Things were going fine, until....

My brand new digital thermometer crapped out.

I was brewing up my second batch today (a Kolsch extract kit) and everything was going perfectly. Steeping grains at a constant 160-162 degrees, according to my new digital thermometer. It is a Mainstays with probe bought at Wally World. When it came time to chill the wort, I placed the pot in the sink with ice bath and kept the (sanitized) probe in the wort and watched it come down. When it hit about 75, I added the remaining room temp water and aerated (vigorous stirring). Now the thermometer is reading 84. I figured I had some warmer wort in the middle even though I stirred it occasionaly. I put the primary in the sink and did another ice bath. The dang temp wouldn't drop below 80 (an hour later). I knew something was amiss and put on a small pot of water and brought to a boil. I put the probe in and the thermometer read 225 degrees. Uh-oh....

I grabbed an anolag floating thermometer, sanitized and dropped it in. The wort was now 58. So, my fancy schmancy digital thermometer accurate to +/- 1 degree turned into a lying SOB. I am punishing it with a large hammer. Stupid technology!

What do you guys use for temperature readings? Analog or digital? If you say digital, I bet it didn't come from Walmart, Huh?

I use digital. Came from Target, actually.

I also have another digital thermo that crapped out on me, because I dunked the probe all the way into my wort once. No worky accurately ever since.

Oh, and I also have blown out an analog themo.

Brewing is hell on thermometers!

i have the same thermometer and they're not waterproof. you need to get some silicone tubing and some little o-rings to make it so. try baking it in the oven for a while, that usually gets it back to normal. try out this thread, it has all the above info in it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/remote-probe-thermometer-wort-proofing-26905/

android said:

try baking it in the oven for a while

Click to expand...

+1 Brought mine back to life this way.

Wow. I didn't know that! The instructions say that the probe is dishwasher safe, so I figured it would be fine. Thanks for the tip. I guess instead of punishing it with a hammer, I'll bake it in the oven <evil laugh>...