Thermometer for insulated door

[MikeD55]

Any suggestions here? I’m looking to insulate my door with 2” CaSil and have hit a brick wall trying to find a quality 1000* bimetal thermometer with a 6” stem. Preferably flange mounted.

[SableSprings]

Firing up and working a pizza session is normally done without a door. For my money, a good IR gun is a much more useful tool...hard/impossible to get an accurate cooking floor reading from a door mounted thermometer. I've used a forno bravo oven with a door probe and it was OK for baking breads & in roasting meats/veggies...but not high temp pizza. I actually have and use 2 different door types...one insulated (heavier) for heat stable-no active fire-bakes & a light weight one that I can use single handed for baking/roasting/smoking with a fire (neither with a temp probe). But again, IMO, an IR gun is the best option for all uses of the WFO.

[rsandler]

On my first oven, the door had this guy stuck through it: AMAZON (with the clip pulled off). First one I bought lasted almost 10 years of near-weekly firing. It only goes up to 750, but I never saw the dial go up that high--a brick oven rapidly cools well below 700 once the live flame goes out, even after a long firing. So, a 1000F thermometer is going to be overkill.

That said, on my current oven, I made a door without a thermometer, and I don't really miss it. Part of that is I made my second door much lighter and had it sit against the reveal of the inner arch (instead of being a plug that fits through the arch). This makes it much easier to pull the door out and take a quick reading with the IR thermometer.

[david s]

All temperature measuring devices have their shortcomings. Thermocouple probes are easily damaged, Ir guns only read surface temperatures, bi-metal thermometers can be overcooked. After plenty of experience most owners rely less and less on temperature measuring devices. Your own eyes and hands are sensitive, reliable and effective instruments. For roasting or baking I simply use my watch and give the oven exactly one hour of flame from light up by which time the crown of the oven has cleared, but the sides are still black. This is sufficient to bake a couple of loaves or do the Sunday roast with minimal fuel use and short preparation. Every oven will be different of course, but provided the oven is dry its performance will be repeated with little variation every time. For greater accuracy I occasionally place a cheap bi-metal air temp thermometer in the centre of the oven after clearing away the coals, then placing the door and waiting 10 mins before reading. This measures the actual air temperature in the centre of the oven which is after all the place you want to measure.
When cooking pizza the temperature is beyond the range of my air temp thermometer, but the whole interior turning white is a better indicator. I usually give it another 15-20 mins of fire after this to make sure the heat has saturated the whole oven, then always continue to maintain a fire on the side while cooking pizzas, which compensates for heat loss out the open door as well as providing an oven light. Depending on how much insulation your oven dome has a hand held to the outside of the oven shell (if igloo style) tells a lot. For my oven once it’s cosy warmth has spread all the way to the base of the outside dome, it’s ready for pizzas.
Traditionally Italian cooks used their fist placed into the oven interior.
150.175C 6 secs desserts and scones
200-230C 4-5 secs General baking, puff pastry, bread
250-290C 2-3 secs calzones, focaccias roast meats
320-350C 1 sec fast roast vegs
370C+ 0 secs pizzas

some of these temps may seem high, but it’s to compensate for cooking on the dying heat.

[JRPizza]

There is an outfit called Reotemp that has lots of thermometer options that I was looking at back when I built my door, but I opted to just use an IR gun like others have suggested. I gave up on mounting a thermometer as I could not find a way install it that I was happy with. If I am cooking pizza I only look at floor temp. If I am going to bake I make sure the dome is about 30-50F hotter than the floor or the oven needs to sit a while longer with the door on to stabilize. After you bake a few things you will learn what dome temp range works best. We cook chicken anywhere from 475 down to 425, beef roast in the low 400's, and pork in the upper 300's. The oven will cool off a bit when you load it with food. We frequently cook multiple meals starting out with foods that like high heat and working our way down to those that cook slowly at lower temperatures..