thermometer alert.

[super sappy]

i purchased a digital thermometer from bascoms this past winter . it has a remote probe and is perfect to stick in the cup to get a reading when you are filling up 5 gallon jugs. I found out today by mistake that this thermometer is reading close to 10 degrees over what it should be .it is complete junk.I have used it to fill all of my 5 gallon jugs. I can guarantee that everything that I have bottled is lite as far as density and I have to go back and re bottle 80 gallons in 5 gallon incriments to make sure that my syrup is rite. .I am sick of buying junk from maple dealers that it makes me sick.. The thermometer is a #POLDER602-90.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Thanks SS!

[super sappy]

I just came in from the freezing sugarhouse . and I had randomly selected 4-5 gallon jugs .I opened them and Re tested for density. the tests were all over the spectrum. Up 2 points or fown four. I did all the things right .When I bought the thermometer I installed a fresh battery,And checked it against all of the other thermometers that I have.The thing was right on the money. For me this has been a record production year and for this to happen right at the end is just rediculous. I just about completely lost what is left of my mind earlier. -SS

[Pete33Vt]

I'm not sure if this is the case or not but I know with all my measuring devices, that the temp of the cold syrup make a big difference. Alot of them are calibrated to certian temps for cold syrup and like yours my sugarhouse is and ICE box when I am not boiling, so I am not sure If the temps are correct. I do the best I can and have never had a problem with any of the syrup I have sold, bulk or canned.

[VtSugarhouse]

This is a subject which i touched on a while back. Most of your lesser expensive digital thermometers are very inaccurate. Bascom's digital thermometers are the same as Leaders (since Bruce is part owner). This brings us back to the mercury thermometer which is the most accurate but is no longer legal to be sold in the state of Vermont.
The Dept of Ag is going to have a accurate (reasonable priced) digital thermometer available for sale at the 2008 Maplerama in Tunbridge Vt. this year. The exact price is yet to be known. Also they will be having an exchange program for the mercury thermometers.
Outside of the mercury thermometers the only accurate digital thermometer that i have seen are from $600.00 to $1,500.00 each.


Still keeping my Mercury Thermometer!!

[802maple]

This is the main reason why you have to finish with a hydrometer and not a thermometer. Thermometrs will get you in a range but a hydrometer will put you on the money when used correctly.

[PATheron]

Dont know if this helps but this is how dad and I do it. We seem to make it heavy off the evap. We use a cheap digital on the evap, check first batch with hydrom then draw at that matching temp on the digital rest of night. If syrup is 219 say, we draw at 219 itll probly hit 220 and well let it draw till hits say just 217 stop. We kind of go with a range. Its always heavy. I take it and dump it in the canner. I put it to final density with the hydrometer in the cannner. We have a chart Matt gave us. It will give the density at all temps. I check it at whatever temp. Thin it with sap from the flu. Then check for final density with the hydrometer. This might not be the most efficient way but it seems to work good for us. The canner has a nice thermometer and we have the chart. So its easy to check it at any temp. Then I make sure it is at least 180 and press it and dump in the barrell. Theeron

[super sappy]

I ran out of bulk containers a week or so ago. So I made syrup, hot tested it with the hydrometer and put the syrup in pails with liners.Everything was fine. My bulk containers came and I had to reheat the syrup in the fryer pot to bottle. Well I am alwayse checking so when I got up to 180 185 or so I checked with the hydrometer and used the temp. correction chart in the producers manual.I was using the probe to stick in the hydrometer cup so I would have an accurate reading. Everything needed some tweaking witch is not uncommon because I ushally make my syrup a little heavy on the evaporator then add some boiling sap like most people do.I have a group of people coming this afternoon so I will go bottle some good syrup to sell to them. ---- side note --- with a new battery that probe thermometer read my cup of tea at 237 degrees rite now. I will take it down to the woods later and give it a 12 guage burial.

[royalmaple]

Can you return it?
Tell them its a POS. I bet you'll get the standard, gee no one has ever complained about these before, we sell hundreds of them and people love them. That's what I've got, not from bascoms but whenever I run into something and I am the "only one" that is having trouble. My luck isn't that bad.

[802maple]

I do it the same way as Theron except if the syrup gets heavy I continue to draw off longer until I get it back down to the right density right from the evaporator and filter right into the drum. Saves alot of steps

[VtSugarhouse]

Just for general information the last time I was at Leader co. they had a pile of returned digital thermometers. That is why they have stopped selling the lesser expensive ones because they are so inaccurate.

Like everyone is saying watch you dial and use a hydromerter and your syrup will be right on the button. Even check your automatic draw off daily.
This will help your density control.

[gmcooper]

Ditto what 802 said.

I have several Taylor thermometers (mercury) the I use some checking bottling temps with and some when we make candy. The newest one we have is at least 10 degrees off. I have one digital that was way off as well. One digital I use now seem sto be right on ut I do check at boiling pt water every so often just to be sure it is at least close. I never package any with out hydrometer.

[Jim Powell]

The digital thermometer I bought for this year, died after a couple of days after I dropped it into the hydrometer cup. (last years digital which I bought at a kitchen store started acting up after getting steamed by the evaporator, and it finally died when it fell into the evaporator) I called up Omega that is a Process Control house I used to use, and talked to a human about what I was doing, how i screwed up the first one, and asked about what kind they had that was hand held with a long probe and fairly accurate. We ended up agreeing on their "low cost" hand held unit, $65 and a 12" long probe $35. It should be here on Wed. I've used these before and are fairly accurate. I am finishing with a new refractometer I got off of ebay thanks to others here.

thermometer: http://www.omega.com/pptst/HH11A_HH12A.html
Probe: http://www.omega.com/pptst/JHIN-RSC.html

If I had bought something like this when I started I would have saved money, although we'll see where I manage to drop this one!

JCP

[Brent]

For $300 you can get a very very accurate unit made for maple sugaring.

Barometric compensation built in. Displays air pressure, compensated boiling temp at the air pressure and probe tip temp. Set the alarm temp to 7.2 degrees above boiling and the alarm will go off when it gets there.
www.ystec.com (http://www.ystec.com).

I loved that so much I bought one of his auto draw offs. He has a new one that is not on the site yet. Remote control panel, big ball valve that opens proportionally depending on how many tenths of a degree it goes above your set point. Barometric compensated as well. $1300. and one without the remote for $995.

He also make low level alarms and remote level alarms for you guys on vacuum.

[maple marc]

This season I ruined two cable probes for my favorite digital meat thermometer. It had been working well during re-heating for bottling, but somehow I fried them. I guess they aren't made for liquid. I don't cook meat without them anymore.

[PerrinFarm2]

Personally i always use the displacement method. Fill up the cup start drawing when the first line can be seen, stop when it can't and check that its on the second red line when its cold.

-ben