Crazy thing about thermometers............

[Junkmanme]

I suppose I should be more "specific" in this posting........but I'm tired tonight and not wishing to be THAT articulate.

I've been "foolin' 'round" with a couple of styrofoarm incubators and a turner, etc. and thermometers the past few days.
I've got 6 or 7 different thermometers "taking temperatures".

I even included the "cheap" metal backed thermometer that hangs outside by my Front door.

IF I "average" the readings of ALL of the thermometers.....

The one "closest" to the average is:

The "cheap" one that hangs outside near my front door...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The variation is about 4 degrees between ALL of them.

(I haven't tried to "calibrate" any of them yet.)

I just thought THIS POSTING might be "Entertaining" !!!

Ha-Ha,
-Junkmanme-

 

[cbiblis]

Get a mouth or rectal thermometer. they have to be accurate. Don't get the digital one there not that consistent.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I like the digital orals... The cheep $3 ones are the most accurate but if you drop it throw it away. Consumer affairs did a study on them here while back.

 

[Junkmanme]

?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I stuck our digital oral thermometer in the bator last night to try to compare temps, and it wouldn't even register. What's the deal?

 

[Akane]

Medical thermometers are designed to take the temp of an object not the air. They will not be that accurate if you are just sticking the tip in there. Also the temp by the openings of the bator will not be the temp on top of the eggs and since you need to push the button on a digital it means to take the temp on the eggs you'd have to open the incubator. So no they will not work accurately for a bator. They would work accurately for something like a water wiggler or fake egg that they could be put inside.

The problem with just taking the average of all the thermometers is what if more of them tend to be high or one is very far off from the others? If you take 3 thermometers that are high and 1 that is low and average the temperature you still come out high. If you take one that is 5F high and two that are 2F low you still come out a bit high. The average of a group of thermometers does not mean that's the most accurate one. It only means it's in the middle of the bunch you happen to have.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
Thats dead wrong. It may be packaged an sold to take oral temps but all they do is show thermal energy in mass. Its accuracy does not change according to weather that mass is a solid, liquid or a gas. It would be hard to use a digital one in a still air bator but not one with a fan. Right now I have a cabinet incubator with the tip of a $3 digital oral stuffed threw a vent hole. After 3 year of fighting with thermometers that were not accurate I started using cheap medical thermometers from the dollar store. Its been about a year sense I made that switch an have yet to find one over .5*F off. I've been threw a few to. I keep giving them to people.