"Mike" > wrote in message
.9...
> I've been looking into purchasing one of these beasts - something that has
> instant read (which seems to vary between many seconds and minutes before
> the actual temperature is displayed - go figure) and a timer. Most of
> these devices seem to fall in the $20 - $50 dollar range. I have seen
> several reviews on these and they all seem to have one thing in common -
> failure of the temperature probe within a relatively short period of time.
> Comments / Suggestions? Thanks...

I've had a polder like this one:
http://www.polderonline.com/product/307.html for more than 3 years now and
its probe still good. I'd assume that most of the times probes fail is for
letting water get into the probe or exposing the probe's wire to higher
temperature than the one they are designed for ( mine is 420 degrees or so,
I believe). You could purchase extra probes for your thermometer for about
35% of the price of a new thermometer set.

Guillermo