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Accurate but Slow

This Component Design oven thermometer is pretty nice, I must say. I am going to summarize its advantages and disadvantages up front.

Advantages:
1) Accurate
2) Solid construction
3) Delay temperature response (so you can open the oven door and read accurate temperature)
4) Fair price

Disadvantage:
1) Delay temperature response (it takes ~10 minute for temperature equilibration)

For one and most important, it is accurate. It is accurate within 5°F according to the online product manual (it is under the product details section of the Amazon website). I have also tested it using boiling water. Water boils at 100°C and it reads exactly that when it was submerged in boiling water after awhile. The construction appears very solid. Hey, I submerged it in boiling water and water did not leak into the dial. The price is fair. It was sold at $13 with the optional special offer of 4-for-3.

The thermometer I received does not exactly look like the one in the photo. Mine has temperature readings in both Celsius and Fahrenheit, with the Celsius readings in the inner circle and Fahrenheit readings on the outer circle. When the thermometer is placed in my oven with the oven door closed and the oven light on, I can only read the Celsius marks. This is because the oven light is illuminated from the back and the shadow casts on Fahrenheit markings. Yet this is alright. This is exactly where the strength of this oil filled tube comes in. The oil filled tube is designed to increase the heat capacity of this thermometer, resulting in a delay response. I can open the oven door for 30 seconds and the thermometer needle will barely change - plenty time to read. In fact, I believe the delay response is too long as I will explain later. Some readers have problems with the thermometer bracket, but I don’t. Mine attaches nicely to the oven rack. Even if it does not, I can simply place the thermometer on the rack.

The oil-filled tube is a double edge sword. On one hand, it allows me to read the thermometer reading when I open the oven door. On the other hand, it takes ~10 minutes before it fully equilibrates to a new temperature. When I drop this thermometer into boiling water. It took more than 2 minutes to reach its final temperature. Your oven may very well be 350°F, but if you expect its reading to reflect the oven temperature within 2-3 minutes, then you are mistaken. You may wonder why I rate this nice product a four-star for a single problem. Well, it is an fairly inconvenience problem. Every time I change the oven to a new temperature, I have to wait for more than 10 minutes before the reading become reliable. This is fine in most cases, but it is difficult when recipes call for two temperature steps. In my opinion, CDN has made the oil filled tube too large, resulting a much longer time delay response than necessary.

Update (2/6/2012):

The featured review for this product, Component Design PAT550 Proaccurate Oven Thermometer Kitchen, was written by Richard Wong.

The average rating for this item is 4.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.