Great Thermometer

[Jerry1]

I have been a fan of the Thermoworks company for some time now. Their best hand held thermometer is a Thermopen. Highly rated and a top thermometer in America’s Test Kitchen reviews. Right now, their newest Thermopen is on sale for 20% off. Still nowhere near cheap at just under $100 with tax and shipping, but if you’re looking for a great thermometer, it’s a great product. I won’t put a link, but if you Google Thermopen One, The Thermoworks site will come up. Get the purple one - it works better than any other color

Great gift for anyone who grills or loves to cook. When you’re cooking a steak, the temp changes as you move through the meat. You can absolutely nail whatever temp you like your steaks done to. I also love it for smoking meat. Not only can you get an accurate temp, the probe gives you feed back. When your brisket feels like butter and you’re at 190 (or so), you know you got it right.

 

[Sue J]

Also consider the Thermoworks ThermoPop. Its a little lower in price and still a very fast instant read.

 

[braumeister]

Thermapen is truly awesome. I have two of them. One in the kitchen, the other downstairs to use with the BGE. I know some folks who opted for the cheaper Thermopop and they are also delighted with it.

I consider it an essential cooking tool.

 

[USGrant1962]

+1

I also have two Thermapens.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I want to register a countervailing opinion.

The housing of my first thermapen cracked, no idea how or when (i.e., I did not drop it). It still worked, after a fashion, but you have to jiggle the proble a certain way to make it read. So I tried one of their other offerings, viz., the EXEC series. After just a month or so, the display just flashed, and changing batteries did not help.

Meanwhile, my dirt-cheap, essentially generic (CDN) pen chugs along, year after year.

 

[braumeister]

I want to register a countervailing opinion.

The housing of my first thermapen cracked, no idea how or when (i.e., I did not drop it). It still worked, after a fashion, but you have to jiggle the proble a certain way to make it read. So I tried one of their other offerings, viz., the EXEC series. After just a month or so, the display just flashed, and changing batteries did not help.

Did you contact the company?
I had an old Thermapen that developed a problem a few years ago, so I contacted them. Sent it in and they sent me a brand new one. I just had to pay the shipping cost to send them the old one.

 

[Jerry1]

After a month, it should have still been under warranty. Sorry to hear of your experience. I have my first Thermopen and it still works. I’m sure it’s more than ten years old. I just got the newer ones because I love new gadgets.

 

[target2019]

I also vote for Thermoworks company.

 

[SALTedOut]

Did you contact the company?
I had an old Thermapen that developed a problem a few years ago, so I contacted them. Sent it in and they sent me a brand new one. I just had to pay the shipping cost to send them the old one.

Same here. They replaced mine without any questions.

The Thermapen is a great splurge/BTD. I had the replacement for several years until they came out with the new version that is backlit and the digital readout swivels. I'm left handed so the original model always had the numbers backwards or upside down for me. The new model is perfect. Gave the old model to my daughter when she moved into her first apartment.

 

[OldShooter]

FWIW, the marketing people at Thermoworks are really addicted to discounting. I have bought several of their products (with mixed results). But unless you're in a hurry, just pick out your heart's desire, subscribe to their newsletter and watch for it to go on sale.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Love my Thermopen; my only regret is not getting one sooner and futzing around with dollar store thermometers that took forever to stabilize and weren't very precise (or probably accurate). I use mine for measuring my mash temperature when brewing, as well as for various and sometimes mundane tasks in the kitchen. It even seems to work well as an area thermometer, and it's instructive to carry it around the house and watch the reading change in nearly real time as I move from room to room. This is how I figured out the wall behind my thermostat gets quite warm in the summertime which is why I have to set the a/c to 80 degrees to avoid freezing.

 

[Walt34]

But unless you're in a hurry, just pick out your heart's desire, subscribe to their newsletter and watch for it to go on sale.

That's what I did as well, and how we ended up with the "U.S. Army Olive Drab" color. That's not what they call it but that's what the color is. It works just as well as the purple one we bought for DW's nephew as a housewarming gift. Except the purple one is easier to find when you drop it in the grass.

 

[rk911]

Thermapen is truly awesome. I have two of them. One in the kitchen, the other downstairs to use with the BGE. I know some folks who opted for the cheaper Thermopop and they are also delighted with it.

I consider it an essential cooking tool.

BGE?

 

[Gumby]

For smoking, I have a Habor instant read thermometer (available from Walmart). It works just fine and was substantially less expensive than the Thermapen.

 

[Jerry1]

BGE?

Big Green Egg - Ceramic cooker.

 

[Cobra9777]

I want to register a countervailing opinion.

The housing of my first thermapen cracked, no idea how or when (i.e., I did not drop it). It still worked, after a fashion, but you have to jiggle the proble a certain way to make it read. So I tried one of their other offerings, viz., the EXEC series. After just a month or so, the display just flashed, and changing batteries did not help.

Meanwhile, my dirt-cheap, essentially generic (CDN) pen chugs along, year after year.

I had a similar bad experience with my first Thermapen. The battery cover broke somehow and kept falling off. So I had to use a piece of tape to hold in place. Then the case cracked for no apparent reason. And finally, it took mulitple tries to get it to turn on. The switch mechanism in the swivel would not turn it on reliably. I took it apart and noticed several broken plastic parts on the inside. Some CA glue did the trick... for the most part. Though it's still stubborn about turning on when you open the probe. DW got me a replacement for Christmas last year, which works fine so far. But yeah.... this is not a perfect product. Far from it. The instant read is really good. And that's why people love it, including me. But it's not particularly durable, which is a huge disappointment given the premium price-point.

 

[audreyh1]

Thermapen is truly awesome. I have two of them. One in the kitchen, the other downstairs to use with the BGE. I know some folks who opted for the cheaper Thermopop and they are also delighted with it.

I consider it an essential cooking tool.

That’s what I use constantly the Thermapen. Awesome!

 

[ERD50]

I know people rave about Thermopen, but I've had bad luck with (admittedly cheaper) pen type units. The problem I've had with the pen type is I think the humidity of having the probe near the heat, and steam rising just messes up the electronics inside. I've settled on the separate units with a plug-in probe on a wire.

Maybe the Thermopen is more durable against heat/humidity, but I wasn't going to pay near $100 to find out.

OK, had to look, my probe on a wire model is from Thermoworks, 'ChefAlarm'. I'm sure I didn't pay $100 for it though, more like $30, and we've had it a long time. Plus, it has two probes, the conventional braided cable type, and a sealed waterproof one (though meant for lower temperatures).

Like this one (but red), they show $65 - but I'm sure I paid ~ $30 for it (Bed Bath and Beyond IIRC). Stupid design though, I had to tape over the "C/F" and "CAL" buttons on the back. They are right next to "ON/OFF", and get pressed by accident. Geez, you are not going to change those as often as you turn it on/off, they should be harder to hit.

https://www.thermoworks.com/ChefAlarm

-ERD50