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This shows the Wort Monitor Thermometer attached to the wort outlet of a heat exchanger (heat exchanger not included). Also pictured are Snaplock Connector parts L79 and L72 (not included). You can use a wide variety of ½" npt fittings to adapt this to your chiller or pump.
I added this item to my reserve wort chiller that I built. I did a trial run with just water in my boil kettle. The first time I opened the ball valve on my boil kettle to see what the temperature would be and how quick my reserve chiller would cool the water from 212 degrees to under 70 degrees. I found that I needed to adjust the ball valve to restrict the flow in order to cool the water to the temperature that I wanted to accomplish. During the first and second trial, the temperature gage recorded properly and was very easy to see. I would recommend this item to anyone that wants to make sure their wort is being cooled to the temperature that you are requiring.
Thermometer works great, is constructed well, and measures accurately. My only negative is that the fittings are not that tall, and make it difficult to mount on some plate chillers. I have a Duda Diesel chiller, and bought this with hopes to measure the wort out temp. Sadly, because of the height of the water in port adjacent to it, I ended up using this thermometer to measure wort in temp, and had to go with a Blichmann Thrumometer for the wort out.
After years of immersion chilling, I made the switch to counterflow. Love it. Could never get that close to pitch temps with immersion, even with a whirlpool attachment. You really need this on the wort out side of the chiller to adjust flow rate to hit your target temp. Only con is that the cross fitting is bulkier than a tee fitting, and can trap crud in the unused arm. I suppose it does give more flexibility in outflow direction, though.
I picked this up last month and have used it twice so far. Instead of attaching to a chiller, I've attached it to the ball valve on my boil kettle. After my boil, I recirculate the wort using a march pump for whirpool/flameout hops, then chill using an immersion chiller. This thermometer gives me a dead-on accurate reading of where my temperature is at during cooling so I know when I can kill the chiller and transfer over to my fermentation tank. Yes, it is a bit bulky coming off of the kettle, but so much easier to read and work with for this type of application than the Blichman ThruMometer.
This thermometer works great when connected to a March pump and used for mash recirculation.