Proster Digital Thermocouple Temperature Thermometer Dual Channel - with Two K-Type Thermocouple Probe, Backlight LCD Thermometer for K J T E R S N Type

I'm very satisfied with this product. It works well. Its accuracy compares well against my other meters. The buttons feel great — with adequate travel and a real click! There are no weird modes invoked by weird sequences of long presses and multi-clicks, so operation is very straightforward. The display is large and clear, and when the backlight is on is adequately bright. The battery compartment has a spring clip (which is easy to use, not a screw (which I hate) holding it closed. It's comfortable to hold. It's attractive, and the buttons are easy to read. And, for a useful piece of test equipment it's really cheap!

When I first examined, then tested, this instrument I was happily surprised at the quality and accuracy. I originally bought it as a "Sacrifice" device- to be used in rough conditions. Now, I'll keep it for more civilized environments!ACCURACY-Thermocouple thermometers are notorious for being inaccurate at either the low or high end of their range. The included probes are rated for (-) 50 to (+) 300 C. (The actual instrument has a much wider range.) It was tested against two NIST mercury thermometers.Testing near the low end yielded zero error. Warming to 0-C also gave exact readings.Testing at a semi-middle temperature of (+) 20 C showed 0.5 degree error on one thermocouple and zero error on the other. Swapping probes showed it is the thermocouple, not the instrument.Testing near the high end showed some minimal wandering of 0.5 degree. But it wandered +/- the actual temperature.Using other probes, such as other Type-K and some Type J, T & e showed similar excellent results.Testing Note-If you decide to test with boiling water, there are some things to keep in mind:a) Water boils at different temperatures at different altitudes AND the day's barometric pressure will also change the boiling point. Pressurized buildings, such as large office towers, will also change the boiling point. At my shop's altitude on a 760 mm HG (29.9 inches Hg) day, water boils at 99-C. (210.3 degrees F)b) Keep the probe away from the walls & bottom of the container and be sure to keep out of the bubble stream.Testing with an ice bath is not as sensitive to atmospheric or altitude changes. Just be sure to keep off the actual, solid ice and in the water.Even my high-dollar instruments have some variance in accuracy- some more than this Proster.If you need more accuracy, an analog mercury or alcohol thermometer- and a barometer & chart- will be essential.TECH SUPPORT-Although this instrument is very intuitive to use, I had a couple of questions of a "geek" nature. Belle from Proster answered quickly and and explained well. She was also kind enough to send me a digital copy of the owner's manual when I explained that my vision prevented me from reading the printed manual. (Yep- You get an actual printed manual. Who else does that? Nobody!)EASY OF USE & BUILD QUALITY-The buttons are huge, so even I can read them. They have legible markings. The screen is also very large. The case looks sturdy, although I don't plan on testing it's strength! Even the box it came in is heavy-duty.Without reading the manual, it is easy to figure out what each button accomplishes.The included batteries (Included batteries = A nice bonus) have lasted over 20 hours so far and are still going strong.WARRANTY-The manual says it has an 18 month warranty. Cool, huh? For something that cost 25.00 USD, that is surprisingly long. (And I understand from others that Proster does honor their warranties.) Personally, I bought it with a credit card that gives an additional 2 years. So now I have 3-1/2 years warranty for a $25.00 device.SUGGESTIONS-It would be great if the auto-time-off could be adjustable. It is either 1 minute or always on.A back-light timer adjustment would be helpful. Mine times out in 4 seconds. (But if it could be longer, I'd complain about short battery life...)WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN?Yes- For certain. I like it so much that I upgraded it from "harsh conditions use" to "be nice to it use". And, I'll even put a screen protector on the display.Actually, I plan on purchasing some more for myself and friends.NO I DONT...I don't work for Proster, nor do I know anyone there. I don't work for amazon, either. I'm just an end user with much temperature measurement experience and education, so I wanted to post an un-biased review of performance, along with my non-scientific opinions about ease-of-use, warranty & stuff like that.Thank you for taking the time to read my overly long review. I hope it helps you decide if this instrument is correct for your projects!

Much of this will be a repetition of previous reviews, but reflects my experience with the product so far. I received the "Proster" yesterday and took it took work with me to see how it held up to our calibrated thermometers and devices at the lab. It held up just fine right out of the box. With most devices, electronic and glass thermometers, it was within 0.5c. Of several devices, I head two outliers. One electronic device that was out of agreement by 1.1c and a glass thermometer in our drying oven that was out of agreement by over 5c. 1.1c is within the combined error for both devices combined, but >5c made me do some additional checking and I believe it is the glass thermometer that we have to do something about as every other device I threw in the oven read within 0.5c of the "Proster." I don't know how it will hold up over time, but this device clearly is comparing favorably to lab calibrated devices so far. It has even likely uncovered a glass thermometer that needs to be replaced and would not necessarily have been noticed until the next scheduled calibration. I call that a win. To be clear, while I have ordered additional probes for various applications, all of my experiences contained in this review were with the default K type wire probes that came with the device. I would go on to mention that both wire probes seemed equally functional, both being within 0.2c of each other nearly the entire time they were placed together in one sample or environment.In the meantime, I find the auto power off and the backlight that goes out after 2 seconds to be downsides and not useful features for me, but overall I would say that it is a good choice for a 20 dollar device that can cover a wide range of temps. Unless I am doing something that requires a NIST certified thermometer or a really tight fractional distillation, I think I would now be pretty comfortable using this device for most other applications.

AVG seems to equal (MAX + MIN)/2 and not an actual time averaged value. The directions were unclear how to turn off "Auto off/ bat saver feature" I was able to turn off this feature by holding "HOLD" button when turning on the device.Seems to be a pretty good device to have for reading thermocouples.

Absolutely a piece of garbage!!!Supposedly works with a type S thermocouple, however, I bought a type S from Amazon, special TS connection wire, as well as the mini plugs allegedly TS, all are trash, Do Not waste your money. After several HOURS, trying to get plugs, wire, and connectors working, they NEVER did, so just gave up!

A good buy for the price. I'm not happy with the fact that my previous unit of this make and description only lasted a few years. I had Fluke units that lasted forever when I was working. But these cost 4X what this unit costs. The accompanying thermocouples are not reliable. Be sure to read the directions. If you want to use this as a max/min thermometer as I do, you must turn the unit off, hold down the "HOLD" button, and turn the unit on. This retains the max/min data for as long as the unit is on. Be sure that you set the button that identifies the type of thermocouple you're using. Being able to use two sensors in one unit is handyl.