Is my Rutland stovetop thermometer shot?

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Cedrusdeodara

Member
Dec 3, 2008
146
New Jersey
I recently noticed that my Rutland thermometer would "bottom out at 250 degrees... in other words, not go below that temp even in a cool room. I "messaged" the needle backward until the needle now reads ambient room temp of 72 degrees (I twisted the needle counterclockwise until it settled back to the correct ambient temp.. Is it likely that I :
a. fixed the problem and it will again read temps accurately.
b. kinda fixed the problem but destroyed the accuracy of the thermometer
c. ruined a thermometer that was likely already shot?

Any advice/experiences here?

I am thinking of doing a test using my oven at 350, 400, 450, degrees and seeing what the Rutland says.

thanks
Brian
 
I just did the oven test and answered my own question. Here are the results:

Maytag Rutland

250 360
300 410
350 460
400 525
450 570
500 620

Conclusion: Rutland still measures with decent precision, but it's accuracy is off by +110-120 degrees. Still useable thermometer but I must minus 110 degrees from whatever the rutland tells me.
 
Cedrusdeodara: Could you please explain the particulars of "how" you conducted your test?

-Soupy1957
 
I've had only one Rutland and it was not accurate. Don't recall how much it was off but it went into the trash. Still, it seems that a lot of folks have good luck with them. It does seem that if you know how much it is off (at least approximately) then you could live with it.
 
I don't even want to think about how many of those things I have owned over the years. And have never been able to adjust them once they got thermo-Alzheimers. Rutland is selling one now that is the same size as the Condar and Woodstock one and holding them side by side my bet is that they are made by the same people. And seem to be accurate now after three seasons.

Well, as accurate as a coil driven stove top thermo is gonna be.
 
Here's the tel-tru I've been using. They claim +/- 2% accuracy over range of thermometer.
I know it's sensitive enough that when I reload the firebox, you can see the pointer slowly edging downward as the firebox initially cools before the load heats up and gets going.
The front is glass covered. This particular model goes up to 750F...they have other lower temp range models.
The second pic is the backside, showing the two heavy duty magnets and bimetallic coil.
 

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soupy1957 said:
Cedrusdeodara: Could you please explain the particulars of "how" you conducted your test?

-Soupy1957

He just heated up his oven to different temps, increasing as he progressed with the stove thermometer in the oven. I would guess that he did not measure with an IR gun so he was at the mercy of his oven thermometer...which would probably be relatively accurate or you wouldn't be able to cook correctly.
 
I've had three Rutlands, and they all have crapped out. The first one lasted a year, died, so I bought two more thinking the first was a fluke. #2 lasted a few months, the third about the same. The Condor unit in the stack is still there, working, after three years. I since bought a cheap stovetop thermo from my stove store, with their company name on it (it isn't a Rutland), and its now over a year old and working fine.

I certainly won't buy any more Rutland thermos.
 
We had the same thermometer and the same problem. I adjusted it as you did but it went back to ABnormal.BROKE.Tis in garbage now.
 
I own 4 Rutlands. Even leave 2 side beside on the stove top for redundancy. Plus I routinely check them against IR gun. They always are right on with the gun. So I can't complain, they've worked good for me. But there will always be a couple bad apples in any basket. Mine are 7-10yrs old.
 
The oven test doesn't always work. These are designed to work being hotter on one side of them where they are completely submerged in heat in the oven.

I have owned 2 rutlands. Each started out working fine, but by the end of the 2nd year, they started to get a little confused at high temps(were reading low).

Tried resetting the needle on both, and only had success on one of them. Even still, it reads high at low temps now. I don't think the bimetallic strip in them could take the beating the stove top was giving them.

pen
 
Rutland or any other thermometers, will always be run in pairs on my stove and backed up by the IR heat gun. Cheap insurance.. expensive stove.

Not even mentioning the safety issue which naturally is job 1!

If you have only ever run one at at time and add another, you'll be amazed at the temperature differential you can develop from one end of the stove to the other.

JD
 
elmoleaf said:
Here's the tel-tru I've been using. They claim +/- 2% accuracy over range of thermometer.
I know it's sensitive enough that when I reload the firebox, you can see the pointer slowly edging downward as the firebox initially cools before the load heats up and gets going.
The front is glass covered. This particular model goes up to 750F...they have other lower temp range models.
The second pic is the backside, showing the two heavy duty magnets and bimetallic coil.

And that is what I would be replacing our Sandhill with when it finally decides to give up the ghost. But it is still accurate after decades of use and I love it. It's not like they can't make a decent coil thermometer, it's just that they don't.
 
Elmoleaf...what model tel-tru are you using??? I was searching their webpage last night and couldnt locate the thermometer that goes up to 750 degrees,,,,thanx, sorry to bother....
 
I couldn't find 1 either.Highhest went to 500.
 
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