What is the most cost-effective but accurate way to measure sous vide bath temperature?

[nickrey]

Nick, have you noticed any drift in any of your equipment calibration vs the reference thermometer?

No I haven't with any of the circulators as yet haresfur. If the ANOVA drifts, it should be easy to fix as you can recalibrate.

[gfweb]

Like Pedro, my SVS hasn't drifted. My anova 1.0 lost 1.5 deg F over a year.

 

No biggie, just recalibrate occasionally

[shadowjack]

I'm using MAXIM DS18B20 digital temperature sensor.

Manufacturer's spec is +- 0.5C from -10 to +85 C (range is up to 125C). Resolution 1/16 C.

Waterproof probe with this sensor costs around 2.5$, but you need microcontroller to read out temperature.

I have 3 of them. Two farthest apart have 0.6C difference.

I think I'll periodically check them against each other.

Then I need quick readout, I use infrared thermometer - instant, no contact, very high maximum temp (I think 500C on my model).

[PedroG]

If you just do short time cooking and don't need to pasteurize, the "just cook" trial and error approach may be OK. For long time cooking your equipment should be calibrated to make sure you are sufficiently above the "danger zone", and for pasteurizing as well calibration is necessary. See Temperature accuracy and stability in the wikiGullet Sous Vide page and Importance of temperature control on pasteurizing times.

See also the wikiGullet page Reference Thermometers

Interpolating to 55°C from a 0°C and 100°C calibration may be unreliable, see my calibration of a testo kitchen thermometer against a Greisinger GMH3710 high precision thermometer.

The above links to the wikiGullet will display blank pages, as wikiGullet is no longer being maintained. You find copies of the pages here:

Temperature accuracy and stability in the wikiGullet Sous Vide page

Importance of temperature control on pasteurizing times.

wikiGullet page Reference Thermometers