what is the most acurate type of thermometer?

let's hear it

thermapen, you'll pay for it, but guarenteed within .1 +/-

i just installe diy brass bulkhead thermo and sight glass combos on my rig and found out the ebay dial thermos turn independent of the probe so i need to get something good to calbrate them

What type of thermometer? As in digital or spring? I use both and they can drive me nuts. I can calibrate two identical thermometers, either at 212 or 32 and they'll give me different readings when measuring temps other then the calibration temp.

PT Ray said:

What type of thermometer? As in digital or spring? I use both and they can drive me nuts. I can calibrate two identical thermometers, either at 212 or 32 and they'll give me different readings when measuring temps other then the calibration temp.

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they are dial thrmos they were on ebay marketed for hvac techs


i will proly check at abeint temp around mash and near biol

SporkD2 said:

thermapen, you'll pay for it, but guarenteed within .1 +/-

Click to expand...

How do you get a good reading if you can only measure the top 2-3 inches of the mash? It's warmer near the bottom.

I would say a hand-held with a Type K Thermocouple with a long enough probe.

http://thermoworks.com/products/handheld/index.html

Thermocouple Probes:
http://thermoworks.com/products/probe/tc_penetration.html

Btw, OP, I don't know what spelling you fixed, but it should say "hear".

I don't know which is the most accurate, but I can tell you which are the least. The cheap long stem compost dial thermometers. I used one of those for a long time, and recently discovered it's almost useless. I use it now to get a rough idea of my HLT temp when there's a blizzard outside while cowering inside.

Scott

ODaniel said:

How do you get a good reading if you can only measure the top 2-3 inches of the mash? It's warmer near the bottom.

I would say a hand-held with a Type K Thermocouple with a long enough probe.

http://thermoworks.com/products/handheld/index.html

Thermocouple Probes:
http://thermoworks.com/products/probe/tc_penetration.html

Btw, OP, I don't know what spelling you fixed, but it should say "hear".

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Thats why you stir while taking your temp

SporkD2 said:

Thats why you stir while taking your temp

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While important, stirring isn't going to perfectly equalize temps.

nicknoty said:

they are dial thrmos they were on ebay marketed for hvac techs


i will proly check at abeint temp around mash and near biol

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I should have made it clearer that it was the OP I was attempting to address.

Just get a lab thermometer and be done with it...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...g-measuring/thermometers/lab-thermometer.html

If it means anything, I use a floating dairy thermometer and a CDN Proaccurate Quick-Read to verify/calibrate. I use the digital for cooking because it reads fast and is NSF cert'd. Since I already have it, it's convenient for me to use to cross check my floating thermometer. The two are almost always within 1F of each other, which is good enough.

Scott

Everyone will chime in that it doesn't work, but I use an Infrared non-contact thermometer. Fast, surprisingly accurate, and I don't have to clean it. It has some hang ups but there are easy work arounds.

November said:

Everyone will chime in that it doesn't work, but I use an Infrared non-contact thermometer. Fast, surprisingly accurate, and I don't have to clean it. It has some hang ups but there are easy work arounds.

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I just tried this (I just happen to have a mash going ATM). It read 40F lower than my floating thermometer. Suspecting it was reading the temp of the bubbles on the surface which should be colder (I have it outside and it's cold out) I tried to find a spot where I could see the red dot on the grain underneath the surface of the water. Same result. It could be the model of IR thermometer we're using. I have a Kintrex IRT0421.

Scott

The IR doesn't penetrate much beyond the surface so you will always be taking the temperature of the surface. At a vigorous boil, I've noticed it reads the same or very close to a digital probe thermometer placed in the middle or bottom of the kettle. Probably because anything at the surface isn't there for very long. When the liquid is still, like during mashing, the surface temp can be very different. The two solutions that I found are: 1. stir as taking a temperature and 2. leave a stirring spoon or spatula (preferably a matte black one) in the wort. Pull it out and shoot the IR at it. I have compared temps using both of these methods to readings from both a digital probe thermometer and an analog thermometer and have found they are accurate.

An important note though, the quality of IR thermometers varies widely. I haven't used the exact model that you stated but I have used a few different ones. The one I use now is very accurate but I have used others that can't seem to get a good temperature at all.

Hope this helps.

I will try your suggestions today. I do know various IR thermometers have wide ranges in precision and accuracy. I suspect the one I bought isn't the best. I needed ballpark numbers on something that wasn't possible to reach with my hands. Basically, I needed to know within the nearest 50F... not exactly good enough for brewing. We'll see if this IR is good enough today.

Scott

ODaniel said:

While important, stirring isn't going to perfectly equalize temps.

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If stirring and using a short thermocouple doesn't give a good enough result, then why would a longer probe on a thermocouple do any better?

Thermapen all the way. Best thing I ever bought.

Thermometer Woes, FG Problem

Have had great success since purchasing this beauty.