two probes are - it's a redundant thermostat so one probe per thermostat). However, that is air temp about 7 inches from the ground just below the RHP (both the RHP and the flex watt on the hot side runs off the same thermostat(s). However, at the ground, right on the heat tape, it's about 89F. It runs from 87-90F depending on where on the flex watt I hit, but averages about 89F.

The point is, you want to know what the temp is where the snake is, on the ground, especially for hot and cool side temps (not saying you should neglect ambient temps - these are important too). Temp guns are best at this. They are also excellent if you have a big UTH/flexwatt, etc. because the temp is rarely uniform over them. There will be a (hopefully) small range. So the thermostat may read 84F, but 3 inches away, it could be 88F, or 82F, etc. They also give instant readings. That's very helpful!