Thermometers and Heating Element questions

[Sonya610]

They should be fine. I don't have an AC and I just keep the basking lamps off and keep the night time lamps on. It's gotten up to 100 degrees in the house, when that happens I put some ice cubes in their water and they like to wrap themselves around them.

Thanks! I do have window unit AC but do not leave it running all night unless it is freaky hot (i.e high 90's, which has never happened). Once again it is a simple "turn it on/off" type of unit so the beasts and I tolerate some temp swings within reason.

kibakiba you might want to look into homemade "swamp coolers" if you rarely get hot temps and can't or do not want to get an AC. Just requires a fan, a towel, and water/ice water. Will cool your snakes and your whole room several degrees in a pinch: How to make a cheap swamp cooler - by Rex Trulove - Helium

[kibakiba]

We've tried that. Unfortunately, we don't have money to just go by things like that. All of our money is tied up, with maybe 5 dollars to spare. Since I got some bulk pinkies we might buy dry ice, we had a tiny little piece in the box and it cooled the living room down pretty quickly. Once I start getting some money in May or June I'll probably invest in some dry ice for my room. Till then, the ice water is free.

[ConcinusMan]

I can tell you now that those coralife themometers are total crap. Not in the least bit accurate. I think this might be because they are calibrated to work in water. They suck at taking air temp readings or even substrate surface temps. The one I had is pretty close to accurate at around 75 degrees but it reads higher than real above that, and gets more inaccurate with every degree. Below 75 it reads low. Same thing. The lower the real temp goes, the more innaccurate it gets. Basically, it's off by as much as 8 degrees unless the real temp is around 75 degrees and there's no way that I can see to fix the calibration.

I hear they are all like this. Terribly inaccurate. Too bad you already ordered them. Seriously you're much better off using a home weather station, preferably one that can monitor multiple probes. Springfield makes some nice ones. They are accurate and affordable. They have many models to choose from. Here's one that monitors 3 probes. It's under $60 Springfield Instruments 91586 Wireless Multi-Zone Digital Weather Center - Weather Station

[Sonya610]

I can tell you now that those coralife themometers are total crap. Not in the least bit accurate.

If only you had told me that a month ago when I first asked! LOL. I will look into that other thermometer, though I also have an accu-rite in one of the tanks and it reads exactly the same as the coralife.

[ConcinusMan]

Maybe I've just had bad luck with the coralife. I wasn't exactly surprised to find that both of them were way off since I paid less than $3 for them online. You'll pay more than that to replace the batteries in them.

[Sonya610]

Maybe I've just had bad luck with the coralife. I wasn't exactly surprised to find that both of them were way off since I paid less than $3 for them online. You'll pay more than that to replace the batteries in them.

Yeah, i ordered 3 new ones had just bought batteries, they were a bit more. Thing is the one I bought 3 years ago was still working so I was pleased with it, this time I got a bad one though.

[Stefan-A]

Thinking about investing in an IR thermometer.