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Previous: Canon printer error | Main | Next: FEMA website restriction
September 12, 2005 12:04 AM
Broken: Digital thermometer shape
Anthony Argyriou writes:
This digital thermometer has an interesting defect: it's too smooth. Why is this a problem? Because when I stick it in my mouth, under my tongue, and bite down to hold it in place, it slips out. The pressure from my teeth isn't enough to get a grip on the very smooth, tapered shaft of this instrument; instead, my teeth slowly close down on each other as the thermometer slides out of my mouth.
Not quite where they are designed to measure temperature. If they were less smooth thwy would be uncomfortable going in the intended place.
Is DEFINITELY broken, I have the same model AND the same problem , when was the last time you were sick with a fever and felt like holding the thermometer in place for a few minutes ?? and it IS an ORAL thermometer, so the mouth IS the intended place LOL
Stuart is right, this thermometer is for anal tempertures, and it gives you the temperature in 15 seconds. I have the same model one for my 9 month old infant.
Actually the thermometer's instructions (we have one, too) say it is for oral or rectal use, or under the arm. Helpfully, they *do* tell you not to use it orally once you've used it rectally. But anyway, ours was sold as an infant/toddler thermometer, which means a parent would be holding it in place during use (in either location).
And when you have ever seen a *rough* thermometer? The old glass mercury ones were pretty smooth too.
Finally, the taper is in only one plane; for your teeth to "slowly close down on each other while as the thermometer slides out", you must be putting it in vertically. Turn it 90 degrees and you'll be able to clamp down on it well enough to hold it in.
Not broken.
Seth,
Any actual comments on the design of the thermometer? A perfect design is a one in a million thing. People having difficulty with the thermometer are likely using it exactly like a the old simple stick thermometer. The problem is that the end of the thermometer is bigger and heavier than with the stick thermometer causing it to slip out easier. Perhaps its only a momentary breakdown, and people will eventually adapt to the new design, although with behavioural inertia it's difficult to say when.
I was going to be skeptical, but looking at the image, it does have a more dramatic taper than any digital thermometer I have used. Although as the other poster put it, rotate it 90 degrees.
Or splurge on one of those infrared ones that you point into your ear. I got one and never looked back.
I used to have one of these as well, many years back. The instructions state the thermometer can be used orally, otherwise I would not have purchased it.
Anyway, yes, the design makes it very hard to keep in your mouth unless you can manage to build a prop out of pillows and blankets and kleenex boxes, turn your head to the side and rest the thermometer on the home made prop.
Needless to say, I don't have this thermometer anymore.
I hate this design of thermometer, it always slips out of my mouth. Why not make the thing straight? I know there has to be a digital readout and space for the battery, but why can't we make a long thin battery (like AAA only thinner) and not put so much extra plastic around the digital display?
And to those who argue that this is a rectal thermometer: does that mean that to use it rectally REQUIRES there to be such a curve in the shape? Can we not use straight thermometers back there?
OMG! Holding a digital thermometer for a few SECONDS is way too much trouble? You cold try using it the other way, then.
I'm guessing those that don't hold it in place may be like me- subconscienciously worried about it effecting the temperature readout. Yes, I KNOW that it WON'T, but there's still that little voice in the back of my head telling me not to touch it. And like Carlos said, it's not even so much the taper as it is that the one end is so much heavier that causes it to slip out of one's mouth.
Wall*Mart has one the same shape on which the tip is rubberized for around 10$ca which works very well.
What's wrong with old-school, non-electric, thermometers? They are severely less bulky, and need no batteries...
We bought one like this and no one uses it because it is so hard to keep in your mouth. Our glass alcohol one works just as good and stays in your mouth easer.
This is something we cannot change. All oral digital thermometers I have ever seen are shaped this way. Just don't bite down on them. Done.
Ten years ago, we'd be reading about a broken thermometer design that fills one's mouth with glass bits and poisons one with mercury. You don't bite thermometers, regardless of what you see in comic books and cartoons!
Julie: This is about product design. In one short post, you declare it not broken, but yet admit to it being difficult to use. A thermometer for home use shouldn't be difficult to use. If it is, then the design has failed a fairly important criteria.
Glass thermometers have supposedly been outlawed. My daughter bit a glass thermometer in half and it was very scarey trying to get the glass and mercury out of her mouth. She fell asleep and when I tried to take it out of her mouth, it scared her and she bit it in half.
For the sake of our environment, they should not be disposed of in your garbage. Call the EPA for information on where to dispose of them.
On the new plastic ones, here is my advice: don't stick it under your tongue in the front of your mouth. It should be properly placed under and along side your tongue, more to the back. This will give you more leverage and a more correct temp. Also, I have found the first reading to always be too low and it should be taken a second time. Hope this helps.
"Also, I have found the first reading to always be too low and it should be taken a second time. Hope this helps."
Okay, so it's hard to keep in your mouth, and it doesn't take an accurate temperature? How is this "oral thermometer" not broken?
I noticed something fairly broken with this thread. In one comment, someone said they had this thermometer and that it could be used orally or rectally (I would just use it orally, thank you very much), but someone else said tat they also had it and that it could only be used orally. Can the original poster give us some more details on the thermometer?
Due to noname's post, we now have the same thermometer being used in three completely different ways.
I've had this thermometer for ten years. I've never had to replace the battery---the only good thing about it. I'm too cheap to buy a better one...children are now grown and I don't care what my temperature is when I'm sick:) By the way, where this this post that it is NOW Sept. 13th????
Sorry. The preview said it was Sept. 13th...maybe that's broken:>) Also, my first 'this' should have been 'is'...not very good at typing :
Why couldn't they have put a ridge away from the end of the shaft that you could brace your teeth against without actually having to chomp down on it?
It's really not a problem, assuming you can bite down at all. I have that model, and it's never a problem at all. So There!
>Julie: NOT BROKEN...Just hard to use. Buy a different one.
Uh, Julie, do you get the entire point of this forum? Hard to use, by definition, IS BROKEN!
If it is hard to use something as it is intended to be used, it is a broken design that should be fixed.
4 models + Sido's model = 5 models for the same tool
Anthony, what model is that thermometer and how is it used?!?!?!
I have a thermometer that is pretty much exactly the same and I usually have no problem with it. It has slipped from my mouth once or twice, but otherwise it is fine.
Try holding it in place with your molars, you arent in public when you use it, so who cares if you look wierd. You probably would anyway just holding it in place with your hand. Plus it lets you use both hands for stuff like typing on the computer, reading newspaper, that kind of stuff.
"I hate this design of thermometer, it always slips out of my mouth. Why not make the thing straight? I know there has to be a digital readout and space for the battery, but why can't we make a long thin battery (like AAA only thinner) and not put so much extra plastic around the digital display?"
They do make a battery like this. I have seen it in one or two stores only, but it's called a AAAA. Same length, but thinner than a AAA.
You're not supposed to bite on it. You just hold it under your tounge and close your mouth.
And by the way, its not even a defect. It's supposed to be smooth.
Try shoving it in your ear, Hard. Then you won't have to worry about it popping out of your mouth. :}
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Perhaps you're supposed to hold it there with your hand? Certainly doesn't look like it's designed to be easily held in the mouth otherwise...
Posted by: Alden Bates at September 12, 2005 01:50 AM