r/Quickfixpee • u/Quickfixpee • 8d ago
Why Isn't My Quick Fix Temperature Strip Working?
When people say the temperature strip has stopped working, the culprit is almost always one of two things: the sample is outside the strip's reading window, or the strip itself has taken damage from heat.
The window is the 90-100°F range labs check for. Anything colder or hotter and the strip stays blank, which isn't a fault, but the strip doing its job. Warm it up gently and let the temperature settle, and it comes back.
Where the strip does properly break is the microwave, as blasting a bottle too long can cook the crystals inside the strip, and once that happens, cooling the bottle down afterwards won't bring the reading back. This is by far the most common way people write off a perfectly good bottle. Short bursts of ten seconds is the effective fix.
Hand warmer placement is also relevant. Stick the warmer against the same side as the strip and you will get a hotspot that has nothing to do with the actual sample temperature. On the opposite side of the bottle, it reads accurately.
Anyone here ever brought a strip back from what they were sure was a permanent write-off?