TOPIC:

I got this digital thermometer recently.
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It appears to be registering about 8'C warmer than my spirit thermometer. 12.6 for my supposedly 4'C fridge. 42.6'C for under my tongue, whereas my spirit thermometer put it at 35 or 6 (hard to read as Ihave to take the thermometer out of my mouth to read it). And 28'C for room temperature as against 20'C according to my spirit thermometer. This is a bit of a worry as I have been fermenting and adjusting the specific gravity readings according to the readings taken from the digital thermometer.

Does anyone know how to calibrate these things or even if you can? I've done obvious things like switch it on and off a few times and remove and replace the battery, but the problem persists.

I've given up on the digi thermometers for this very reason, I think I've boiled a few of them at this stage and they no longer work afterwards.
I just use the old school glass ones now.

I dont know the particular model, but could there be a function on it to recalibrate it? Or a little reset button - which brings it back to the factory settings??

If the error is constant, there might still be hope for it.

(I see someone else complained about it in the amazon comments though)

There usually isn't a way to calibrate these.

I've been messing around with a lot of them recently and even glass ones aren't 100% accurate - my glass one shows water boils at 98'C

I have gone through two digital thermometers recently enough. The first one was a lidl one that was giving completely off the wall readings, and the second one was advertised for brewing, but it's also well out at times, so will probably send it back, if I can. When the first one went, I didn't have a spare glass one, so there was a lot of guesswork involved. When the second one went, I had a glass one for back up. I now usually have 2 glass thermometers, as I have a tendency to break them. I must get one of thos metal cases, but it would be good to have a reliable digital one.

Thanks for the comments. I can't see a reset button on the unit, but I might keep comparing its readings with the glass thermometer in case it is regular.

It was a mixed blessing anyway. I found it useful to be able to check the temperature without having to hold the thermometer but I also found it distracting because it would give very noticably different readings at different depths (the wort is cooler at the bottom than at the top). A glass thermometer makes it easier to maintain the illusion that the wort or mash etc is a uniform temperature throughout.