ThermoWorks Thermapen One Review

Verdict
The ThermoWorks Thermapen One kicks your cooking game up a notch with its accurate, instant temperature readings. The easy to use, back-lit Thermapen One is ideal for outdoor and indoor chefs alike, taking the frustration out of waiting for your old thermometer to “warm up”.

The ThermoWorks Thermapen One is a much needed thermometer evolution, and it gives budding and professional cooks the readings they need in an instant to deliver the best tasting meals. Whether you grill, bake or stew, the Thermapen One is an excellent choice.

Design & Features

Light and compact, the Thermapen One fits easily in hand and is much the same as its predecessor, the ThermoWorks’ Thermapen MK4 thermometer. But there is more muscle under the hood with the Thermapen One, namely the ability to read in sub-second time and deliver the information you need right then, rather than waiting and wondering if the reading is correct.

A culmination of five years of research and development, the Thermapen One is accurate to ± 0.5°F (±0.3°C), for the most accurate readings and comes with a NIST-traceable calibration certification verifying its accuracy to national standards. The probe folds for storage and turns off automatically if left open longer than 30 seconds to preserve battery life thanks to its motion-sensing Sleep and Wake function.

The casing comes in 10 colors to choose from and is shockproof, dustproof, and waterproof with an IP67 rating for water-tight seals. The 1.54 x 1in (w x h) LCD screen displays the readings clearly and rotates automatically so you can read the numbers right-side up.

New features of the Thermapen One include:

• Unparalleled speed with full temperature readings in less than one second.
• Industry leading accuracy to half a degree: ±0.5°F (±0.3°C).
• Brighter intelligent backlight display automatically illuminates in low-light and when the sensor window is covered.
• Easy-access battery housing uses one common AAA battery for a 2,000-hour battery life.
• Five-year warranty

Beyond home cooking, anyone who needs instant, accurate temperature readings (hot or cold) will find that Thermapen One is an excellent choice, particularly in professional restaurants, measuring critical temperatures in labs, food processing plants, health departments, grocery stores, and other applications.

Testing

We used the Thermapen One in a couple cooking tests, including grilling chicken on our Weber grill, and making caramels – notorious for its difficulty getting accurate readings because of constant temperature fluctuation.

Grilling was straightforward – set the grill to heat (medium) and place chicken on the grill when preheated. One pet peeve we have with grilling is how opening the hood lets so much heat escape and how long it gets back to temperature. With the Thermapen One at the ready, we opened the hood, tested and closed it back up – all in less than 10 seconds! We were pleased with how quickly the temperature was read with each piece of chicken, allowing us to lose less heat and get back to temperature. With further grilling, the Thermapen One even confirmed our suspicions of where the hotspots of the grill were.

Making caramels was a little bit trickier, as the sugar concoction requires constant vigilance to make sure it gets to the perfect temperature for the consistency we wanted. Using a standard candy thermometer has been our regular method, but it always takes a while to function and get the right reading after it has been sitting. We have also tried the candy thermometers that clip to the side of the pan as we cook, but that was always in the way and was annoyingly in the way as we stirred. Not a problem with the Thermapen One.

We were able to get consistent, accurate readings instantly with the Thermapen One, and there was virtually no clean up. We really liked the motion-sensing Sleep and Wake function, it made it so we didn’t have to close and reopen the Thermapen One and it also let us keep stirring without having to stop to turn it on. The caramels came out the right consistency, thanks to the Thermapen One’s accuracy.

We also tested out the smaller, yet convenient features of the Thermapen One, and found that the auto-rotating display was very handy, especially when we only had one hand to use. The back light is bright enough to see clearly without blinding you and cleaning the probe was easy as well.

The ThermoWorks Thermapen One is a precision piece of equipment, and it carries a pricey, yet affordable, price tag of $105. While many consumers may scoff at this price, we think it is completely in range as a professional-grade thermometer and is meant for those who take their cooking seriously or need a reliable thermometer for professional applications.

Verdict

We were extremely impressed with the quickness and accuracy of the Thermapen One in our tests. This easy to use and extremely accurate thermometer is an excellent choice for professional applications, and we highly recommend it for consumers that are ready to up their cooking game as well.

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