Lavatools Javelin® PRO Duo Ultra-Fast 2-Second Professional Digital Instant Read Meat Thermometer for Grill and Cooking, Auto-Rotating Backlit Display, IP65 Water Resistant, NSF Certified – Maize

My aquarium thermometer: truly accurate!
This thermometer is spot-on!! I tested it in an ice bath as instructed, and was delighted to see it register 32°F. I actually bought it as an instant-read aquarium thermometer to ensure my Inkbird controllers are keeping the water at the desired temperature. All my aquarium thermometers are off by two or three degrees, and that can endanger fishes’ health. It is super-easy to use and read, is magnetic so it stores on the side of my fridge, and I loved the selection of colors. The fish aren’t frightened at all by wasabi green!😊

Time tested, works great!
This is a pretty fast reading temp probe, and accurate. Tested in both ice water and boiling water, right on in both instances.

Can Lavatools Javelin PRO compete with Thermoworks at half the price?
I review a lot of instant read thermometers. As you likely know, the Thermopen is the gold standard for accuracy and speed. See my photo to see the Javelin Pro up against the Thermopen and two less expensive brands. Do I like the Javelin just as well? The answer is: Almost. Read on for a more detailed comparison.I’m an avid BBQ guy and an admitted barbeque junkie. I’ve done very detailed tests on several brands, including the holy grail–the Thermapen. How well does this “Javelin” compete? Very well indeed.SPEED:The Javelin is not quite as fast, but faster than the other brands pictured. In real world use, the small speed advantage of the Thermapen, including the newest MK4, does not matter.ACCURACY?The Javelin Pro is right on. No woriesFEATURES AND RELIABILITY:The battery is readily available, inexpensive and easy to change. This is my second Javelin Pro and I have had zero reliability issues. Both of my Thermapens have run into issues over time requiring service at a fee of $30. Its numbers are nice and big like Thermapen and its backlight is super helpful when needed.WHAT ABOUT CONS?One of the Javelin’s touted features is annoying to me. The ability to rotate sometimes means the numbers rotate direction when I don’t want them to.ALL THINGS CONSIDERED:If money is no object, I prefer the Thermapen by a hair. But for half the price, the Javelin Pro does not disappoint. I highly recommend it, especially in Chipotle or Orange. If you are not sure if you want to pony up nearly $50 for the Javelin Pro, you can find other very nice instant read thermometers as low as about $13. The less expensive ones are not quite as quick, typically have slightly smaller numbers, and shorter warranties, but still do an admirable job.

Great engineering, very thoughtful, worth every penny
I was extremely dubious about whether this was worth the price. It’s an instant read thermometer. I already have an instant read thermometer. Can you really make an instant read thermometer that’s worth 5 times more than a basic one?Yes. Yes, you can.This is a big honker of a thermometer. It’s almost certainly bigger than you think it is, if you’ve never held on before. It fee ls like it’s built like a tank. But other than that, what makes it worth the price?1) Fast. My old thermometer takes about 5-8 seconds to settle on a read. Is 2-3 seconds really that much different? Yup, it definitely is when you’re standing over a bed of hot coals or practically sticking your head into a blazing oven. This thermometer reads so fast that sometimes it doesn’t even feel like 2 seconds. The first few times I used it, I actually sat there waiting for the temperature to keep changing before I realized it was done. Great!2) Smart. When open the thermometer (by rotating the prong out), the LED comes on and orients itself. This last feature if fantastic: if you aren’t paying attention and insert the prong in a way that the handle is “upside down” the LED display will reorient itself. I was surprised by how often I did this, and how often I *didn’t* need to crane my neck to get a read.3) Accurate. Very. ‘Nuff said.4) Feature rich. It has a hook hole in case you want to hang it. It has a magnet, in case you need to stick it someplace while you fiddle a hot pan around. It has nice, soft grip in case you’re handling it with slick hands.This is just a super easy, and extremely well-engineered design. They put a lot of thought into this thermometer, and I cannot recommend it enough as an upgrade from the $10-20 cheap designs if you do a lot of cooking.

It works very well – but it is a bit slow. Not super slow – but for this price I rather like to have an instant read thermometer showing me the temperature… instantly.Also: changing it from Fahrenheit to Centigrade is awkward to say the least (in the battery area).Overall nice.

I can’t say how useful the regular LavaTools PT12 thermometer has been over the past 5-6 years while I’ve grown as a home cook. The Pro Duo version has improved on everything except for maybe the size– the unit gets about 30-50% bigger, which may be tough for some folks, but I feel gave me more control and comfort inserting into tougher meats.It comes in a rainbow of handle colours, but kind of odd only some coloured handles have a blue/white backlight and most others have the orange/red backlight.Like the original, the magnet on it is very handy for slapping it on your appliance of choice or whatever metal racking you have hanging around.As someone who cooks a lot of chicken stove-top, both the original and this one have been very helpful. The original PT12 has only failed me once out of maybe 100 times, where I had a chicken breast read appropriately temp for 1 minute and turned out mildly pink in the middle. Probably fine for eating, just wasn’t great to present after resting and serving– Probably just a fluke where I over stabbed the reading.Overall: Fantastic unit, but you get the same accuracy from the LavaTools PT12 (about 40% less expensive normally), but the Pro Duo has a backlight, can flip the reading readable side up depending on how you probe it and is larger which may be easier to handle for some. Big fan of the magnet for easy storage and access, the colour variety does help if you’re storing it on your fridge or appliance by magnet and the readings are very quick and seem accurate– I’ve only had juicy chicken!If this review helped, please click the button below!