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Difference in Tempature readings.

rockinmindless

rockinmindless

New member
I just got a Ranco thermostat in the mail today from MG Reptiles. I put it in and set it to 85 degrees and it was looking good. Then over the course of a few hours the temp had risen to 91 on my digital thermometer with a probe. So I stuck my other digital thermometer probe in there and after a while it read about 88. So then I stuck a meat thermometer in there and it read about 91. The whole time the Ranco thermostat read 85-86F. Now both digital thermometers are in there and reading about 90. All of the probes where stuck in the same spot. Do you think I got a bad thermostat or somehow I am getting erronus readings (however all probes are at the same level practically touching each other, with about the same amount of substrate over them)
 
Please don't rip me for bad spelling, I'm am tired. I spell checked the entire post, just forgot to spell check the title. :dunce:
 
That's really weird. I would say set the thermostat to 82* & maybe it will be 86? Or even 80*. Does the Thermostat have a probe? How does it check temperature? Does it need to be set?

I have a home made rheostat & it keeps my temps really steady.

Sorry your having problems :(
 
Are the temps going up and down, or staying steady?
I ask because there is a setting (not sure what it's called) you can adjust on most of the high end thermostats, where you set the amount of degrees away from the temp you have it set at when it cuts on and off. When I first got my Johnson I think this number was set at 3. In other words, if I had the temp set at 82 and this other setting was at 3, the thermostat will cut the heat on when the temp is 79 and cut the heat off when the temp reaches 85.
I hope I explained that clearly. lol
 
The setting Mary-Beth is talking about is the differentialsetting . Make sure that is set to 1. Now if you want to find out why the different temp readings. Take a small glass of water and put all the temp probes in it. This will give you one temperature for readings. If all the temps are plus or minus 3 degrees then you are fine. The cheap digital thermometers that we all have are not very accurate. I would trust the Ranco more than the others. I have seen a wide range of temp readings from the digital thermometers that the discount stores sell. If you did not pay more than 150 dollars for the thermometer than it is a cheap thermometer. The only reason why I know this is the job I do for a living. And, yes I have the cheap digital thermometer ones in some of my cages so I can check temps real fast.
 
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