thermometers

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed May 11, 2011 9:08 am

I need to upgrade my thermometer. I am mainly looking for a hand-held digital one, not one that I will be installing in anything. The one I have right now is ok, but it is slow to read temperature and it has no calibration options, other than my manual adjustments. I am trying to dial in my efficiency a bit more and I think having an accurate, reliable thermometer is my next step. Any suggestions?

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Wed May 11, 2011 9:26 am

I use and really like the Thermapen. It's a bit pricey (around $90) but it's
very fast and is certified accurate.

The only con other than price is that it's not waterproof. A minor gripe is
that I'd prefer it had a removable/replaceable probe or at least if it were
longer. Both of those would make it more expensive yet.

Several people in the club have these.

On Wednesday 11 May 2011 10:08:47 am you wrote:

I need to upgrade my thermometer. I am mainly looking for a hand-held
digital one, not one that I will be installing in anything. The one I have
right now is ok, but it is slow to read temperature and it has no
calibration options, other than my manual adjustments. I am trying to dial
in my efficiency a bit more and I think having an accurate, reliable
thermometer is my next step. Any suggestions?

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Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Wed May 11, 2011 9:38 am

Use your finger.

I have been toying with a remote controll digital thermometer I recieved for cooking. I don't know how accurate it is as I haven't used it much but it seemed to match my brewmometers which I calibrated with my old school floating thermometer. With temperature, I figure close is close enough. There can be so much variation within the mash tun which is one reason I have been messing with a HERMS is to have a way to circulate the mash consistently in an attempt to even things out. The remote thermometer allows me to leave the mash tun unattened and just check it when my remote thermometer show a temperature drop. It is also not waterproof so I may try to make a thermoprobe it could work with.

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed May 11, 2011 9:47 am

No one knows where those fingers have been tho, that's the problem.

I kind of like this one. I could just toss the probe in my water or my mash and let it do its thing while I stir. A wireless one would be very cool though.

https://www.vwrsp.com/catalog/product/i ... id=4560717

Post by **JimPotts** » Wed May 11, 2011 10:23 am

Thermopens are great. I use mine all the time, for cooking and brewing.
The next one I get will be one of these: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/handheld/TW8060.html
You can hook two probes to it, and it's got high/low alarms.

-Jim

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hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed May 11, 2011 10:36 am

Randy and/or Jim, how fast would you say the Thermapen is? I had one of the digital offerings from NB that claimed a fast reading, but all that really meant was that it would display a temp fast, but then took 10 seconds or more to settle on the final temp. It sucked, I quit using it after a year or so and now it works well enough to make sure the chicken is done. Back to the Thermapen, have you ever had to recalibrate it or does it come calibrated and that is that?

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Wed May 11, 2011 11:04 am

Mine is very fast. I'd say only a few seconds to settle on a temp. Much faster
than the inexpensive (and inaccurate at mash temps) digital thermometer I had
before. Speed and accuracy were my two biggest reasons for buying a better
instrument. It does have a manual calibration function but I've never used it.
It comes calibrated and is NSF certified.

On Wednesday 11 May 2011 11:36:13 am you wrote:

Randy and/or Jim, how fast would you say the Thermapen is? I had one of the
digital offerings from NB that claimed a fast reading, but all that really
meant was that it would display a temp fast, but then took 10 seconds or
more to settle on the final temp. It sucked, I quit using it after a year
or so and now it works well enough to make sure the chicken is done. Back
to the Thermapen, have you ever had to recalibrate it or does it come
calibrated and that is that?

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Post by **JimPotts** » Wed May 11, 2011 11:43 am

Thermopen claims a 4 second time. In reality, it's usually a little faster. WAY faster than the cheap ones. And yeah, it actually comes with a NIST certificate for calibration.

-Jim

On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 12:12 PM, carrisr <brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org (brew-equipment@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

Mine is very fast. I'd say only a few seconds to settle on a temp. Much faster
than the inexpensive (and inaccurate at mash temps) digital thermometer I had
before. Speed and accuracy were my two biggest reasons for buying a better
instrument. It does have a manual calibration function but I've never used it.
It comes calibrated and is NSF certified.

On Wednesday 11 May 2011 11:36:13 am you wrote:
: Randy and/or Jim, how fast would you say the Thermapen is? I had one of the
digital offerings from NB that claimed a fast reading, but all that really
meant was that it would display a temp fast, but then took 10 seconds or
more to settle on the final temp. It sucked, I quit using it after a year
or so and now it works well enough to make sure the chicken is done. Back
to the Thermapen, have you ever had to recalibrate it or does it come
calibrated and that is that?

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DrPaulsen · Post by **DrPaulsen** » Wed May 11, 2011 12:38 pm

http://www.amazon.com/Component-Design- ... B00064BCPM

http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/p ... meter.html

I use the CDN thermometer linked above. It settles much faster than the unspeakable piece of shit I used to have.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/k ... meter.html

I've found that if I submerge the probe tip before I turn on the device, I can get a settled reading in around 5 seconds. It responds quickly if I move it around the mash tun to check for gradients. I've dropped it in the MLT a few times and it still works, so I assume it's waterproof.

I can't speak to this from experience, but I've always thought an IR gun would be a slick way to measure MLT temps. Harbor Freight frequently has them on sale for $20 or less.

http://www.amazon.com/Mastercool-MSC522 ... 855&sr=1-1

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed May 11, 2011 12:42 pm

With them being that pricey, I would think it would just be easy to order a PID and RTD probe for $70 and install permanently into the vessel.

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed May 11, 2011 12:45 pm

I had been using the km12 thermometer for a few years, that's the one that I now just use for cooking. I actually have the other one you posted from NB, the ProAccurate, on order and figured I would be using that until I got something "high-end" or whatever I decide. Looks like the CDN and the ProAccurate are pretty similar.

hoboscratch · Post by **hoboscratch** » Wed May 11, 2011 12:55 pm

BrewHound wrote:With them being that pricey, I would think it would just be easy to order a PID and RTD probe for $70 and install permanently into the vessel.

My only thought about that is that I can use a digital probe in my boil kettle when i'm heating strike/sparge water as well as use it in the mash. I have thought many times about getting a high quality thermometer to install in my cooler mashtun, but have never gone through with it...

carrisr · Post by **carrisr** » Wed May 11, 2011 1:16 pm

I had this one too, and I had pretty crappy results with it. It was pretty
accurate at freezing temp, but mine was off by 3-5 degrees at mash temps. It
also defaults to Celsius every time you turn it on and the button to switch is
pretty small. It is sort of water proof. I left it in my mash tun once (it
kind of floats) and when I pulled it out the display was black. I think once
it cooled and dried it it started working again. Now I use it to push open the
poppets on by kegs, works well for that at least.

On Wednesday 11 May 2011 1:45:42 pm you wrote:

I had been using the km12 thermometer for a few years, that's the one that
I now just use for cooking. I actually have the other one you posted from
NB, the ProAccurate, on order and figured I would be using that until I
got something "high-end" or whatever I decide. Looks like the CDN and the
ProAccurate are pretty similar.

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DrPaulsen · Post by **DrPaulsen** » Wed May 11, 2011 1:23 pm

My design philosophy is to have as little equipment inside my MLT as possible, so thermowells are out for me (I hate the idea of having to avoid something when stirring my mash). Also, unless you have a heated MLT, what good is actively monitoring the temp? Once you dough-in, what can you really do about it? Whether you lose 1 degree over an hour or 10 degrees over an hour is irrelevant if there is not a meaningful control mechanism. I suppose the exception to this would be a RIMS or HERMS type of system where the temp data is used to control a pump/heater/valve.

Does anyone here monitor their mash temps regularly throughout the process?

BrewHound · Post by **BrewHound** » Wed May 11, 2011 1:26 pm

hoboscratch wrote:
BrewHound wrote:With them being that pricey, I would think it would just be easy to order a PID and RTD probe for $70 and install permanently into the vessel.
My only thought about that is that I can use a digital probe in my boil kettle when i'm heating strike/sparge water as well as use it in the mash. I have thought many times about getting a high quality thermometer to install in my cooler mashtun, but have never gone through with it...

You would not have to permanently mount the probe, just the PID, then the probe could be used for all. You would have to do a little extra work to ensure that the wiring is liquid tight so that it would be accurate even if placed below the liquid level and would not burn up the probe, but that should not be that difficult. Could also rig up a level mount for the side of the kettle that is adjustable for next to nothing with a little scrap wood that would keep the probe wiring at a level above solution.

If I ever get my system completed, I will have permanently mouted temp probes for mash, lauter, boil, and output, as well as pH for lauter and mash. Again if I ever get it finished.

I finally finished by ferm temp box and ordered the stuff I need to build the probes. So there is hope as now that I have almost finished that project I can move on.