Digital thermometer cheap and accurate

[Empty bottle]

Hi there i just thought that i would let you all know about the cheap digital thermometer that i purchased from ebay. Its called a Bergner digital food thermometer and cost the princely sum of £9.99. Its an excellent wee tool and works well and its accurate. It has a timer with an alarm which is very easy to set and the alarm also works when it reaches the desired temp as well. Its also wireless so you can leave the probe in the kettle and take the handset with you. I put around 50cm of heat shrink tubing over the wire into the probe and also covered some of the probe to waterproof the probe and it worked a treat. For a tenner i would recommend getting one and you need 4 x AAA batteries to run it and its very simple to use and the wireless doesn't need set up as it just works straight from the box. So hopefully this helps someone and i am very happy with it. Cheers.

 

[hoppyscotty]

Worth a look. Does it register temperature quickly? the digital ones I have (all cheap ones) take an age to register the temp - I presume the more expensive ones react a bit quicker. I actually mostly use a mechanical probe designed for temperature readings in compost heaps...has a meter long probe cost a tenner and registers temperature in a few seconds and seems to correlate pretty accurately with the temp readout on my mash controller.

 

[Empty bottle]

Worth a look. Does it register temperature quickly? the digital ones I have (all cheap ones) take an age to register the temp - I presume the more expensive ones react a bit quicker. I actually mostly use a mechanical probe designed for temperature readings in compost heaps...has a meter long probe cost a tenner and registers temperature in a few seconds and seems to correlate pretty accurately with the temp readout on my mash controller.

Aye it was pretty quick at registering the temps but it was more that you could set a temp and when it was reached the alarm would sound and also you could set the timer and the alarm would sound when the timer hit zero. Good for timing your hop additions etc. Well worth a tenner in my opinion.

 

[gudders]

How have you found it after a month?

Looks like they've sold out on ebay but an other seller has it for £13.

 

[Empty bottle]

How have you found it after a month?

Looks like they've sold out on ebay but an other seller has it for £13.

It works fine and i am happy with it. Just remember to put some heat shrink over the end of the probe where the the wire enters the probe to prevent water ingress in the probe because its not designed to get submersed in water, its made to be poked inside a lump of meat in a dry oven. I fitted around 50cm from the probe going up the wire to prevent any of the wire getting wet. I have only used it 4 times with no issues.

 

[gudders]

Is the heat shrink so you can place the probe deeper or to lessen the chance of damage if it slips past the probe/wire join?

£10 for 10m at Screwfix, got no use for the other 9.5m but if it's just for safety I already have different types of tape I could use.

 

[Empty bottle]

Is the heat shrink so you can place the probe deeper or to lessen the chance of damage if it slips past the probe/wire join?

£10 for 10m at Screwfix, got no use for the other 9.5m but if it's just for safety I already have different types of tape I could use.

I used heat shrink because i have it and it is waterproof. When the probe is inside my urn there is no chance of water ingress because the heat shrink goes from the probe and up the wire so the end of the heat shrink on the wire is outside the urn. I would imagine that if your using tape then it would need to be special tape as its around 70 degrees inside the urn and that might be enough to melt the glue on the tape. I wouldnt recomend buying heat shrink from screwfix for a tenner because you can buy water proof probes on ebay for less than a fiver and im sure you could buy 50cm of heat shrink on ebay for pennies.

 

[foxy]

Hi there i just thought that i would let you all know about the cheap digital thermometer that i purchased from ebay. Its called a Bergner digital food thermometer and cost the princely sum of £9.99. Its an excellent wee tool and works well and its accurate. It has a timer with an alarm which is very easy to set and the alarm also works when it reaches the desired temp as well. Its also wireless so you can leave the probe in the kettle and take the handset with you. I put around 50cm of heat shrink tubing over the wire into the probe and also covered some of the probe to waterproof the probe and it worked a treat. For a tenner i would recommend getting one and you need 4 x AAA batteries to run it and its very simple to use and the wireless doesn't need set up as it just works straight from the box. So hopefully this helps someone and i am very happy with it. Cheers.

How do you know it is accurate? Did you test it against a Thermopen?

 

[Empty bottle]

How do you know it is accurate? Did you test it against a Thermopen?

No i put it in a pot of water and it started boiling at 100 degrees so that is good enough for me. I am making beer in my kitchen not doing scientific experiments for NASA or any other highly scientific organisation that might require exact temperatures to hundredths of a degree. Hence why the instrument only cost me £10 instead of going completely overboard and wasting money on fancy expensive gadgets.

 

[foxy]

No i put it in a pot of water and it started boiling at 100 degrees so that is good enough for me. I am making beer in my kitchen not doing scientific experiments for NASA or any other highly scientific organisation that might require exact temperatures to hundredths of a degree. Hence why the instrument only cost me £10 instead of going completely overboard and wasting money on fancy expensive gadgets.

Just wondered as you described it as accurate.

 

[Empty bottle]

Just wondered as you described it as accurate.

Indeed i did foxy so well done you for spotting that. In my eyes if a cheap thermometer says its 100 degrees when a pot of water starts boiling then in my humble opinion that is accurate as water boils at that temp. A very simple yet very effective way to test a cheap thermometer.

 

[foxy]

Indeed i did foxy so well done you for spotting that. In my eyes if a cheap thermometer says its 100 degrees when a pot of water starts boiling then in my humble opinion that is accurate as water boils at that temp. A very simple yet very effective way to test a cheap thermometer.

I wish I had known that.

 

[Sadfield]

Being able to measure mash temperature to the degree would be nice though. Even the more expensive Thermapens at four times the price are only accurate to ±0.4°C.

 

[Empty bottle]

I wish I had known that.

If you do not have access to a pot of boiling water then you could stick the probe up where the sun don't shine and it should read 37 degrees although thankfully i have access to boiling water and there was no need for overly exciting experiments.

 

[foxy]

If you do not have access to a pot of boiling water then you could stick the probe up where the sun don't shine and it should read 37 degrees although thankfully i have access to boiling water and there was no need for overly exciting experiments.

And here is me thinking the ice bath is the best way to test a thermometer. One learns something every day.

 

[chthon]

Actually, you should do the test with boiling water AND the ice bath. And depending on the height you live, water could boil at a lower temperature. It seems to change rather quickly: High-altitude cooking.

 

[foxy]

Actually, you should do the test with boiling water AND the ice bath. And depending on the height you live, water could boil at a lower temperature. It seems to change rather quickly: High-altitude cooking.

And to add to that water freezes at a different temperature altitude dependent.

 

[Beerwegoagain]

Ain't nothing simple, even just a basic thermometer.
Boiling - check
Don't live on a mountain or in a hole - check
Temp reads 100°c - check
We do beer not rocket science. Don't see NASA making IPA now do we? Couldn't get a decent boil on the moon.

 

[foxy]

Ain't nothing simple, even just a basic thermometer.
Boiling - check
Don't live on a mountain or in a hole - check
Temp reads 100°c - check
We do beer not rocket science. Don't see NASA making IPA now do we? Couldn't get a decent boil on the moon.

I know when the wort is boiling that I don't need to check, just because a thermometer can register 100C at boiling doesn't guarantee accuracy where it matters most, between 60 and 70 C a couple of degrees north could lead to a stuck ferment.