Dial thermometer adjustment

[ecolbeck]

First boil of the year here in western MA. 200 gallons of sap off of 60 taps. Busy night tonight. My dial thermometer has run out of adjustment and will not hit zero. Does that mean it’s shot or is there a way to fix it?

[maple flats]

Not sure. Are you loosening the set screw and rotating the dial? If yes and it has no more adjustment it might be bad. How are you trying to set it? When I set mine, I did it with just water in the pan, get it to a real hard boil and at that point loosen the little set screw, and turn the dial face to where it points to zero. Then you will draw off at 7 degrees to get syrup. Verify with a hydrometer.

[ecolbeck]

That’s the procedure I have always used but this year it won’t adjust far enough to work correctly. I got it to register 219 as zero so it’s working well enough for tonight. Thanks for reply.