The Thermocouple versus the Thermistor

[Secret_Ingredient]

I emailed OXO a while ago, asking if they could design and market a thermocouple based thermometer. I reasoned that with their market penetration, the cost would be in the same range of current thermometers. I never heard back and cannot guess why there was no response.

 

Most consumer grade digital thermometers use a thermistor. I had one of the first Polder Probe/wire (or cable) thermos and I loved it. It had a cable or wire, shielded in a metal braid. The new ones, use a silicon covering. Most of the reviews say that probe breaks and Polder has addressed that by adding a "handle" (of sorts) to the probe. Reasonable care while inserting and extracting the probe would have been more sensible by the reviewers who broke there devices, but the handle works, too.

 

Still, this device and as I said above, most all temperature reading devices use a thermistor, or even a bi-metal strip (don't call me a perv!). The thermocouple devices read a much more accurate temperature range. From here on I'm spelling thermocouple as t/c.

 

The Cook's Country (and under a multitude of other names) commonly shows the Thermapen t/c. At $100 it's pricey for the kitchen, but not for what it is. I imagine there are loads of industrial, scientific, and technical uses for it. There the $100 is worth it. The website: Cooking For Engineers sells the device for a "MERE" $79.  That site reviews a number of thermometers and puts the t/c on top.

 

So dear reader, I must ask, why have the OXO's and Sur La Tables, Williams-Sonomas, and the like not found a way to place a t/c probe in a thermometer?

[Paul Kierstead]

They likely see no reason to increase their cost base when the vast majority of consumers would not perceive any benefit.

[pbear]

FYI, Secret, ThermoWorks uses a thermistor for its probe-on-wire Dot.  I assume the reason is that response time doesn't matter much when the probe stays in the thing being measured.  The Thermapen is a different critter, a probe inserted to measure and then removed.

[daveb]

Oxo makes good, relatively inexpensive, kitchen products.  I have one of their kitchen scales, a food mill, a V-slicer mandolin and last I looked a couple of their thermometers.  They know their target customer and do not offer "high end" products.

 

I'm guessing they offer resistive thermometers because they can do that pretty well and hit a $20 price point.

 

Thermoworks offers thermocouples with the Thermapen - the gold standard for instant reads and also offer t/c with their K-connector probes.  I have some of each and use them for "important" stuff like smoking and grilling.  They are not prohibitively expensive but they ain't cheap and won't appeal to most consumers.

 

That said I'm liking the considerably less expensive DOT more everytime I use it.  

[gfweb]

The CDN thermometer is pretty cheap ($16) and fast. The description says 6 seconds, its more like 2 or 3. NSF rated too.http://smile.amazon.com/CDN-DTQ450X-ProAccurate-Quick-Read-Thermometer/dp/B0021AEAG2/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1443964436&sr=8-11&keywords=kitchen+thermometer