Digital Thermometer, Which One And Placement.

[raptorrex]

I have to say that although i don't rely only on my digital thermometers. Both the fish minder and the digital thermometer on my eheim filter/heater are very accurate and results are indistiguishable from the spirit thermometers.

you see my argument would be, why buy a digital unit, at all. even you find the results "indistinguishable". why spent £5-30 on a digital. when £1.99-2.99 would lead to the same readings? perhaps most of all, spirit don't need a battery. inevitably as a battery runs down, the reading will become less accurate. but the spirit just carries on. I've seen some digis, and heard some people, that claim this is not a problem, but i find that hard to believe. as the owner of, not one, but two £100 calibratable thermometers. one of the things that is stressed is the importance of, fresh, good quality batteries. its hard to fathom the circuitry, inside a £5-30 unit, would be more sophisticated.

As previously stated i like the fact that there's an alarm that will go off if the tank temperature strays above or below pre-set temperatures. Well worth £5-30 as an extra failsafe to protect my fish. I don't really see the relevance of your 2 £100 calibrated thermometers. Of course they would be more accurate. Of course they will be far more complex devices with added circuitry for calibration ect. But more complex things do tend to be more sensitive to swings in power ect and i assume from the fact that there so expensive they are required to be extremely accurate for whatever task you purchased them for. I don't keep any fish that a 1/2 degrees centrigrade error would kill, although as previously stated i have 3 thermometers in the tank so i have the 2 spirits as backup. On the other hand if one of my heaters locked either on or off this could easily kill my fish and having the added alarm is an extra comfort level for me.

I must point out i don't use my expensive thermometers, (any more) they sit in a draw. indeed i would actively discourage anyone from buying one. i rely totally on a single spirit in each tank.
i take your alarm point. i would counter by saying, you need to be in the house to hear it. if you can hear it, you can read a thermometer! and, lol, if you use two lower power heaters even a stuck on heater cant boil, or seriously, damage your fish. and if one goes "phut", and dies. you have another to stop your tank getting to a dangerously low temperature, before you act. that, to me, would be 'well worth £5-30'. after all a digital alarm offers no 'extra level comfort' while you are out. but the two heater system, does.

I'll admit a level of "Devils advocate" in my post. i certainly dont want you to think i am saying you are wrong. however the alternative solutions, to the problem you seek to avoid that i proffered, offer considerably more safety than an alarm. and at little on no extra cost.

 

[Uriel]

Yeah i run 2 heaters in each tank. But 1 of tanks has an eheim filter/heater which is 500w so could probably boil the tank rather quickly. Not that i've ever had problems with it. For me the advantage of the alarm is there is always someone in my house. I live on a farm. and while no one would ever check the thermometers but me. Someone would surely call me to ***** about an annoying alarm that won't shut up. I wouldn't reccomend some one solely relied on digital thermometers, they are just very suited to my particular situation.

 

[waterdrop]

Thanks for the suction cup info guys. WD