ET 732 probe test question.

The science of the freezing and boiling point of water does depend on several variables. You already are making adjustments for elevation, which is one of the variables. You must be at 4,000 feet elevation to get a boiling point of 204 degrees.

The first thing that can screw up your calibration is by using water from the tap. The minerals and other elements in tap water can change its boiling point. The only correct way to do this work is by using distilled water.

The next thing that is important is to stir the water. This is important for both the ice water as well as the boiling point experiment. You would think that because water is a fairly decent thermal conductor that every part of a pot of water would be the same temperature. However, that is not the case.

You also need to make sure that the water is at a full, roiling boil. Just because there are a few bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pan does NOT mean that the water is boiling. You need to see a lot of steam escaping, as well as seeing a huge number of bubbles.

When doing the ice water bath, it really helps to use crushed ice. Even if you don't have a way to easily crush ice, you should at least make sure that the container is packed with so much ice that there is ice from the very bottom to the very top of the container. Then -- and this is important -- you must constantly stir the solution, and do so for a couple of minutes before you take your readings.

Finally, it might be useful to also test other thermometers that you have. The ideal is to use a Thermapen thermometer as a reference. It is a marvelous device for many reasons, but one of them is that each and every unit is calibrated at the factory, and the company provides you with a custom calibration card, done for your device, that shows their actual measurements, on your specific unit, for both the freezing and boiling measurements. Because of the physics of how the sensor in the Thermapen works, (I'm pretty sure it is a diode), you are guaranteed that all temperatures in between the freezing and boiling point should be perfectly accurate, if the two endpoints are calibrated correctly. I think the Maverick uses the same technology, but I don't think they pay as close attention to the individual unit calibration.

I just did a quick Google search and found several people who found their 732 was off. They contacted Maverick and were able to get a replacement.

There were many questions about whether they was a way to calibrated the 732, but I did not find any post that answered that question.I don't think it can be calibrated.

I have a 732 with 4 different probes. I also have a thermopen. I must be the luckiest guy in town, but all of my readings were off by a whopping 2*. I'm having some problems with my 732 remote receiver. I'm going to look very closely at my paperwork and if it can't be fixed, will be looking at the "smoke".

Thanks for your help johnmeyer.

Click to expand...

I didn't help much.

I did finish my Google search when I got up this morning and found this:

Maverick Support

Part way down that page, they state this:

I tested my thermometer in boiling water and it reads 208ºF instead of the expected 212ºF. Is there anyway to calibrate my digital thermometer?

No, there is no way to calibrate our units. Our digital food thermometers are designed to be most accurate at the median of the typical food-doneness temperature range (approximately 160ºF) with increasing tolerances at minimum or maximum temperatures.  All of our digital thermometers have a tolerance of +/- (3-4) degrees F so it is normal for the temperature readings to vary by a few degrees.

Similar problems.  Not impressed with the ET372.  Testing a brand new one here.  Used 3 different thermometers, and the ET372 gives the least consistent results -- see images below.  Not sure what is wrong here.  Feedback is welcome.