Five thermometers, five different temperatures, a range of 16 degrees!

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psymonkey

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The subject says it all. I have a kettle with a thermometer, a brewers edge thermometer, a floating thermometer, a digital probe thermometer and a digital probe thermometer with the long cord on it that's separate from the display unit. 16 degrees F separate the highest from the lowest - WTF!!

Being a new all-grain brewer, this is really sapping my confidence ;) Has anyone else noticed any similarly off thermometers? And here I thought they were pretty basic devices with an assumed level of accuracy. MOst disconcerting is the probe that alarms when a safe for consumption temperature has been reached...it seems to be 10 degrees hotter on average than three of the other four which have reached a general consensus. That means when it tells me my meat is 150, it's really 140!!
 
Check them with ice water or boiling water. Should be 32 and 212. That way you can tell which ones are off.
 
The temperature stratifies significantly in all grain. At least that has been my experience with my few BIAB brews so far. The temp under the grain is significantly higher than the temp in the center of the grain which is higher than the temp on the surface. I try to reduce that with stirring but I don't think that is an option in normal all grain.

If you mean the thermometers themselves in the same test liquids then you need to calibrate them. Most have a screw or nut or button on them for calibration.
 
Not surprised. I have a digital instant read, and my in kettle bimetallic. The digital gets calibrated periodically against near freezing water, and I calibrated the bimetallic against that. It was about two degrees off.
 
mine were that way until i calibrated mine.
they were about 10* off from each other. but my beer was already goin, so i did it for my next brew and so far so good!
 
Yes, I love my Thermapen!

The man who has one thermometer (if it's a Thermapen) always knows what the temperature is. The man with 2 (or 5) is never quite sure. :D
 
Check them all against boiling water. If one of them says 212, it's correct. Use that one. Never use the others.

I had the same problem as you until I did exactly what I said above and now I only ever use my Blichmann Brewmometer. Getting used to one thermometer means consistent results.
 
Yeah $95 is nuts. Thermoworks (who also makes the Thermapen) makes the RT600C, I got one on Amazon, for $20!


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Takes my mash temps in 5 sec or less, just sayin'...

By the way I calibrated this thing in ice water & it dropped and stopped dead on at 32.0F.
 
If you want to do things right, you need to have the right tools. You've already purchased 5 different thermometers, time to buy the right one.
 
Yeah $95 is nuts. Thermoworks (who also makes the Thermapen) makes the RT600C, I got one on Amazon, for $20!


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Takes my mash temps in 5 sec or less, just sayin'...

By the way I calibrated this thing in ice water & it dropped and stopped dead on at 32.0F.

Thanks for the info, I just picked one of these up! After reading a few reviews it seemed a no brainier. The company really seems to stand behind this product.

In the meantime, I'll figure out which thermos are calibrated close and which are off. The one I'm the most concerned about I've had for less than a month - hopefully they'll take that one back. I'm still shocked. Maybe it's common sense, but I had no idea thermometers had such calibration issues...
 
I guess I got lucky , the cheap $5 one from the lhbs reads within 1 degree of my pid with rtd probe.
 
Thanks for the info, I just picked one of these up! After reading a few reviews it seemed a no brainier. The company really seems to stand behind this product.

In the meantime, I'll figure out which thermos are calibrated close and which are off. The one I'm the most concerned about I've had for less than a month - hopefully they'll take that one back. I'm still shocked. Maybe it's common sense, but I had no idea thermometers had such calibration issues...

Glad to help! I mean, it is from the same company that makes the Thermapen...

Spec's say the Themapen reads +/- 0.7F in 3 seconds and the RT600C +/- 1.8F in 6 seconds sooo assuming it's more than likely in between those to accuracy ranges you're gonna be reading accurate & fast. I will say in the past I had used a standard digital meat thermometer and it easily took at least 20 seconds. It's nice to be able to take a reading or several quickly and be done with it...
 
When I was a chemistry PhD candidate I taught some of the chem labs. One of the first labs was to teach the concepts of accuracy/precision/measurement using a large collection of decent scientific lab grade mercury thermometers at various reference temps. The spread was pretty dang big! Always verify/calibrate/correct your measuring devices.

BK
 
I'm a little disappointed in my thermapen. I did very limited testing with it, and haven't really concluded much, but it was a bit of a disappointment so far.

Firstly, I tested it in ice water and it never got to 32. I tested it along side two cheapo thermometers I got at kmart and target. The thermapen tested within. 5 degree of the cheapos. Maybe I did the ice test wrong, but at no time did it get any lower than 33.5.

I then tested it in boiling water. The thermapen never went above 109. I'm about 20 feet above sea level, so maybe that's why, but I doubt it. I didn't test the others at boiling because I had a homebrew club meeting to go to, but I plan to test it further at some point.

The thermapen was very jumpy, never setttled on a temperature, and took more than the advertised 3 seconds to come to a number that didn't fluctuate too much. It just wasn't what I was expecting for the price. Maybe I expected too much, but I feel like I wasted 80 bucks (open box, maybe that's the problem)
 
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