Temperature sensor housing DS18B20

[zboblamont]

Hadn't seen this mentioned but perhaps I missed it, more plumbing hardware than electronic, but perhaps useful for others.
Having tried a variety of plates and heat-sink compounds and tie-wraps to hold these little chips in position on small sections of metal pipe (my rads are fed with fused plastic pipe), I came up with the solution of using pipe clips, the cheap plastic variety from DIY stores and hardware merchants.
The first problem hit was with attaching plated sensor the the boiler clamp nut, it was off by 10c and no way could I get a more accurate reading, presumably angle? Finally found a pipe clip which got hacked in half to fit in the tiny gap in the photo... Some hacking with a Dremel, some soldering to a pin connector, some fiddling around with epoxy and voici....

The gap
The tie wrap in the top of the photo is the original plate mounted version which was "off"..

Having scored on that front with more reliable readings I looked at the roving radiator test kit and realised the same solution might apply so epoxied the chip on the end of some telephone line in a 22mm clamp and it works a treat. Cable and chip fit neatly into the screw-hole, flood with epoxy and done. The pipe it fits is 21.5mm so tighter than a duck's rear end...

As said, a tight fit to a twinwall radiator feed pipe, and a complete swine to get back off even with pliers, but no broken wires or oopsies to contend with, and so much faster to fit.
For those looking to measure metal pipe temperatures, possibly an unusual if fiddly solution, but no need of tie-wraps in the latter case...