The thing about this is...Originally Posted by monkeywrench133
(/rant on)
Temp guns are nifty little gadgets... They're fun to play with.. and if they have a laser sighting thingy on them, the laser's fun to play with too. They're pretty functional.. the more money you spend, the better the temp gun... the age old addage, "you get what you pay for".... They will accurately (for the most part) tell you what the temp is on the floor of several different areas of the tub, the wall, your fiance's butt... whatever you want to "zap"... but the PROBLEM is.. when setting up a thermostat, or making sure your temps are properly set... It won't tell you what the temps are when you're not in the room..
Why do you need to know? Well!
When setting up a new rack, or tub, or vivarium on a thermostat, I'm concerned with what the min and max ranges are in the environment. An 11.99 little accurite thermometer can do that for you. Simply put the thermometer on the cool side of the enclosure, the probe on the warm side, and let it sit for about an hour. Then go back, click on the min/max button, click clear.. do the same for the humidity, and then let it sit overnight.. or 24 hours is better. Then check what the min/max temps were. IDEALLY, you shouldn't have more than 2 degrees of difference between the min/max temps.
This is all very important for accurate husbandry... and a temp gun, while fun to play with and good for spot checking temps, will not tell you all you need to know. (/rant off)
Yeah, I have one of those temp guns too... it's cool.. my dog and my 4 year old love to chase the little laser dot around!
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