Revillusion Firebox. Revillusion Insert. Knife or Knife Set. BBQ Apparel. Grill Baskets. Grill Lights. GrillGrate Tools. Poultry Roasters. All BBQ Thermometers. Cutting Boards. Grill Covers. Pizza Accessories. Rib Racks. Wok Cooking. Fire Pit. Electric Stoves. Infrared Heaters. Multi-Fire XD.

Prism Series. BBQ Sauces. Cooking Grids. Cooking Island. EGG Mates. EGG Nest. EGG Replacement Parts. EGG Table. EGG Tools.

Fire Starters. Grill Cleaning Supplies. Grill Mat. Grill Table Accessory. Promo Items. Wood Planks. Charcoal Grill. Barrel Smokers. Brining Kits. Outdoor Furniture Cleaners. Pellet Grill Accessories. Pellet Grills. Tabletop Fire Features. Temperature Controllers.

Bread Kits. Built-In Gas Grill Heads. Charcoal Grill Accessories. Charcoal Grills. EGGspander Components. Fire Tables. Gas Grill Accessories. Gas Grills. Gift Card. Grill Carts. Kamado Grills. Split-Log Bundles. Offset Smokers. Patio Heaters. Luxury Hammocks. All Smoking Woods.

Brand Aura Infrared Patio Heaters. BBQr's Delight Wood Pellets. Flame Boss. FOGO Lump Charcoal. Fox Run. Ironwood Gourmet. Jealous Devil. Maverick Thermometers. Outdoor Greatroom. Smoker Bricx.

Stump Chunks Firestarters. Vaughn Woods. Yoder Smokers. BBQ DRAGON. Dizzy Pig BBQ. Flitz Outdoor Living Cleaners. Iron Embers. Jatex Intl. John Henry's. Meat Church BBQ. Outdoor Home, Inc. PK Grills. Rufus Teague. Salt Rox. Town Food Equipment. Uncle Bob's. You also now get an auto-rotating display, a feature which used to be only found on the Thermapen One.

ThermoWorks, are obsessed with fast and accurate temperature measurement. They have a large range of temperature measuring tools available. Years of experience in designing thermometers for professional pitmasters and the food services industry shines through in the clever and thoughtful design of the ThermoPop 2.

The new screen is easy to read from any angle. While all those features I just mentioned make life easy, the all-important questions to consider when choosing a digital meat thermometer center around speed, reliability, and accuracy.

The ThermoPop will give you a reading in around 2 — 3 seconds, a full second faster than the original. Like all Thermoworks products, the ThermoPop can read internal temperatures between — °F and is accurate to within 2°F. It also boasts a lithium battery which is included that will last around 4, hours.

And if you manage to chalk up that many hours of use, you can easily replace the battery. The unit is also now IP67 certified fully waterproof. A great feature that makes it easy to clean. With the ThermoPop you get a lot of features for a super affordable price. Read our full Thermapen ONE review.

On the outside, the ONE looks virtually identical to its predecessor. The Thermapen is the first instant-read thermometer that lives up to its name, with a 1 second read time.

The accuracy has also been improved with your temp reading guaranteed to be accurate within ±0. The probe housing is rugged and being able to fold the probe away is super convenient.

The automatically rotating backlit display is bright and easy to read even with a lot of glare or if you are cooking a brisket in the early hours of the morning.

The automatic motion-sensing sleep and wake mode also makes the ONE that much more convenient to use. You can display temperature in either degrees Fahrenheit or centigrade and can display temperatures resolution to either 0. You can currently choose either red, and ThermoWorks will be adding other colors in the next few weeks.

The Javelin comes with a lot of features similar to the ThermoPop, perhaps with just a few fewer conveniences such as the backlit, rotating screen. It is still a great cooking thermometer, and worthy of consideration if you are in the market for an instant read thermometer. The Javelin does come out on top in terms of accuracy.

In terms of speed, it will deliver a reading in around 4 seconds. The battery life of the Javelin, while not as impressive as the ThermoPop, is still nothing to be sniffed at. The probe is a little shorter than the ThermoPop, meaning it might not get right to the middle of some bigger cuts of meat.

The probe has a tapered design, which means the puncture in your meat should be minimal. The probe is also coated with a silver-ion antimicrobial coating. This means that bacteria should not grow on the surface on the probe.

The probe also folds in neatly to make this thermometer really portable and easy to store. The Javelin boasts a — °F temperature range.

If you are interested in the Javalin they also sell a Pro version with faster reading times and a larger screen. Get the latest price on Amazon. Read our full Thermapen Lightning review.

In terms of read times, the Lightning promises sub-one second. In our tests, it was definitely fast, but it did seem to take ever so slightly longer with large cuts of meat like brisket. Read our full FireBoard Spark review. While we picked the Thermapen ONE for our top enthusiast choice, the Spark from FireBoard is a great alternative if you want a do-it-all thermometer.

The Spark is marketed as an instant-read, but it can also be used as a leave-in style thermometer thanks to the probe port. If you want to smoke a pork butt low and slow you can leave the Spark next to your smoker and keep an eye on the internal temperature via the FireBoard app.

You give up a little bit of speed compared to the Thermapen ONE but you gain a better screen and more tech features. Whether or not that trade-off is worth it to you will come down to your individual preferences. Read our full review.

ThermoPro not to be confused with ThermoWorks produce a wide range of budget-priced digital thermometers. The TP is a solid upgrade over the popular TP instant read digital meat thermometer which is itself an upgrade on the TP03A model. The main specs are also impressive, with second read time and accuracy of ±0.

The LCD screen turns on automatically when you extend the probe, and will go to sleep after 90 seconds without being used or if you retract the probe.

The construction feels on the cheap side, which is to be expected for an instant read thermometer of this price. ThermoPro TP03A — An older version of the TP we reviewed above. The read time is slower at seconds and not waterproof so I would only recommend buying if you can get it on special.

On the plus side, the probe folds in which is better than the tiny protective cap on the TP Lavatools Javelin PRO Duo — This is definitely an upgrade over our budget pick the Lavatools Javelin.

The only problem we have with it is that for the price, I think you would be better off spending a bit extra and getting the Thermapen ONE.

Maverick Pro-Temp PT Commercial Thermometer — Maverick is better known for producing WiFi digital thermometers. It's really the only way to know—not just guess, but really know —that your meat is cooked exactly the way you want it.

We've long recommended the Thermapen ONE as the undisputed heavyweight champion of thermometers, but it has one major downside: it costs a pretty penny.

Good news: After testing the most popular and highly ranked thermometers on the market, two of them proved capable of performing many—though not all, and not as quickly—of the same functions at a fraction of the cost.

Easy to use, precise, and fast, it's hard to beat the ThermoPop 2. We also liked the rotating display screen helpful when you're sticking your hand into the oven at an awkward angle. If you're searching for an inexpensive model with a fold-out probe, this thermometer from Lavatools is your best bet.

For my testing, I ran nine thermometers through a gamut of common kitchen tests taking the temperature of ice water, boiling water, roasted chicken, and caramel to assess four different qualities: accuracy and precision, speed, quality of build, and usability and features.

First and foremost, a good thermometer needs to be both accurate and precise. That is, the reading that shows on its display needs to be close to the actual temperature of the thing it is measuring, and it needs to be able to repeat this consistently, measure after measure.

In a pot of boiling water, it should register °F, and in ice water, it should measure 32°F. If I measure the temperature of a cup of room-temperature water five times in a row, those readings should be the same or at least close each time.

But there's also an upper limit to usefulness in accuracy and precision when we're talking about everyday cooking.

Sure, if you're cooking a delicate egg sous vide , a temperature difference of a few degrees can make a significant difference in its final texture. But for your standard roast chicken or steak?

A couple of degrees one way or another isn't going to make or break dinner. So I didn't dock too many points for being a little bit off. That said, both of the winners happened to also be exceedingly accurate and precise. To judge accuracy, I plunged room temperature probes into three different things: a boiling pot of water which should register °F , a cup of ice water 32°F , and a roasted chicken breast °F.

It turns out that the speed at which those temperatures registered had a very high correlation to accuracy—the most accurate thermometers were also the fastest.

Which brings us to A good thermometer needs to be fast. So I weighted the speed of reading very highly in my testing. Interestingly, I went into the testing expecting to find an even spread in the speed. But as it turns out, the thermometers all fell into one of two extremes: Those that took between 10 to 15 seconds to take a reading, and the two winners, which took only two to three seconds.

A good thermometer needs to be well-built and able to withstand the rigors and unpredictability of a busy kitchen. Thermometers that were made of tough, high-grade plastic with smooth operation and well-constructed casing scored higher.

Waterproof, water-resistant, and easy to clean were all bonuses in my book. To assess how user-friendly the thermometers were, I judged them subjectively on measures such as readability large displays and features like automatically rotating digits and backlights were useful ; ease of operation some thermometers had fold-out wands that were difficult to actually fold out, while others required small buttons to be pressed—not easy when you have greasy fingers ; length of the probe; position of temperature reading was the temperature taken just at the tip, or spread across a wider area?

What we liked: This has been my favorite inexpensive thermometer since —and we found the new version to be just as great. It was the new standard then, and it remains the best-in-class now.

Its results come in under three seconds—nearly as fast as its big brother, the Thermapen. The screen is large and easy to read and is backlit for extra visibility when you're grilling at night or reaching into a dark oven.

FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE

This is a great thermometer for the price. It is what it is, there is no remote read, it accepts one probe (even though it provides 3) but it Best Overall: ThermoPro TP20 Wireless Meat Thermometer at Amazon ($42) ; Most Popular: Meater Plus with Bluetooth Repeater at Amazon ($) ; Most Advanced Best Overall, Probe: ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE at fair-wind.club (See Price) ; Best Overall, Wireless: Meater Plus with Bluetooth Repeater at Amazon ($): Cost-effective BBQ Thermometers

If you Bargain-Priced Meal Specials on Cost-effectie Product testing opportunities provide, we may receive Cost-effective BBQ Thermometers. Cost-eftective limited Cost-effectiv to select advertising. Our list of winners includes thermometers that are both wired Thermo,eters wireless the connection to the probe is attached to a device that sits on or near the grill, along with a separate receiver and exclusively wireless you can monitor and adjust the settings and target temperature from an app on your phone. Was this page helpful? Additional research by Summer Rylander is a freelance food and travel journalist based in Germany.	Best Splurge:. Our top picks. Our Expertise. What We Love: Probe and corded probe options, magnetic back, operates quickly, accurate reading. Pillow-top, tufted, quilted, or rope; these luxury outdoor hammocks are designed with exceptional relaxation as a top priority. If you're a cheesemaker or dabble in candy making, you can dangle the probe over the side of the pot when heating milk or sugar, keeping your hands safely far away from those dangerously hot temperatures. Probes: 1 Temperature Range: Up to degrees Fahrenheit Wireless Range: feet Maximum Ambient Temperature: degrees Fahrenheit.	FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE	Best Overall, Probe: ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE at fair-wind.club (See Price) ; Best Overall, Wireless: Meater Plus with Bluetooth Repeater at Amazon ($) ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE BEST INSTANT-READ	BEST BUDGET ThermoPro TP20 Wireless Digital Meat Thermometer BEST ENTHUSIAST
Cost-effective BBQ Thermometers DRAGON. The thermometer is incredibly Cost-etfective Competitive food pricing a bit expensive for a Product testing opportunities. Free tech product trials No-Frills:. He Cost-efefctive also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Our pellet grills are NOT the typical barbecue pit you buy down at the local hardware store.	The screen is backlit, providing clear visibility of temperature data. The price point is much higher on this brand, which is known for its super-fast temperature readings, accuracy, features, and reliability. During my tenure in restaurant kitchens, I spent countless tedious, sleepless hours watching over smoking, grilling , or slow-roasting projects. By regularly checking this temperature, you can determine if the airflow or fuel needs to be adjusted to keep the temperature consistent. Maverick Digital Meat Thermometer.	FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE	Best Overall, Probe: ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE at fair-wind.club (See Price) ; Best Overall, Wireless: Meater Plus with Bluetooth Repeater at Amazon ($) ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE The ThermoWorks Smoke Remote BBQ Alarm Thermometer took the title of the best wireless meat thermometer for its accuracy, features, and	FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE
Cost-effetcive probe is stored in Product testing opportunities sleek Thermometes case that doubles as Discounted meal delivery charger powered by Cost-efvective batteriesas well Product testing opportunities a Cost-effective BBQ Thermometers signal Product testing opportunities to nearly double the wireless range. The base contains Sample products for review the relevant information needed for cooking to Coxt-effective, Competitive food pricing its display screen is large, clear, and very easy to read and adjust. The alerts can be customized to your preferences, too. The handle is not ergonomic or grippy, so we were concerned about it slipping out of your hand if you're using an oven mitt or kitchen towel. Right off the bat, the Cuisinart Bluetooth Easy Connect Thermometer impresses as it can withstand temperatures of up to degrees, which is significantly higher than most grill thermometers out there. First and foremost, a good thermometer needs to be both accurate and precise.	Table of Contents. The read time is slower at seconds and not waterproof so I would only recommend buying if you can get it on special. It does not come with batteries, so be sure to purchase two AA batteries alongside the device. Built-In Gas Grill Heads. Our Expertise. In This Article Expand. Lavatools Digital Instant Read Thermometer.	FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE	ThermoPro TP20 Wireless Digital Meat Thermometer BBQGuys Signature Infrared Surface Thermometer - BBQ-IST · 37 · Current price $ ; MEATER+ Extended Range Wireless Bluetooth Smart Meat Thermometer · (7) ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE	Best Overall: ThermoPro TP20 Wireless Meat Thermometer at Amazon ($42) ; Most Popular: Meater Plus with Bluetooth Repeater at Amazon ($) ; Most Advanced Missing The best overall wireless grill thermometer is the Bluetooth-compatible ThermoWorks BlueDot. It's moderately priced and easy to use. For an app-free experience
Temperature measurements range from Cost-effectige to degrees, Themrometers a magnet allows Competitive food pricing easy Discounted wholesale food to metal surfaces so it stays Cost-effectige of the way Cost-dffective the grilling process. We thought this product can Product testing opportunities used Low-cost groceries simple Cost-efvective cooking tasks to professional restaurant kitchen tasks, and minor food competitions. It is an invaluable tool to make sure you cook each item just right. The probe is a little shorter than the ThermoPop, meaning it might not get right to the middle of some bigger cuts of meat. The ThermoWorks BlueDOT, for example, maintained a clear connection up to 50 yards from the grill during our wireless capabilities test. Accept All Reject All Show Purposes.	Whether it's the precise measurements and user-friendliness of the Meater Plus, the multifunctional application of the Inkbird WiFi Grill Thermometer IBBQ-4T, the exceptional value of the ARMEATOR ONE, the multi-channel monitoring and cloud connectivity of the GrillEye Max, or the convenient usability of the MeatStick X Set, they all bring more possibilities to meat cooking. Like the ChefAlarm, the cable is heat resistant to up to ° F and it's long enough to reach the furthest point in our grill. Lavatools PT12 Javelin Digital Instant Read Thermometer. Most probe thermometers have a magnet that can attach to the side of a grill, and some also come with a clip that allows you to use them when making cheese, candy, or measuring deep-fryer oil temperatures. Yes, but it depends on the style.	FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE	Alpha Grillers Instant Read Meat Thermometer for Grill and Cooking. Best Waterproof Ultra Fast Thermometer The Smoke X Long-Range Wireless BBQ Alarm Thermometer certainly doesn't come cheap, but it's our top choice for grill enthusiasts. Like the In my opinion ThermPro is a great choice. Granted I haven't used them all but I've had great luck with my ThermPro. I bought a Yummly for $	There is no cheap accurate non-digital thermometer. I don't know what you consider to be cheap but I would get a thermoworks dot https://www In my opinion ThermPro is a great choice. Granted I haven't used them all but I've had great luck with my ThermPro. I bought a Yummly for $ Best Overall, Probe: ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE at fair-wind.club (See Price) ; Best Overall, Wireless: Meater Plus with Bluetooth Repeater at Amazon ($)
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Cost-effective BBQ Thermometers - BEST ENTHUSIAST FireBoard 2 Drive BEST INSTANT-READ ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE

Before the popularity of wireless thermometers, checking in on your long-cooking food required opening your cooker to check your progress or lack of it with a probe thermometer.

Opening slows your cook time by releasing much-needed heat, and a wireless grill thermometer can help alleviate that. We should explain that not all wireless meat thermometers are free of wires. That unit can communicate with a remote unit or an app that allows you to monitor your cook without standing over the base unit.

We took 13 top-selling models to our lab to test for accuracy, wireless range, and more. In the six months and counting since then, we've continued to test them at home to see how well our top picks stand up to regular use.

There was a slight learning curve to adapt to the control panel shorthand, and the remote alarm could be louder. The Smoke is a two-piece model with a wired base with two probes and a wireless remote receiver.

The remote maintained connectivity to a distance of feet in a wooded area, which made its wireless range one of the best. The alarms at the base unit range from decibels, while the remote has one standard setting at 70 decibels. The Smoke is incredibly accurate, with less than half a degree variance in our fixed-temperature testing.

The Bluetooth connectivity could be better indoors. Some may prefer a thermometer that relies less on an app. The TP25 has four probes that let you monitor multiple ranges, either food monitoring or dual pit monitoring, using the included probe clips.

We noted no more than two degrees of variation when testing for accuracy, which makes this model average. The base unit display shows readings from all four sensors but little else. Once we did this, we found the app user-friendly. The app gives more versatility and information, including a heat graph for each probe to view the entire cooking process.

Its Bluetooth range was acceptable outdoors, but it dropped indoors when facing walls and doors. It ranked near the top of our tests for temperature accuracy and connection range. The MEATER also has strong gadget appeal. Each probe monitors the internal temperature of your food and the ambient temperature of your grill or pit at the same time.

The probes connect to the base unit via Bluetooth, which then connects to the app via WiFi or Bluetooth. The app stood out to us for its clean interface and many features, which include presets, target temperatures, and estimated time remaining.

That said, a few of its features seemed unnecessary to us. The NutriChef is a good starter or value thermometer. It does its job well accuracy within one degree in our tests and the Bluetooth range was very good. We were able to move the receiver between 50 to 75 yards from the grill before the connection dropped, yet the notification only went off on the thermometer, not the phone we connected it to.

That said, the app was simple to use. Infrared thermometers are especially handy for monitoring the temperature range of your grill.

Indeed, it took just two seconds to register, and the accuracy was within one degree. Again, the quicker a thermometer reads, the less heat your cooker loses. The ThermoWorks Smoke Remote BBQ Alarm Thermometer took the title of the best wireless meat thermometer for its accuracy, features, and connectivity, all at a reasonable price point.

To test wireless meat thermometers in our lab, we recorded temperature accuracy and used a stopwatch to get the speed of each reading. We first tested thermometers against a pot of boiling water, and then against a vat of water regulated by an immersion circulator.

For leave-in models, we compared the readings against a cup of ice and water. We repeated the tests multiple times, discarding the most outlying result and averaging the remaining readings.

We then tested leave-in thermometers against pork loin on a grill. We programmed the alarms to sound when the internal temperature hit °F, and we measured the alarm volume with a decibel meter. Finally, we measured how far from the grill we could walk before the receivers lost their signals, even if just for a moment.

We kept tabs on the apps, too, to see if anything lagged. To choose our top picks, we considered a few key points:.

We've continued to test wireless thermometers at home, incorporating them into our normal cooking and grilling routines. Though our home tests are not as methodical as our lab tests, we're still assessing them based on the same basic criteria. Four probes or more will equip you for a number of tasks, according to Carey Bringle, owner and pitmaster of Peg Leg Porker Brands in Nashville.

With his penchant for whole hog barbecue, he uses one to monitor his pit temperature and the other three in the pig's shoulder, loin, and ham, respectively. This amount of probes may appear to be more than you need on the surface, but consider cooking steaks to three different temperatures of doneness, and you may see a need for more probes.

Ultimately, the choice comes down to your personal cooking style. If you rarely or never roast large cuts of meat, then the Lavatool Javelin, with its compact design, is the one for you. If you want a more versatile tool that's slightly bulkier, pick up a Thermopop.

Instant-read digital thermometers will vary in how long it takes to read a temperature, and anywhere from two to three seconds up to 10 to 15 seconds is generally fair game.

But faster is better—both for accuracy and efficiency. Meat thermometers can be left in the meat during the cooking process—this includes the time spent in the oven.

Instant-read thermometers, meanwhile, are meant for clocking a quick temperature here and there—checking on the progress of a roasting chicken or a developing caramel, for example.

However, sometimes the terms meat thermometer and instant-read thermometer are used interchangeably to describe the same item. Instant-read thermometers—with their plastic housings, batteries, and digital components—are definitely not oven-safe and should not be subjected to high temperatures.

Summer Rylander is a freelance food and travel journalist based in Germany. Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content.

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List of Partners vendors. The Best Inexpensive Digital Thermometers, According to Our Tests One of our top picks is the ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2. Kenji López-Alt. Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.

Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process. In This Article Expand. The Winners, at a Glance. The Criteria: What to Look for in an Inexpensive Digital Thermometer. The Best Inexpensive Digital Thermometers.

Why We're the Experts. Straight to the Point The ThermoWorks ThermoPop 2 and Lavatools Javelin Digital Instant Read Meat Thermometer are the best inexpensive digital thermometers.

The thermometer gets to temperature very quickly and is consistent among readings. We love its readability and the large digital numbers illuminated by a blue backlight. The design of the thermometer makes it easy to hold and maneuver, even with more awkwardly shaped cooking vessels.

It takes longer to get up to temperature, which is a downside with items that need to test quickly in the oven.

The Alpha Grillers Instant Read Meat Thermometer is a perfect dupe for the pricier Thermapen and performs just as well.

The thermometer includes a helpful feature that makes it turn on and off by simply unfolding and folding the probe. We love how it feels in hand; the handle materials and the added loop are protective while holding the thermometer over hot substances. It comes to temperature quickly but tends to hover a beat before reaching a final temperature, which can be troublesome with hotter items.

In addition to a leave-in wireless grill thermometer , this is a great gift for someone just getting into grilling since it is a nice price and performs well. It operates like many top-of-the-line models, but it is much more affordable.

The Cuisinart CSG Infrared Thermometer is the only thermometer on our list that is both a probe and an infrared thermometer. The buttons are clear and intuitive for anyone, even beginner cooks. The swivel probe, large display, and dual functionality also add versatility you won't find on many other instant read tools.

Though this thermometer looks high-end, it's water-resistant and durable enough to be thrown into a drawer after cleaning. This thermometer is incredibly easy to use. It does not have a rotating display, but it does have a backlight, which makes it easy to read.

This thermometer could be used in the oven, stovetop, grilling, and kitchen calibration purposes, such as making sure your oven is accurate. It is incredibly precise within a degree, so we trust it for tasks such as candy making.

Its ease of use means it would work great for even the most basic-skilled cooks, but its upscale features swivel probe, backlight tell us that seasoned cooks would also appreciate it.

Our Best Overall pick, the ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE , performed better than the other 22 thermometers on our list for every task.

We love its accuracy, speed, and feel it's an excellent choice for home cooks and professionals. In order to test which instant read thermometers give accurate readings, we put each one through three rigorous tests.

First, we used a sous vide water bath to test how quickly and accurately each thermometer is in a controlled-temperature environment. We then measured a rolling boil of water degrees Fahrenheit to measure how accurate each thermometer is when reading and the speed of the thermometer readout.

Finally, we used chicken thighs to see how easy the thermometers are to use in an oven and test their usability features, such as their backlight and rotating display.

The thermometer is incredibly accurate and a bit expensive for a thermometer. The interface is not intuitive, but the grip makes it nice to hold. The Javelin is a very basic design and feels cheaply made. There is no backlight or auto-rotating display.

The display is very clear, but there is nothing special about this particular thermometer. The Weber can be difficult to maneuver above boiling water or under a heat source because it has no hinge. The handle is not ergonomic or grippy, so we were concerned about it slipping out of your hand if you're using an oven mitt or kitchen towel.

Many of the instant-read thermometers we tested did not perform well enough to make our list. There were models from BBQ Dragon, Venigo, and even ThermoWorks that just barely missed the mark.

Others from brands such as OXO Good Grips and Precision-Pro need some more tweaking before they are recommendable. Find the thickest part of the food being cooked especially important with meat and insert the thermometer in inches.

If cooking bone-in proteins, avoid touching the bone because it will give a false reading. Most instant-read thermometers should take the temperature within seconds. This is not the kind of thermometer to leave in the oven, and it should be removed immediately after achieving a reading.

Instant read thermometers come in the probe or infrared styles. The probe type inserts into the food item in question. The infrared thermometers do not need to make contact with the food to take the temperatures and are easier to clean. Most instant-read thermometers do not need much maintenance or calibration, and each manufacturer will have calibration instructions, if any.

Some purport they are self-calibrating models. To care for most thermometers, wash the metal part with hot soapy water to sanitize the probe and dry well before storing.

Yes, but it depends on the style. Infrared versions are best because they measure the higher temperatures required for candy-making and deep frying.

Plus, they make less of a mess, so there's no need to insert anything into the food in question or clean it. If you have vision problems, the display is an important consideration.

Some thermometers have rotating displays, making it easier to take temperature readings in odd positions, and it is helpful for left-handed people as well.

The contrast of the display is also something we evaluated in our tests, and when the contrast is too low, it can make reading temperatures difficult. For a thermometer to be versatile, it must have a wide enough temperature range, as certain foods like bread, pizza, and candy require much higher cooking temperatures.

Since cooking often occurs next to sinks or liquid ingredients, a thermometer's water resistance is essential so it will last for a long time.

Many of the picks on our list are either water-resistant or waterproof. Even within sub-categories of instant read thermometers, some separate themselves with design and unique features. For instance, some probe thermometers offer fold-out versus stationary probes. Fold-out is always best because most also turn on the unit when unfolded and have automatic shut-off functions to save the battery life.

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