Next, we hung all of the analog thermometers in the same oven near the center. Because the food can get in the way, oven thermometers won’t always be able to hang out in the middle of the middle rack, but we felt this was the fairest way to determine overall ambient temperature accuracy with regard to where the food you’re cooking would actually be sitting.
We preheated the oven to 350º F and took a reading of each thermometer. Then we set a timer for 25 minutes (somewhere in between a long preheat and a short bake) and checked the readings again after the oven had a chance to cycle off and on a couple of times.
Next, we repeated this same procedure at 500º F. We made our calls on the accuracy of each thermometer based on how close each was to the adjusted ThermoWorks average temperature at both the short and long preheat benchmarks at both temperatures. We then repeated this process once more with all of the thermometers placed in the front of the oven, right by the door, to see if their location had any effect on overall consistency.
Finally, we tucked all of the thermometers in the back corner of the oven to test their readability at a quick glance. We also hung and stood up each thermometer and jostled the oven rack in and out to determine a thermometer’s stability in both positions.
Adam Campbell-Schmitt
What makes a good oven thermometer
We judged the thermometers on the following
Judging the accuracy of a thermometer without a detached probe is tricky, but using the Thermoworks probe in boiling water as our baseline we got a pretty good idea.
We wanted a thermometer that didn't take more than a quick glance through the oven glass or a cracked open oven door to read.
Stability and placement flexibility
We wanted a thermometer that would stand or hang easily in as many parts of the oven as possible. That way we'd feel confident using it whether we had a huge roasting pan in the oven or just a small sheet pan with a few cookies.
Other oven thermometers we liked
OXO Good Grips Chef’s Precision Oven Thermometer
Like so many Oxo products, this thermometer is well designed. It features a wide stand, a tapered opening on its hook that can fit racks of many diameters, and was also the weightiest unit we tried, making it particularly stable. The dial isn’t the biggest, but it’s substantial enough to read the thick black indicator needle at a glance. The numbers weren’t bolded though, and it’s a little taller than other models. That means that if your oven racks are all in use and stacked closely together (certainly a possibility with lots of baking around the holidays), this thermometer could get in the way.
Taylor Oven Thermometer
They say bigger is better and when it comes to this thermometer we’re inclined to agree. With a three-inch-diameter dial, it had the largest temperature gauge of any analog model we tested. The numbers are bold and Celsius readings are smaller but legible. The indicator needle is relatively thin, though that didn’t affect our ability to read temperatures too much. Its wide face is matched by an equally wide base, which can stand securely on any oven rack. Its hook isn’t perfect, we found a little small for the wires of the oven rack. Its temperature readings were stable from preheat to sustained heat, though toward the cooler end of the acceptable range. If you’re the kind of person who prefers everything in large print, this is definitely a good choice.
Crate & Barrel Oven Thermometer
If this looks similar to the Taylor thermometer we just discussed, that’s because it’s basically the same, right down to the model number printed in a tiny font on the face. But we were curious to try this Crate & Barrel branded version because there is one important stylistic difference: The face is black with white writing. We wanted to see how that impacted readability in the back corner of a dark oven. We found it did offer improved readability at a glance. But otherwise it performed exactly the same as the Taylor and its white background. If you're the kind of person who puts your phone apps and web browser on “dark mode,” then this one’s for you.
CDN Multi-Mount Oven Thermometer
This small, square, reflective metal face is easy to ready and the whole thing is quite compact, which is handy for tucking away in the corner of the oven. It has a two-way hook that worked fine, though the fold-down stand, while space-saving, was unsturdy and prone to slipping between gaps. True to its name, this thermometer has yet another mounting feature, a magnet. We didn’t find a great place in our oven for it to stay put and remain easily readable. And we’re dubious about using the outside edge of our oven for temperature checking versus a location that’s more central. So ultimately the defining feature of this thermometer, it's various mounting options, didn't prove all that useful, but because of its size, shape, and readability it still worked well when hung.
Oven thermometers we don't recommend
With its two-inch-diameter dial, Rubbermaid Commercial Products’ oven thermometer is compact across just about every dimension. It’s shorter thanks to a smaller stand and stubbier hook. However, its small size caused issues with readability and placement. Though they’re bolded, the numbers on the dial are small. Reading this one took a few too many seconds of squinting. The foot on the Rubbermaid is only an inch and half wide, just barely spanning the wires of our oven racks, so if it’s not hanging, this one is way more likely to topple or fall between the gaps as you slide your racks or pull your cookware in and out. Actual temperature readings were a bit on the cool side too, within 10-15 degrees.
CDN Measurement Tools’ oven thermometer also had a very small face at two inches in diameter. However, the overall height and width of the entire unit were on par with the other, large dial thermometers we tested, so it won’t be a space saver in say, a countertop toaster oven. The CDN did feature a brushed steel dial background instead of a white one. We liked the steel because of its ability to reflect the ambient light in the dark corners of the oven. That said, it ran a bit too cool, by about 5-15 degrees.
Liquid thermometers are rare in the oven thermometer world at this point, and we’d posit that this one is a pretty good illustration as to why. We liked that it was horizontally oriented, so it didn’t block open rack space a bit less, though it is pretty wide. As for readability, if you grew up in a household before or without digital forehead or ear thermometers, you probably remember having to tilt those old liquid-style thermometers back and forth until you could read the temperature. This one is no different, except it’s fixed in one position, meaning you have to move instead of the thermometer and it was tricky to find the right angle. The inclusion of heat “zone” indicators that point out where the cooking temperature is considered “slow,” “moderate,” “hot,” or “very hot,” take up too much visual space, making a quick read challenging, and, for most home cooks, don’t actually offer much insight. It also ran “hot”, perhaps because it was holding on to the highest fluctuation in heat levels as the oven cycled.
We love the sleek, chic look of this thermometer befitting of its house brand, fancy kitchen store Williams Sonoma. The clip-style mounting mechanism is identical to the KitchenAid thermometer we recommend above, and we once again like that functionality on this square-faced model. However this version opts for a “white on gray” color scheme. The size and lack of weighty font on the dark gray background made it a little too difficult to read at a quick glance. Unlike the KitchenAid, we found this one ran cold by around 20 degrees during both the 350º F and 500º F tests, which could lead to overcompensating and overcooking. It was also super sensitive to the door being opened, dropping a 5-10 degrees immediately. That was a problem because it was already more challenging to read with the door closed.
Is it a thermometer? Yes. Is it accurate? Pretty much. Is it easy to read? Yup. Is it cheap? Absolutely. The most baffling part of this thermometer is its triangular stand, which “points” toward the back, meaning, even if it spans your oven rack wires, it's very likely to fall backward. But if you’re looking for a very low-cost way to check in on your oven’s temperature, this one will do the job. It was one of the most accurate in all of our temperature tests, coming in just a few degrees off the baseline measurements.
After just two uses, namely one at 500ºF, the red numbers and letters on the face had faded to become nearly illegible. Spend two more bucks for something better.
This thermometer was awkward to use right out of the box. It’s a digital oven thermometer without any of the benefits of a digital oven thermometer. The LCD screen is easy to read, but nothing else was easy to use. The cable that connects the probe to the display is split in two for some reason and it lacked any kind of clip or stand to place the probe securely into the oven. The display didn’t have a magnet to stabilize it on the oven door like the Thermoworks did (it did have a hole, presumably to hang it from a nail). The biggest problem, however, is that this is simply a live-reading thermometer, so it only gives the current oven temperature. Without an average mode to smooth out the fluctuations, it was not any more useful than an anolog thermometer and lacked the design of the Thermoworks that might tip the scales in its favor. If you were trying to adjust the knob or settings on your oven to compensate based on this thermometer, you’d drive yourself nuts.
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