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WSM Different Temps Across Grilling Surface

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    WSM Different Temps Across Grilling Surface

    I have a weber smokey mountain and have been noticing varying temperatures depending on where I place my probe. Right now, I have 5 probes on the top grate. 2 from a Maverick ET-733, two from the Ivation version of the Maverick, and one from the Auber temperature controller. I calibrated 4 probes in ice water and boiling water and all of them gave identical readings. I normally use the clip that attaches to the grill grate and place it about two inches from the edge of the smoker. Right now, I am seeing the following temps:
    180 (close to ribs but not touching) -
    210
    221
    208
    224

    I expected the probe near the ribs to be cooler than the others, but I didn't expect a 16 degree difference between probes. The 208 and 224 are equally distant from both the meat and the edge of the grate.

    How do you decide where to put the probe, or which reading I should use? It would be cool to have a meathead article about the science of where exactly to place probes.

    Thanks,
    Brendan

    #2
    Welcome hamiljockey I placed the probe about 2" from the meat

    Comment


      #3
      Greetings, Brendan ... and welcome to the Pit!

      Comment


        #4
        WOW, hamiljockey ! I am really surprised. The meat and the two closest probes are all over the waterpan? I could see these differences if one of them was outside the water pan, but.......

        Comment


          #5
          Heat transfer within a chamber is a very complicated physical phenomena, especially when you have an open system like your WSM. I'm not surprised that you can have a 16F differential across a grate; that's really nothing, only about 7%. I wouldn't worry about it one bit. There is a lot of turbulent flow in your cooker that affects how temp is distributed. Every cooker has hot spots and cold spots. I'd be much more concerned if temperature was homogeneous. That would be most unusual.

          Comment


            #6
            Wow! I can't believe all the responses to my first post. Thank you everyone.

            I moved the probes to make sure they were all over the water bowl...the water bowl on a WSM 18.5 is considerably smaller than the 18.5 inches. Still seeing different temps.

            So what I am hearing is, it's optimal to have the temp guage over the water bowl and that different readings within a reasonable amount is normal.

            I have seen this to a lesser degree with my meat...what do you do when one end of your brisket is 203 and the other end is let's say 195?

            Comment


              #7
              If the brisket is probe tender all over then I will wrap it in foil and a towel and place it in the cooler for a couple of hours

              Comment


                #8
                hamiljockey ... remember that the WSM has multiple air vents on the bottom, one on the top. Depending on how your vents are open, how you built your charcoal pile, etc that will influence how the air moves within the cooking chamber. As CeramicChef said, there's a lot of flow going on in there. You're actually seeing some convection happening, as well. Remember, your WSM is a chimney. Bear that in mind as you open and close vents. I usually only use the front vents on the bottom and the top vent. I keep the back vent closed because I want to create air flow within the cooking chamber, rather than just having my hot air move directly from the back vent to the top vent.

                There's some really good posts under the Kamado sub-forum on how to build charcoal piles, hot spots, air flow and such. While the WSM is not a Kamado, they have strong similarities.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Welcome to The Pit hamiljockey! We'd love to get an intro from you over in the Introduce Yourself channel when you get a minute.

                  Comment


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