Customer Reviews

Vicks One-Second Ear Thermometer

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I purchased this because I was tired of long waits to get temperatures in the mouth or under the arm. Reading the packaging made this thermometer seem the fastest and most dependable.
Although the readings were consistent and fast, they constantly fell short of accurate. My wife, myself, and our daughter all had readings of 93 degrees. My wife and I both read the directions and both tried multiple ways (angles and depths) of taking our temperatures. We cleaned out our ears, and we always got low temperatures.

you would be better off sticking a meat thermometer in your ear... it would be more accurate. readings may be correct for a turtle but no good for a human. keep this thing away from your ears. should be recalled.

Okay so I bought this thermometer and find it handy for the WHOLE family. By far the best investement I've ever made. Its very convenient, super quick, and accurate. The only I don't like about this particular brand is the fever alert feature when it detects a high fever. I have a drama queen daughter, and the feature lets her know "hey i have proof i'm sick, better kick it up a notch". I previously owned a braun and when I saw she had a temp I was able to play it off and tell her that she didn't have a temp but that i was giving her some tylenol "just in case". That doesn't work anymore. Other than that its awesome, highly recommended.

Typing in all caps, with hundreds of exclamation points would not convene my dislike for this product. My daughter clearly has a fever, she is burning up when I took her temperature it was 93.4... huh? she is borderline hypothermic? I don't think so. This thing is a piece of junk. I took my temperature multiple times and never got the same reading twice.

I have only ever been able to get accurate readings on this thermometer once. The rest of the time the readings tend to be on the low side and can fluctuate by a number of degrees from readings taken within seconds of each other. It is hard to even get a ballpark estimate of what the temperature might be in these instances. I have tried using it with the probe covers as recommended and in desperation tried it without the covers. I still got inaccurate readings. I would spend my money on something else.

this is a piece of junk. Takes wildly inconsistent readings. Save your money.

I purchased this because of the great price, and what I got was a broken package and corroded batteries. It needless to say did not work at all.

This thermometer is no better than measuring your child's temperature with your hand. I've had it for about 2 years, and I initially thought it was inaccurate because my child was smaller, maybe she had smaller ear canals, etc. Now at almost 4 years old and staying perfectly still, this themometer will give readings of 102.0 to 104.5 in the same sitting. Luckily, at this age, taking an oral temp is almost doable. I'm a pediatrician, and tracking the height of the fever is sometimes important. Before trying one, I never recommended ear thermometers to any of my patients. Now, after using one, that hasn't changed.

Ordinarily, these little gadgets retail for around fifty a piece. Somehow, some way, I managed to get one for 15 through Amazon. I'd intended to abandon the rectal thermometer, and move toward something a little more humane - at least that was the idea. However, minute to minute, there can be as much as a degree plus swing in the reading. Take the temperature, 99.7. Take it (literally) a minute later, 100.8. Really? Same ear - a minute apart. And, dear Vicks, it isn't worth your time to attribute the variance to misuse. The directions are clear - pull the ear a little so that you can completely insert and get a straight shot down the ear canal, etc. etc. I'll keep it - it was 15 bucks, and if I can somehow rig it to perform correctly, then fine. But so far, I just don't trust this little gadget.

I bought this thermometer when my first son was small (about 8 years ago) and took me a couple of times to figure it out. After a couple of tries, I became comfortable in getting a very good, consistent reading.
We left the US for a few years and one of the only things we took with us was our thermometer: easy to use even on sleeping kids. We also took a new, pricey temple thermometer by another maker with us. As it happened, the forehead/temple thermometer was useless, while our Vicks kept on working (even after a few hits on the road).
The only big downside are the covers... we ran out of sensor covers and there was no way to find refills. We covered our sensor with plastic wrap and worked resonably good- better than the temple one.
Now that we are back within Postal and Package delivery service, we decided to get another one of the Vicks before our old one gives up- and extra sensor covers. I was baffled by the reviews! But we are still believers.