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Is it possible to buy a household gas cooker with a built in thermometer. All of the ones i have seen so far don't have these so there is no way of knowing what temperature the oven has reached.

I can see that i can buy a separate thermometer to hang in the cooker but i was wondering if any manufacturers have produced a cooker that has a built in one with an indicator when the temperature has been reached?

UPDATE

I am based in the UK

Leo
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    Considering you're calling it a "cooker", I'm guessing you're **not** in the US, so I'm not sure the answers below will be of much use. Please do consider adding a note about what country you reside in. – Catija Jun 11 '15 at 04:21
  • Apologies it did not even cross my mind, i will update accordingly – Leo Jun 11 '15 at 13:26

4 Answers4

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Many ovens in the US have such a feature.

However, ovens lie. Even if thermostats and thermocouples in ovens were scientifically accurate (they are not), they are positioned on the outside walls of the oven, not the center of the oven where you are actually doing the cooking. This might not be an issue if you are baking a frozen pizza (if this is the level of cooking you are intending on doing, go for it, and use such an oven), but would be a problem if you attempt any sort of finicky baking.

Don't trust the knob or readout on your oven, it isn't telling you the whole story. If you need precision, use a bulb style thermometer on the center rack of the oven. And unless you have very basic oven needs, don't let the presence or lack of a thermometer be a prime purchasing decision.

Tritium21
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Welcome! You don't say where you are located. In the U.S., most ovens have an audible sound such as a beep or a buzzer to let you know that the set temperature has been reached. Some may have a light indicator.

However, even though most have this feature, many people still keep a separate thermometer in the oven (at least until they learn the nuances of their oven) as oven thermostats are not always exactly accurate.

Cindy
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  • Is this true for **gas** ovens? – MJeffryes Jun 10 '15 at 14:59
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    Yes. I have a gas oven and it beeps when the set temperature is reached. – Cindy Jun 10 '15 at 15:01
  • @MJeffryes Where do you live, I'm curious? I've honestly never known a modern gas oven that **doesn't** have a thermostat that can tell you when the oven has arrived at the appropriate temperature. – Catija Jun 11 '15 at 04:23
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    @Catija My gas oven, bought in 2012 in the primitive land of Italy, has no thermostat. – Federico Poloni Jun 11 '15 at 11:36
  • Im based in the UK and the gas oven we have at the moment (the one to be replaced) doesn't have any indicator and from looking at the range from popular retailers here none seem to either. It just seemed daft not to add this, hence the original question – Leo Jun 11 '15 at 13:32
  • @leo Pure speculation, but the manufacturers in the UK may just respect your intelligence a bit more, and not put a feature that cannot ever reliably work in their products in the UK. – Tritium21 Jun 11 '15 at 13:54
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    @Tritium21 or maybe millions of people in the US manage to bake successfully without using a separate thermometer. Including myself. I do recommend people get one but the 15-25 F difference can easily be overcome just by keeping an eye on the oven. – Catija Jun 11 '15 at 15:18
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I have not seen ovens with built in thermometer where I live in Indonesia. To resolve this problem with my 6 burner Imperial oven (a US make) I drilled the oven door at the height I cook at and inserted a dial thermometer with range to 500C. This is the rack height I normally cook. However using a laser thermometer and black stones in various positions there is a variation of temperature even at that rack height. The inner right side being hotter.

Steve Murdoch
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Leo, I was wondering the same!! Answer is that there's nothing you can trust. I use an oven thermometer that either sets on or hangs from a rack. I hang it as close to the center as I possibly can. It hasn't failed me yet. If a recipe says 350 for 30 minutes, the baked item is done just right.

Wilms
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