Quote Originally Posted by new2BP
i just went in to get a thermometer and noticed some of the analog ones on the shelf. they all seemed to be within 7 or 8 degrees difference from each other. some said 70, some said 75 and some said 78. showed me right there that i needed a digital.
You may still get 2-3 deg. difference between most digital thermometers. I had originally had 3 different digital thermometers in my first enclosure...the temperatures varied between the three about 5 deg. It helps to read the thermometer specs that are usually on the back of the box. it will usually say +-2 deg variance/deviation on the back of the box. If one thermometer is reading -2 deg below actual and one that is reading +2 deg above actual then there is a 4 deg temp difference between the two. That is always a spec to check out when you are buying any heating type equipment(thermostat,thermometer, etc). Now I use a raytec temperature gun for all my measurements and it still has a +-2 deg deviation(i think)...I can just meausure anywhere i want.

For this reason you alway want to aim for the average of the temperature range for the cool and warm side when setting up the enclosure (i.e. 83 cool/93 warm) This way if the temp varies +-2 deg. then you are still in the safe zone.

Sorry for the ramble....just wanted to let you guys know this