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Help? Temp gun and herpstats not showing same temps

allreptiles1966

allreptiles1966

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Hi
I am looking to see what i should do. I bought a new temp gun from RBI,its the 412 l. I have herpstats set at 88.8 and where the probe is the herpstat says 88.,but when i use the temp gun it say 83-84.I have had my boa's at these temps for about 3 years now and none have a upper ri or show any signs of being sick.
What do you suggest i do,Why is the temps so different.
What device should i pay attention to? Should i send back the temp gun and just go by whats been working. My litters are coming out healthy with only 1-2 slugs.
I need help with this please. Is there a way to see if this temp gun is accurate??
Thanks

And my over due gravid boa's temp is only 83.Isnt that a few degrees too low for a gravid boa?
1 more thing,my thermometers(digital from wal mart) also say what the herp stats or the ve 300x2 says.
 
My experience is that the temp guns are more accurate. Double check the placement of the herpstats. Are they old? Sometimes they lose accuracy after a while. Its hard to say without actually seeing your setup but I'd place my money on the temp gun being more accurate.
 
But if my temps are like the temp gun says,i would have a lot of sick boa's at 83 degrees(hot spot).Right?
And i would not have litters with 26 babies that are all healthy,fully developed.My adults are great,eat well and use the toilet well also.This is why i am not sure what to do besides leave the gun alone.Everything has been great with the boa's.My vet said that the ones i have brought in were fine also.


The herp stats are 1 year old(i bought new) and the ve 300 x2 is a couple months old bought new also.The thermometrs are only 1 year old and just got new batteries a week or so ago.
Its just that all thermostats and the 10 digital thermometers are in sinc and the only thing way out of wack is the temp gun.
 
I'm not familiar with that temp gun, I have a PE2, but agree that the temp of the temp gun is usually the most accurate. I keep my snakes warm end at around 85 and have litters just fine and no sick boas. My thermostats are usually set higher, around 86-89 to achieve the 85 temp.
 
Are you using the temp gun correctly? While they are basically point n shoot, you do have to be within a specific distance to get an accurate reading. Check the D:S listing for that particular gun.
 
I use a yellow 412L Thermometer temp gun (might be the same as yours) with Herpstat Proportional Thermostat ND & a few Thermometers. I noticed the farther away you are from the spot you aiming at the more off the reading in on the temp gun is. The batteries that came with my temp gun weren't the greatest either so I replaced them soon as I bought them & haven't had any major problem with anything the last 2 years.

I always seen a small difference & thought it was because the temp gun is getting the temp of an object where the herpstat is getting temp from the air? I was taking pictures for you to compare differences with & I thought maybe I should get new batteries myself or something because my temps started acting weird jumping around, but I figured it out..

It may sound stupid on my part but I realized besides moving everything a few inches to fit in the photo (on top of the hide, closer to heat panel) making the temps go up a few degrees, I also had the AC on in the next room over & opening the enclosure door was messing with my readings. I guess that's my way of saying just double check the basic's & think if you made any changes in the area when the trouble started. I'm not sure if I helped with your question at all but keep me posted on what you figure out, if I think of anything on my end I'll let you know.

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I have been playing around with it for a little while now and it seems you need to be rather close to get good temps.Mine is the 12:1 model and after getting about 1-2 inces away i got better readings. I was shooting from the outside of the cage,which i thought i could do since it was a 12:1. If i had to be so close to the source i would have just bought the old pe 1 or 2 and saved some money.I dont have any mean boa's so could just stick my hand in close to the heat source.
Thanks April,Harold and Chris for the help.
My temps are all very close together and i am at ease now. Chris brother,thanks for the pics man.
 
Outside the cage doesn't work as well because you want a direct (not angled) shot at the surface you are measuring. 12:1 means that at a distance of 12 inches, it reads a one inch area. The bigger the measured area, the less accurate your results.
If you are using heat tape, you can see the different temperatures as you pass the temp gun across the heating elements.
 
I'd always assumed it was the difference between the probe being directly on the flexwatt and sandwiched between it and the cage bottom, and the temp gun reading the other side of the cage bottom -- in other words, a combination of trapped heat (probe) and the intervening cage surface, which absorbed some of the heat energy. At any rate, my temp gun *always* shows several degrees lower than the thermostat, and I've had no issues. I replaced my temp gund once just to make sure, though, and recheck each viv every quarter.
 
Per RBI the 412L Thermometer temp gun has a 12:1 D:S ratio. I wasn't sure exactly understood that so I looked a little deeper. Turns out (D:S) is the ratio of the distance to the object and the diameter of the temperature measurement area. So I'm thinking if your under in a foot of range that reading will give you temp of a 1-inch-diameter around where the red dot is.
 
Sorry. I typed my last comment & I was reading it over & over to make sure it made sense & didn't see all the new comments. Anytime Rich, always willing to try to help.
 
Thanks Harold .It took me a few to get it. After playing around with the distance i figured it out.Along with you guys helping me.
I knew what the 12:1 was and just thought at 2' i should get a 2" spot i am cheacking and being only 2" spot.i would have thought it would still give an accurate temp.It doesnt so well.
Stay tight and i get the temps i am looking for. Eveything is ok now and i raelly appreciate all you guys for taking the time to reply and help me out. Got love when a community comes together and helps ecah other!!
THANKS
 
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