Hey all- so I've had a CDN thermo for about 6 months now based on the recommendation of The Sweet Home and Cooks Illustrated. It was pretty great to start, right price, very accurate (for my uses). Overall, a great little tool at a great price.But recently, I've found it to sometimes be very jumpy and slow to take a temp. Sometimes in chicken breast it will jump +/- 30° in a reading as the thermo moves around. I'm not sure if it's because the shaft is being heated by the ambient heat from the pan or if there is a loose connection or what. Also, I've always felt the probe on the CDN was a little too short, I'd always be almost burning my hand trying to take a temp on some stovetop chicken because you have to hold the bulb in place directly above.Anyway, these things were getting annoying so I was thinking of making the plunge into a Thermapen, putting it on my holiday list (because its so pricey), etc- however, when I was on amazon, I saw this item, the Thermawand, a new thermometer that is clearly putting itself directly up against the Thermapen. At only $24.99 I figured I'd give it a try.It just came last week and I've only been using it a bit but I already love it.All the following is in comparison to my use of the CDN:- its more comfortable and intuitive to use, by extending the temp sensor wand it turns itself on, when you close it, it turns off. No buttons.- much bigger, easy read display- overall length is a little longer than the CDN, so you can hold it further away from the heat.- you can use it when the probe is at an angle so you can avoid your hand being directly above the heat/splattering oil.- feels well built. My best friend has a Thermapen (the $96 one) and comparatively, they feel very similar in hand and operate very similarly. The thermapen does have the appearance of being more waterproof/sealed, but otherwise, they are very similar.- product design is much nicer looking than CDN, and this one has color options- For an inexpensive tool, it comes in nice packaging which is a plus!So anyway I did some initial really basic "testing" head to head with the CDN. I put some water on the stove to boil and made a cup of ice water. I then simultaneously put each thermometer from one temp extreme to another a few times back to back to see how quickly they adjusted. The Thermowand was about a half second or more quicker every time and more importantly, it was also quick to stabilize and overall more stable. The temp reading on the Thermowand was not as "jumpy" yet it was still reading in real time, as when I held it in the pot of water, I watched it creep up second by second. The actual numeric readings between the two would vary about a degree, but this wasn't a big deal to me.I know part of the "jumpyness" could be attributed to the fact that the CDN is technically a bit more sensitive than the Thermowand- however, I'm not talking about being jumpy within a degree or so. I'm talking about being jumpy +/- 5 to 10 degrees- which is a meaningful difference, especially if you are aiming for a specific doneness and want to know a temp with more certainty.Anyway- my testing was far from extensive- but since none of the review sites have been updated- I wanted to give this company some love.It is about $7 dollars more expensive than the CDN, but I think it's well worth it. I will say, the one silly thing I like about the CDN better is the probe sleeve has a little meat temperature cheat sheet on it- something easily fixed with some screenprinting on the thermawand.Additionally, I can see how its "pen" format allows for better clipping on an apron or chef jacket/shirt- however, that's not important to me.