Aggravating thermometer incident

[Guest]

Well, sigh.....I was so happy that UPS finally showed up last night at about 7:30 with my 2 Thermometers from Allied Kenco. I hurried and unpackaged them and put them in a pot of boiling water (standing of course lol) to check them for accuracy. I was very disappointed to find out that one of them was off by about 7 degrees. The other one was fine. So, naturally Allied Kenco was already closed but I managed to fire off a couple emails to them and someone was actually still there. He said that he would give my emails to Sales dept. first thing in the morning. Sigh again.....

Anyway, this morning I arranged to get another overnighted to me provided I send back the bad one. And they will send the new one immediately though, not wait until they receive the old one. But she warned me...."if we don't receive the old one, we will charge your credit card again". yeah ok whatever. I understand, no problem..just please send it fast.

So, I went ahead and mounted the good thermometer and it looks great!!
I will get this other replacement tomorrow. She said that they tested this one, so they know it is accurate. Hmmmm, you'd think they would have done that in the first place. Makes you wonder how many people don't bother to check their thermometers for accuracy and just slap them into their smokers without knowing if they are on the money or what.

This situation will delay my finishing that roll of film by one day. So, it may be Sunday or Monday before I can post the pictures of those Rib Racks and my WSM's with thermometers mounted.

It is so weird how something like this ALWAYS seems to happen to me. Just about every time I order something, there is some kind of problem.

I have learned to just take a deep breath of air and count to 10 and think of pleasant thoughts until my blood pressure goes back down...LOL

 

[Chris Allingham]

Since Allied Kenco is not the manufacturer of these thermometers, just the reseller, I'm not surprised that they don't test them before shipping. I'm sure that Trend tests them after manufacturing and before shipping to resellers.

However, it is possible that during shipping the thermometers were subjected to a jolt that would knock one of the units out of calibration. Hopefully the replacement you receive will be fine.

In the future you can recalibrate these thermometers yourself using the adjustment nut on the back of the dial. For anyone interested in testing and recalibrating their thermometers, the process is described in the topic Testing Thermometers for Accuracy.

Best regards,
Chris

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I heard that you could adjust that nut in the back, but if it is really tight, then you loosen it you have to make sure it is tight again so it won't fall apart. It looks like if you loosen that nut, that the stem will come off.

These are model 33's and I did call Trend (WIKA) and they said that the model 33 will not calibrate, but that the model 30 will. The model 30 has a small screw on the back of the dial used for resetting/calibrating.

Naturally, Allied Kenco doesn't carry the model 30.

I didn't want to take a chance messing with that nut on the back after Trend told me that they did not have calibration.

I wonder how much more the model 30 costs? he didn't know right off hand, but he said it would cost "a little more". LOL...I'm almost afraid to know what his definition of "a little more" is.

If I ever buy any more thermometers, I will get the model 30 with the calibration screw on the back.

Another really weird thing about the 2 thermometers I received was that although they were both model 33's, they both looked different. One had bold typed numbers and lines while the other had lighter type. And they both had different writing on them too. I asked the guy at Trend about this and he said that one was older than the other. The funny thing is that the newer looking one is the one that was 7 degrees low. The lady at Allied Kenco didn't even know about this and was going to call Trend to see what was going on.

At least they are sending my new thermometer overnight. I spent $5 to send the old one back using UPS.