Thermometers

[Bottenbrew]

I have gone through 2 different thermometers in my 6 month smoking history. I really have no idea what I am doing that is causing them to misread, but my current thermometer is reading about 347 degrees in my 68 degree house, which is clearly wrong. So what I want to know is do people wash their probes? Or is there any maintenance that I am clearly not doing that prolongs their life? My last thermometer was the http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044FFUMK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 and it went bad a couple of smokes ago. My general practice is to rinse the probes after they are used to get the real obvious remnants off and then I store everything in a room temperature un-sealed 1 gallon ziplock so I can keep it all together. The meat probe went bad first, but now the grill probe has gone bad and is reading low. Am I just buying too low quality of a setup, or am I doing something wrong?

As a side note, if you have had a very sturdy brand post that too so I can get one that doesn't suck this time instead of repeatedly buying new ones.

Thanks!

 

[dataz722]

First, you really shouldn't be rinsing them. Even if you are very careful you can still get water inside of the probe and ruin them. I keep a 100 count box of alcohol pads, that you can get at any pharmacy, in a kitchen drawer. I use these on all my thermos.

Aside from that, tons and tons of people swear by the mavericks. I hate them though. I have tried two different ET73's and one of the new ET732's. I have had problems with accuracy with all of them. They all got returned within 30 days.

 

[dfess1]

can't help you, sorry. I just a stoker unit, and have a taylor instant read thermo for other uses.

 

[Mikespunchlist]

If those probes are the metal sheath type, put them in the oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or so and see if they don't start working for you. Just put the hot end in the oven and leave the connection end outside the door. It worked on 2 that I was gonna throw away. Mine got wet taking mash temperatures and screwed up a brew day.

 

[Bottenbrew]

If those probes are the metal sheath type, put them in the oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or so and see if they don't start working for you. Just put the hot end in the oven and leave the connection end outside the door. It worked on 2 that I was gonna throw away. Mine got wet taking mash temperatures and screwed up a brew day.

I'll give that a try, thanks for the tip!