Customer Reviews

MasterBuilt 23102009 Butterball 12-Inch Stainless Steel Deep Fry Thermometer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm using this to monitor the internal temperature of my Weber Smokey Mountain. Initially, I was looking at some very expensive thermometers, but I thought the price was low enough for this one that it was worth a shot. Gotta say, it's working like a champ. My cooks are coming out wonderful, and the instrument is accurate. It does seem a little on the fragile side, but considering the price, I guess that's not too surprising.

The cooking safety glove, fork, spices, thermometer and especially the butterball turkey fryer are amazing buys. Love the result. The turkey was moist and exceptional.

Well built thermometer, but understand its limitations. This model covers from 100 to 500 deg. F. Therefore don't anticipate accurate readings in a narrow range. For "smoking", many consider 200 - 225 to be an ideal temp range, so a 150 to 400 deg F unit will be far easier to use; Amazon doesn't list one. For deep frying, the same smaller range will be far better to check on oil temperature ONLY. Still not for meat temperature.
Turkey is moist and tender at breast temp of 165 deg F, but tough and stringy at 175 deg and higher. That's a circular dial distance of only about 1/8th of an inch on this unit. Worse, beef internal temp range is about 124 deg F. to 132 deg - from rare to beyond-medium. The great news is that Amazon sells digital remote thermometers (plus also cheap replacement probes) that are far more logical for monitoring meat temps. In a fryer basket, the turkey breast is fairly close to the surface of the oil, so it is easy to insert a digital thermometer probe. Just be sure to wear a suitable safety glove, which you must have anyway when deep frying. [I actually use a digital remote Amazon thermometer to check fryer oil temp as well as smoker temp, as back-up to a round analog thermometer. Also stock spare probes).

I bought this to go with a turkey fryer because I figured I'd need the extra reach, and it works great for that. It gives quick, accurate (as far as I can tell) readings and keeps my hands safely away from the hot oil. What I hadn't planned for was how useful this was for checking the temperature of items roasing in the oven as well. Open the door, reach in and not only can I more easily and safely inset the probe end into a roast or bird, but I can also read it a lot easier. In my opinion, the convenience is well worth what I paid for it.

The thermometer I received was obviously not new. The package had been opened and the item still had cooking oil on it. It was likely a return because the temperature registers about ten degrees low. I place the blame for the inaccurcy on the manufacturer but find Amazon entirely at fault for reselling a dirty used item. I would return it but Amazon "did not receive" my last two returns so I won't even bother.