Stick on thermometer for cooling wort

[7ender]

Hey guys,
Getting ready for my first brew and I had a quick question.

I only have a stick on thermometer, and was wondering if there was anything wrong with this technique to measure the wort temperature after cooling to pitch yeast.

My plan is to cool wort (partial boil/extract kit) in an ice bath, then transfer to fermenting bucket where i'll add the rest of the water in (this will be chilled water to help reach desired temps). My stick on thermometer will be stuck on at about the 4.5 gallon mark on the bucket. Any reason this won't work as opposed to buying a kitchen thermometer? I plan on looking at the reading and if necessary, putting the bucket back into the ice bath if temperatures are still too high.

Thanks!

 

[duboman]

As long as the stick on is at the beer's level and not submerged in the water bath it's pretty accurate.

 

[tre9er]

careful not to submerge the stick-on thermometer in water/liquid for long periods of time. They don't like that. Otherwise they seem to do an acceptable job.

 

[7ender]

Cool. Yeah I wont' submerge it, and iv'e read on here to put a piece of packing tape over it to help keep water away, so i'll be doing that as well.