Stovetop thermometer...is it messed up??

[dtabor]

This is going to sound like a strange questions but.....I have a magnetic stovetop thermometer. Obviously the stove isnt going this time of year when its 90 outside but the thermometer on the cold cast iron reads 300* and seems to be going up as it was reading 200 or so last week!! Does this mean it is messed up or is it just some quirky thing going on??

D

 

[Tfin]

It definately shouldn't be reading that high without a fire/hot coals in the stove.

I'd get a new one.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Put that thermometer in the oven and try it out there to see if it is working.

 

[BrotherBart]

Without the stove going the thermometer should just be registering the room temperature.

 

[Highbeam]

You did bang it with your knuckles didn't you? To knock it loose? If that bimettalic spring reads anything but room temp then trash it. The job is too important.

 

[fossil]

I have one that seems to want to stick once in a while. Try a thin blade to bend the little indicator arrow out away from the face of the thermometer, it might be binding there, doesn't take much friction to overwhelm the little torsion produced by the bimetallic coil spring, in either direction. But like highbeam sez...if in doubt, just replace it. Rick

 

[dtabor]

The thing was new just a few weeks before the end of burning season. It worked fine and even after burning was over it was just sitting there and the needle hadnt moved. A bit back I noticed it was reading in the hundreds, then in the 2 hundreds, now 3! As crazy as it sounds, I even put my hand on the griddle top to assure myself that it was cold!! haha.

I'll try the oven first. See what it reads in there then dump it if its still off.

D