# Coralife Digital Thermometer, Anyone ever use it?



## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

Hello everyone, Just wondering if anyone has ever used the Coralife Digital Thermometer? I bought it at big als (IN Canada)just 2 days ago because my floating one seems to have moisture building on the inside and i found it hard if not impossible to read it.
Has anyone else used these? It's a pretty nifty gadget, cost about 13Bucks at Big-als and i put it in the tank right away. GLAD i did,,, temperature was reading 86.7 farenheit.... YIKES.......
So right away i turned the heater back and found out i have a problem with my stupid heater, That will be a topic in another post....
thanks for any comments.
sheldon


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## Guams (Aug 21, 2009)

I have two of them and love them. The probe can be put almost anywhere, and the readout can be stuck out of site. :thumb: :thumb:


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

I had several that all turned out to be very unreliable. I ended up tossing them out.


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## DrgRcr (Jun 23, 2009)

I have 3 of them and I also like them for the reasons stated above. So far they seem pretty accurate.


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## hey_wood1981 (Apr 7, 2004)

prov356 said:


> I had several that all turned out to be very unreliable. I ended up tossing them out.


What do you use now?


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

TheLifeguard digital. It's more, but I have 5 in use and they're pretty good. Not erratic at all. Are they perfect? No hobbyist thermometer is going to be. But I've double checked them against others and even each other and they've all been +/- 1 degree. I don't think you'll do better with hobbyist grade stuff.


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## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

prov356 said:


> TheLifeguard digital. It's more, but I have 5 in use and they're pretty good. Not erratic at all. Are they perfect? No hobbyist thermometer is going to be. But I've double checked them against others and even each other and they've all been +/- 1 degree. I don't think you'll do better with hobbyist grade stuff.


Just clicked on your link Prov356 and thanks... LOOKS cool and appears to do a lot. Was looking for something with an audible alarm... Little bit pricey but heh it could be worth it if you end up with cooked fish and then it will cost a whole lot more. Tks.. will look for that one. Might get it for XMAS if the LADY gives me the nod, and i can find it in Ontario, Canada.
thanks a bunch
sheldon


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## unclerandy (Dec 19, 2004)

Not very accurate


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## jeaninel (Nov 1, 2009)

I had the CoralLifes in a couple of my tanks and found they were off by about 3-5 degrees (F). I went back to the good ole glass thermometers.


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## hey_wood1981 (Apr 7, 2004)

I too like the glass ones becuse they're cheap. However, in a tank of severums, they don't last very long. Also, once shattered, they aren't very fun to clean up out of the sand.


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## Totalimmortal363 (Jan 10, 2008)

I've had a flowerhorn break a few glass ones, but they're much more accurate than my coralife. It just sits in my closet now


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## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

heh everyone, Thank-you for your comments. I purchased another floater thermometer the other day to compare and well the digital is spot on with this one... So far i'm quite happy with it......

Cheers!!! and thanks to all for your comments...
sheldon


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## bma57 (Sep 16, 2007)

jeaninel said:


> I had the CoralLifes in a couple of my tanks and found they were off by about 3-5 degrees (F). I went back to the good ole glass thermometers.


I had the same experience and "retired" my Coralife digital as well. This won't work for everyone, but I went to a pool thermometer. I have corner overflows, so I just used cable ties to attach the thermometer to one of the drain pipes in an overflow. It's inexpensive, very accurate, easy to read, and is out of sight.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I bought a digital Coral Life thermometer and I loved it! It worked great, so well I bought 11 more...

By the time each of them were 6 months old they were reading inconsistent with glass thermometers as well as reading inconsistent with each other... after bringing home a lab grade thermometer from work I confirmed my glass thermometers were consistently reliable and the Coral Life Digis were random and useless...

I'ev pulled them out a coupel of times and tinkered with them hoping to discover a way to get them back in yuse, but they have a permanent home in the bottom of a box in the bottom of a closet...


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## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

Tks everyone for your comments... Most appreciated... For now i will just stick with this one and two glass ones and see how long it lasts before i have any issues......
Again thank-you all
sheldon


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

You can basically go straight to the source, order these, and have the same darn thing as the Coral Life's, for $3.50 each (which includes shipping).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0396836181

This is the same product as the Coral Life's, you are just ordering it from Hong Kong, where it is made, skipping the markup price.

For $3.50, who cares if it last forever or is a few degrees off. The fact they measure a few degrees off is irrelevent. Use a standard thermometer to determine how inaccurate it is and just adjust the display in your head, substracting or adding the difference. What's important is the ability to know the temp has changed and these types of digi-thermometers make that easy.


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## sim_plic_i_ty (Dec 15, 2009)

kmuda said:


> You can basically go straight to the source, order these, and have the same darn thing as the Coral Life's, for $3.50 each (which includes shipping).
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0396836181
> 
> ...


Good find =D>

I just bought a Coralife one - seems to be working well so far. As someone else said, I like how it can be hidden from view if needed, or displayed as a cool gadget, whatever floats your boat


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

I had the Coral life as well and the same thing happened they were great at first and bam they crapped out. I went to the original glass thermometers and I'm really like the one's Prov posted on the first page of this thread. :thumb:


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

:? 
pity I've seen this thread one short month after purchasing this device... 
oh well... better to be out $9 and lesson learned than wonder what happened when it dies only to buy a second! :thumb:


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## jrf (Nov 10, 2009)

Mine isn't even 2 months old and the temp reading bounces up and down like a yoyo. I replaced it with a plain old glass thermometer. It's harder to see, but at least it's reliable.


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## paradigmsk8er (Apr 13, 2009)

I have one of the small digital thermos, not coralife but LFS knockoff I guess. It was pretty reliable and relatively close to the old school type..nice thing was it could take an accurate reading within 2 min of being dunked in a tank


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## Gordon C. Snelling (Apr 15, 2007)

I am curious, has anyone with one of these fluctuating coral lifes changed the battery? Mine are reading very low after about a years use and I am thinking battery may be the issue. admittedly I havent tried this fix yet but it may be part of the problem.


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

I got one of the ebay cheapos and it's worked great for 12 months now, maybe I just got lucky. I love it.


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## Geddonight (Aug 7, 2009)

We have 5 Coralife thermometers in various tanks. So far no malfunctions in 6 months... *shrug*


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## PTK (Nov 8, 2009)

Like you said love-my-fish, the glass thermometers are just too difficult to read. All I have ever used is my Jager heater & Coralife digital thermometer. Works for me!


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## flaxseedoil1000 (Dec 27, 2009)

Someone needs to offer a digital that can be calibrated with a glass


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## vfc (Feb 13, 2007)

I had a LifeGard digital but tossed it after two years.

It worked fine the first year. However, during the second year, I kept adjusting my heater down because the temp kept registering higher than my 79 degree target. I gave up and settled for 80 degrees for most of a year.

I recently replaced the heater with an In-Line. I noticed I had to set the temp dial at the minimum setting (~ 72) to get back to 80. Then the light bulb went off in my head; BAD TEMP MONITOR.

Poor fish, I had them in 70 degree temperature for a year. I now have two stick-on LCD temp strips on each tank. My new ETH In-Line heater dial is set for 79 and the two LCD temp strips measure exactly 79. Nothing like the good old LCD temp strip and a bargain at $3 each.

BTW - I did change the AAA battery each year on the LifeGard. I even tried a new set before I declared the LifeGard defective.


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## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

PTK said:


> Like you said love-my-fish, the glass thermometers are just too difficult to read. All I have ever used is my Jager heater & Coralife digital thermometer. Works for me!


Well so far.. it's still working great.. I don't keep it on all the time.. only switch it on for about 2-3 minutes to do a check and that's it......But i check almost everyday to make sure the Jager is keeping up to snuff... so far very happy with both........

thanks 
sheldon


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