E.C. Kraus Big Daddy Dial Thermometer

I had to order a new one because I dropped it and broke it. But this applies to many types of long probe thermometers: Look on the back od the dial and see if there is a nut up against the back of the dial. That nut is the adjuster. The details say there is an adjuster on the Big daddy and that s it.Grab the nut with a wrench or pliers and stick the probe into the ice water. Read the face of the dial and if it says 32* no adjustment is necessary. If not on 32*, hold the nut in the wrench and twist the dial head until the thermometer needle points to 32*. Dip the tip of the robe in and double check.3/7/17 Update: 1 or 2 bags of malt and one 10# bag of dextrose damaged and some spillage occurred. The thermometer was sticky and the box it came in had to be tossed. What a mess. I did not lose a lot but the sticky malt and sugar were on everything in the shipping box.

The dial did not have marks for odd decades of degrees F, that is, there is no tick mark for 30F, 50F, etc. There are only five intervals between 20F and 40F, for example, which is 4 degrees F between marks. The image was not of the actual product shipped. I informed Amazon of this last week, but it is still no corrected on the site.Temperature accuracy is not great, but probably is within 2% of the measurement value. I liked that it had a clip to keep it in place on the cookpot, but wanted a more accurate thermometer. I returned it.

At first I was afraid that the tip of the device touching the side wall of my brew pot would cause inaccuracies. Not so. With a 3.5 gallon boil, it is quite realiable and has very steady reading. My pot happens to be aluminum in case that matters. Doubt so but I cant say I've used with stainless. Springs well to the side of the pot and stays in place. It keeps out of the way from other items in the pot like chiller coils or stirrers. Prohibits putting the lid on the pot but that always causes a boil over for me anyways. I tend to use a sheet of aluminum to cover the pot when dropping the temp for fermentation. Easy enough.

Thermometer looks good, real glass, long stem, and that's about it. It is not accurate, after calibrating 32 F / 0 C in ice water, it registered 190 F / 88 C in boiling water (instead of 212 F / 100 C) which is much worse than claimed 6% accuracy.Received thermometer is also not as pictured, with different dial.

The thermometer I received has only 5 minor divisions for every 20F whereas that shown on amazon has 5 minor divisions for every 10F. This makes the thermometer harder to read than that pictured. Impossible to read at just a glance. Very disappointed

Probes for most digital Thermometers cannot be submersed -- Which I found out after ruining 2 of them -- This makes sanitizing them quite complicated. Don't make the same expensive mistake I did -- instead pick up one of these guys.I tested it against 2 other thermometers and it was spot on in accuracy. It cleans up nicely, and overall does what it needs to do.I do however wish it was like 6 inches longer to fit deeper into taller pots -- but I'll survive.

My first thermometer for home brewing was a glass floating type. It broke during the process. This one is long pretty long and sticks pretty far down into the stockpot. It's also easy to read and was calibrated correctly when I got it. Will never go back to a glass thermometer.

Wouldn't brew without this thermometer. Very accurate and clips to the side of my pot and sits at just the right angle all through the boiling process.