Bobby_M said:It's probably a little premature, but CDN is coming out with their thermapen competition in mid April. As far as I can tell, it's a direct copy but it's waterproof rather than splash proof and it will absolutely be cheaper. I should have my first shipment 3rd week of April and I think it will be priced around $60 give or take.
I'm not making any argument at all that the thermapen isn't awesome. I'm sure it is. I'm just happy that there may be an equal or better option coming for less. Maybe they'll drop the price to compete. We all win. Once I get my hands on the CDN and verify that it's great, I'll pony up for the Thermapen to be sure they are on par before I advertise it as a thermapen killer.
+1 to the Thermapen. Best.Damn.Investment.EVAR. I use it everywhere. Not just brewing, but cooking, etc. You'll never have to buy another portable thermometer ever.
I'm a little late to contribute here but I've bought one from the company that makes thermopen:
http://thermoworks.com/
I didn't go with the pen because I wanted one like the cheap-o kitchen ones that I could toss a prob in. So my brewing friend and I each got:
http://thermoworks.com/products/handheld/mtc.html
It's the MTC model
and then we each got the long waterproof probe with it:
http://thermoworks.com/products/probe/tc_wire.html
It's the Model: 113-372/373/375-T
It's almost a little too long but I didn't want to end up too short. Not much difference in price for the long one anyways.
I called them up to ask about if this works for me in a mash tun. I asked my sales person if this was the correct thing to order for an all grain brewer with grain, 170 degree, sit in water, etc. I heard her ask the head sales guy and I could over heard him say "Yep, that is the combo the brewers use who put it into their big grain tub, no problem". The probe can be used to test the temp in a dish washer and the hand held part is mostly water proof. We've made 30 batches of beer over the last year with it, rain or shine, no problems and the battery is still fine. I suspect the handheld part into boiling water it wouldn't turn out so well but I've certainly gotten it wet. I would highly recommend it.
I got sick of using the $15 kitchen ones from walmart to have them die or be off by 10 degrees after 2 batches. This is money well spent IMO. Hopefully this helps somebody else.
sniperd said:Just throwing an update in here. We are a year later, 60 more brews, and now we have 3 of these probes. 2 with 6 foot cables and 1 with a shorty cable. Brew day is usually 2 or 3 batches going at the same time. All probes work perfectly, never a problem, and they have all gotten wet. Batteries are still good too (they just take a little watch battery so no big deal for when it does go). I'm extremely pleased with our purchases and can't recommend these highly enough.
We had 1 'incident' where the numbers were reading 400 degrees, then 10 degrees and bouncing all over. I called the company and told them something was wrong, he asked me to unscrewed the backing of the wire probe connector and make sure the wires were in tight, and told me how to make a loop back to test the prob itself (just bend a paper clip). I sort of didn't want to bother and told him I'd like to just exchange it, it was funny. He said, "Sure, no problem, let me look up how to do that..." While I was waiting I did what he suggest and yep, the wire inside under a loose screw had pulled out. So I just pushed it back in, tightened the screw and it worked. He got back on the phone, "Sorry about that, In the time I've worked here I've never had anybody make a warranty claim, I had to look up what to do, these things never go bad.." But since I had it fixed, clearly I didn't need to exchange it. We had a good laugh, they are very helpful.
If we just owned 1, we'd go with the 6 foot cable. The shorty works most of the time but often enough the table we use isn't close enough to the kettle or mash tun and the extra length is worth it, even if it does get a little tangled sometimes.
I second this. I have the same setup. It's very convenient to just leave the probe in the mash or pot to monitor temperatures, and I don't have to worry about its accuracy.You'll love this setup, I can't praise it highly enough vs the cheap thermometers. They do have a steep cost but it's well worth it to hit that mash temp, monitor for heat break/boil over, and monitor chilling.
I have the same Thermoworks high temp waterproof probe that sniperd has but I have the Therma K thermometer.
Just a follow up on a post from a long long time ago
We've got 3 of these now:
http://thermoworks.com/products/handheld/mtc.html
The MTC model.
Two with the long probes and one with the short. In 2 years we have replaced two batteries and these things are ROCK SOLID. The only very small issue we have had is it is possible to pull on the probe too hard and make the connections pull out, then you just get crazy readings. Stuff like -100F then 450F. So you know something is wrong. It's easy to fix with a screw driver by opening the probe, pushing the wire back in, and closing up the probe.
It is a very solid product though, we've used it in the winter, summer, snow and rain. Dropped the handheld part on the ground and dropped it into water and it works great. We've gotten the probe cable pretty close to the flame from the burner and it was ok (got a little black but caught it before the plastic melted).
In any event, these things are made to last and are money well spent.
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