Stainless steel oven thermometer
When the subject turns to analog oven thermometers and cooking in wood fired ovens; you will find out, that is if you haven’t already, that measuring temperature with these marvelous self standing stainless steel thermometers is done/useful only when the wooden door is closed – that’s when temperature in the cooking chamber evens up for baking or long time slow roasting and so on. Otherwise there isn’t point to measure the atmosphere inside while firing or when the entry door is opened because logically the temperature conditions are very different at vault level vs. bottom floor. The carbon burn-off gives you a high pizza temperature reading, 
that is when all the walls turn from black to white color (or to red color if the oven is build out of old red solids.)
If you prefer a fancier oven thermometer, or as another option although there are not at all necessarily needed, then take a look at digital thermometer.
These simple stainless steel meters sell for about 10 to 15 bucks in chef shops, I have about 150 of them left at the moment to give to my customers. I bought them for a good bulk price from the chef trade show in Brisbane.
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I’m trying to build my first primitive clay oven and want to know if I can insert a brass well for a thermal probe or how to mesure temperature without opening the door? Any help? Although these self standing stainless steel thermometers are practical too, I just want to experiment some more.
By robert
Hi,
I have a tradional oven built with 2 oil drums packed in insulating cement giving 2 ovens heated in one firing with 2 shelves in each drum cooker.
My themometer is similar to the one in the photo except it reads temperature on the back side of scale and has needle indicator.
Temperature is measured by placing the backside of the themometer on a baking tray.
Problem with this thermometer kind, because it is faster acting or responding the temperature charge, is you have to open the oven door to read the temperature.
How can a wire be fitted to the back of the themometer and threaded through the door to connect to fixing it inside the oven and what kind of wire and connecters are required?
If this is possible it would be graet and I would buy a second thermometer and have one outside of each drum.
By Stainless steel oven thermometer.
Robert, I think that the type of thermometer you are looking for is called a gas actuated thermometer. They usually have a long cable with probe attached to the end. This would make a very nice addition and useful tool for the oven because you can install the probe directly inside of the oven but allowing you to place the dial anywhere you like on the outside. You can find them easily enough by searching the web. They can be pricey but I have seen them on ebay for around $150. I will be using an old boiler thermometer on mine that I found on ebay for $35.
By Colby
FANTASTIC EXPLANATIONS of this thermometer! Thank you very much for all the hard work. Pizza lovers around the world cheer for you!
Anthony
One quick (perhaps silly question) Where can I find vaulted pizza oven plans to buy?
By Anthony DiBiase
Anthony, thanks for your nice words about our work. It’s all in this page for the oven building plans.
By Rado
Industrial processes are frequently controlled by temperature probes called thermocouples. You can make a thermocouple quite easily. I think YouTube probably has an expose on how to do that.
I have made thermocouples utilizing pairs of soldered wires, placed inside a Pyrex tubing that resists heat well. These are inexpensive to make and often last up until the glass tube cracks! A porcelain material could be applied instead.
These can be used with a milli-volt meter, with milli-volts equating to temperature once you know the profile of the twisted wire pair. Absolutely similar to the pH versus millivolts chart located on this site, which is how I came across this thermometer page!
Regards,
David
By David Newell, P.E.