mrgreenthumb Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 Recently encountered some MAJOR problems with my coral life digital thermometers. For some reason I decided yo use these in my 4 display tanks and 2 nursry tanks . I have 5 of these loved them because they were cheap and I thought they were accurate to the 1/10 of a degree. I was dead WRONG! Yesterday I decided to check the accuracy of the one on my reef tank because it was reading 74 and my heater was set at 78 and was not coming on. Something was not right either the heater or the thermometer. Ended up being the thrtmometer, so I decided to check all of them and my results were stunning. I strated by gathering some thermometers I use in the food service industry. I used 1 digital probe, 1 non digital probe(both are able to be caliberated) and 1 glass float I caliberated all control thermometers to 32* in a cup of ice water. I did this because I know a cup of ice water is going to be 32* +/- 1*. Test number 1 actual temperature reading 78*(verified by probes and glass float) Decided not to include 1/10 of degrees because I'm a lazy and the differances were so great that I didn't think it was that important. Actual temp 78* Coral life 1 74* Coral life 2 82* Coral life 3 69* Coral life 4 75* Actual temp 82* Coral life 1 78* Coral life 2 85* Coral life 3 72* Coral life 4 77* Actual temp 70* Coral life 1 66* Coral life 2 74* Coral life 3 62* Coral life 4 65* For fun I took another 4 readings ranging in temp from 32*-100* and the margins of error were virtually the some so I'm only going to post these temps since they are relevant to the hobby. To achiveve these temps I used a microwave and freezer and then tested them with the glass and probes to ensure all control thermometers matched in temperature. I was very surprised by the readings!! Every single thermometer giving a different reading!! I'm just thanking God that I trusted my heater thermostat and that nothing bad (that I'm aware of) happened because of this, but still I belive this to be extremely unacceptable and sent coral life a long email expressing my displeasure with their product and i'm awaiting their reply. Needless to say I'm no longer using coral life digital thermometers, or any digital thermometers, and have switched all my tanks to glass thermometers. In conclusion just because you have a thermometer that says 76.1, doesn't mean that your actual temp is 76.1. I definitely learned my lesson and will never by a cheap digital thermometer again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 Yup, I have experienced this as well, I still use the coralife but I know its off, but it gives me a little reassurance of temp. Any temp sensor regardless of where or what its is should always be checked just as your ph probes should be calibrated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 I found the same thing. If it is any consolation, the Hagen Marina ones are even worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 This is why I use a ranco temp control, now a ACIII to control temp, that and if a heater breaks and when they do they usually stay on, it wont matter, it wont have power to do any harm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgreenthumb Posted June 13, 2008 Author Share Posted June 13, 2008 well that makes me feel a little better that i'm not alone. I just can't even begin to comprehend the purpose of making a thermometer that does not give accurate temperature readings. I just hate getting ripped off !(flame) This is why I use a ranco temp control' date=' now a ACIII to control temp, that and if a heater breaks and when they do they usually stay on, it wont matter, it wont have power to do any harm.[/quote'] Definitely on my christmas in july list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 IME, digital cooking thermometers (particularly the ones targeted at candy making) are pretty accurate. Relatively cheap too, you can find a decent one for less than $20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 Yup, and I sell them. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgreenthumb Posted June 13, 2008 Author Share Posted June 13, 2008 IME' date=' digital cooking thermometers (particularly the ones targeted at candy making) are pretty accurate. Relatively cheap too, you can find a decent one for less than $20.[/quote'] I'm lucky enough have been a chef at one point in time and have plenty of these both digital and non-digital lying around and used these to establish my control temperatures. The best thing about them is that the majority can be caliberated, and even the ones that can't be caliberated, are still going to be more accurate then one of these food serivce industry. Thats one of the reasons I have such a hard time with this. Imagine if your digital cooking thermometer were off by even a few degrees. Poultry and pork both require specific cooking temps. Foods held on the hot line and cold line could also be in danger of being being in the deadly 40-140 range. I guess thats probably the reason they teach you in cooking school to caliberate daily, though I have never seen one read more than 1 degree off. Frustrating. I can only imagine what would hapen to a company making cooking thermometers that consistantly gave false readings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyles Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 well that makes me feel a little better that i'm not alone. I just can't even begin to comprehend the purpose of making a thermometer that does not give accurate temperature readings. I just hate getting ripped off !(flame) Definitely on my christmas in july list Look for the AC Jr III, great product and price is fair, they are for sale used often if you look around, I have seen them sell for $200 with outlet often, I believe I paid less that that even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgreenthumb Posted June 13, 2008 Author Share Posted June 13, 2008 Look for the AC Jr III' date=' great product and price is fair, they are for sale used often if you look around, I have seen them sell for $200 with outlet often, I believe I paid less that that even.[/quote'] Nice thanks for the info!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted June 14, 2008 Share Posted June 14, 2008 At least your smarter then I am. Back when I was a newb ad set up my first refugium I got one of those coralife's for the refugium to, cuz I thought every tank needed one. When the refugium temp was 5 degrees less then the display I bought a heater for the refugium (didn't have a heater in there thought it was the problem). Didn't work. I went back to the LFS to add another heater to bring up the temp, and the LFS sold me a $3 glass thermometer. Got me back on track. Been using glass ever since. Luckily my Ebo Jager heaters thermometer worked perfectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted June 23, 2008 Share Posted June 23, 2008 I have at least 6 of these and have come up with the same results. Two of them are within 0.2 degrees of each other and within 0.2 of my controller so I am comfortable with the readins. I use the 2 accurate ones in my two sumps to monitor temp. Then as I need to add others to my larval tanks I insert them into my sumps for comparison readings & adjust/monitor accordingly. I had lost a couple of batches of clowns in the early days just relying on the readings so now I am a little more careful :P Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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