Emergency Help For Tomorrow

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mrazz71

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 21, 2017
17
13
Need Help!! I’m smoking Ribs in my Masterbuilt 2 door, propane smoker tomorrow. I did a test run last night, it turns out that the Chamber Probe for my Maverick 732 Thermometer is not working. The Thermometer is reading “HHH” every time I plug in the probe. I’ve read in the forums that the probe is probably bad. Any suggestions on what I can do last min? I just purchased a $9.00 round oven thermometer as a last resort. I thought maybe I can hang it on the lower rack near the chip and water tray.  I figure I can open the bottom door and check the temp every so often. Any temp monitoring suggestions that can be offered would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, mrazz71
 
If you smoke your ribs to internal meat temp instead of time, it doesn't matter what the pit temp is.

195 is tender & juicy with bite through texture.

200-205 is fall off the bone tender.

Or you can simply use the meat probe to monitor the smoker temp.

Al
 
The smoker has its own thermomenter. Might not be that great but if you calibrate it using your $9 thermo will give you a good indication of whats happening inside. Although the $9 thermometer is not necesarily more accurate. Anyway....don't stress out...temps are not that critical except for predicting cooking times. Take a rack out after a while and do the bend test. Or take the IT if you have a meat thermometer.
 
Thanks for the reply's so far.......can I just set the meat probe inside the chamber and use it as is? If yes, that would be the simple , no brainer fix. I won't be inserting the probe into the ribs. If I were doing a pork butt that would be a different story. I wasn't sure if the design of meat probe would give the same reading accurately.
 
 
Thanks for the reply's so far.......can I just set the meat probe inside the chamber and use it as is? If yes, that would be the simple , no brainer fix. I won't be inserting the probe into the ribs. If I were doing a pork butt that would be a different story. I wasn't sure if the design of meat probe would give the same reading accurately.
Did you try switching the probe wires in the 732 unit itself?

Move the Pit probe to the other hole & move the Meat probe wire to the other hole, to see if it's the probe or the unit that is the problem.

Some say the meat probe works the same as the pit probe, but I disagree on that one.

Bear
 
Mrazz, the 732 requires that the transmitter has to be on and then the receiver turned on within 30 seconds.  Or maybe the other way.  I can't remember and have lost my instructions.  Either way, one has to be on and the other turned on soon.  As for the probes, mine read interchangeably.  Sorry, Bear.  And all say that the problem with a bad probe is invariably moisture that got into it.  The solution (almost always) is to put the probes into the kitchen oven (but not the plastic plug end) at 350 for 30 minutes or so.  And if all fails, then replace the batteries.  These units come with some cheapies.
 
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Mrazz, the 732 requires that the transmitter has to be on and then the receiver turned on within 30 seconds.  Or maybe the other way.  I can't remember and have lost my instructions.  Either way, one has to be on and the other turned on soon.  As for the probes, mine read interchangeably.  Sorry, Bear.  And all say that the problem with a bad probe is invariably moisture that got into it.  The solution (almost always) is to put the probes into the kitchen oven (but not the plastic plug end) at 350 for 30 minutes or so.  And if all fails, then replace the batteries.  These units come with some cheapies.
Not sure what you mean interchangeably.

I mentioned that because I have seen a problem with a probe NOT go away when moved to another plug-in hole, because it was actually a bad probe.

And I've seen the problem go away when moved to another plug-in hole, because the problem wasn't a bad probe.

Switching holes was just a suggestion.---Problem could be a number of things.

Bear
 
Bear, what I mean by interchangeable is that either probe can be plugged into either hole.  They both register, regardless of position.  Assuming both work.

Dong Tam and the 9th.  I was in the engineers stationed at Long Binh, but spent six months at Bearcat building the airfield there.  At the time, that was 9th Division HQ.
 
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Bear, what I mean by interchangeable is that either probe can be plugged into either hole.  They both register, regardless of position.  Assuming both work.

Dong Tam and the 9th.  I was in the engineers stationed at Long Binh, but spent six months at Bearcat building the airfield there.  At the time, that was 9th Division HQ.
OK---Thanks---Mine are like that too, as long as the probe itself isn't bad.

The closest I got to Bearcat was Bien Hoa, but I got to Long Binh twice. You must have been there before me, because the HQ of the 9th moved to Dong Tam in late '67. I didn't get there until February of '69.

BTW: Welcome Home!

Bear
 
I arrived in VN on April 1, 1967 (joke was on me) and was stationed at Long Binh.  In June, '67, one of the line companies in my battalion (along with me and three other surveyors) moved to Bearcat to build/upgrade the airfield just outside the perimeter.  We moved back to LB in November.  Up until then, the HQ of the 9th was at BC, I think.  Don't know when it moved to DT.

I got out of VN in November, '68 and was out of the Army when you arrived in country.
 
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I arrived in VN on April 1, 1967 (joke was on me) and was stationed at Long Binh.  In June, '67, one of the line companies in my battalion (along with me and three other surveyors) moved to Bearcat to build/upgrade the airfield just outside the perimeter.  We moved back to LB in November.  Up until then, the HQ of the 9th was at BC, I think.  Don't know when it moved to DT.

I got out of VN in November, '68 and was out of the Army when you arrived in country.
LOL---That was some "April Fools" Joke, Huh?!?!

Yup---They had to build Dong Tam before they could move the headquarters there. While it was in Bearcat, there was no Dong Tam---It was all water until April, 1967.

By April, 1967, construction was nearly complete. The engineers dredged around eight million cubic meters of sand to create a space approximately one square mile in size. Engineers raised the land in the area between five and ten feet in order to prevent flooding during high tides and during the rainy season. Dong Tam served as a headquarters for the US Ninth Infantry Division while it operated in the Mekong delta.

Dong Tam wasNicknamed "40 acres of Sitting Ducks".

Bear
 
 
The solution (almost always) is to put the probes into the kitchen oven (but not the plastic plug end) at 350 for 30 minutes or so.  
FYI, 30 minutes may not be long enough. I've had to keep some probes in the oven for 3 hours or so to get them working again. YMMV.
 
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