For The Love Of Port

Just wondering who has found the best of the wine cellar digital thermometers? What kind do you use?

I use a simple Radio Shack thermometer/hygrometer (cheap - $15-20). It reads to tenths for temperature and whole percentages for moisture. The important thing is whether it is accurate. Hygrometers are notoriously inaccurate.

I got several (6 or 8) T/H devices and put them in the wine cellar (and then out in the human part of the house) and all but two agreed with each other (within a percent or two). The two that didn't were off (one a bit high, one very low) on the humidity scale, so I tossed them. Temperature is easy to make accurate. Almost any digital thermometer will be close. It's the humidity that seems to be the stumbling block for meter makers.

The temperature reported by my "cheapie" also agrees with the setting on the cooler that keeps the cellar cold, and with the temperature sensor that reports back to the Smart-House system.

BTW, when RS puts those meters on sale, you can get them for about $10; buy a bunch and test by comparing them. (At the same time, you can be testing any expensive T/H devices you may have. The expensive ones are just about as likely to be inaccurate as the cheap ones.)

BTW, this is also how I buy can-openers. Buy a bunch of cheap ones, test them, and toss the ones (most of them) that don't open cans well. Cheaper in the long run than buying a single expensive one guaranteed to work well.

I actually have a real mercury thermometer that I got at a lab supply shop. Absolutely precise to the degree and can estimate within 0.2 degrees.

I have one I picked up at the local wine store some years back. Have no idea who makes it, but it works pretty good so far on the temp front. Although the humidity portion I think is a little off. Then again, I only have a couple of the refridge type coolers at home which are either drink now or short term (1-3 weeks) storage until I drop them off at my offsite storage.

I use a cutis anserina thermometer when I go into the cellar. Not very precise, but has worked well enough so far.

Moses Botbol wrote:I use a cutis anserina thermometer when I go into the cellar. Not very precise, but has worked well enough so far.

Actually, that should work quite well. Much warmer than proper cellar temperature, and it doesn't happen at all. Much colder than proper, and the reaction is quite different.

(And, yes, I had to look it up. I should have recognized the "anser" reference, but I didn't.)