Heat distribution conundrum

[northernerscansmoketoo]

I recently bought a new baffle system for my Brinkmann Cimarron and I was breaking it in this evening. I'm getting pretty even temps across the grille grates and those are the temps on my Thermoworks thermometer in the picture below. The confusion that I'm running into is the thermometer on the top of the smoker (the Lava lock thermometer in the picture) is reading about 80 degrees less than the probes on my grill grate. Is this something I should be concerned about? Any ideas as to why this is happening?

 

[civilsmoker]

Just a couple of things.....your probes are lower down by the heat and dial gauges are not known for being accurate and in fact most are not accurate at all.

the only dial temp gauge I trust is a tel tru. They are spendy but they work.

 

[northernerscansmoketoo]

I tried fixing that issue by buying that Lavalock which today was my first time using it so it's brand new. Is Lavalock not reputable enough? I thought they had a decent reputation for making quality products but I could be wrong.

I'm trying to obtain that full cooking chamber convection that people talk about and I seem to be struggling to obtain that. It could also be simply that I'm limited by my smoker too.

Thanks for replying, I really appreciate the feedback.

 

[civilsmoker]

Most smokers use their digital as the primary temp tool. I happen to use a waterproof ink bird with 4 probes. Even with a trusted tel tru I still use the digital.

I wouldn’t get too worked up trying to get perfect temps on the probs all over the grill because most smokers have some type of variation in them. I would just start using it and put on digital probe in the protein being smoked and the other about 3-4 inches away from it. Then don’t worry about keeping it “exactly” 225, cause that’s not realistic. Just target 215-280 and your good to go!

 

[northernerscansmoketoo]

Most smokers use their digital as the primary temp tool. I happen to use a waterproof ink bird with 4 probes. Even with a trusted tel tru I still use the digital.

I wouldn’t get too worked up trying to get perfect temps on the probs all over the grill because most smokers have some type of variation in them. I would just start using it and put on digital probe in the protein being smoked and the other about 3-4 inches away from it. Then don’t worry about keeping it “exactly” 225, cause that’s not realistic. Just target 215-280 and your good to go!

That's what I'll plan on doing tomorrow. Have a smoked prime rib planned for easter dinner. Hopefully I have happy results to post back on here Monday!