Location of Thermometer

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sawbld

Newbie
Original poster
Apr 26, 2011
2
10
Newbie here…

I have a charbroil charcoal smoker, with a side fire box.

I was not sure of the accuracy of the factory temp gage that came with it so I drilled a small hole in the chimney; the temp is about 40 deg hotter… is this normal?

Where is the best place to mount a thermometer? Is more than one a good idea?

Thanks in advance for the help  
 
The best thing to do is get a digital therm & put the probe through a block of wood so the end is protruding a couple of inches & place it on the grate near the food. The lid therm will not be nearly as accurate as one on the grate.
 
All grills will have different temp zones so you will need to learn what yours are. What I did (on my Weber kettle) was place a probe at the grates, just as SmokinAl suggested, and I watched the dome therm and the probe as temps went up. I was able to deduce that the dome temp was about 5 deg F hotter than at the grates so now I just calibrate against that and use the dome therm.

Also note that this temp difference is based on the particular therm that is at my dome. If I were to change that out, the difference would probably change. the bottom line is that you want to get your true temp at the grates using a reliable therm and then you can calibrate any other therm you have located elsewhere to determine the grate temps.
 
The information within the replies can also be used on most propane smokers. It's all about grill/grate/rack location. It's all good my friend.
 
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