Well, my trusty thermo wand (thermopen knockoff) had a flat battery as I was heating strike water. Assemble my team of misfit thermometers, to try to find consensus:
Electronic roast thermometer reads 171
Manual thermometer that I can calibrate at either freezing, or boiling, but not both reads 160
Candy thermometer reads 155
Oil thermometer that came with my turkey fryer reads 135.
I hate unreliable measuring tools.
One stop shopping, thermopen… They almost guarantee it as a science instrument… It helps to take the pucker factor out of your brew day… Sneezles61
There is an open box sale going on right now from ThermoWorks. Link to sale is only through the email subscriber list. Worth subscribing to their emails. Aren’t too many emails to become a problem. Last email also includes tips on making smoked jerky.
So how did it work out? Wing it or put off brewing?
My first thought was go to the grocery store or whatever, look at thermometers and see which ones read room temperature. Skip any that are off.
I have multiple somewhat reliable therms. One a traceable scientific that I kind of use as the standard to measure the others. My thermopen knock off seems to be reliable but now I’m thinking some back up batteries are in order. I pretty much just use it for grilling though.
I winged it. Hedged my bets by mashing in, then after 45 minutes, throwing in a gallon of near boiling water to raise temps for another forty minutes. Something must have gone right, the yeast seems happy.
That’s what counts!
Just discovered my digital thermometer was 10 to 15 degrees high after comparing it with analog thermometers. Think I’ve been getting low efficiency because I was actually mashing at 135 140 and not 150. 
bought a new one today.
It’s really a mind-eff, though… what’s really reliable. Even if I had four consistent thermometers with one outlier, it is technically possible for four to be consistently off, and the one outlier to be correct. That being said, I’m pretty confident in my thermopen knockoff (looks like it’s called the Lavatools Javelin now). Not so much in everything else in my kitchen.
I had the same problem my first couple batches. Stopped using digital and started using long stem dials no worries.
Maybe have to look up the rule of thumb? I saw Thermopen had an open box sale too! Sneezles61
Just ordered an aquat digital for $8.40. Not expecting much but it was free shipping so I’ll put it in the quiver
