I've got a cook coming up for Memorial Day and I did a test cook with my new (to me) Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5" a couple weeks ago. The stock lid thermometer was pegged and no longer working.
I have a really old Maverick ET-901 I bought in 2006 when I bought my Bradley Electric and it's been sitting in a drawer for years. I was happy to see it still worked. While I was doing that cook, I had the probe stuck through a potato sitting on the top grate until the smoker came to temp and then I moved the probe into one of the butts. Since I needed a new lid thermometer, I ordered a River Country 3" so I could calibrate it to the grate temp and use my ET-901 solely for keeping an eye on the meat temps.
This morning I was trying to think of a way I could get my smoker up to temp where I can adjust the thermometer without wasting charcoal. I used a ceramic space heater placed on the charcoal grate and laid the ET-901 probe on the top cooking grate. I noticed the difference between the lid temp and grate temp to be about 20 degrees F.
After trying to adjust the little calibration screw (while the thermometer was mounted in place) with a pair of needlenose pliers (and failing), the ceramic heater went into thermal protection around 186F and shut off.
After the heater and smoker cooled down, I removed the River Country and got a screwdriver to use for adjusting. I fired the heater back up, fine tuned the calibration screw and got the River Country adjusted to match what the ET-901 reported was the grate temp (within about 1 degree F).
I know a lot of folks have the dual probe thermometers and I'll probably get one someday (especially when I cook different meat types on different grates at the same time). But for now, this should make my life a little easier using what I already have on hand.
I have a really old Maverick ET-901 I bought in 2006 when I bought my Bradley Electric and it's been sitting in a drawer for years. I was happy to see it still worked. While I was doing that cook, I had the probe stuck through a potato sitting on the top grate until the smoker came to temp and then I moved the probe into one of the butts. Since I needed a new lid thermometer, I ordered a River Country 3" so I could calibrate it to the grate temp and use my ET-901 solely for keeping an eye on the meat temps.
This morning I was trying to think of a way I could get my smoker up to temp where I can adjust the thermometer without wasting charcoal. I used a ceramic space heater placed on the charcoal grate and laid the ET-901 probe on the top cooking grate. I noticed the difference between the lid temp and grate temp to be about 20 degrees F.
After trying to adjust the little calibration screw (while the thermometer was mounted in place) with a pair of needlenose pliers (and failing), the ceramic heater went into thermal protection around 186F and shut off.
After the heater and smoker cooled down, I removed the River Country and got a screwdriver to use for adjusting. I fired the heater back up, fine tuned the calibration screw and got the River Country adjusted to match what the ET-901 reported was the grate temp (within about 1 degree F).
I know a lot of folks have the dual probe thermometers and I'll probably get one someday (especially when I cook different meat types on different grates at the same time). But for now, this should make my life a little easier using what I already have on hand.
