Cheap dual thermometer at Habor Freight

Hey guys, just a heads up. I get the Harbor Freight email newsletter, which has a lot of coupons. The current one has a coupon for a digital inside/outside thermometer for $5.99. I swung by there today and picked one up. It takes two temperatures, the temperature at the base of the unit and you can flip the switch to measure the temperature at the little probe at the end. The probe has some adhesive, and i stuck it to my carboy. The temp is right on with my thermometer strip. This way, you can monitor the ambient temp and the temp of your carboy. Or you can put this in your fermentation chiller and read the temps from the outside.

Also, it says the probe is "weatherproof", but I havent tried dunking it in water (yet). The little replaceable watch battery is supposed to last a year. Pretty good for $6 bucks if you ask me. Dont forget to print out the coupon above to take with you. It expires on the 21st.





ps - while i was there, i also saw another thermometer (not on sale) that measured the current temperature, and also stored the MIN and MAX temps. Might be kind of interesting to test out the range of temps during the day. It was ~$10 or so.

I have 2 of these, one on my fermentation fridge and one on my kegerator. Both coolers have analog Johnson controllers on them. The temperature dials on those things will only indicate the general range of temperature. The indoor/outdoor thermometers make it possible to know the exact temperature and make fine adjustments without continually opening the cooler to check. At the price in that particular sale, you should definitely grab one or more.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

I use something really similar to this. I have a couple for monitoring the temperature of my carboys when they are fermenting beer (tip: you need to insulate the probe so that you read the temperature of the carboy and not the air -- just use some foam tape to hold it in place).

Very handy. I never actually realized how much heat is generated by an active fermentation until I put one of these on my carboy. If it is sensitive enough, you can even use it to tell when fermentation is subsiding and it is time to rack (almost).