Review on Taylor Precision Large 2.5-Inch Dial Kitchen Cooking Oven Thermometer by Alexandra Marie

After switching to a rental shop with a significantly worse range than what I'm used to I found, unsurprisingly, that my pastries were taking sooooo long to cook, often came out raw on the inside, even when baking time was increased by 50% or more. That (and the initially gross state of my oven, which was never cleaned presumably before someone started the self-cleaning cycle - big, no, no) made me give up baking altogether because anything that doesn't fit in mine is that much better is compact countertop. Toaster. But, you know, the pandemic and all that. My toaster is awesome, but I bought a compact one, which limits my baking pan options. And I really, really want to use up all the crazy stashes I've built up over time, a lot of which require an oven. So I looked up my old Taylor model oven thermometer and realized I probably left it in my old oven when I moved out. A quick web search revealed several options; I chose this one as I assumed it would be the same as my old one. In fact, it's almost double in diameter, which is good for aging eyes! It's also more stable than the old one thanks to its small hanging hook (I kept knocking over the old one when putting the pans in and out, but it didn't bother me anyway - puzzling because it's bigger!). and it's easy to read through a now-clean oven door after seven rounds of cleaning. What she told me was startling, but agreed with my guess. The oven took forever to reach the set temperature; In fact, when it said it was preheated, it was FIFTY degrees below what I had set! I mean, we all know that ovens are a little different, though. That's ridiculous. I kept increasing the set temperature until the thermometer told me we were there. Interestingly, the oven actually does eventually reach the set temperature; it just needs to take a lot longer than advertised, resulting in surprisingly uneven heating during baking. I wouldn't have known without this little gem. Not only the calibration is interrupted, but also the preheating cycle. So basically, to bake with any reasonable level of confidence, I still need to preheat for about twenty minutes or so - or just preheat the oven first and then turn it off. Tempo; I fired at 400, got 350 and had to go to 450 to get the temp to 400 when the preheat light went out and the oven beeped saying it was ready. But it kept rising over time (while baking!) so I had to go back to 425. Thankfully, my dish turned out well, but it tells me we're definitely not doing anything extraordinary here. I have yet to see how low temp works; I want to make meringue for Pavlov, but I don't trust the oven. But I trust this fancy little thermometer! It's really making me want to change the way I use this crappy oven. If it were my unit I would have it repaired or replaced but as it is a rental this will not happen. At least I can now hope for better results than in the first few months; As an experienced chef and baker, precision is important to me. I haven't calibrated the dial myself to see how accurate the thermometer is, but it seems correct based on how my baked goods come out now in terms of bake time and quality compared to before using the oven thermometer. Too bad I didn't buy this thing a few months ago when I first suspected oven sabotage. I was hoping to find my old one but at this price I really shouldn't have. Buy it if you have doubts about your oven. Or even if you don't, it may surprise you. All I know is that I'll take this thing with me next time I move!