So I thought I would post a sorta review of the Brinsea Spot Check digital thermometer. We know that some of the cheaper bators don't have great electronics, and even some of the non-bator thermos are...well...what you pay for. But this thing is supposed to tell you how bad your existing thermo sucks. I quickly discovered how much out my Hovabator thermo was, and it allowed me to keep a better temperature over the hatch. But this thing has its flaws too.
- If you let it rest against an egg, then you're going to get the temp of the egg, not the air. As the egg develops, it creates its own temperature...so keeping it away from shells becomes more important the further you are into the hatch.
- Letting it sit on a moist floor equally gives you wrong numbers, now you get the temperature of the water.
- It comes with nothing that allows you to place it in a bator and keep it from having contact with those undesirable things...so you might say, well, just keep the eggs away from it...yeah, well, once hatched chicks are in there too they will muck it up, no matter what you do.
- The thing really should have come with a little piece of Velcro so you could affix it to the top of the bator, as every time you open the lid it will likely slide off.
- A little ring with a clip to hold the probe would let you place it anyone in the bator and not worry about it coming into contact with stuff you don't want to measure the temp of.
- It can take up to 1 minute for it to tell you the temperature...which compared to "instant" cooking thermos, is a really long time. How can a Candy Thermo know the temperature instantly, but this thing doesn't?
- All in all, it has helped me keep better temps in my styro bator, but with humidity shifts affecting temperature, you really need to let it sit in one place for an hour or more to know what the real temp is. That's not "spot check" to me, that's just measuring temperature.
- And of course we are assuming it is more right than everything else...laudible for Brinsea to try to make us believe that...but how do I check it?
Because I have chosen to believe that Brinsea wouldn't sell me a piece of crap, it has helped me keep the bator temp steady. If it turns out to be a piece of crap...well, then my hatch may suck.
