I see many of the brewers here using the Thermapen and I am looking to upgrade to a digital thermometer.
I found this affordable flip style digital thermometer on Amazon and was wondering how everyone thinks it might stack up.
Thermoworks has the rt600c on sale for $15. Great thermometer that is nearly as fast as the thermapen.
Beat me to it. +1 - I love mine.
So the advantage of the Thermapen is speed of measurement I take it?
Very fast and slightly more accurate. Not worth the extra dough for me.
Edit - thermapens are amazing in their own right, just not for me. While I like Teslas, I’m more of a Nissan Leaf type of guy.
Thermapen is nice, but not worth the cost. That manufacturer’s other products are much better values with not much lost in speed or accuracy. I own several of their other thermometers.
Martin posted a couple of their other models on a previous thread.
I didn’t get the rt600c, but I picked up one of the others and have been very happy with it.
Another happy rtc690 owner. Very happy with that purchase over top end thermapen
Thanks guys. I’ve been wanting more accuracy than the dial thermometer was offering and the advice helps.
While I will agree that my Thermpen was a money burning a hole in my pocket purchase, I love the thing. I have found all kinds of uses for it. I do not know if the other Thermoworks products do, but the Thermopens come with a certificate of calibration.
Excellent point. Most thermometers work, but are they actually accurate? Having that certification helps a lot. I don’t know that an electronic thermometer can or will shift its calibration, but I suppose its possible. Mechanical thermometers such as dial thermometers are certainly subject to falling out of calibration. Having a certified mercury lab thermometer that serves as a calibration check is still a good idea for checking your ‘working’ thermometers. I employ that approach.
By the way, my RT600c and RT301WA thermometers both indicated within 0.5F of the calibration standard when they were new. I’m pretty sure that Thermowork’s QA is fairly good.
Certificate of calibration reminded me of this.
Hilarious. Bravo Sir. ;D
Electronic equipment can and often does drift over time.
My digital thermomter is reading 209* sitting in boiling water. I’m in the midwest, so it’s not an issue of sealevel. I need to calibrate this thing, but to do it I need to make sure the ice water solution is 32*. I have been trying to get my glass lab thermometer to read 32* in the ice water but closest I can get is about 33, almost 34*. I’m guessing that is what throws my digital thermometer off. I have the lab thermomter sitting in a glass of crush ice in the fridge, as it sits for several hours and melts and gets cold enough to read 32* that is when I am going to try calibrating my digital thermomter to that. I guess we will see how that goes.
Where exactly? I was at 900’ in West Lafayette, which would put you within 1°F.
Another happy rt600c owner.
For what it’s worth I bought a refurbished one a couple months back (about the same price as the $15+shipping going on now), used it for a brew or two before testing it. Tested it, found it read ~2F high at freezing, ~3F high in mash, and 4F low at boil. Emailed them, they sent a brand new replacement and a certification of calibration along with an email from a QA employee. Very happy with their customer service.
Only thing is that it’s not able to be re-calibrated. I suppose down the line it may become an issue eventually, in which case I have no doubt they will send a replacement of a similar product due to their awesome warranty. If not, I have no qualms buying another one.
If the ability to calibrate is something you’re interested in, the 301 is probably the model you’d want.
Im at about 630 ft. I never knew that little made a difference. I figured It was 212* for me when after looking at a chart its more like 211*. I calibrated the digital with the ice water solution where I got my lab thermometer to finally read as close to 32 as I think I will get it. One thing I havent done is see what my lab thermometer reads in boiling water then compare to the digital. I use the digital a lot in the masb becaise its quick. But it has to accurate so ill do that test next.
Don’t assume that a glass ‘lab’ thermometer is any better than a degree or two off at 100degC. I’d expect a thermapen to be better than that out of the box. I don’t know what sensor they use, but I doubt it’s an RTD. I have a collection of various RTD’s and while some of them read (via Watlow instrumentation) 0.3-0.4degF off from one another, this difference hasn’t changed over many years of use/sitting around.
I have a thermapen too and it’s a nice little bit of kit. It was ~0.2degF off in both boiling and ice slurry when I got it. Never have checked for drift.
While boiling point calibration is better than nothing, remember that we brewers are most interested in the 120F to 180F range. That’s where we want to assure accuracy. That is when a certified lab standard is valuable.
I have a NIST certified mercury thermometer that only comes out of its case when its time to check and calibrate my working thermometers. I share it with my club at calibration events too. Fill an insulated water keg with 150F +/- water and put everyone’s thermometer in the vessel.