Thermometer, which one is correct?

[saydinli]

Hi all.

Had a full load for the overnight burn last night as temps outside where well below freezing. I was watching the temps before heading off to bed using a magnetic thermometer (see pic for location, which is not from last night) and an inexpensive ($25.00) laser thermometer.
During its peak temp the magnetic thermometer, which sits right above the centre of the door, hit around the 900 mark (I had the fan running as well) .
The laser thermometer registered around 720-750 right beside the magnetic one. The laser also registered about 550 at the right and left corners just above the door. That was the highest temps it reached and then started to cool down slowly after that.
So I was just wondering which one would you consider more accurate?
The reason I ask is because if I base the reading off the magnetic thermometer, It was over firing, if I go by the laser thermometer, I'm right where I want to be ( I think).

 

[pen]

That magnetic thermometer is pretty well sandwiched in there and may be getting more heat soaked than was intended by it's design.

That said, I'd be playing around with the IR with some thing in the oven to double check it's reliability (don't use shiny things tho, sometimes shiny things don't register their temp well with an IR gun) and then go from there.

pen

 

[saydinli]

That magnetic thermometer is pretty well sandwiched in there and may be getting more heat soaked than was intended by it's design.

That said, I'd be playing around with the IR with some thing in the oven to double check it's reliability (don't use shiny things tho, sometimes shiny things don't register their temp well with an IR gun) and then go from there.

pen

Good idea. I'm going to put the magnetic thermometer I the oven at 400 and then measure its temp with the IR gun to see do they match.


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[bfitz3]

I had a very reliable magnetic thermo that came with the stove, but occasionally 'stuck' when cooling off. It matched my IR thermo, spot on. So, I replaced it with an "imperial" magnetic thermo that looks identical to yours.

The result... The replacement works smoothly, but is not accurate, and becomes more inaccurate the higher the temp goes. Rather than deal with the hassle of returning and finding another possibly problematic thermo, I just learned where it needs to be in the gauge to engage the cat and shut down the air. When it reads 500, I'm pulling about 425-450. The one time it hit 700, the stove was about 600. I'm not surprised that your 900 reading is closer to 700.

The upside of having a thermo that reads high is that if You actually look at the temp reading, you'll feel like your stove is producing more heat.