MARATHON BA030001 Vertical Outdoor Thermometer - 16-Inch

I read all of the reviews including the negative ones before purchasing one. I have to say that one that I rec'd was accurate and for the issue of reading it, if you're too far back from anything it is going to be harder to read. I have mine mounted in my horse barn and I can read it from a distance. I used the screws that came with it even though I had longer screws and the original ones worked well, keeping in mind that it is in a barn and no doubt will be bumped by people or horses, I have no issues. I was more than pleased with the size of it as I wanted something larger. In the last week we had a wide swing in temperature ranging from -10c to +8 and it is accurate.

As someone who's grown tired of the wild inaccuracy of dial and digital thermometers, even after calibrating them more than once, it was nice to find a simple, old-school glass thermometer that came out of the box with dead-on accuracy (checked with a lab-grade laser thermometer) and can be expected to remain accurate/linear across the reasonable temperature range here (about 0-100). It mounted easily on a porch pillar that is perfect for temperature averaging and visible through a sliding glass door. Yes, it has a narrow viewing angle; that's inherent in this style. But I'll take a moment extra to read a temperature I can trust; not much use in being able to see a +/-20 degree temp at a glance. (By the way, you can recalibrate this model of thermometer if needed: carefully remove the glue bead and slide the tube up or down on the holder until it's aligned. Check the adjustment a few times across temp changes, then use a drop of silicone caulk or adhesive to lock the tube in place again.)

This is a good deck thermometer. Its big, and clear, but like all thermometers of this type, have a narrow field of view where the tiny red line is magnified by the glass to be clear and wide. That is you have to view it from just the right spot for it to be clear. The exaggerated height is good for resolution, but its no good if you cant see the red line at all. So looking across a deck, its unlikely you will be able to see the red line at all because you are not in 'just the right place'. You really still need to walk right up to it to read the temperature. If its functionality you want, get a digital one (for accuracy of +/- 1 deg) or a circular one for clarity at a distance. This giant thermometer is more about looks than functionality. If you think its not accurate you can slide the glass thermometer part up or down in the plastic housing to make it read what you think it should be at the specific temperature at that moment - no guarantees it will be correct when the temp changes by 10 deg.

Got two of these. One is mounted about four feet outside the back door. It is hard to read because where it had to be mounted is not directly in front of the door window but about 25-30 degrees off to the side of the viewing area. It’s easy to see and read as long as one is standing exactly directly in front of it. A large ancient certified professional mercury thermometer was retrieved from its hallowed box in its sacred storage trunk and used to test these humble plastic and glass contraptions and they are both surprisingly accurate and consistent with each other. I’m happy I can actually see them without having to almost put my nose to them, and I do love having simple analog devices instead of ever more battery powered digital stuff.These thermometers come in simple cardboard boxes with no padding or protection whatsoever, and they were both tossed in a huge Amazon box (with two rain gauges) with no air bag padding or packing whatsoever. Usually I get everything, even pillows, thoroughly and tightly stuffed into boxes with little air bags; in this case, not a single little airbag was used, and this shipment could definitely have used much better packing - guess I was just plain lucky that none of the thermometers broke.

I had the Marathon BA030003 mounted outside my my kitchen patio door. Since it is a fairly large thermometer, it is very easy to read the temperature from inside the house. The Marathon BA030001 is designed to mount on the wall, so I have to use a metal bracket and a piece if wood to mount it at an angle so that I can read it from inside the house. A word on the accurate, I calibrated the Marathon thermometer with my electronic thermostat and there is a 1 degree Celsius different between the two. However, I cannot confirm whether my thermostat or the Marathon reading is off though. In general, I am happy with product.