All this recent talk of folks having trouble with their Maverick probes and I had been relatively trouble free...until I made that comment.
The very next time I started my Mavs up the ambient temps were all haywire. It was 28 degrees outside and one probe read 132 and another 39. I would unplug the wires and replug them and the 132 one said 118, then 124 and so on. WTH?? It was this way with 4 probes, all erratically off and all different from each other. And all those erratic readouts would change as I unplugged the wire and re-plugged. Is it the probes or the units?
So I decided to see if they were all shot or what else was happening.
I decided to do the boiling water test. I boiled a pot of water, and at my elevation ~900' boiling point should be in the neighborhood of 210.
I brought my probes inside wondering if it was just the colder temps making them go nuts and perhaps room temp would help. The ThermoPop said room temp was 70. My probes were reading from 84 to 113. Not looking good.
I initially stuck the 4 probes I use most (the ones in question) into the water but not touching the bottom of the pot.

One probe on each unit read 212, and one on each unit read 214. These temps held there for twenty minutes without moving.

I marked with a small piece of tape at the plug end of each probe whether it was 2 degrees high or 4, for future reference, mostly for when doing steaks or chicken when you need a tighter tolerance. I also did the water test with 4 other spare probes I use when I need my 3rd Mav up & running (plus 2 spare probes I had on hand). The exact same thing showed up there- one probe read 212 and one read 214 on each unit. The ThermoPop said exactly 210, which is what Google tells me my boiling point should be.
So all 8 of my probes read either 2* or 4* high. To me, this is plenty tolerable, especially since now I KNOW it and have the probes marked accordingly. Also good to know is my ThermoPop is dead accurate at boiling!
But, this is at boiling. So this tells me temps in my cooker will be fairly accurate, at least in the general boiling range, but it doesn't tell me if steak or chicken temps at 130-160 will be accurate.
I decided to let the water cool and retest them. I taped my ThermoPop crudely to the pot to monitor the water temp. When The T-pop read 141, my Mavericks (all 8 probes) were 2 to 4 degrees off, the same variance each one had in boiling water! *What you don't see in this pic is that the T-pop changed one second after I took this pic to 140. The Mavs all read 142 to 144.

So, I was very pleased to see that my probes were not in fact off. 2-4 degrees is plenty accurate for me, especially since I was able to mark each probe. I will take my 135 steak to 139 if I'm using a +4 marked probe, etc.
Also what I learned is my $24 (now $29) ThermoPop which reads in 5 seconds, is dead on in boiling water.
What I haven't figured out is why I had all the outside ambient air variances initially and why unplugging and replugging made those wild variances change.
Oh well, at least they're accurate at the levels that count!
HAVE YOU CALIBRATED YOUR PROBES TO MAKE SURE YOUR MEAT IS WHERE YOU THINK??
The very next time I started my Mavs up the ambient temps were all haywire. It was 28 degrees outside and one probe read 132 and another 39. I would unplug the wires and replug them and the 132 one said 118, then 124 and so on. WTH?? It was this way with 4 probes, all erratically off and all different from each other. And all those erratic readouts would change as I unplugged the wire and re-plugged. Is it the probes or the units?
So I decided to see if they were all shot or what else was happening.
I decided to do the boiling water test. I boiled a pot of water, and at my elevation ~900' boiling point should be in the neighborhood of 210.
I brought my probes inside wondering if it was just the colder temps making them go nuts and perhaps room temp would help. The ThermoPop said room temp was 70. My probes were reading from 84 to 113. Not looking good.
I initially stuck the 4 probes I use most (the ones in question) into the water but not touching the bottom of the pot.
One probe on each unit read 212, and one on each unit read 214. These temps held there for twenty minutes without moving.
I marked with a small piece of tape at the plug end of each probe whether it was 2 degrees high or 4, for future reference, mostly for when doing steaks or chicken when you need a tighter tolerance. I also did the water test with 4 other spare probes I use when I need my 3rd Mav up & running (plus 2 spare probes I had on hand). The exact same thing showed up there- one probe read 212 and one read 214 on each unit. The ThermoPop said exactly 210, which is what Google tells me my boiling point should be.
So all 8 of my probes read either 2* or 4* high. To me, this is plenty tolerable, especially since now I KNOW it and have the probes marked accordingly. Also good to know is my ThermoPop is dead accurate at boiling!
But, this is at boiling. So this tells me temps in my cooker will be fairly accurate, at least in the general boiling range, but it doesn't tell me if steak or chicken temps at 130-160 will be accurate.
I decided to let the water cool and retest them. I taped my ThermoPop crudely to the pot to monitor the water temp. When The T-pop read 141, my Mavericks (all 8 probes) were 2 to 4 degrees off, the same variance each one had in boiling water! *What you don't see in this pic is that the T-pop changed one second after I took this pic to 140. The Mavs all read 142 to 144.
So, I was very pleased to see that my probes were not in fact off. 2-4 degrees is plenty accurate for me, especially since I was able to mark each probe. I will take my 135 steak to 139 if I'm using a +4 marked probe, etc.
Also what I learned is my $24 (now $29) ThermoPop which reads in 5 seconds, is dead on in boiling water.
What I haven't figured out is why I had all the outside ambient air variances initially and why unplugging and replugging made those wild variances change.
Oh well, at least they're accurate at the levels that count!
HAVE YOU CALIBRATED YOUR PROBES TO MAKE SURE YOUR MEAT IS WHERE YOU THINK??
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