Credit:
Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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Credit:
Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.
Learn more about our product testing
The KT Thermo's accuracy, readability, and two-year warranty make it a clear favorite. Read More
This budget-friendly oven thermometer is jammed pack with features that registers temperature changes every 50 degrees, but that makes the face cluttered and challenging to read. Read More
The no-frills model reported temperatures with great accuracy and responded quickly to any changes in heat. Read More
The AcuRite is a clear and easy to read oven thermometer registering consistent temperatures and a helpful range of indicators up to 600°F. Read More
While this CDN oven thermometer aced our accuracy tests, it's difficult to read and hangs awkwardly inside the oven. Read More
We've all been there: As a home cook, you follow a recipe perfectly, pop your masterpiece in the oven, and wait. Thirty minutes later, it's just barely done, even though the recipe cook time calls for 10 minutes.
Or you leave your dish to slow roast for an hour as instructed, only to discover that it burned to a crisp 20 minutes ago. Not only is this incredibly annoying, but it's also a telltale sign that your oven didn't actually reach your desired temperature. The result? Blackened cookies and an underdone Thanksgiving turkey.
Luckily, there's a simple fix to playing Russian Roulette with your inexact oven—a humble dial-face stainless-steel oven thermometer.
And while there generally isn’t much discernible difference in the type, we discovered after testing nine of the leading models on the market, that the KT Thermo Oven Thermometer (available at Amazon) stands out from the pack. Not only is it highly accurate (an obvious must for thermometers), it has easy-to-read and wide-ranging temperature markings, and it fits snugly onto oven racks.
KT Thermo makes one of the most accurate and easy to read oven thermometers we tested.
This Cooper-Atkins oven thermometer gets our pick for best value.
We put nine of the most popular oven thermometers to the test to help you decide which to buy.
My name is Sarah Zorn, and I’m a professional food writer, cookbook author and recipe tester. Meaning, accuracy is essential when it comes to developing dishes in my kitchen. And this product review was humbling because it revealed just how off my oven is!
This guide was first written and tested by former Reviewed editor Jessica Teich.
To test the products, we hung four thermometers at a time from a rack placed in the middle of an oven. We then positioned a separate thermometer (one of our best-tested probe thermometers which we use for all our oven testing) in a ceramic dish, oriented so the body of the probe was exposed to the open air near the thermometers.
We preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and let it hold for 5 minutes before turning the oven off. During this sequence, we recorded the temperatures of both the thermometers and the probe once per minute.
We then repeated this process at a 450-degree setting. Finally, we evaluated each thermometers' performance during everyday use.
Cooking food—especially baking — is all about chemistry. And many of those essential chemical reactions are dependent on measuring the temperature correctly. The problem is, ovens are notoriously idiosyncratic (to put it nicely) and often wildly inaccurate. Each one heats differently.
If you’re following a recipe, it’s pretty much a given that your oven won’t operate in the same way as the oven of the person who developed the recipe in the first place. So if the instructions read “Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes,” using an oven thermometer will let you know when you’re truly at the right temperature.
This set it and forget it tool features an internal mechanism that expands and contracts, which moves a dial to indicate the true temperature of your oven. The heat-proof glass face is surrounded by a steel body and is fitted with a hook to allow it to hang off an oven rack, as well as a base if you’d rather sit it flat on top of the grates.
Clearly, accuracy is key, or why bother in the first place? To find a good instant-read cooking thermometer, look for a durable stainless steel construction with easy-to-read markings and large numbers that you can see through the oven door without having to open it (or risk ruining your perfectly inflated souffle).
The ticks should be large and the face uncluttered. That said, Celsius indicators are helpful if you’re working within the metric system, as are markings that register every 10 or 25 degrees if you do a good deal of baking. The thermometer should stay firmly in position, so it’s not easily knocked off the racks if hung, or subject to falling over, if set on its base. And it shouldn’t be so large that it dangles in front of (or prevents access to) lower racks.
Also, ensure that the thermometer is "NSF certified" or "NSF approved," which means the product meets the standards of the National Safety Foundation.
Easy to read
Accurate temperature readings
Hangs well on oven rack
Only reaches 500°F
Clear markings
Consistent temperatures
Starts registering at 150°F
Sarah Zorn
Contributor
Sarah Zorn is a food writer, cookbook author, and product tester for Reviewed, Wirecutter and the Food Network. She regularly contributes to outlets such as Saveur, Esquire, and Civil Eats, and has very much passed her food obsessions down, as her beloved rescue hound, Rowdy, regularly deglazes his kibble bowl.
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