I’m starting to realize the tags have some inherent issues, not necessarily design flaws as I’m sure the designers weren’t thinking of strapping them to a pipe.
The circuit board is sandwiched between the top case and the removable bottom. The pipe has to heat the plastic, the plastic heats the air and the air finally heats the temp sensor. I’m of the strong opinion now that you can calibrate them for the high or the low temp, but they won’t be accurate on both. I recalibrated the House and Shop Supply one for 180, I waited till the stove shut off, then waited till I seen the temp tick down to 179, recalibrated the sensor to read 179.5, problem is know after looking at the chart overnight it never dropped below 165 or so, I think the case holds too much residual heat.
If your just looking for something simple to warn you if the water dropped below a certain temp this will do it, if you want accuracy to help figure load or efficiency I think they’re better options available, using one of the outdoor ones with a sensor that can be strapped to the pipe then wrapped in foil insulation would be MUCh more accurate and responsive, but also more spendy.
Not a complete waste of money though, I dropped the outside tag into the basement chest freezer and it reads that fine, will set the reporting down to once an hour to increase battery life, gonna drop another one in the little chest freezer we store veggies in. Have a fresh half a beef in the large one.