Help, just hooked up my ET-73 it reads 230 inside and my door therm says 150 or so....

[bikr4jc]

I dont know what is the problem.  The short temp probe goes through the metal clip that clips to shelf rack right???

I put the ET73 smoker probe in boiling water and got 213 and verified it with my instead read.. 

What am I doing wrong, how can I check the temp of the smoker..??

 

[DanMcG]

The thermo's that come with most smokers are notorious for being junk. if the 73 tests good go with that one.

There also could be a wide swing in temps in the smoker itself so place the probe near the meat.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[bikr4jc]

I will run with it, I just was worried because I have meat in there and don't want to mess it up for Christmas.. 

Thanks

I thought I was reading the metal temp of the grill grate or something...

 

[pineywoods]

Take the probe without the clip and hang it so it hangs between the grates and is not touching any metal and then see if the readings are about the same. This will make sure that you don't have it in the clip wrong and let you know for sure about the thermo on the door

 

[DanMcG]

as long as it's not touching the grate it should be good.

 

[tom37]

A chunk of potato works pretty good to hold the probe.

Not sure what smoker you have, but on my drums that have domed lids I just drop the probe thru the top vent hole and let it hang close to the meat.

 

[meateater]

Go by the maverick and forget the door therm. Get yourself a chef therm, the ones you see that they have on there shoulder, I have 3 of them. Get them calibrated and they make great reference therms. Just run them under cold water from the tap and set them to 75*-78* degrees and your good to go.

 

[bikr4jc]

OK I took the door them out and did the water test and got the same temp 213 or so just over 200...

I checked the clip and made sure the probe was all the way to the stop on it, the temp was still about 50 off. 

I came back and read the updates, so I took a bobbypin and clip it to the wire and let the probe hang between the grate just below the meat. 

Waiting to see the results, I will update in a minute.

Thanks everyone...

 

[bikr4jc]

Now it's about 25 off not 50 so it is closer...

 

[bikr4jc]

To get stranger, now they are the same, I wonder is outside temps affect the door therm, once the morning came they were closer... now they are the same...

 

[jeremymillrood]

Was just about to post a similar thread until I came across this one.  I have the very same dual probe Maverick and a standard thermometer in the door of my smoker..I have the Maverick probe in it's clip sitting on the middle rack of my smoker, about the same height as the one in the door.  The readings on mine also were off pretty significantly, door would read about 175 and the Maverick would be at 230 or so.  I pulled the door thermometer out and cleaned off the gunk and tested it in boiling water and it did move up to the 200 degree mark..I know the regular therms are inherently inaccurate, but I'm Wondering if the difference in temps has to do with the ambient temp outside of the smoker..a 50 degree difference is too big of a spread for either of the therms to be off by that much. 

 

[venture]

As was stated earlier, the stock door therms are usually junk.  Go by your calibrated probe and forget your door therm!

 

[jeremymillrood]

I hear what you're saying Venture, but I still like to have a therm on the door.  I bought a Tru-tel and will be junking the Made in China one that came with my smoker..

 

[jaynik]

The one missing variable from both of these accounts is the relationship of the probe to the door therm?  I am interested to know if the maverick is near the same level as the door therm.  If no, you might be simply registering the variability of the temps at different positions in your smoker.  I am interested to hear more about how you guys solve this...

 

[jeremymillrood]

My Maverick and door probe are almost on exactly the same level.  Just got my Tru-tel therm in last week.  Planning of giving it a test run with my new charcoal basket this weekend.