I have a homemade UDS and use a Tel-Tru smoker thermometer plus Thermoworks Smoke. They are located 90 degrees apart, a quarter way around the barrel. The temps can vary as much as 40 degrees between the two. Heat deflector installed also.
What causes this and which one should I rely on? Thanks.
I'd relay on the Thermoworks. But 40* isn't really that much. People see that much variance in a PBC from probe to probe depending where they are hung. .
Gear includes: Char-Griller's Grand Champ off set stick burner/smoker, SnS Kamado Deluxe, Weber 22, PBC, Victory gasser, Victory 36 griddle, Smoke Hollow electric smoker. ThermoWorks Thermapen Mk4, Smoke, Signals, and RFX4, Meater+, SNS-500, roti fits 22 n gasser, Emeril countertop TO, InkBird Sous Vide, Potane Vac/Sealer. Fire&Ice griddle/cooler ensemble.
3-pkg of Collapsible Prep Tubs
Junior, Original, Xtra Lg. SS D. Norcross
Complete set (Tx PJ!) Wusthof Knives n block.
Dalstrong:
Phantom Series Paring knife
Shogun SeriesX 6" Chef knife
Gladiator Series 12"Cleaver knife
Just got into charcoal Dec ‘21 (PBC)
fav is brisky. Love Turkey on PBC. also Turkey in the glass,(any nice bourbon)
Bud has always been my barley pop.
Been smoking a handful of years, just got serious in the last two or three years. Thanks to AR n @glemn picked up an SnS Kamado for appx 1/3 price of new. I dont think he used it twice. Love AR! keep calm n smoke on! Miss you Bonesy.
I fire up the PBC with the recommended procedure. Then just monitor my meat temps. Barrel temps only tell me if I am gaining or loosing. I quit chasing temps a long time ago.( seems like a long time ago )
Last edited by Alan Brice; April 18, 2023, 09:28 AM.
Put the Smoke probe right next to the Tel-Tru and you’ll know if you’re dealing with an equipment difference. If they’re fairly close, then you’re dealing with hot and cold spots and maybe you’ll want to rotate the meat if you think it’s affecting your results. If your results are good, then you’re worrying about nothing.
My initial thought is that one of them may have lost calibration, but both are very high quality products known for their accuracy. Another possibility is that the Tru-Tel is measuring the air nearest the side of the barrel, but the Smoke is a bit further in.
Still, 40 degrees seems like a large range to me....but maybe it really isn't.
Get a pot of water to a solid boil and see what they both read. Another experiment might be to place them close together (just the probe of the Smoke, of course!) in an oven and see what they read at various temperatures. Of course, oven's swing wildly and the Smoke will register these swings faster, but there should be plateaus in there.
To echo the others....barrels are weird. The few times I've tried to use multiple probes (from the same Smoke unit) has perplexed me. Barrels are dynamic, as it were.
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
I get different temps all the time. I’ve decided they’re all correct, or at least correct enough for bbq work. We’re not in chem lab, after all.
In the BGE, different thermometers in different spots tend to equalize over time. In my home oven, there are hot spots that stay where they are. I used to chase a couple degrees here and there, but now I just make sure the fire hasn’t crashed, or run away.
One thermometer or one clock is always right as is a wife. Having two thermometers, or two clocks, is like having a wife and a girlfriend. The two will never agree and both will be right.
If you have two, pick one and ignore the other. Just keep it to yourself, which you picked.
It's BBQ, as Mosca says. Don't ruin it by fretting over a few degrees difference side to side. Leave that to Max.
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