In the category of dumb,
stupid, accessories, comes the Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer. Well, in a sense it's
not dumb. It does tell the temperature outside, so if it is approaching the freezing
mark and you, meanwhile are sitting fat, dumb and happy inside (with the hardtop on) and
need to know if there is a risk of black ice, this could be useful. Not that it
would change anything but hey, it was cheap...
Installation was stupid
easy. I ran the outdoor thermometer sensor inside the same channel that carries the
rest of the wires to the back of the jeep, and sticky taped it to the underside of the
front fender in a place where it would not pick up engine heat.
I concealed the wires
coming out of the display unit inside the speaker grill on the dash. I wedged the
display between the gap in the dash parts near the lights. It's not very visible but
that's life.
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1/18/04 After one
year, almost to the day, the replacement unit was discovered to have a severed external
wire lead. Since the unit has proven useful, I repaired the lead and put it inside a
wire harness tube that should protect it from getting caught in anything that might damage
it. I also replaced the battery with a rechargeable one.
1/12/03 After a couple
years of service, the first unit became unreliable due to problems with the external
sensor lead. But for $15 it was not a great loss - two years service for $15?
What's not to like?
I found a replacement that brought the
added capability of recording the high and low temperature of the day in addition to
displaying the current indoor and outdoor temperatures.
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I relocated the external
sensor to the front bumper because the various locations I tried first gave false readings
due to engine heat. (White stuff is snow)
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I ran the sensor wire
(small one leading off the left) along the frame and up through the engine compartment out
of harms way to the fire wall and through the plug near the gas pedal.
(View from inside
Jeep)
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Owing to the size of the
new unit, I mounted it in a new location on the dash
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The display is a little
inconvenient to see from the driver's seat but not impossible. It has a little light
for night too!
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