Let’s talk thermometers
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Before Luke’s virtual visit, we needed to check temp and vitals. Got out the magic wand (contactless) and he came in at 100.8. That was surprisingly high, so I grabbed an under the tongue thermometer and it came in at 98.3.
So I tested a different tongue thermometer vs the wand, and a forehead swipe thermometer on myself and came up with a 2.5 degree range. That’s kind of large... Which method is most accurate?
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Before Luke’s virtual visit, we needed to check temp and vitals. Got out the magic wand (contactless) and he came in at 100.8. That was surprisingly high, so I grabbed an under the tongue thermometer and it came in at 98.3.
So I tested a different tongue thermometer vs the wand, and a forehead swipe thermometer on myself and came up with a 2.5 degree range. That’s kind of large... Which method is most accurate?
@LuFins-Dad said in Let’s talk thermometers:
Before Luke’s virtual visit, we needed to check temp and vitals. Got out the magic wand (contactless) and he came in at 100.8. That was surprisingly high, so I grabbed an under the tongue thermometer and it came in at 98.3.
So I tested a different tongue thermometer vs the wand, and a forehead swipe thermometer on myself and came up with a 2.5 degree range. That’s kind of large... Which method is most accurate?
https://www.marketlab.com/nist-certified-thermometer/p/NISTCertifiedThermometer/
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We have three thermomters in the house:
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Rub on the temple type - remarkably inconsistent readings.
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An alcohol-filled under-the-tongue thermometer. I suppose it can be used as an axillary thermometer as well. Very stable readings.
(sit down)
- A mercury-filled oral thermometer. Consistent, reliable, accurate. That's what we use ALL THE TIME.
When our hospital switched to skin-sensors, or even tympanic sensor thermometers, I lost all faith in the ability to take someone's temperature. The only thermometers I trusted at work was the one I put down someone's esophagus or the one in someone's bladder during surgery.!
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Lastly, I have a reference thermometer, but standards state that they must be recertified every couple of years. That's pretty much horse hooey, as I've seen thirty year-old glass reference thermometers work just fine.
Part of the reason medicine costs what it does, is the myriad certification agencies, which coupled with the government, keep changing things every year...
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When we got sick, I realized I had only one old digital thermometer in the house, and no extra batteries. And my friends couldn’t find thermometers in the store at that point. I even went searching through the vet stuff in the garage looking for the massive glass/mercury rectal thermometers I used to have
but realized that I got rid of all the glass/mercury ones because I didn’t want them breaking during our numerous moves. Once we got out of our month long quarantine, and the stores got restocked, I bought two more digitals and an alcohol one. -
We got the wand for Finley’s sake, but I am not trusting it.
The weird thing is it was the one in the middle when I tested all three on myself.
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It seems to me that the old fashioned mercury thermometer is either going to be really consistent and accurate, or not work at all, due to the sealed nature of the device, so it's not going to give readings that are inaccurate but look plausible, because once it's broke, it's really broke. Presumably you can't buy them any more, so the glass ones will have to use alcohol or something.
Once you start adding electronic sensors, and processing and shit, then you're adding in a lot more things than can go out of of whack.
We recently replaced a modern oral thermometer like the Vick's, which was all over the place and wildly inaccurate, for a forehead type, which to be honest I don't have a lot of faith with, but at least seems to be consistent.
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It seems to me that the old fashioned mercury thermometer is either going to be really consistent and accurate, or not work at all, due to the sealed nature of the device, so it's not going to give readings that are inaccurate but look plausible, because once it's broke, it's really broke. Presumably you can't buy them any more, so the glass ones will have to use alcohol or something.
Once you start adding electronic sensors, and processing and shit, then you're adding in a lot more things than can go out of of whack.
We recently replaced a modern oral thermometer like the Vick's, which was all over the place and wildly inaccurate, for a forehead type, which to be honest I don't have a lot of faith with, but at least seems to be consistent.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Let’s talk thermometers:
seems to be consistent
And that's probably the second biggest virtue (accuracy being first, of course).
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If it's not consistent, it almost certainly isn't accurate.
The problem with the forehead method is we don't know how accurately it's going to perform if anybody does get a fever, and at that point, it's probably too late to worry.
I think I might buy a liquid-in-glass as a backup. At least, I would if I could find one.
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I heard that the rectal method was more accurate, but I can't get the freaking IR beam to shine up there.
I was only joking
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I heard that the rectal method was more accurate, but I can't get the freaking IR beam to shine up there.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Let’s talk thermometers:
I heard that the rectal method was more accurate, but I can't get the freaking IR beam to shine up there.
You know the difference between a rectal and an oral thermometer, of course....
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Let’s talk thermometers:
I heard that the rectal method was more accurate, but I can't get the freaking IR beam to shine up there.
You know the difference between a rectal and an oral thermometer, of course....
@George-K said in Let’s talk thermometers:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Let’s talk thermometers:
I heard that the rectal method was more accurate, but I can't get the freaking IR beam to shine up there.
You know the difference between a rectal and an oral thermometer, of course....
Depends on who is talking, no?
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@George-K said in Let’s talk thermometers:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Let’s talk thermometers:
I heard that the rectal method was more accurate, but I can't get the freaking IR beam to shine up there.
You know the difference between a rectal and an oral thermometer, of course....
Depends on who is talking, no?
@LuFins-Dad said in Let’s talk thermometers:
You know the difference between a rectal and an oral thermometer, of course....
Depends on who is talking, no?
The taste.
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I know this isn’t helpful in the moment, but don’t presume accuracy, just get a baseline.
I take my temperature every morning and have done so for over 4 years with the same device. It is always quite low, some of that is me, some of that is probably the device. But I don’t care because I know what is a normal read.
In early March I bought two more devices for Rachel and the boy. Just during covid, they’ve been taking it every day also,
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I know this isn’t helpful in the moment, but don’t presume accuracy, just get a baseline.
I take my temperature every morning and have done so for over 4 years with the same device. It is always quite low, some of that is me, some of that is probably the device. But I don’t care because I know what is a normal read.
In early March I bought two more devices for Rachel and the boy. Just during covid, they’ve been taking it every day also,
@jon-nyc said in Let’s talk thermometers:
I know this isn’t helpful in the moment, but don’t presume accuracy, just get a baseline.
That's what we've been doing, too. The IR thermometer consistently reads around 97.6, so I'm assuming it's about a degree low. Hopefully this will remain constant in the event of a fever.
