I don't know which one to trust!

[Knittycat]

I've decided to make a 'water wiggler' with a plastic baggie and a soaked paper towel and some tape. I rolled it up like a jelly roll and put the scientific thermometer's probe in the middle. That will stop it's constant changing and give me a better idea of what temperature the eggs will be at internally.

 

[Knittycat]

Well bugger. The scientific thermometer in the water wiggler is now reading 102.6 and rising. Slower, but still rising, while all the other thermometers read 99 and 100.

 

[red golden]

Knittycat i started reading your post and i thought i was gonna pay the mental hospital a visit. You scrambled my brain lmao. Sad thing is i built an incubator pretty much like oldclucks with a few mods. I too have two digi therms with hydro's and two mercury type everyone of them read differn't but pretty close so i feel your pain lol.

 

[Knittycat]

I wouldn't mind the variations between the thermometers, if only they were constant. It's the fact that two will agree one minute and then disagree dramatically the next.

 

[PaleoDan]

I wonder if it is not so much variations in consistency but that some thermometers update faster than the others so it takes them a bit longer to reach the actual temp through changes???

I have been playing with my different types and I see the same behavior but I also noticed that if I leave them alone long enough they stabilize somewhat - they still reflect slightly different temps but they are consistently different.

 

[Knittycat]

I left the incubator off last night. When I got up this morning all three (the scientific one turns it's self off) read 65. I think you are right. Problem is which one do I go by when the temperature fluctuates like it does. It's a home made bator, none of the fluctuations are very long. I thing the one that updates the slowest is the first thermometer, followed by the new thermometer, followed by the brooder thermometer and lastly the scientific thermometer. Although, since I stuck the scientific thermometer in the water wiggler, it bounces around a lot less. The brooder and the scientific are on the same page now.

 

[Knittycat]

However, I still worry about the fact that the brooder and scientific thermometers read 1-2* high when I did the ice water thing, but all the thermometers agreed perfectly this morning.

GAH I wish i just had the money to buy a brinsea.

 

[red golden]

Not sure if it would help but get a big container of water. Let it sit in the bator for about a day then take a digi meat therm. and test the water against your thermometers .

 

[red golden]

Not sure if it would help but get a big container of water. Let it sit in the bator for about a day then take a digi meat therm. and test the water against your thermometers .

 

[soldonold]

I have had the same problem. I've spent hours staring down watching temperature readings fluctuate all over the place (with eggs in there!!). I've noticed that the ones that update really fast are the ones that show a bunch of fluctuation. And the ones that update slower are showing more of an average. So you can't really go by the really accurate ones that update quickly until your incubator is really stabilized. Also, I've discovered that it is absolutely useless to try to measure temps with any thermometer if the incubator isn't stable. All of them fluctuate too much at different rates of update.

My final solution was to get the incubator stable (which can take a LONG time) with several thermometers in it while it is EMPTY at my chosen humidity (I do 45 percent). And then check it. I found out most of them (you wouldn't believe how many thermometers I've accumulated) read very close to the same temperature. (Most of mine I got from Incubator Whse - different varieties). Then once the eggs are in there, I DON'T ADJUST THE TEMP AT ALL. I have a cheapy styrofoam incubator that has an extremely touchy thermostat. I regulate the temp by putting a towel over one or both of the windows to raise it, or remove it to lower it. And the acid test is when the chicks start hatching. If it is 21 days, the temp is close enough. This wouldn't work in a room that doesn't have stable temperature, but I have mine in a spare bedroom that is temperature controlled.

Anyway, I know how frustrating it is to not trust your thermometer!! Hang in there!!