Taylor Precision Products Large 2.5 Inch Dial Kitchen Cooking Oven Thermometer - Accurate Temperature Gauge for Baking, Roasting, Grilling & BBQ - Perfect for Ovens, Smokers & Meat Cooking

I believed that I just couldn't bake. Just about everything was dry. Then, after 4 years with this oven, it dawned on me that maybe it was the oven. With this thermometer I confirmed that my oven was 30 degrees lower that where I set it. My only complaint is that I can't read it thru the oven glass door. I have to open the door, lean down low and almost put my head in the oven to read it. But that might be because of my eyesight and the distortion of the glass. Whatever, I am improving my baking.After moving to a rental with a range of decidedly inferior quality than I was used to, I noted unsurprisingly that my baked goods took waaaay too long, often came out raw inside even after upping the bake time by 50% or more. That (and the initially disgusting state of my oven, which had never been cleaned apparently before someone ran a self-clean cycle—big no no) made me want to abandon baking altogether, for whatever didn’t fit in my far superior countertop compact toaster oven.But, you know, pandemic and all. My toaster oven is fantastic, but I did buy a compact one, so it limits my options for baking pans. And I really, really want to use up all the crazy pantry supplies I have picked up over time, many of which demand the oven. So, I looked for my old oven thermometer, a Taylor model, and realized I probably left it in my old oven when I moved.A quick web search turned up some options; I went for this one, believing it to be the same as my old one. It’s actually almost twice the diameter, good for aging eyes! It’s also more stable with its little hanging hook than the old one was (I kept knocking the old one over when I’d put in or remove pans, but this one so far has not been in the way—puzzling, since it’s bigger!)... and it is easy to read through the now clean (ish) oven door after seven rounds of scrubbing.What it told me was startling, but fit my suspicions. The oven took forever to come up to the set temp; actually, when it said it was done preheating, it was FIFTY degrees lower than what I had set!!! I mean, we all know ovens vary a little, but... that’s just ridiculous. I kept pushing up the set temp until the thermometer told me we were there.Interestingly, the oven does reach the set temp eventually; it just has to take a lot longer than it’s telling you to do so, resulting in spectacularly uneven heating through the bake.Without this little gem, I wouldn’t have known that. It’s not just the calibration, it’s the preheat cycle that’s messed up. So, basically, to bake with anything like a reasonable degree of certainty, I have to keep preheating for an extra twenty minutes or so—or just heat the oven hotter to start with, then turn it down.This was at the higher end of temps; I was shooting for 400, got 350, and had to go to 450 for the temp to be 400 when the preheat light went off and the oven beeped to say it was ready. But over time, it kept going up (while I was baking!!!), so I had to back down to 425. My dish came out fine, thankfully, but this tells me we’re not making anything fancy in here, for sure.I still have to see how the low temp works; I want to make meringue for pavlova, and I just don’t trust the oven. But I do trust this nifty little thermometer! It’s really making me change the way I use this crummy oven. If it were my appliance, I’d get it serviced or replaced, but since it’s a rental, that’s not going to happen. At least now I can hope for better results than I got for the first few months; as an experienced cook and baker, accuracy matters to me. I haven’t calibrated the dial itself to find out how accurate the thermometer is, but it seems to be correct based on how my baked goods are coming out now, in terms of time and bake quality, relative to before using the oven thermometer.Wish I had bought this thing months ago, when I first suspected oven sabotage. I held out hope of finding my old one, but at this price point, I really shouldn’t have.Buy it if you have any doubts about your oven. Or even if you don’t—it might surprise you. I just know that, when I move next time, I’m taking this thing with me!!!This ovem temperature gauge is standard issue. Easily hooks onto oven rack or sits on a surface. The metal hook and stand is flexible and I have found it easy to hang the thermometer and then squeeze the metal hook so that it stays in place even when bumped and jostled. I don't know if this stresses the integrity of the metal and it will someday break but I have been using it this way for 6 months now in a industrial oven and there's no sign of deterioration.Replaced wall oven with new. To check oven calibration, bought 2 of these Taylors*. Was hesitant because I'd bought Taylor refrigerator thermometers a few years back and all of them were 4-6% off... some low, some high... poor quality control... and was expecting similar with these oven ones. (So, why did I buy this brand again you ask? I'd hoped Taylor's QC had become better, they were cheap, and I could return them if they were waaay off.) Well... tested both @ 450F and they were "spot on" with the oven thermometer! Can't ask for better than that.* Oven manufacturer said, ".... no need to use additional oven thermometer... the one in the oven has been precisely calibrated..." I thought, "I'll test that".... and the maker was correct!Works fine but the dial does begin to darken after being in a 450+ oven for extended periods. But works well regardless.My old oven did not have an accurate temperature it was always hotter than it was set at so I use this to make sure that I wasn’t gonna burn dinner or whatever it was the recipe I was following. Since then I got a new stove new oven and I use this to check and make sure that it was accurate because it’s not always accurate when you buy new in-line is thankful Lee perfect so I can trust the stove to do what it supposed which is very important since I burnt everything with the old one until I bought this temperatures of oven thermometer now it’s on 250 ¥ the temperature guide inside says 249 because I just open the door and I’m sure if I shut it again it’ll go to 250 and then I can take a pictureSimple accurate gauge for my grill. Wish the numerals we're a bit larger for my older eyes, but hey, the price was right.Great valueThanks to this thermometer I now know that the hottest my oven gets is only 125 degrees celsius!useful but took 17days to arriveWanted to upgrade from my cheap Chinese oven thermometer. (BTW This one also is made in China :-) )Taylor is a known brand, but when buying US thermometers the only issue is that the Fahrenheit scale is always more prominent. Anyway its good to have both as in this thermometer.The description says that it has useful cooking zones, but this is printed on the printed cover, not on the thermometer. Display is large and easy to read. I like that it is sealed so hopefully, no vapour or other cooking fumes will get inside.Although it is still cheaper than some of the other branded thermometers, I felt that the price was on the higher side, hence the -1 star. Will check the accuracy and update this review later.Reducing 1 more star as I feel that the indicated temperature is under reported. It was about 10 deg C off when I checked it against my Fluke multimeter's thermocouple probe with the oven set at 220C . The dial is also so large that you can't hang it if you are going to use the drip tray under the grilling rack even on a 32 liter oven so probably it is designed for even larger ovens. The sad part is that it proves that my cheap Chinese oven thermometer had more or less the same accuracy. Maybe I got a defective piece, but this will be my first and last Taylor product. Not sure if it needs to be run in like other mechanical devices and will improve over time. If it does, I\ll adjust my rating accordingly.It seems accurate (when checked along with other thermometers).It has a large dial and a stable base. It has a sealed body and hence is slow to acquire the temperature.My only complaint is that in centigrade readings, the graduations are 5C and without a longer tick for 10C. This makes it difficult to take a readingAfter so many research in amazon, I bought thus expecting at least this could be original. But alas! Again a China made product! I request to amazon to please mention in description that whether the product is from China or been made in its originating country.Its very crucial for us who buy products paying high prices.