Fox Run Glass Boil Alert/Pot Watcher, 0.5 x 3.25 x 3.25 inches, Clear

Great kitchen tool!! Had one years ago, but my mother in law threw it away, not knowing what it was. I've been searching for a replacement ever since. Works as it should. Nothing boils over!

The pot watcher was very much in use when milk was sold unpasteurized and had to be boiled before drinking. It bangs the walls of the pot when the milk boils. The noise alerts the cook who rushes to turn off the heat before the milk spills over. Wikipedia has a good article on how it works.I use it to cook hard-boiled eggs.Cheap, green, efficient, what's not to love?

Well, I used this once, and while it kept the pot from boiling over, it ended up cracking in half after I took the pot off of the burner.

I had high hopes for this. When I make pasta, I put the water on the stove and then do other things while I wait for the water to boil. It thought that this would help me know when the water was boiling, instead of constantly going back to the pot to check. Unfortunately, even when the water JUST starts to bubble, this starts to clank like it is at a rolling boil. Not sure how to solve this.

It does what it's supposed to do, but wow is it annoying to listen to it clattering away in the pot. It does start rattling well before the water/milk/whatever boils, basically as soon as bubbles start rising it starts ticking against the bottom of the pot, but I can tell by the intensity of the racket when full boil has been attained and then I use tongs to take it out. Not something to use when the baby's sleeping! Also, place it gently into the pot, don't just drop it in like I did assuming the liquid would slow its impact with the pot, because it went down edge-first and put a big chip on the rim on one side (I sanded it smooth and it still works the same if I put that side up) and I had to throw out half a gallon of spendy organic milk I was heating for yogurt. (Speaking of milk, it did not keep milk from boiling over, so I just use it for its "alerting" function and mind the pot myself from then on. Milk does boil over at the drop of a hat, so I was just being lazy letting the doohickey do my job.) When this one bites the dust permanently I think I'll get an unbreakable metal one rather than glass.

I was a little confused reading some of the reviews and was surprised by reading the description of this item AFTER I bought it. It is described as a boiler alert. I don't think this is what it is actually designed for, but I guess it would work for that as well.It does exactly what I expected of it, prevents my dishes from boiling over. I never thought of using it as a boil alert, but why not.It is always a hassle to watch a dish, once you have added milk to a soup, or other. I almost always get distracted and then it boils over and have a mess to clean up, plus possibly ruining a dish. This little puck captures the air bubles and once there are sufficient, it lifts the glass piece off the bottom of the pot allowing the air to escape, then it falls back and 'clangs' at the bottom of the pot. This process somehow prevents the dish from making a mess, probably by controlling the air bubble release.These were used in the past to pasteurise farm milk that needed to boil for a certain amount of time to remove some of the bacteria. I remember my grandmother using it and this item is exactly the same product.Just to clarify, this little puck is EXACTLY the same on both sides. It has the recession that traps air bubbles on both sides so that when you drop it in, it will work either side; no stress. Some of the reviews claimed that it was flat on one side and recessed on the other and that is false.

This little glass disk has proven itself very useful for reminding me that I have a pot of water boiling on the stove. I am usually boiling in heavy aluminum pots and the glass disk starts to jump up and down once the water starts to boil making a click-click-click sound as the glass disk beats on the pot. I can hear the sound from several rooms away reminding me to go check my pot. (I can get distracted and forget why there is a clicking in the distance, but I usually remember). If there is one drawback, it is that the clicking is not loud enough.

This is partly my fault!. When I saw it, I thought it was metal and was surprised to see that it is glass! I haven't even opened it yet because other reviews have made me very leery since they said it broke while using it!