Thermometers and offsets

[Anthonyf]

When smoking on an offset, do y'all only use the thermometer or thermometers that are built in the smoker?

Or do y'all use thermometers with wires that can tell the cook chamber temperature as well as a leave-in probe to tell the meat's internal temperature?

I currently have a maverick et-733. I was wondering if y'all used thermometers like the maverick for offsets because I don't know how I would get the temp probes in the cook chamber without having the door slightly ajar and leaking the hot air from the cook chamber.

How do y'all use thermometers with probes in an offset while still having a tight seal in the door?

[Jon Solberg]

Typically the gap in the door made by the Thermometer cable is not enough to effect its seal. If it is you can make adjustments in your outlet to compensate for it.

Not to mention you have plenty of horsepower to overcome minor leaks. Besides its a smoker, not a submarine so some leaking is okay.

Personally I drill holes in the cooker to pass cabled thru.

[Jerod Broussard]

If you go under the lid do it near the exhaust so that you claim to have dual exhaust.

You could also lay down some gasket material to reduce the "pinching potential" of the lid on the cables.

What brand thermometers are on the lid? If it's not Tel-Tru or Ashcroft don't trust them a whole lot.

[lonnie mac]

My gasket material is plenty enough. My lid is very heavy so it isn't an issue really. Put it this way, the meat won't care really. Although, with my FireBoard, I wanted a clean place to pass through all the probes so a simple hole does the trick. Gave my ole Smoke away, but it was a fine piece of thermo none the less...

[DavidNorcross]

Another reason you cant beat a Rec Tec. Small hole in the side for the probe and wire to feed through.

[Beefchop]

I ordered my Shirley offset with probe inserts on each side to go with the thermometers build into the door. I think they were $30 a piece.

[6th Borough BBQ]

I use a Fireboard with my Lang Smoker every single time and love it. Highly recommended not only it's accuracy and # of probes, but the charts that graph your cook are outstanding and help with fine-tuning things as you always have a record of what happened previously. They are a bit costly though but well worth it.

My built-in thermometer is much more accurate than most grill thermometers but it isn't exact (my Weber is about 50 degrees off and this one is about 5-10 off). Using the Fireboard I have enough proves (6) to measure whatever I like such as multiple places within the meat, as well as the ambient temperature in multiple places. My Lang has a small hole with a plug that allows me to remove the plug and insert the probes while keeping a great seal at the door. I can't speak to all off-sets but I loose very little heat or smoke, if anything out of the hole.

[DWCowles]

I just run my cables under the door. It doesn’t affect the pit temp just make sure you shut the door easy so you don’t pinch or break the cables.

[Steve B]

I drilled a 3/8” hole about 6” to the side of the smoke stack just above the lower grate on my LSG. I found that the FireBoard’s probes are a bit larger than the Mavericks. So you can either pass the device side probe through that hole or make a larger hole. But the Mavericks probes fit through the hole just fine.
Also with the heavy doors on the EOS units even being gentle you can damage the probe wires.
I killed 3 probes before drilling the hole. Since than no problems.

oh and I don’t look at the thermometers it came with

[Anthonyf]

Are your smoker thermometers pretty close to your Fireboard thermometers? Looking at the LSG in your picture, your thermometers look to be near grate level.

[Steve B]

Good question Anthony. I never really checked. The LSG is covered now. But I can let you know the end of the week. I will be doing a smoke.
From the few times I compared those to my grate probes they were off by 25-50*. And they are tel-tru.
I do place probes on both the left and right sides of the cooking grates.
It helps alot with temp management.