Thermometer Tip

A little tip

I posted the following photo of my cooker as part of a reply on the Kamado forum to a fellow who is considering getting one.

Click on the photo for a closer view, so the rest of this page will make sense.

One of the guys (HoundDog) who frequents the forum replied to my message by kidding with me:

"You should really straighten up your temp gauge when you're taking a "money" shot. Nothin'll screw up a killer pic quicker than a cockeyed piece right in front. Didn't you used to be a "professional" photographer?
You know me - I couldn't let it slide !"

I replied that he was perceptive.... but drew the wrong conclusion. I set the dial that way on purpose.

So, I thought it might be worth mentioning here, perhaps it will be useful for other K'ers out there.

It's an an old trick that race drivers use to monitor target gauge settings.

I decide what temperature I want to achieve and then turn the dial so that temperature is at the 12 o'clock position. In this case, I was cooking at 225 degrees.

This way, even from a distance, I can easily and immediately see if the needle is to the left or right of vertical... no glasses or close inspection needed.

You can imagine that for a race driver that this is important. The pit crews rotate the gauge faces so the target values are at the top. The ability to just glance at a gauge, and the needle's vertical orientation, is a whole lot easier than trying to remember and read little numbers, especially when you're flying around and around the track.

So, as they say on the infomercials..... I set it, and forget it.

And yup, I was a commercial photographer (for many years)... it's detail like this that we live for < s >.