thermometer help

[nthehunt]

I've got to thermometers in my homemade bator, one digital and one mercury. (incubator is empty right now) mercury thermo reads 100 degrees and digital reads 104.5! Which one do I trust?

 

[enel 1]

maybe a third thermo. then take an average,my digi says +/- .9 deg but who knows how accurate it actually is. jeez now you got me thinking...I'm gonna get a couple more thermometers myself

 

[Knittycat]

Stick the mercury in ice water. If you don't get a reading of 32, you know it's wrong!

 

[nthehunt]

but if the ice water was 32 degrees it would be frozen solid, by being a liquid even ice cubes its still above 32

 

[Knittycat]

If you fill a glass with ice, preferably crushed, and then put in juuuuuust enough water to have water to put the thermometer into, the temperature should still read 32 or 33 degrees. It will be enough to tell you weather or not the mercury thermometer is the one that is accurate.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4526037_calibrate-a-thermometer.html


this is the accepted method of calibrating thermometers.
The boiling point method is less accurate because of the differing boiling points at different altitudes.

 

[fried green eggs]

Don't stick your digital thermometer in ice water. Could you compare to a thermometer from your medicine cabinet - take your temperature under your arm with all three. Medical thermometers are usually pretty accurate

 

[Blue EE]

Does your incubator have an internal fan to circulate air? I have a Little Giant that had no fan and no egg turner. I had moved the eggs around daily and about 3 days in put a digital thermometer on top of the eggs. First day got a reading of 108'F on the digital but the main stainless temp probe that was at mid egg chamber stayed even at 99'F, so did a glass one.. What I took from that was that the radiant heat from the element was shining on the digital and I know the element was hotter than the chamber, thats how you get a higher chamber temperature. Ended up putting a small computer fan inside on a repeat cycle timer on for 30 seconds off for a minute and now all three temps are the same but the digital shows 99.5F and the others are 100'F or close depending on what slight angle you look at them with.Digitals are easier to read and have really big numbers. I also put in an egg turner so the opening occurs much less now. Eggs to hatch around 4-8. Put both thermometers in the exact same position for a few minutes and see if they coordinate. Inside the incubator can have hotter and cooler spots. Good luck.

 

[nthehunt]

fan worked! now all three(i added a third) read 100! Thank Ya'll