Review on Advanced Hotloop Digital Oven Thermometer - Ultra Heat Resistant up to 572°F/300°C by Bethany Green

I bought two of these. One for my more expensive AGA Pro stove at home and one for the Jenn Air range at the weekend house. The Jenn Air is generally considered a high quality device, but it doesn't compare to the AGA Pro. Having two Hot Loops in different ovens gave me a good idea of these devices. After about a month of use in both ovens, the devices are working well. However, these are cheap thermometers - by no means high-end - so I'm sure there are some major issues with people getting lemons, but personally I think some of the negative reviews are more down to the user's ovens or the user's unrealistic expectations reflect. than the thermometers themselves. Usage: For the installation, I tied the cord with a loose single knot to the top of the center shelf in both ovens, allowing the sensor to float in the air space around where the food is being cooked. In this application, the sensor measures the temperature of the air inside the oven, not the temperature of the surfaces inside the oven. The door is easily closed using thin but insulated wires, and the device itself is placed on the counter next to the stove. They have an on/off switch but I just left them on. They've been running on the same battery for over a month. They are not suitable as oven thermometers because they do not display a moving average. That's true, but the product description doesn't state that the devices have this feature and I personally would prefer to always know the true current temperature. analog thermometer readings, both of which are notoriously inaccurate. I tested them with a good quality instant read digital thermometer that maxes out at 375 degrees. They showed comparable readings (+/- 5 degrees) up to 350 degrees. I also tested this with an infrared gun thermometer. The IR thermometer measures the temperature of the surface of the oven, not the air inside the oven, so the readings aren't exactly the same, but are comparable up to 450, which is the highest I've tested. Based on my testing, they seem more than adequate for home cooking and baking. Real World Use: The AGA Pro is a great oven, but it only has an analogue temperature controller with no temperature display. Using a standard analog oven thermometer, we found that it was about 20 degrees hotter than the dial. I bought a Hotloop unit so I could have a more accurate understanding of the air temperature inside my oven. Once the oven has reached temperature in AGA Pro it is mostly solid. The air temperature changes little between thermostat cycles if the oven is fully preheated and the door is left closed. At Jenn Air, the story is very different. The Jenn Air has a digital controller that allows you to set a specific temperature, as well as a digital display that should show the temperature inside the oven. In use, the Hotloop unit will show the same temperature as the Jenn Air display during preheating - usually within a degree or two - but once the preheating cycle is complete, the oven will beep and the oven display will show the oven stays on. The hot loop reading fluctuates wildly. At first I thought I had a bad block but I replaced them and they both behave the same in different ovens so I'm pretty sure the problem is with the ovens and not the thermometers. Since I bake in both ovens, I suspected there were some issues with the Jenn Air that helped confirm the hot loop device. For example, this weekend I turned on the stove at 200 to get something warm. After preheating, the oven beeped indicating it was at 200 degrees, but the heating temperature continued to rise to about 255 degrees. Later I cooked a roast and set the convection to 400 degrees. Upon preheating the oven, the hot loop and oven readings were followed in the same manner. When the oven reached set point it beeped and showed a temp of 400 and the heating circuit rose to 415. When I set the roast the oven continued to read 400 while the heating circuit indicated the temperature had dropped (the air sharp temperature drop when closing the door). open). The oven elements turned on again when the hot loop read 340 and then only went back down to 385 even though the oven gauge continued to read 400 degrees. Some of this may be down to the fact that the oven thermostat is in a metal case, but I think the computer controlled Jenn Air is programmed to lie to you about the temperature to make it appear more stable than it really is. The Hotloop block helped alleviate this issue and improved my baking with this particular oven. Conclusion: These are good devices for the price. Given that these are very simple and cheap devices, expectations should be moderate, but they do a good job of displaying the instantaneous air temperature inside the oven and are more than suitable for baking.