New Toys

[Dhaynes]

Bought two new toys Sunday. Been reading about infrared thermometers so I went shopping. Found the pistol on the left at Lowes for $33. The little hand held on the right came from Harbor Freight for $11 but if you join their club you get like $2 off. The pistol uses a 9v battery and should be harder to lose. The little hand held uses a coin size battery. Both are pretty cool. You just point them at anything and pull the trigger to get an instant temperature reading.

Used them for the first time today starting a new kit. Both seemed to read about 4 degrees lower than our old standby glass thermometer. Of course the glass one was reading about 12" below the surface and the infrared ones read the surface. It will be interesting to see how accurate and consistent they turn out to be.




Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[vernsgal]

Glad the pocket thermometer is non-contact

 

[olusteebus]

would taking a reading on the surface of the carboy or fermenter about midway give a reading of the temp of the must?

 

[bkisel]

Wouldn't the surface read higher seeing as the heat is rising?

I believe reading on the side of the bucket would be fairly accurate. Some use thermometer strips on the side of their buckets and carboys.

 

[JohnT]

Glad the pocket thermometer is non-contact

I agree! that would give the term "love your wine" a whole new meaning.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Non contact thermometers rely on a specific refractive index of that surface. The exact same temperature in two different substances will read differently with those because they read a reflection of the heat. They are great for comparing temps, but not so good for finding an exact temp.

If you read the carboy before fermentation and after fermentation began and there was a difference, then that should be a good reading, but if you measured one in a bucket and one in a carboy...not valid.