How do I check the temperature inside my incubator?

[Gadzala]

I bought some breeding equipment a while back but was waiting for my geckos to fatten up/get older. It's almost time, and I wanted to ask how I check the temperature inside the incubator as accurately as possible?

I was reading that if I set the temperature accurately enough I can attempt to only breed females which is my goal. I was going to get a laser thermometer but theres so many to choose from and I was reading that some can be inaccurate by as much as 10 F, if anyone has one that works for them could you tell me which one you have, or what you use?

 

[favrielle]

I currently have a probe thermometer from ZooMed in my incubator, with the thermometer probe buried partway in the hatching medium in one of the containers, and the display part of the thermometer sitting on top of the container. I'm using a Reptibator, though, so the whole top is clear and I can read the display without opening the incubator at all. With the laser/infrared thermometer, wouldn't you have to open the incubator & container in order to get an accurate read on the hatching medium temperature?

 

[Gadzala]

I currently have a probe thermometer from ZooMed in my incubator, with the thermometer probe buried partway in the hatching medium in one of the containers, and the display part of the thermometer sitting on top of the container. I'm using a Reptibator, though, so the whole top is clear and I can read the display without opening the incubator at all. With the laser/infrared thermometer, wouldn't you have to open the incubator & container in order to get an accurate read on the hatching medium temperature?

My incubator has a glass window on the top of it, I'm not sure how that would affect the laser/infrared though. So the probe thermometer is accurate enough?

 

[favrielle]

It seems accurate enough. I actually have two in there, but the containers they're measuring are in different places and on different levels of the incubator so there is some variation in temps.