Reptile & Amphibian Forums

By the way people...

Did you know that the temperature you store your temp gun at can have an adverse impact upon it's reliability? The temperature of the temp gun itself will make your readings swing up or down depending on if it's temperature is warmer or cooler. If you keep your temp gun in a warm snake room, your temp gun will always register your temps higher than the true temp. If you carry your temp gun around in your pocket, that will through it off even more.

This I think has confused and made more difficult the entire set up process for a lot of people because they assume that probably the most temperamental temperature measuring device on the planet, an infrared temp gun, should be reliable. It is not.

It is a good tool, but not necessarily right on at all.

To test this try this simple experiment; Take your temp gun over to a fixed thermometer like your house thermostat. Check it's temp and record the two temperatures. Your temp gun might read an identical temp or it might be off one direction or the other. Record that difference. Now take your temp gun and place it in your refrigerator for three minutes. Take it out and your temp gun WILL register a dramatically lower temperature relative to your house thermometer that you just recorded three minutes before. If you leave your temp gun in for an hour, that difference will be even more extreme.

The same thing goes if you warm up your temp gun warmer than the temperature you normally store it at.

It is simply a tool to get you in the ball park if the gun itself is at 70-75 degrees. Warm it up and you'll see higher temps. Cool it and you will see lower. Just something to keep in mind.

Because some people store their temp gun in a 80 plus degree place, they think their hot spot is set up differently than other people at a higher tempo than others report. It's all relative.

Just a little food for thought! Great fun huh!?
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Jeff Ronne Sr
The Boaphile
Director USARK

Originator of Boaphile Plastics
The Boaphile Boa Site

This was an interesting read, because I was looking into getting a temp gun as a more accurate way to see exactly what the temps were in different parts of my pythons and boas enclosures.

Would having the gun at room temperature effect it's readings to the point where I would have to worry whether or not the warm and cool ends of the cages are either too hot or too cool?

Mr. Jeff Ronne what about this scenario:
I always have 2 IR thermometers when in the boa room. I store them in my boa room which is kept 75-82 degrees for the most part year round. I use both on every reading I want to take and usually these readings are 80-97 degrees. You think an IR kept at 75-82 will misread temps of 80-97? If so should I place the IR therm in the cage I'm looking to gun for a few minutes beige I do? I'm all ears on this as this year has been the year of temp. monitor/adjust for me...

The best way to tell how accurate your temp gun is to use a thermometer with a probe on your heat source and simply see if it matches the real temperature. Make sure that your temp gun is stored in its normal location before you take the temp of the hot spot. My temp gun is always within one degree of the thermometer temp. I check it all of the time. I agree that they should only be used for a close estimate.

I got this one highly recommended by an employee of helix and it states a 1 degree variance over a 1000 degree spread. It has dual lasers and supposed to be dead on when the 2 meet. It's raytek t25

http://www.instrumart.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=2271

I use the same gun