I still consider myself a novice so please be gentle.
I have used my Model#3 twice for cooking without the benefit of an external thermometer so now that I have one, I thought I would calibrate my smoker just to know what actual measured temperatures are vs. set temps. I was a bit shocked at first as to the results. Initially I just set up the smoker probe on the Maverick ET73 and set the temperature on the smoker to 200. It was 33 degrees outside. Initially I just wanted to see how long it would take the smoker to get to 200 so I set a stop watch. Imagine my surprise when the temperature shot past 200 to 270!
At this point, I thought something was wrong with my probe so I attached the food probe and dropped it into the smoker and just let it dangle.
As the food probe was catching up, the smoker probe hit 296!
At this point, out of curiosity, I opened the smoker to let it cool down, then set the temp to 225 (which is where I made my last ribs) and tried again. Again, 296!
This time I let things stand just to see what the cycle would be. 13 minutes after this high, temps got down to 250 before heading up again to the 290s.
At this point I was wondering if something was wrong with my smoker, or what I was missing then I remembered the discussion about water pans and heat sinks. I ran out to the grocery store and bought 2 11 3/4 X 9 1/4 foil pans. Filled both with hot water and tried again.
This time, I think I over insulated the chamber from the heat, and might have been interfering with the thermometer on the back wall of the unit because half an hour into it, with the thermostat set at 225, I was stalled at 155 in the chamber.
I then took one pan out, reoriented the remaining pan and tried again.
With the temp set to 225, the chamber temp. hovered between 254,
and 224 13 minutes later (and stayed in about that range)
So, what have I learned? I understand that having food in the smoker will have an effect on the chamber temperatures and might affect the wild swings in temp, and I didn't have any in for this experiment, but if you have a Model #3 like me, and you are only smoking 2 or 3 racks of ribs, the food may not be enough to act as a proper heat sink. In my little uncontrolled experiment, I am more comfortable with the swings with the water present vs. absent so going forward, I will be using a water pan. I also don't think I will ever smoke anything again without the use of an external thermometer. I know this should be standard operating procedure, but I've been trusting thermostats and that is probably not a good idea. I may reach out to the SI folks and see if what I am experiencing is normal or I might have a faulty internal thermometer. I am honestly not too worried about it because even if my thermometer is faulty, it looks easy to replace which is one of the reasons I bought this unit.
Sorry for all the pictures, but photography is another hobby of mine so I tend to over photograph :-)
I have used my Model#3 twice for cooking without the benefit of an external thermometer so now that I have one, I thought I would calibrate my smoker just to know what actual measured temperatures are vs. set temps. I was a bit shocked at first as to the results. Initially I just set up the smoker probe on the Maverick ET73 and set the temperature on the smoker to 200. It was 33 degrees outside. Initially I just wanted to see how long it would take the smoker to get to 200 so I set a stop watch. Imagine my surprise when the temperature shot past 200 to 270!
At this point, I thought something was wrong with my probe so I attached the food probe and dropped it into the smoker and just let it dangle.
As the food probe was catching up, the smoker probe hit 296!
At this point, out of curiosity, I opened the smoker to let it cool down, then set the temp to 225 (which is where I made my last ribs) and tried again. Again, 296!
This time I let things stand just to see what the cycle would be. 13 minutes after this high, temps got down to 250 before heading up again to the 290s.
At this point I was wondering if something was wrong with my smoker, or what I was missing then I remembered the discussion about water pans and heat sinks. I ran out to the grocery store and bought 2 11 3/4 X 9 1/4 foil pans. Filled both with hot water and tried again.
This time, I think I over insulated the chamber from the heat, and might have been interfering with the thermometer on the back wall of the unit because half an hour into it, with the thermostat set at 225, I was stalled at 155 in the chamber.
I then took one pan out, reoriented the remaining pan and tried again.
With the temp set to 225, the chamber temp. hovered between 254,
and 224 13 minutes later (and stayed in about that range)
So, what have I learned? I understand that having food in the smoker will have an effect on the chamber temperatures and might affect the wild swings in temp, and I didn't have any in for this experiment, but if you have a Model #3 like me, and you are only smoking 2 or 3 racks of ribs, the food may not be enough to act as a proper heat sink. In my little uncontrolled experiment, I am more comfortable with the swings with the water present vs. absent so going forward, I will be using a water pan. I also don't think I will ever smoke anything again without the use of an external thermometer. I know this should be standard operating procedure, but I've been trusting thermostats and that is probably not a good idea. I may reach out to the SI folks and see if what I am experiencing is normal or I might have a faulty internal thermometer. I am honestly not too worried about it because even if my thermometer is faulty, it looks easy to replace which is one of the reasons I bought this unit.
Sorry for all the pictures, but photography is another hobby of mine so I tend to over photograph :-)
