Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:04 pm
The digital oven thermometers from places like Bed Bath and Beyond are great. The one I use is branded Pyrex (this is meaningless-- I'm sure they're all made in the same factory in China) and seems indestructible. I constantly drop it on concrete and leave it out in the rain and it keeps chugging along. I've used it for almost 5 years and am only on the second battery.
The only problem I've had with them is that if you get the braided metal line that attaches the probe to the display unit wet, it will read about 40F high. (if this happens, it's not ruined forever- put the probe and all of the line except the plug end in a low oven overnight to dry it out) Some modifications will prevent this, though:
1. A tiny little dab of silicone at the junction where the probe and the line join.
2: Go to an electronics supply store and get some heat-shrink tubing. Work this over the probe and up the braided line as far as you can, being sure to leave about an inch of it on the probe in front of the junction. Use a hair dryer set on high or a candle flame to shrink the tubing tightly onto the probe and line. Mine's never gotten wet since I did this, even with the line submerged in boiling wort.
3: Take a wine cork and drill a hole lengthwise down the center, slightly smaller than your probe. Put your probe through that and,PRESTO!, a floating remote digital thermometer.
I also check my thermometer reading against a couple of others reading ambient air temp before I start, to make sure they're close and the readings make sense. If I'm shivering and the thermometer reads 94F (this has happened to me) sumpin' ain't right!
"If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs."
