Do calibration devices lose accuracy?

[Snapperuk]

I have a Spyder 3 (Elite) that I have had for a few years now. I was just wondering if these things need to be replaced regularly or are they good indefinitely?
A friend of mine has an x-rite i1 (maybe 4 years old) and the results we get using the two different devices on a brand new Eizo Coloredge are no where near each other.
So my question is... Could one or both of the devices have lost accuracy

[pnodrog]

Yes - they may have both drifted off calibration in different directions (no where near each other) or one has a fault such as a dry solder joint on a resistor etc. that is not apparent in its operation. You may need to use a third one to try and fathom out what is going on. If two more or less agree you will have a better idea of the problem.

[Manfred M]

I use the i1 as well and it is quite old and still gives me good results, but every so often I get some results that are off previous results and end up recalibrating and generally end up where I expect it to be. I don't have an explanation other than perhaps some issues with ambient light, not being mounted on the screen quite properly, etc. I have read that this is not particularly uncommon and re-running the profiling software will usually result in a better reading.

I can see the units going off if the surface of the sensor gets contaminated. Use it in an environment with a smoker around and I have no doubt that you will get a yellow-brown deposit over the photodetector and that would throw things off completely. In theory it should recalibrate itself as the first step of running the routine, but....

[pthoutex]

I have a Spyder 3 (Elite) that I have had for a few years now. I was just wondering if these things need to be replaced regularly or are they good indefinitely?
A friend of mine has an x-rite i1 (maybe 4 years old) and the results we get using the two different devices on a brand new Eizo Coloredge are no where near each other.
So my question is... Could one or both of the devices have lost accuracy

This is not what you are asking for, but it maybe somewhat related to your question. I also have a Spyder 3 Elite that I bought back in 2008. In late 2010, I had an offer from Datacolor to upgrade the Spyder 3 software to the Spyder 4 Elite. I took up the offer and has been running my Spyder puck using the Spyder 4 software. Have you upgraded your software?