Wireless thermometer review

[Steve_in_C]

Short version:
$17 on eBay
Over 1 year old and works well. UPDATE: Completely failed in June, 2nd season.
Using Energizer Ultimate lithium batteries
No leaks inside unit

Long version:

I had read about them and someone said that they only lasted a year. I also read that they leaked inside. A tiny bit of silicone grease was used on the o-ring (the same grease used for pool o-rings). Then I tightened the floating unit very tight using 2 jar grips. This worked well for quite some time, then began to have 2 recurrent problems: 1) temperature would go from Celcius to Farenheit on the floating unit and 2) base unit would no longer receive signal from the wireless floating unit.

Problem 1: in order to reset the unit, you'd have to unscrew the floating thermometer (difficult since I would screw it together very tightly with jar grips). Once open, you press a switch in the unit to toggle back and forth between C and F degrees. This process proved to be futile as the unit would covert back to C within a day normally.

Problem 2: the base unit and floating unit become unpaired. To fix this, you would take the batteries out of the base unit for a bit. Reinstalling the batteries would make the unit repair. This would only last a few hours or a day before becoming unpaired again.

Problems 1&2: alkaline batteries tested good. New batteries made the "fix" last longer but still a nuisance. Ordered a new one (slow delivery from China). Before new one arrived, I tried Energizer Ultimate lithium batteries (only because I read about them in Consumer Reports). To my surprise this fixed the problem. The wireless thermometer working again and in its second year of service. UPDATE: failed in June of second season - see post #4

 

[SuzfromTexas]

Thanks for your review, Steve! You gave a great review which included your problem solving. That's awesome. I might need to order one.

 

[Steve_in_C]

The last one I ordered was for the battery version (when mine wasn't working). It came in and is the solar version. Since I don't know if the solar version will hold up, I asked for a refund through eBay. The seller refunded the money and did not ask for the solar wireless floating thermometer to be shipped back.

 

[Steve_in_C]

Update: my wireless thermometer has now completely failed in the second year. Battery removal will not make the unit pair like is has in the past. It has become completely unusable. So I'l lhave to go with what I had read on these previously. The thermometer will really last 1 season reliably. I'll update the top post.