Customer Reviews

Polder Cooking Thermometer with Timer and Clock

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This is a great item to have in your kitchen. It makes cook so much easier. You can tell exactly when a roast is done or a chicken is cooked to a high enough temp.

You can set the clock to beep at a certain time, or at a set temperature. I like that it has a magnet on the back. I'm able to store my unit on the refridgerator and use it as a timer too.
It is a small unit and that makes for easy storage.

Although I haven't had any problems with mine yet, I'd just be warned that all over the directions it talks about the damage that water and other liquids can cause. I'm very careful with my unit, but I can see how, with very little effort, it can be ruined by liquids.

I did some research before buying this. I found that there were cheaper ones out there that won't work as well or may have more problems. I also found better quality ones that don't seem so fragile, but they were also much more expensive. For the money, I thought this was one of the best buys.

If something did happen and I ruined this one, I'd buy a new one with out hesitation. It is just that useful to have around.

This has to be the best thermometer for meat. It has some really great features:

1. A long thin cable that can exit your oven door so that the module can rest on a nearby counter.

2. A long enough probe to easily enter any kind of roast.

3. The probe is curved for easy manipulating and insertion.

4. The display gives you info on what kind of meat and its recommended temp.

5. You can over-ride the temp to your own taste (we do turkey at 162-165, for example.)

6. It is easy to read.

7. The display folds upwards so you can glance at it on the counter.

8. It has a good alarm sound.

We just made a turkey with it last night and it was absolutely perfect. The breast cooked to 162. We finished the legs and thighs in the oven as we carved the breast as they need more time and we always do them this way to make sure the breast meat is moist. (We could have put a foil tent over the breast also but we like this method as the thighs stay hot.)

You can pull out those pop-up timers and pitch them away, or buy a bird without them. Either way, this thermometer will do the job expertly.

Okay, I love the accuracy, and the convenience of having the sensor in the oven with the readout inside. Adding the clock function was very handy (previous models lacked such).

The problem I have is with the temp probes. They are not sealed - water and/or cooking juices can get down in them, and it will *wreak havoc* on the probe. First, accuracy dies, then the probe dies. The instructions caution you to not immerse the probe; translate this as "wash carefully, dry thoroughly, pray it doesn't get splashed or basted by accident". Note that Polder will not replace the probes under warranty if they're fouled this way. It's an adjunct in my kitchen, not a replacement for their Professional Instant Read, which is NSF rated for cleanability.

This is an excellent product. It makes roasting meat as easy as 1-2-3. Products come out of oven cooked exactly right, as faster than use of other thermometers, as you don't lose heat by opening the door to check the temperature. Really helps to prevent overcooking things like turkey, roast beef, etc.

Tou can also time something while using the temperature probe to cook another thing.

So, why only 4 stars? Two reasons:

1. Setting temperature to alarm at is not intuitive.

2. Probe is not water proof, and if water gets into the stem of the probe, it's dead.

But I still love the two I have, and if one breaks, I'll replace it with another.

Evidently the people complaining about this item are not reading the instructions or using it correctly:

1)You have to read the instructions to learn how to set it up--just like a VCR, DVD or any other device--which is probably the answer for the person with the HI/LO problem.

2) You have to insert the probe in all the way to get a correct reading--and you have to avoid bones in the meat. If the probe is halfway out, it can't get an accurate reading!

3) As for the person whose thermomete died after putting it into a 750 degree oven, where was that oven from--Mars. Conventional ovens generally only go up to 500-550 degrees. What were they cooking at that sort of heat anyway--a dragon?

This thermometer works beautifully--with it I have made the best meats I have probably ever cooked. Yes, you have to treat it gently, but if you want something that you can bang around with impunity, go buy a cheap thermometer in the supermarket and be done with it, or be prepared to replace this one time and again.

One small gripe: no on/off switch, so I have to keep removing the battery and reversing it to store it. Otherwise, nothing but praise.

I received this timer as a gift and it looked complex. Was I ever wrong! It's small (just an ounce or so). It's magnetized so it can attach to the refrigerator or sit on a surface. It's easy to set in minutes and/or hours, and the time you set (though easy to change) is remembered. The battery is still plugging away, two or three years after I received it. It can be used as a timer only--with a loud alarm that keeps bugging you for 5 minutes and ALSO keeps track of the time you ignored it! It ALSO has an attachment that you plug into an oven roast and that runs temperature information through a cable to the device, which sits outside the oven. You can set the timer to warn you when the internal temperature reaches the level you specify--great for the 5-pound turkey breast or the rib roast. I've also used this as an alarm clock, and to time activities in a college class. UNBEATABLE--and I've been through a lot of wind-up-battery-run-out timers in my life. No more. This thing would get ten stars if they were available.

My mother never owned a cooking thermometer. The food wasn't done until it was obviously too hot for the little microbes to survive on it. Of course it was also cooked too far for humans to eat it, either. Maybe that's what has inspired me to buy so many thermometers.

This is one of two Polder probe thermometers that I own. The other is a simple device that beeps when the food has reached a threshold temperature. This one does a lot more!

Not only can you set a high temperature, you can set a low temperature, too. You can even set a high and a low, so the alert beeps if the temperature leaves a certain range.

It also has a countdown timer, and a count up timer. And when it's not busy being a timer, it will display the current time.

Having all these functions makes it a little more confusing to program, but it has enough clearly labled buttons that it is very possible to program that one function you haven't used since you lost the instructions without the instructions.

It's biggest drawback, however, is that while the timer will show you the seconds counting down, you have to set it to a full minute. No 2 minutes, 30 seconds for example. You either need to make it 2 minutes or 3 minutes. I don't mind that kind of impresision in a wind-up timer, but for a digital device that even shows the seconds ticking down, I hoped for better.

Despite that, thermometer is now the Alpha thermometer in my kitchen, sitting on the sidelines only when I grab my fastest instant read instead. (Oh... that reminds me. While this one isn't designed as an instant read, it is actually faster than my slowest instant read thermometer is!)

If you're only going to own one thermometer, this is the one for you. It's also the one for you if you're looking to add to your thermometer arsenal without spending an arm and a leg. This one is a good value.

I have had this timer for about 5 years and it has performed
wonderfully when used correctly and properly. I wash the probe
only with a cloth and soapy water and also remove the battery
when it is not in use. I never emerse the cord in water. I did
"burn up" one cord when I tried to use it in my gas barbeque grill.
I ordered a replacement probe and cord and my old unit is again
working perfectly. I am ordering a second unit as a gift for a friend.

I have used the Polder to do slow barbecue in my Big Green Egg. After about 5 sessions, all sub-225 degrees, the probe is going nuts. I must stress that the probe has never been submerged in water, and it has never seen temps above 225 Fahrenheit. As others have found, the probe fails, even if you treat it like gold.

Some tips:

if your probe starts to make crazy readings, try pulling it out of your roast, turkey, etc. and reinserting it.

Consider wrapping the wires in aluminum foil, though this will probably just postpone the inevitable.

Keep an instant-read thermo, like the most-excellent Thermapen, available in case your Polder craps out.

A large number of people are using the Poldner electronic thermometer with grills and smokers, especially the Asian style komado, which allows low temperature(180-375 deg.F), long term cooking terms (2-18 hour). The goal of this type of cooking, as with conventional cooking, is to reach a desired internal temperature, which typically ranges from 120-200 deg.F. The Polder thermometer provides a very accurate and dependable means of determining internal temperature without opening the cooker allowing heat, moisture, and smoke to escape. The only reason I did not rate the system as a "5", is because of the fragility of the probe and it's cable to moisture, and temperatures above 400 degrees; however, similar competitor systems share these shortfalls. I very highly recommend the Polder electronic thermometer to eleminate the guesswork of cooking to a desired endpoint. To appreciate the versatility of the product, and gain pointers on protecting the cable and probe, review some of the cooking forums on the WEB, such as the one on at [website]