Maintaining Temperature Impossible

[sagosto]

I've read countless threads and just when I think I know what I am doing, I encounter another issue. I feel like I am moving backwards instead of forwards and starting to lose support from the wife on the home front. 

MES 30" with Maverick 732 and another no-name probe

Both Maverick probes and the non-name probe read 212F in boiling water with the Maverick having faster response time

It is an endless challenge to maintain temperature. The MES is notoriously inaccurate to the point of how can they sell this product!? It often reads 20-30F LOWER than all other probes am constantly playing games of opening the door to kick force the heat to kick on/off. Currently, I have 2 trays of chicken legs/breasts and a foil pan with a brisket flat. Both probes are within 2-3" and they often read 20F DIFFERENT. if I move one probe in the middle of the smoker, it can read 40F off. Given the vast array of temps, what is true/false? Am I smoking too hot/cold? I really don't know... Not sure why this is so difficult...

 

[noboundaries]

Take a big deep breath sagosto, and relax.  You're driving yourself to the loony farm over something that is absolutely common to every one who smokes meat.  There is no such thing as a smoker with a constant temp everywhere in the smoker.  Heck, my nice kitchen oven has a 15 degree temp difference between the top shelf and the bottom one. 

First off, there's no need to sweat 20-30 differences.  50 to 100, yes, but not 20-30.

Additionally, several things will impact your various thermometer readings. 

1. Top shelves will typically be hotter than lower shelves because heat rises.

2. Probes closer to cold meat will read significantly lower than probes placed even an inch further away. 

3. Different digital thermometers use different algorithms to give their readings, causing another mismatch.

4. The more meat you have loaded in the smoker, the greater the heat sink you have to absorb available heat energy.  It results in lower chamber temps until the meat warms significantly.

Choose one thermometer you trust, like the Maverick, and smoke to it.  Use the others for meat probes. 

My WSM lid thermometer is shot.  It reads 100F lower than my Maverick and my BBQ Guru.

My BBQ Guru will read 20-30 degrees higher than my Maverick early in a smoke.  Later, as the meat warms and temps become more constant across the chamber, they match each other perfectly.

I smoke to my Guru, and use my Maverick as a backup and a meat probe.  If I'm smoking a large piece of meat, I don't even attach my chamber probe to my Maverick.  I'll put two meat probes on it and stick them in opposite ends of the meat.       

Smoking is not an exact science.  Remember, folks have been smoking meat for thousands of years before anyone discovered electricity.  Back then, all they heard was "Grt uh mote ta tob geta, Chabba?"  Translation: "When's the meat gonna be ready, Dear?"

 

[johnmeyer]

I agree with Noboundaries: this is not much of a problem. The heat inside a smoker is all over the place because of the drafts and eddies. The problem is not unique to the MES or electric smokers. In fact, if you have heard of "reverse flow" offset smokers, the whole reason for the considerable extra work and materials required to pipe the smoke around is to keep the product closest to the heat source from being scorched while the stuff on the other side of the smoker stays raw.

Depending on which MES version you have, there are definitely issues with hot spots. This in turn is the main reason your Maverick reads differently from the MES probe that is mounted on the center (more or less) of the back wall.

If you are doing something where temperature is super critical (which is NOT usually the case with smoking), then put your Maverick oven probe as near to the food as you can, and adjust the MES target temp until you achieve the oven temperature you want.

Finally, do not sweat the temperature oscillations. They are definitely a little more extreme than what you get in a conventional oven, but nothing compared to what you have to deal with when your heat source is a chunk of wood. The MES, I believe, intentionally lets the temperature swing up and down more than what you'd get if they designed the controller to get perfectly even temperature control. Some people have installed fancy aftermarket PID controllers for their MES, but unless they are using an external smoke generator, I think this is a big mistake. I say this because I think the temperature swings are an intentional design element in order to allow the heating element to stay on for long enough periods of time that the chips in the tray will catch fire. Of course if they DO use an external smoke generator, then a PID controller is a brilliant add-on.

 

[joe black]

Ray has given you some great food for thought. Learn the range that your smoker likes and adjust your cooking to that.

Good luck and good smoking, Joe. :grilling_smilie: