Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Looking for a way to monitor the internal temperature of the oven without opening the door. Design of the “window” prevents me from reading the Taylor thermometer on the rack. Any thoughts on whether there is some type of digital probe thermometer with a remote base that could allow me to check if the oven is preheated correctly (even at 500 degrees).

Best,
Gerard

P.S. Original post was accidentally deleted; this is a shortened version of it!

No suggestions, just two questions -- Does your oven not have a window? What are you baking at 600 degrees?

Maybe I have suggestion after all -- Have you thought about kiln thermometers?

I know it can't sustain 600 degrees but if it could, we're talking seroiusly about making pizza!

How about a remote probe thermometer? I know they are designed to be stuck in something but think it still might work.

My Polder probe does a great job auditing the oven at lower baking temperature but I think it has an upper limit a bit under 400º.

For higher temperatures, Thermoworks
can fix you up with a high temp "K" probe for $15 and meter for $40-$45.

Thanks Jim! I'm going to look into that ASAP!

Gerard

As a follow-up, I did get a K-probe and a thermocouple (the part that has the display) and its been very helpful.

A few months back, I figured out that one of my ovens was about 25 degrees higher (on average) than the readout on the oven said it was. I then recalibrated it, which did make a difference. Still, I was suspicious because it seemed that there were times where foods were just cooking too fast.

Now what I've learned is that the oven is fine in the medium range (325-375). which is what I used during the recalibration. However, it is still running a bit high when it gets to 400 and particularly when it is 450 or over. Now that I can clip this probe onto a rack (or onto the probe in the oven), I can get an accurate read no matter what temperature is on the oven display.

On the other hand, I am greatly relieved that the variability of the temperature is within normal limits. Also, I learnt that when I opened the oven door, the temp doesn't drop nearly as much as I thought and that when it is closed again, the temp rises quickly.

Now onto the other oven...

Gerard

Air doesn't hold a lot of heat. When you open the door, some of the air comes out and the interior air becomes a mixture of oven air and outside air, but the total heat loss of the system is quite low as the heat contained in metal bits is much much higher.

I stick a probe through a potato and put it in ovens, smokers, etc. However I will note that indeed, 450 degrees will smoke one of these probes.....

Thermoworks sells what you are looking for but if you are hitting the 600F range, don't go for their cheaper units that fail in the 450F range, but rather for the K probe style and then check the temperature limits of the probe(s) you get for it. I went for a dual probe (2 probes) unit I use for my oven and with my Weber kettle when I use it as a small scale smoker. I've been very happy with the unit. I got one probe that clips to my grate for oven air temperature and a second penetrating probe I can use to monitor internal temp of what I am cooking. I plan to modify my homemade oven stone (bricks in an aluminum frame) so that the penetrating probe will "store" there and read the stone's temperature if I don't need it for what I am cooking.

Link to TW8060 Twin Channel Thermocouple

The only drawback to the TW8060 so far is the rate it goes through batteries. I should mention I've been using mainly for monitoring temperatures when smoking late at night and have often forgot to turn it off when done smoking.

I have an "S"-type probe. It goes to 3000F.

If I can ever find the right oven, my pizza will be done in seconds.