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P.S. to my comment above: when I Googled on the laser/infrared, it seemed it was for other uses than food. No wonder I am ignorant of it! The "Thermapen" is for food and candy. Amazon has the other thermometer.

I bought a fairly cheap one from either Tuesday Morning or Marshall's, thinking that I'd use it until it broke, and if I liked it, I'd buy a better one. A couple years later, and it's still functional.

Besides using it to measure the heat of things like my baking stone, the sidewalk, and various electronic devices that might be overheating, it's also handy for checking the temp on liquids that I'm waiting to heat or cool, and for whatever reason, immersing a thermometer is impractical. I do, however, doublecheck for accuracy when I'm close to temp, if I need something precise. And it's always really close, although I've learned that you can misread if you're pointing at bubbles on the surface of a liquid.

The brand I've got is BonJour, which is on the low end of anything culinary. I think I spent about ten bucks on it, which is why I expected it to break pretty quickly. If I was buying another one, I'd probably spring for a better brand, just because I do use it a lot.

One thing to look for is that it has the right high and low temps that you'll need. And a "hold" feature is good so you can point and shoot to measure, and then look at the reading, in case you're working at some awkward angle. Probably not a big deal for cooking, but since there's no contact with the food, there's no reason you can't use it on your barbecue one day and your car engine the next.

As far as other thermometers. the Thermapen is the best investment I ever made. The newest model is splashproof or waterproof, which is an important improvement over the previous model. Unless you can find the old one at a significant discount, go for the new one, if that's something you'd be at all interested in.

@sailordave--from what I understand some people like to use them for calibrating specialized ovens or tweaking the grill temp. Over on Slice, Adam wrote an awesome article about a pizzeria in Portland, Oregon, Apizza Scholls that shows the owner with his infrared thermometer (nice photo Ed!) which he uses to make sure his oven is at optimum temperature. I thought it kind of looked like a speed gun.

Thanks so much all. From what I gather (as I half heartedly listen) I guess the thermometer is to monitor the heat inside the grill. Apparently he struggles to keep the charcoal grill the right temperature. All the advice was MUCH appreciated.