I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

There is usually a 2 point calibration for these digital thermometers
but the cheap ones may simply use fixed resistors to get in the ball
park.
I have a Bacharach "sling" that I use to test other thermometers. You
just have to be sure you are really measuring the same thing. (same
"free air" and no sun load).

If your are using this thermometer as a basal thermometer, a few degrees
either way won't hurt none.

"KenK" wrote in message
...

I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a
few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd
really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?


Go to a store that has a lot of them on display and pick one that matches
the majority of them.

When I was working I did a lot of instrument calibration and we had a
temperature bath we could put things in. It was calibrated every year to
about .1% by a calibration lab.
About 10 years ago I brought home an old digital readout and matching
thermocouple that I had calibrated to match at 100 deg F.

I looked at that and compaired it to other thermometers around the house.

The calibrated one was showing 67.1, another was showing 68. I have an
elcheapo digital I bought off ebay that has 2 thermocouples for it. They
were showing 65.5 and 65.8

A company that made thermocouples for us set aside a large spool of TC wire
and all ours were suspose to be made from that wire. We used them by the
hundreds or more. We did not need to know exectally what the temperature was
on the process, but it needed to be repeatable from year to year. Most of
the temperatuers were from about 260 to 300 deg C. The TCs we got were
suspose to be within 2 deg C at 300 deg C.

The products we made was polyester that went out looking like a bale of
cotton and string for things like tire cord.
We made over a million pounds of each every day when te plant ws running at
full capacity.

On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 16:58:10 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


"KenK" wrote in message
...

I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a
few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd
really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?


Go to a store that has a lot of them on display and pick one that matches
the majority of them.

When I was working I did a lot of instrument calibration and we had a
temperature bath we could put things in. It was calibrated every year to
about .1% by a calibration lab.
About 10 years ago I brought home an old digital readout and matching
thermocouple that I had calibrated to match at 100 deg F.

I looked at that and compaired it to other thermometers around the house.

The calibrated one was showing 67.1, another was showing 68. I have an
elcheapo digital I bought off ebay that has 2 thermocouples for it. They
were showing 65.5 and 65.8

A company that made thermocouples for us set aside a large spool of TC wire
and all ours were suspose to be made from that wire. We used them by the
hundreds or more. We did not need to know exectally what the temperature was
on the process, but it needed to be repeatable from year to year. Most of
the temperatuers were from about 260 to 300 deg C. The TCs we got were
suspose to be within 2 deg C at 300 deg C.

The products we made was polyester that went out looking like a bale of
cotton and string for things like tire cord.
We made over a million pounds of each every day when te plant ws running at
full capacity.

I wonder how long it will be before clocks get wireless Internet
capability for local forecast? I bet having a wireless web receiver
wouldn't cost anymore than the external sensor.

That is basically what this is:
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?p_i...FZQ6gQoda2sMeQ

97% percent accuracy is plenty good enough for me. I would be
interested in reasons where that is not close enough.

On Monday, November 9, 2015 at 1:10:17 PM UTC-5, KenK wrote:
I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

Thermometers are NOT precision instruments!

If you want the best you can get buy a Fluke electronic one.

And truly if the temp readout is within a degree or two does it really matter?

On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few

It seems to me that the new one is guaranteed to be accurate. Just
look at its name, ACCURite. What do you think that means if not
accurate?

year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

I have a thermometer I bought in Chicago when I was a college
freshman, because I missed the comforts of home, 1965. And an
identical thermometer I bought in NYC in 1976 or 78 to record how cold
it got in my heatless apartment, for when I went to court. Now I
keep them just outside a first floor window and a second floor window.
When there's a bunch of them to buy, I look for one that has a modal
reading, the same as the greatest number of the other ones.

The glue or the clamp on one of them came loose after 20 years and it
sagged a couple degrees, and I reglued it, possibly making it match
the other or if possible, looking for the small file mark that should
be there at 32 or 100, iirc.

I also have the thermometer my mother bought when I was born, or maybe
when my brother was born. He's 75. It shows pretty much the same
temperature too, though I'll admit it's in the bathroom for some
reason.

I also have a square digital one that was $10 or 12 and includes a
humidty gauge. For decades unless it had wet and dry thermometers and
a chart, they were inaccurate, and for all I know, they still are, but
I figured if we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to make
and accurate digital hygrometer after all these years. It keeps
track of its own min and max and iirc it's been from about 25 to 75,
which implies it works adn iiuc means it's accurate with an error of
25% or less.

I think they show the same te

Micky wrote:
On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few

It seems to me that the new one is guaranteed to be accurate. Just
look at its name, ACCURite. What do you think that means if not
accurate?

year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

I have a thermometer I bought in Chicago when I was a college
freshman, because I missed the comforts of home, 1965. And an
identical thermometer I bought in NYC in 1976 or 78 to record how cold
it got in my heatless apartment, for when I went to court. Now I
keep them just outside a first floor window and a second floor window.
When there's a bunch of them to buy, I look for one that has a modal
reading, the same as the greatest number of the other ones.

The glue or the clamp on one of them came loose after 20 years and it
sagged a couple degrees, and I reglued it, possibly making it match
the other or if possible, looking for the small file mark that should
be there at 32 or 100, iirc.

I also have the thermometer my mother bought when I was born, or maybe
when my brother was born. He's 75. It shows pretty much the same
temperature too, though I'll admit it's in the bathroom for some
reason.

I also have a square digital one that was $10 or 12 and includes a
humidty gauge. For decades unless it had wet and dry thermometers and
a chart, they were inaccurate, and for all I know, they still are, but
I figured if we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to make
and accurate digital hygrometer after all these years. It keeps
track of its own min and max and iirc it's been from about 25 to 75,
which implies it works adn iiuc means it's accurate with an error of
25% or less.

I think they show the same te

There is such thing. Just you can't expect from a 10.00 one. My Davis
weather station cost ~50 times 10.00. It just works great. Never let me
down over the years. At 4 year mark I had to replace a rechargeable Li.
battery. Still gives temperatures, humidity(in and outdoor), atmospheric
pressure, wind direction/speed, and atomic time, etc. on my station
console indoor.

KenK wrote:
I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

I like accuracy too. Never figured ou how to cal both my remotes. One often
goes way off. As said, testing devices is tricky. You need at least one
accurate one. High wind speed is needed to offset other factors. I often
measured temps at work for lab equipment. Other probes required fast flow
water baths. It came to being a radio shack wired remote was very accurate
to one degree, became one reference. I have had obtained good accuracy
with IR devices, both Harbor Freight and Fluke. I found the fluke is only
accurate when the device itself is about room temperature. Even got
variation with mercury lab thermometers. Average out your readings with at
least 3 devices. Even a cheap hvac thermostat could be used as another
reference, but I have had to cal those, as some are able to be set.

Greg

On 11/09/2015 01:10 PM, KenK wrote:
I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?


You want accuracy? Stop buying thermometers from McBigBoxSuperWareHouseStore.

Buy a NIST traceable lab thermometer from Amazon.

On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few
year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

Don't forget, the liquid inside is affected by the moon phases, just
like the ocean tides. When doing a comparison, be sure to check the
local tidal charts and do the comparisons at a slack time.

Ed Pawlowski wrote: "Don't forget, the liquid inside is affected by the moon phases, just
like the ocean tides. When doing a comparison, be sure to check the
local tidal charts and do the comparisons at a slack time. "


LMAO!! Fell out of my chair after reading that. But
seriously, for basic wall thermometers, look at 3 or more
in a hardware store, and go for the one in the middle of
the spread. I.E.: 68, 69, 71, 73F: Buy the 69 or 71deg
one!

On Tue, 10 Nov 2015 06:05:09 -0500, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

Don't forget, the liquid inside is affected by the moon phases, just
like the ocean tides. When doing a comparison, be sure to check the
local tidal charts and do the comparisons at a slack time.

Amazing, the things one can learn on the Internet

On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 15:41:06 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

And truly if the temp readout is within a degree or two does it really matter?

Here in the desert, if mine reads 110°F or above to 117°F, we just say
"damn it's hot" today.

On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 18:44:23 -0700, Tony Hwang
wrote:

Micky wrote:
On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a few

It seems to me that the new one is guaranteed to be accurate. Just
look at its name, ACCURite. What do you think that means if not
accurate?

year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70. The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

I have a thermometer I bought in Chicago when I was a college
freshman, because I missed the comforts of home, 1965. And an
identical thermometer I bought in NYC in 1976 or 78 to record how cold
it got in my heatless apartment, for when I went to court. Now I
keep them just outside a first floor window and a second floor window.
When there's a bunch of them to buy, I look for one that has a modal
reading, the same as the greatest number of the other ones.

The glue or the clamp on one of them came loose after 20 years and it
sagged a couple degrees, and I reglued it, possibly making it match
the other or if possible, looking for the small file mark that should
be there at 32 or 100, iirc.

I also have the thermometer my mother bought when I was born, or maybe
when my brother was born. He's 75. It shows pretty much the same
temperature too, though I'll admit it's in the bathroom for some
reason.

I also have a square digital one that was $10 or 12 and includes a
humidty gauge. For decades unless it had wet and dry thermometers and
a chart, they were inaccurate, and for all I know, they still are, but
I figured if we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to make
and accurate digital hygrometer after all these years. It keeps
track of its own min and max and iirc it's been from about 25 to 75,
which implies it works adn iiuc means it's accurate with an error of
25% or less.

I think they show the same te

There is such thing. Just you can't expect from a 10.00 one. My Davis
weather station cost ~50 times 10.00. It just works great. Never let me
down over the years. At 4 year mark I had to replace a rechargeable Li.
battery. Still gives temperatures, humidity(in and outdoor), atmospheric
pressure, wind direction/speed, and atomic time, etc. on my station
console indoor.
...and for those wondering after reading that, the Davis weather
stations are spec'ed at 1 degree F accuracy. So at 100 degrees,
that's 1% and at 50 degrees it is 2%.

Oren wrote in
:

On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 15:41:06 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

And truly if the temp readout is within a degree or two does it really
matter?

Here in the desert, if mine reads 110°F or above to 117°F, we just say
"damn it's hot" today.


Not to brag (of course!) we see 117 a few days most every summer. If I
recall, once we had 125. 120 several times. Now it's in the 70s and I'm
freezing to death! (Yuma AZ)


--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

On Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at 1:32:01 AM UTC-8, Chiily Willy wrote:

You want accuracy? Stop buying thermometers from McBigBoxSuperWareHouseStore.

Buy a NIST traceable lab thermometer from Amazon.

I trust my 50 year old ASTM Mercury filled thermometer (0-300°C)
While working in a lab we had a set of 5 calibrated lab thermometers and a set of (I think were) NBS Iridium weights for the electronic balance.
When the lab closed, the main branch (of course) wanted them

wrote in
:

Ed Pawlowski wrote: "Don't forget, the liquid inside is affected by
the moon phases, just like the ocean tides. When doing a comparison,
be sure to check the local tidal charts and do the comparisons at a
slack time. "


LMAO!! Fell out of my chair after reading that. But
seriously, for basic wall thermometers, look at 3 or more
in a hardware store, and go for the one in the middle of
the spread. I.E.: 68, 69, 71, 73F: Buy the 69 or 71deg
one!


That's what I did last two times. But I fear they may all have been
equally wrong!


--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

Ed Pawlowski wrote in
:

On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with
a few year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient
home thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at
about 70. The readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the
course? I'd really like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck
with Accurite digitsl thermos and wind indicators in the past so
didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

Don't forget, the liquid inside is affected by the moon phases, just
like the ocean tides. When doing a comparison, be sure to check the
local tidal charts and do the comparisons at a slack time.

Well, there's my problem! Never knew that. I should have checked Google
and found those instructions before I made that comparison.

--
You know it's time to clean the refrigerator
when something closes the door from the inside.

On 10 Nov 2015 17:29:29 GMT, KenK wrote:

Oren wrote in
:

On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 15:41:06 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

And truly if the temp readout is within a degree or two does it really
matter?

Here in the desert, if mine reads 110°F or above to 117°F, we just say
"damn it's hot" today.


Not to brag (of course!) we see 117 a few days most every summer. If I
recall, once we had 125. 120 several times. Now it's in the 70s and I'm
freezing to death! (Yuma AZ)

70? You must be having a heat wave. Here it is 51°F, feels 42°F with
56% humidity. (Las Vegas)

On Tue, 10 Nov 2015 09:52:03 -0800, Oren wrote:

On 10 Nov 2015 17:29:29 GMT, KenK wrote:

Oren wrote in
m:

On Mon, 9 Nov 2015 15:41:06 -0800 (PST), bob haller
wrote:

And truly if the temp readout is within a degree or two does it really
matter?

Here in the desert, if mine reads 110°F or above to 117°F, we just say
"damn it's hot" today.


Not to brag (of course!) we see 117 a few days most every summer. If I
recall, once we had 125. 120 several times. Now it's in the 70s and I'm
freezing to death! (Yuma AZ)

70? You must be having a heat wave. Here it is 51°F, feels 42°F with
56% humidity. (Las Vegas)

Still upper 80s here. (SW Fla) but they say we may see 70s next week
My pool is still around 83 but that can change in a hurry with a few
cool lights.

"Pat" wrote in message
news

There is such thing. Just you can't expect from a 10.00 one. My Davis
weather station cost ~50 times 10.00. It just works great. Never let me
down over the years. At 4 year mark I had to replace a rechargeable Li.
battery. Still gives temperatures, humidity(in and outdoor), atmospheric
pressure, wind direction/speed, and atomic time, etc. on my station
console indoor.
...and for those wondering after reading that, the Davis weather
stations are spec'ed at 1 degree F accuracy. So at 100 degrees,
that's 1% and at 50 degrees it is 2%.

For most meters it is more common to specify a % of full scale and/or +/- so
many degrees. As that Davis Weather station aproaches 1 deg F it becomes
off by 100 %.

Even high dollars do not mean much sometimes. Where I worked we had a
vessel that was heated to about 300 deg C. Two computer screens were being
used to monitor the temperature. They went to a controller system that did
lots of other things and cost around $ 200,000. In that vessel was a rod
about 3/8 of an inch in diameter that had 2 thermocouples and 2 RTDs. It
cost about $ 200. A process engineer did not like it that the computers
would read out to 3 decimal places but the two screens were off by about 2
deg C from each other. I took a $ 4000 instrument and hooked it to all of
the sense elements in that rod and there was about 3 or 4 degrees from the
lowest to the highest. He asked me which one was correct... I told him to
take his pick as they all were.

Top posting
If either one of you are mechanics for higher you should have two types of
Thermometers, One laser and second one Thermo Couple industrial type
and not drugstore ten cense item.

"Tony Hwang" wrote in message ...

Micky wrote:
On 9 Nov 2015 18:10:12 GMT, KenK wrote:


I just bought a new Accurite indoor/outdoor thermometer to try to get
accurate readings. It differed by 2 deg at about 40 this morning with a
few

It seems to me that the new one is guaranteed to be accurate. Just
look at its name, ACCURite. What do you think that means if not
accurate?

year old identical thermo. Yesterday I put those two, an ancient home
thermo and a refrigerator thermo (all I had) side by side at about 70.
The
readings varied from 67 to 74. Is this about par for the course? I'd
really
like to find one I can believe. I've had bad luck with Accurite digitsl
thermos and wind indicators in the past so didn't try another one.

Sugestions or is it hopeless to expect more than 2 to 3% accuracy? Or
perhaps I shouldn't care?

I have a thermometer I bought in Chicago when I was a college
freshman, because I missed the comforts of home, 1965. And an
identical thermometer I bought in NYC in 1976 or 78 to record how cold
it got in my heatless apartment, for when I went to court. Now I
keep them just outside a first floor window and a second floor window.
When there's a bunch of them to buy, I look for one that has a modal
reading, the same as the greatest number of the other ones.

The glue or the clamp on one of them came loose after 20 years and it
sagged a couple degrees, and I reglued it, possibly making it match
the other or if possible, looking for the small file mark that should
be there at 32 or 100, iirc.

I also have the thermometer my mother bought when I was born, or maybe
when my brother was born. He's 75. It shows pretty much the same
temperature too, though I'll admit it's in the bathroom for some
reason.

I also have a square digital one that was $10 or 12 and includes a
humidty gauge. For decades unless it had wet and dry thermometers and
a chart, they were inaccurate, and for all I know, they still are, but
I figured if we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to make
and accurate digital hygrometer after all these years. It keeps
track of its own min and max and iirc it's been from about 25 to 75,
which implies it works adn iiuc means it's accurate with an error of
25% or less.

I think they show the same te

There is such thing. Just you can't expect from a 10.00 one. My Davis
weather station cost ~50 times 10.00. It just works great. Never let me
down over the years. At 4 year mark I had to replace a rechargeable Li.
battery. Still gives temperatures, humidity(in and outdoor), atmospheric
pressure, wind direction/speed, and atomic time, etc. on my station
console indoor.